Mediagazer: Why can't we just admit that journalists are human? (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

5:30 PM ET, August 31, 2012

Top News:

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Why can't we just admit that journalists are human? — Should journalists be allowed to have opinions? If so, when and where — and how — should they be allowed to express them? Such questions have been a thorn in the side of the traditional media industry almost since the web was invented …

Discussion: Politico, The Maynard Institute …, NetNewsCheck Latest, Los Angeles Times and Hillicon Valley

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 and mediabistro.com

Jack Shafer / Reuters:
Column: Why the Yahoos at Yahoo were wrong to fire David Chalian

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs

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

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY: Newsweek/The Daily Beast Hires and Promotes

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY: Newsweek/The Daily Beast Sets Traffic Record

Reuters:

US grants asylum to Ecuadorean journalist — Columnist who fled to Miami after being ordered to pay millions in libel case pushed by President Correa can stay in US — A newspaper columnist who fled Ecuador after he was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay millions of dollars …

BBC:
Assange row: Hague says ‘no solution in sight’

Discussion: Business Insider

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

Discussion: BBC

Adrian Chen / Gawker:

Anonymous Leaks Secret New York Times Correspondences That Reveal Reporters' Shocking Competence — Anonymous declared war on the New York Times this week, launching “OpNYT” on Wednesday. Unlike most actions by the crippled hacktivist collective these days, their attack on the Times …

Discussion: Pastebin.com, Betabeat and New York Times

John Hudson / The Atlantic Wire:

Navy SEAL Author Rejects the Pentagon's Legal Threat — Former Navy SEAL author Matt Bissonnette is going to tell his version of events surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden, even if the Pentagon sues him for every last penny. — Last night, the Defense Department's top attorney wrote …

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press and Bloomberg

Phil Stewart / Reuters:
Exclusive: Pentagon threatens legal action over bin Laden book

Discussion: New York Magazine and Washington Post

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

Why News Organizations Spent Millions At The RNC — The CNN Grill cost about $2 million, a source says. Marketing for media, as well as the party. — Piers Morgan interviews the Romney sons at the CNN Grill. Source: i2.cdn.turner.com — Political conventions represent …

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

Justin Elliott / ProPublica:

Watergate Journalist Carl Bernstein Spoke at Event Supporting Iranian ‘Terrorist’ Group — On a Saturday afternoon last February, journalist Carl Bernstein got up on stage at the grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan and delivered a speech questioning the listing …

Discussion: Big News Network.com, @davidfolkenflik and @felixsalmon

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: Press Association and Guardian

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 …

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

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:

The New York Times Can Not Get Rid of Arthur Brisbane Fast Enough — The final print column of Arthur S. Brisbane in his capacity as New York Times Public Editor—a position created in the wake of 2003′s Jayson Blair scandal, only the fourth ombudsman in the paper's history— ran on August 26th.

Discussion: @thepubliceditor and The Public Editor's Journal

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: