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

2:45 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: NewsBusters.org blogs

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

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs

David Carr / Media Decoder:
Is This Thing On? Yahoo Firing Proves the Perils of Feeding Many Platforms

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, The Wrap, Politico, The Daily Beast, The Maynard Institute …, Washington Wire, Los Angeles Times and Hillicon Valley

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 Sets Traffic Record — Who's ready for more Newsweek news! Yay! Yay? Anyway, we know it's the afternoon before a long weekend, but check this out: All the press (read: attacks) Newsweek got about its Niall Ferguson cover story paid off in terms of website traffic.

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

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

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

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

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 …

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: The Public Editor's Journal

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: Forbes and Radio & Television …

John Glenday / The Drum:

Cameron pre-empts Leveson with press self-regulation plans — David Cameron is reportedly preparing himself to reject statutory regulation of the press - even if it is strongly recommended in Lord Justice Leveson's imminent report. According to The Times ministers are believed to be drawing …

Discussion: Guardian

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: NetNewsCheck Latest

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

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: PC Magazine, Mashable!, Fortune, WebProNews, Home Media Magazine and Gizmodo