Mediagazer: HuffPost Highlights taps reader-powered curation of best passages (Jeff Sonderman/Poynter)

3:30 AM ET, September 3, 2012

Top News:

Sasha Issenberg / Campaign Stops:

Why Campaign Reporters Are Behind the Curve — It becomes popular around this time of year to lament the fact that media coverage treats the presidential campaign as little more than a “horse race.” Journalists, this line of argument goes, choose to fixate on which candidate is a superior campaigner …

Discussion: Politico and @jayrosen_nyu

Brad McCarty / The Next Web:

Here's how Samsung flew bloggers halfway around the world, then threatened to leave them there — Let's pretend that you're a blogger. You're given the chance to review new, hot hardware from a major company. All that's required is that you participate in some tasks, but these tasks would fit into your coverage so you agree.

Discussion: Guardian, @clintonjeff, CNET and @bradmccarty

Jim Romenesko:

Free plagiarism checker finds more Jonah Lehrer journalistic misdeeds — From JUSTIN MEGAHAN: Last night I was wondering if a basic free plagiarism checker that is used by high school teachers to check their students work — The Plagiarism Checker — would find the plagiarized excerpts from Jonah Lehrer's “The Psychology of Nakedness.”

Discussion: @justinrmegahan

Charles Seife / Slate:
Jonah Lehrer's Journalistic Misdeeds at Wired.com

Discussion: GalleyCat, JIMROMENESKO.COM, EdCone.com, @sdkstl, @mathewi and Poynter

Julie Moos / Poynter: Wired.com investigator on Jonah Lehrer plagiarism: ‘I think the safety net has eroded’

Evan Hansen / Wired:
Violations of Editorial Standards Found in WIRED Writer's Blog

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Somini Sengupta / New York Times:

Twitter's Chief Lawyer Defends Free Speech With Revenue in Mind — SAN FRANCISCO — Alexander Macgillivray, Twitter's chief lawyer, says that fighting for free speech is more than a good idea. He thinks it is a competitive advantage for his company. — That conviction explains why he spends …

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

A Reporter Who's Part of the Story — TAMPA, Fla. — There were no fewer than five people pointing cameras at the man who from a distance resembled a scarecrow: tall and broad-shouldered with long, long arms. Enlarge This Image Todd Heisler/The New York Times Carl Cameron …

Discussion: TVNewser

Karl Taro Greenfeld / Business Week:

ESPN: Everywhere Sports Profit Network — ESPN's global headquarters span 18 buildings and 123 acres in Bristol, Conn. The campus occupies a fenced-in hillside, though deer frequently end up trapped inside the fence, and appears to be in a state of constant flux.

Discussion: TVNewser and @carr2n

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

HuffPost Highlights taps reader-powered curation of best passages — When your website puts out thousands of pieces of content a day, how do you consistently and efficiently surface the best stuff? — The simplest way is to just follow the cowpaths — the routes where reader behavior naturally flows.

Discussion: Noah Brier dot Com

Sherry Ricchiardi / American Journalism Review:

Playing Defense — With digital information so vulnerable to theft, it's imperative for journalists to be proactive in protecting confidential sources and data. But too few people are taking the threat seriously. — AJR senior contributing writer Sherry Ricchiardi (sricchia@iupui.edu) …

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of leapfrog news video — Our political conventions remind us that this is not the summer of love. But it may be the season we'll remember as the summer of video. — Certainly, video's — news video's — growth has been noteworthy for awhile.

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

MTV Embraces Viddy ("Twitter for Video") for Big Music Show Coverage — MTV is having scores of its staffers at the September 6 Video Music Awards use Viddy, a video sharing platform that allows users to upload and share 15-second videos, says Colin Helms, MTV's SVP for Digital in this interview with Beet.TV

Jonathan Stray / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Focus and web-only content: How the Deseret News supports a local newsroom with a national strategy — Salt Lake City's Deseret News faces the same challenging online economics as most American metropolitan newspapers: A local web audience isn't large enough to support the newsroom …

Megan Garber / The Atlantic Online:

Want to Watch the Paralympics? Now You Can—Not on NBC, but on YouTube — Where NBC falters, YouTube steps in. — When we talk about why we love watching the Olympics, we usually talk not just about competition, but about human interest. We're drawn to stories of athletes struggling and striving and persevering.

Discussion: Guardian, Mashable!, The Verge, Engadget and SocialTimes

Emma Brown / Washington Post:

Sun Myung Moon dies at 92; Washington Times owner led the Unification Church — Sun Myung Moon, a self-professed messiah who claimed millions of religious followers in his Unification Church and sought to become a powerful voice in the American conservative movement through business interests …