Mediagazer: Death toll of journalists in Syria rises to 15 this year (Richard Wilson/Press Gazette)

8:50 AM ET, August 21, 2012

Top News:

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: New York Times

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, New York Magazine, Media Decoder and Poynter, Thanks:@mikeyavo

Brian Stelter / The Caucus:

Akin's No-Show on ‘Piers Morgan’ is Boon for Program — When Representative Todd Akin abruptly cancelled an interview with Piers Morgan on Monday night, Mr. Morgan trotted out an empty chair instead. — The scene, irresistible to political insiders, played out in prime time on CNN on Monday night …

The Huffington Post:
David Catanese, Politico Reporter, Removed From Todd Akin Coverage

Discussion: Media Decoder, Mediaite and Erik Wemple

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:
Politico's Catanese no longer covering Akin controversy after defending ‘legitimate rape’ comment

Discussion: Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Daily Download and The Lede

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

Discussion: New York Times, Boston Globe, National Review, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic Online, Slate and Gawker

Erik Wemple:
Politico reporter ventures defense of Todd Akin

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

Kiran Randhawa / London Evening Standard:

Friend of Julian Assange names ‘sexual assault victim’ on live television — One of Julian Assange's key supporters came under fire today after naming on live television a woman who has accused the WikiLeaks founder of sexual assault. Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan …

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: The Week

David Allen Green / New Statesman:
Legal myths about the Assange extradition

Discussion: Guardian

Richard Wilson / Press Gazette:

Death toll of journalists in Syria rises to 15 this year — Syria has been labelled “the most dangerous place in the world” for journalists after Japanese reporter Mika Yamamota was killed amid fighting in Aleppo. — Yamamoto, 45, was an experienced war reporter who had covered conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq for Japan Press.

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

Discussion: Committee to Protect … and The Atlantic Wire

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

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

Misleading and incomplete coverage of Apple's ‘record’ value (CORRECTED) — Microsoft's 1999 market cap still, by far, bigger — 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: TechCrunch, NYT Bits, AllThingsD, CNNMoney.com, PC Magazine, Associated Press, ZDNet, MarketBeat 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

Mark Potts / Recovering Journalist:

A Vision for the Future of Newspapers—20 Years Ago — It's becoming hard to remember life before digital news. We now take for granted instantaneous availability of news and information on devices ranging from desktop PCs to tablets to smartphones, We now break news …

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, Poynter, The Newspaper Guild and @jayrosen_nyu

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
The one big thing that newspaper visionaries didn't foresee

Thanks:@mathewi

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: NetNewsCheck Latest, Vouchification, @weareyourfek and Capital New York

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

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

Sarah Kendzior / The Atlantic Online:

Manic Pixie Dream Dissidents: How the World Misunderstands Pussy Riot — Western coverage has reduced these Russian dissidents to more familiar narratives of youthful rebellion or damsels in distress, missing their entire point and adopting Moscow's own language.

Discussion: Eastern approaches

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, PopWatch, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, The Daily Dish, Capital New York, news.firedoglake.com, The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast, Slate, Business Insider and Paul Krugman

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Posnanski's ‘Paterno’ bio has worse problems than bad timing, say those who've read it — Joe Posnanski writes that while he was working on his biography of Joe Paterno, he decided he “could not allow myself to get caught up in the shifting winds of this story.”

Discussion: New York Times, Deadspin, Kansas City Star and GQ

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