Mediagazer: Michael Grunwald Compares Stimulus Coverage To Pre-Iraq War Media ‘Groupthink’ (Michael Calderone/The Huffington Post)

7:05 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: The Week, bookforum.com, The Maddow Blog, PopWatch, Salon 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, The Atlantic Wire, @juliemmoos, FAIR Blog, The Huffington Post and Pressing Issues

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:
Is Tina Brown serious about Newsweek anymore?

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Mediaite

Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online:
In Praise of Fact-Checkers — In the wake of Niall Ferguson's …

Discussion: GigaOM

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

Discussion: The Huffington Post

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

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

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

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

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, New York Magazine and Forbes

Rob Wong / Hulu Blog:

Launching a New Hulu: A Fresh Look for the Shows You Love — In 1992, the great comedian Phil Hartman threw on his Arkansas sweatshirt and walked into a McDonald's. He was on the set of “Saturday Night Live” and doing his best Bill Clinton impression, continuing the show's grand tradition of Presidential lampoons.

Discussion: Fast Company, CNET, The Verge, The Next Web and GigaOM

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, Slate, The Daily Beast and Vanity Fair

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

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: Beet.TV, PC Magazine and WebProNews

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 …

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

Charlie Warzel / Adweek:
‘Newsweek’ Tumblr Adds to Publication's Woes

Discussion: Newsweek, Mediaite and Daily Dot

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

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, GOP 12 and Washington Post

Hazel Sheffield / CJR:

Local news sites form new trade association — “We are the future” says LION chairman Dylan Smith — Next month, at the annual Block by Block conference for local news sites, around 100 independent publishers will celebrate the launch of a new nonprofit trade group that will offer support for the growing hyperlocal news industry.

Discussion: Street Fight

Heather Ford / MediaShift Idea Lab:

How Wikipedia Manages Sources for Breaking News — Almost a year ago, I was hired by Ushahidi to work as an ethnographic researcher on a project to understand how Wikipedians managed sources during breaking news events. — Ushahidi cares a great deal about this kind of work …

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Michael Grunwald Compares Stimulus Coverage To Pre-Iraq War Media ‘Groupthink’ — NEW YORK — After two years reporting on President Barack Obama's nearly $800 billion stimulus package, a piece of legislation long derided by Republicans and barely discussed now by Democrats …

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Hugh Grant joins Hacked Off board — Press standards campaign group, launched in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, to establish itself as a full-time operation — Hugh Grant was cast in a leading role at the Leveson inquiry into press standards. Now the actor is becoming director …