Mediagazer: Hugh Grant joins Hacked Off board (Josh Halliday/Guardian)

12:40 AM ET, August 22, 2012

Top News:

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Newsweek ditched its fact-checkers in 1996, then made a major error — “We, like other news organisations today, rely on our writers to submit factually accurate material,” Newsweek spokesman Andrew Kirk told Politico's Dylan Byers. — Byers had asked whether Newsweek has fact-checkers.

Discussion: bookforum.com, The Maddow Blog, The Week, Mediaite and Politico

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

Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online:

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, Politico and The Daily Beast

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, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Guardian

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

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

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Niall Ferguson: ‘Credibility’ not undermined

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

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

Discussion: @evgenymorozov, @jonathanshainin, Capital New York, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic Online and CJR

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, CNET, AllThingsD, Media Decoder, Deadline.com, New York Magazine and Forbes

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

Discussion: Newsweek, Mediaite and Daily Dot

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, newsfeed.time.com, Business Insider and Media Decoder

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

Daniel D'Addario / The New York Observer:

Ghostwriting Accusation Leveled at Fareed Zakaria — Time editor-at-large Fareed Zakaria has lately been the subject of much chatter among colleagues past and present—some of it rather unpleasant for the marquee pundit. And while Time and CNN have done a review of his work and are satisfied …

Discussion: Media Decoder

Ann DeMatteo / New Haven Register:
Journalist Fareed Zakaria resigns from Yale Corporation (document)

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and GigaOM

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 …

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

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

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

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

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Daily News’ hires fashion desk, repackages ‘Gatecrasher’ as ‘Confidential’ — Fashion coverage is coming back to the Daily News, Capital has learned. Starting this week, the News will run regular fashion features in its Thursday and Sunday editions, mirroring the popular style formula …

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

BuzzFeed with a press pass: What happens when the GIF kings try to take Washington? — WASHINGTON — You should know going in that this is a story about BuzzFeed that BuzzFeed would never run. This story is longer than the last 10 articles out of the new BuzzFeed Washington, D.C. bureau combined.

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