Mediagazer: ABC News wants to talk to Tony Scott's family before deciding about retraction (Mallary Jean Tenore/Poynter)

9:45 PM ET, August 21, 2012

Top News:

In Praise of Fact-Checkers — In the wake of Niall Ferguson's dishonesty, Dylan Byers decided to contact Newsweek to see what controls the magazine had in place to prevent authors from lying to them. As it turns out, none: “We, like other news organisations today, rely on our writers …

Discussion: GigaOM, CJR, Politico, Poynter and The Daily Beast

Paul Krugman:

Kinds Of Wrong — Looking at the comments on my Niall Ferguson takedown (see Ezra Klein, Matthew O'Brien, James Fallows, and Noah Smith for more), I found my memory jogged about a point I've been meaning to make about the nature of error in economics. It seems to me that when readers declare …

Discussion: SECONDED, The Atlantic Wire, Politico, FAIR Blog, @juliemmoos, The Huffington Post, Noahpinion, Pressing Issues, The Atlantic Online, Mother Jones and news.firedoglake.com

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

Is Tina Brown serious about Newsweek anymore? — Yesterday, my colleague Joe Pompeo called up Newsweek to ask whether the company was planning to issue any corrections or clarifications of Niall Ferguson's cover story, “Hit the Road Barack,” in which countless manipulations and outright misrepresentations …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Niall Ferguson: ‘Credibility’ not undermined — Niall Ferguson went on Bloomberg TV this morning to defend himself against the tropical depression of criticism that met his recent Newsweek cover story about President Obama. — Accusing the “liberal blogosphere” of “nit-picking,” …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Guardian, The Daily Dish, The Week, Business Insider and New York Magazine

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Newsweek: Niall Ferguson story ‘opinion’

Discussion: The Big Picture, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic Online, The New Yorker Blog, The Daily Dish and Business Insider

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Niall Ferguson ducks, nitpicks, vilifies

Discussion: Capital New York, The Maddow Blog, @evgenymorozov, @jonathanshainin, New York Magazine and The Daily Beast

Reuters:

Exclusive: Barry Diller's IAC offers $300 million for About.com — (Reuters) - Barry Diller's IAC/Interactivecorp submitted an offer in excess of $300 million to buy the About.com information website from the New York Times Co, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: The Wrap, AllThingsD, Media Decoder, CNET, Deadline.com, Forbes and New York Magazine

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

ABC News wants to talk to Tony Scott's family before deciding about retraction — ABC is waiting to hear back from Tony Scott's family or a family representative before determining whether its initial report about Scott was incorrect, a network spokesperson told Poynter.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Slate and People.com

Craig Silverman / Poynter:
After Tony Scott error, will news orgs now think twice about following ABC News scoops?

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Mother Jones and The Huffington Post

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:
ABC News Stumbles in Report on Tony Scott's Suicide

Discussion: Poynter, Telegraph, Deadline.com, newsfeed.time.com, Business Insider, TVNewser, TMZ.com, ABCNEWS, TVSpy, Inside Movies and Pressing Issues

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Huffington Post, Newsweek use coat-hanger imagery for GOP platform — On Tuesday the Republican Party approved a plank to its convention platform opposing abortion in all cases. — Newsweek acknowledged Huffington Post's homepage — “Whoa there, Huffington Post!” — on its Tumblr.

Discussion: Rob Delaney, CNN, Mashable!, Gawker and Erik Wemple

Charlie Warzel / Adweek:

‘Newsweek’ Tumblr Adds to Publication's Woes — As if Newsweek needed another headache this week. — Already mired in a controversy over this week's Niall Ferguson cover story, Newsweek is receiving even more backlash this afternoon over a decision on the magazine's Tumblr account.

Discussion: Newsweek, Daily Dot and Mediaite

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Jimmy Kimmel to Move to 11:30 in January, ABC Announces — Jimmy Kimmel will jump to the big stage in late-night television in January, moving to 11:35 p.m. where he will take on the two titans of that time slot, David Letterman and Jay Leno. — ABC announced the move Tuesday …

Discussion: LA Observed, Tampa Bay Times, ABCNEWS, Splitsider, Speakeasy, TVNewser, Radio & Television …, FishbowlNY, BuzzFeed, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Broadcasting & Cable, AdAge, ExtraTV.com and Poynter

Ann DeMatteo / New Haven Register:

Journalist Fareed Zakaria resigns from Yale Corporation (document) — NEW HAVEN — The plagiarism scandal connected to a nationally known journalist has hit home. Fareed Zakaria, an editor-at-large at Time magazine and CNN host, on Monday resigned from the Yale Corporation.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Daniel D'Addario / The New York Observer: Ghostwriting Accusation Leveled at Fareed Zakaria

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Plagiarism, defamation and the power of hyperlinks

Discussion: Reuters, Gatekeeper and Media Decoder, Thanks:@mikeyavo

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Conde Nast Booms Overseas But Future is Unclear — Luca Dini, the editor in chief of Italian Vanity Fair, faces difficulties his peers in the U.S. would welcome. The Milan-based magazine has grown so much since launching as a newsweekly nearly 10 years ago that it's hard to imagine it getting any fatter …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Confirmed: Gannett Has Bought Social Media Ad Company BLiNQ — As we first reported the other day, the social media advertising company BLiNQ is getting bought by Gannett, owner of USA Today, a number of local newspapers, and broadcasters. The news was formally announced today.

Discussion: MediaPost, Adweek, Digital Media Wire, GigaOM, VentureBeat and Gannett Blog

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Xbox Live Adds NBC News, Bringing Rachel Maddow, Hardball, And Meet The Press To The Game Console — Microsoft continues to add content partners for Xbox, pushing the game console into the center of the living room as more of a digital entertainment hub. The latest update, which goes live today …

Discussion: PC Magazine and WebProNews

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Web TV needs to have captions starting next month, the FCC rules — TV networks and web video sites will have to start providing closed captions for any TV content available online by the end of September, the FCC ruled a few days ago (PDF of the ruling). The ruling reaffirmed the Twenty …

Discussion: SocialTimes

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Barnes & Noble Q1 revenues up slightly, but Nook device sales fall — Barnes & Noble reported first quarter earnings for fiscal year 2013 on Tuesday morning. The bookstore chain's revenues were up slightly, to $1.45 billion, and in line with analyst estimates of $1.48 billion.

Discussion: The Digital Reader, AllThingsD, New York Times, Betabeat, The Week, AdAge and CNET

Alec MacGillis / The New Republic:

At Least One Media Figure Is Calling Out Romney For His Welfare Lies: Joe Scarborough — Nearly one week ago, I made a plea of sorts: for the political press to do its job when it comes to the basic task of calling out blatant, repeated dishonesty on the campaign trail.

Discussion: The Fix and Washington Post

BBC:

Julian Assange row: Embassy entry ‘would be suicide for UK’ — President Rafael Correa said he thought there was still a threat of the UK entering the embassy — The UK would be committing diplomatic suicide if it tried to enter his country's embassy in London, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has said.

Discussion: Gawker, The Week and New York Times