Mediagazer: Reporting Live, From Tumblr (John Herrman/BuzzFeed)

12:45 PM ET, August 31, 2012

Top News:

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

ABC News Veteran Sam Donaldson: David Chalian Is ‘Not Damaged Goods’ — TAMPA, Fla. - ABC News veteran Sam Donaldson offered his support Thursday for journalist David Chalian, one day after Yahoo! News swiftly fired the Washington bureau chief following a hot mic moment and ensuing media controversy.

Discussion: Erik Wemple

Jack Shafer / Reuters:

Column: Why the Yahoos at Yahoo were wrong to fire David Chalian — If you're a journalist and you've ever said anything “inappropriate,” as David Chalian got caught doing yesterday — and you know you have — please step forward to be fired now. — Chalian, the Washington bureau chief for Yahoo News …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Is This Thing On? Yahoo Firing Proves the Perils of Feeding Many Platforms — David Chalian, the Washington bureau chief of Yahoo News, was fired in record time on Wednesday after he was overheard on a hot mic making a remark about Mitt Romney and his wife not caring about the African-American victims of Hurricane Isaac.

Discussion: The Wrap, The Daily Beast, The Maynard Institute …, Washington Wire, Los Angeles Times, Hillicon Valley and NewsBusters.org blogs

Jim Romenesko:

Patch loses communications director Janine Iamunno — Janine Iamunno was one of Patch's biggest supporters/defenders (a Patch logo tattoo, Janine?), and she knew what she was up against: “We're used to intense media scrutiny and speculation, more often inaccurate than not,” she told me in February.

Discussion: @adammatthewrich and Business Insider

Wired:

Apple Rejects App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes — It seemed like a simple enough idea for an iPhone app: Send users a pop-up notice whenever a flying robots kills someone in one of America's many undeclared wars. But Apple keeps blocking the Drones+ program from its App Store — and therefore, from iPhones everywhere.

Discussion: NYT Bits, TechPresident, CNET, Los Angeles Times, Gawker, Business Insider, TUAW, Kotaku, WebProNews, Gizmodo and AppNewser

BBC:

Assange row: Hague says ‘no solution in sight’ — There is ‘no solution in sight’ to resolving the Julian Assange extradition row, Foreign Secretary William Hague has said. His comment comes after meeting the vice-president of Ecuador - that country granted asylum to Mr Assange.

Telegraph:
Julian Assange: I'm going to be in the Ecuadorean embassy for a year

Discussion: Guardian and BBC

Borys Kit / Hollywood Reporter:

Charlize Theron, Thunder Road to Produce Film About Slain War Reporter (Exclusive) — The actress is in talks with Basil Iwanyk's company to produce a project on Marie Colvin, who died in Syria this year. Charlize Theron and producer Basil Iwanyk are teaming up for a film about the life …

Discussion: Guardian and Press Association

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Boston Globe won't identify author of plagiarized editorial — The Boston Globe is unwilling to identify the author of a recent unsigned editorial that plagiarized from a story by NPR affiliate WBUR. — The paper recently placed an editor's note on the editorial that said it …

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Phil Stewart / Reuters:

Exclusive: Pentagon threatens legal action over bin Laden book — (Reuters) - The Pentagon warned on Thursday in a letter to a former U.S. Navy SEAL that he was in material breach of non-disclosure agreements with his book detailing his first-hand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Discussion: New York Magazine and Washington Post

Rebecca Shapiro / The Huffington Post:
CBS News Uses Makeup To Hide Identity Of Navy SEAL Who Wrote Bin Laden Book (VIDEO)

Discussion: TVNewser

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Newsweek's Anti-Obama Cover Set to Be a Newsstand Hit — Newsweek received withering and widespread criticism over its “Hit the Road, Barack” cover story by Niall Ferguson. The magazine had become “an august publication letting itself be used to misinform readers,” critics said …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Bill Mickey / Folio:

CNN-TIME's Political Convention App Exceeded 10,000 Downloads on First Day of RNC — The app offers round-the-clock National Convention news and alerts to its users. — J ust a few days prior to the Republic National Convention, Time Warner Inc. launched the CNN-TIME Convention Floor Pass app …

Discussion: Radio & Television … and NetNewsCheck Latest

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

How the Times-Picayune and Nola.com covered Hurricane Isaac — On Wednesday afternoon, as Isaac continued its slow-motion journey over Louisiana, the Times-Picayune dispatched a caravan of trucks from its powerless Howard Avenue facility in New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., where its corporate sibling …

Discussion: nhc.noaa.gov and New Orleans Times-Picayune

CNN:

Robin Roberts' mother dies, ABC News says — (CNN) — The mother of “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts has died, ABC News reported early Friday. Roberts made it home to Mississippi to see her 88-year-old mother, who died Thursday evening, according to the news network.

Discussion: @WaitWhat_TV, ABCNEWS and TVNewser

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' response to HBO Nordic: It's on! — Hot on the heels of HBO's announcement that the network is going over the top in Northern Europe, comes Netflix CEO Reed Hastings challenge for it to do the same in the U.S. Hastings posted the following comment Thursday afternoon on his Facebook page:

Discussion: Fortune, WebProNews, Home Media Magazine and Gizmodo