Mediagazer: Japanese reporter killed in Syria: Japan govt (Miwa Suzuki/Agence France Presse)

2:54 AM ET, August 21, 2012

Top News:

David Catanese, Politico Reporter, Removed From Todd Akin Coverage — Politico editors have removed David Catanese from coverage of Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) following the reporter's defense of the congressman's comments about victims of “legitimate rape” not getting pregnant because their bodies will “shut that whole thing down.”

Discussion: The Caucus, Mediaite, Media Decoder and Erik Wemple

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:
Politico's Catanese says it was a ‘bad idea’ to defend Akin's ‘legitimate rape’ comment

Discussion: Politico, BBC, Daily Download and The Lede

Erik Wemple:
Politico reporter ventures defense of Todd Akin

Discussion: Associated Press, Slate, The Atlantic Online, FOX2now.com, Washington Post, New York Times, Mediaite, Capital New York, The Daily Beast and The Awl

David Taintor / Talking Points Memo:
Todd Akin Interviewer: ‘I Screwed Up’ By Not Following Up

Discussion: Boston Globe, National Review, NY Daily News, The Daily Beast and Gawker

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Are Alternative Weeklies Toast? — Over the weekend, Rosie Gray, a former staffer at The Village Voice now at BuzzFeed, wrote that the men in charge of Village Voice Media had more or less the run the place into the ground. She pointed to staff layoffs on Friday at the newspaper …

Discussion: Vouchification, @weareyourfek and Capital New York

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter: The Village Voice is not dead yet, contrary to reports

Jonathan Stray / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Metrics, metrics everywhere: How do we measure the impact of journalism? — If democracy would be poorer without journalism, then journalism must have some effect. Can we measure those effects in some way? While most news organizations already watch the numbers that translate into money …

Discussion: What People Know

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

The one big thing that newspaper visionaries didn't foresee — It's easy to forget sometimes that the world wide web has been around for more than two decades now, or that it has caused massive and ongoing disruption of almost every form of content from books and newspapers to music and movies.

Thanks:@mathewi

Mark Potts / Recovering Journalist:
A Vision for the Future of Newspapers—20 Years Ago

Discussion: Poynter, @jayrosen_nyu and The Newspaper Guild

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

Misleading and incomplete coverage of Apple's ‘record’ value — Microsoft's 1999 market cap is still, by far, the biggest of all time — The big market news today is about Apple's gargantuan market capitalization reaching a new, stunning high: … CNNMoney: … The Wall Street Journal's lede:

Discussion: AllThingsD, TechCrunch, CNNMoney.com, PC Magazine, Associated Press, ZDNet and Business Insider

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

NFW: Adam Penenberg Joins PandoDaily as Editor — Everyone in the startup ecosystem will tell you that the most successful entrepreneurs surround themselves with people who are better than them. So I know I'm on the right track, when I hire someone who makes me wonder how on earth I have managed to get him.

Discussion: @penenberg and @moorehn

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:

ABC News Stumbles in Report on Tony Scott's Suicide — ABC News appears to have stumbled on flawed reporting for the second time in a month. — Late Monday, ABC backed off an earlier report saying that Tony Scott, the movie director who committed suicide on Sunday, had inoperable brain cancer.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Inside Movies, Pressing Issues and LA Observed

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:

After Olympics success, Bell poised for promotion at NBC — (Reuters) - Jim Bell, the executive producer who spearheaded NBC's London Olympics coverage and shouldered most of the criticism directed at the network, is poised for a promotion to a larger role within NBC's news or sports division …

Discussion: Deadline.com

Campbell Brown / Slate:

Confessions of a Romney Wife — I never thought I was harboring a dark secret. But if you live in the overlapping world of politics and media, as I am learning, anything less than full transparency can potentially do you in. There are quite a number of us who inhabit this world …

Discussion: Forbes, Mediaite and TVNewser

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
Campbell Brown Is Incapable of Understanding the Concept of ‘Disclosure’

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Joe Coscarelli / New York Magazine:

Niall Ferguson Smacked Down Over Another Questionable Newsweek Cover — Historian and former John McCain adviser Niall Ferguson is taking his turn today as the Newsweek cover story punching bag for his latest, “Why We Need a New President.” In the article, Ferguson attempts a full survey …

Discussion: Brad DeLong, The Atlantic Online, Salon, The New Yorker Blog, Politico, Noahpinion, Mother Jones, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Business Insider, The Daily Dish, news.firedoglake.com, Capital New York, Slate, Slate, Business Insider and Paul Krugman

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Plagiarism, defamation and the power of hyperlinks — What do Fareed Zakaria, Jonah Lehrer and Gawker Media have in common? In different ways, the incidents that have thrust all three into the news recently help to show the power of the simple hyperlink, which Sir Tim Berners-Lee developed along …

Discussion: Gatekeeper and New York Times, Thanks:@mikeyavo

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Penn State tops Princeton Review's ‘Best College Newspapers’ list — If you register on its site, Princeton Review will give you a list of schools arranged by the quality of their newspapers. That's great news for the Daily Collegian of Penn State, this year's No. 1, up from No. 6 in 2011.

Gregory Ferenstein / TechCrunch:

New Digg Vs. Reddit Vs. BuzzFeed: Your Mind On Viral Content — For three straight days in early August, unintentional gay porn innuendos of Olympic men's swimming reigned supreme in traffic on Buzzfeed, the breakout curated newsite of viral content. — Buzzfeed's closest competitors …

Miwa Suzuki / Agence France Presse:

Japanese reporter killed in Syria: Japan govt — BEIRUT — A female Japanese journalist was killed Monday while covering clashes in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that three other reporters were missing.

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, Reuters and The Atlantic Wire

David Allen Green / New Statesman:

Legal myths about the Assange extradition — A brief critical and source-based guide to some common misconceptions. — Whenever the Julian Assange extradition comes up in the news, many of his supporters make various confident assertions about legal aspects of the case.

Discussion: Guardian

Nicholas Watt / Guardian:
Julian Assange row: Britain seeking diplomatic solution in Ecuador standoff

Discussion: Crikey and CNET

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

B&N's Nook will finally launch in the UK (but who's going to sell it?) — Barnes & Noble is finally launching its Nook e-readers in the United Kingdom. Starting this October, the Nook Touch and Nook Touch with Glow Light will be available through nook.co.uk. (No Nook Tablets or Nook Color for now.)