Mediagazer: Wal-Mart to Sell Boxee TVs Challenging Apple and Roku (Mark Milian/Bloomberg)

6:20 PM ET, October 31, 2012

Top News:

Heidi Moore / Guardian:

Even a superstorm is no excuse for journalists not to check Twitter trolling — The rage reserved for @ComfortablySmug's mischievous tweet about a flooded NYSE should be aimed at media professionals — “On the internet,” notes one pooch to another in that wise old New Yorker cartoon from 1993, “nobody knows you're a dog.”

Discussion: GigaOM, @cschweitz, @penenberg, @felixsalmon, The Wall Blog, @moorehn, The Verge, Mashable!, The Raw Story and BuzzFeed Andrew Kaczynski …

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Councilman Pushes For Charges Against Twitter User Who Spread Falsehoods — “I hope the fact that I'm asking for criminal charges to be seriously considered will make him much less comfortable and much less smug,” says Vallone — New York City Councilman Peter Vallone told BuzzFeed Tuesday …

Discussion: GigaOM, TechCrunch, New York Times, CNN, AMERICAblog, Techdirt, Guardian, ABCNEWS, Betabeat, CNBC, The Daily Caller, Poynter, New York Magazine, Nieman Storyboard, Forbes, Gothamist, FishbowlDC, BuzzFeed, The Verge, Real-Time News from Mobile, BuzzFeed FWD and BuzzFeed

David Holmes / PandoDaily:

Meet the man behind “Is Twitter Wrong?” who helped debunk fake pictures during Hurricane Sandy — Yesterday was a big day for citizen journalism. At one point during the storm users were posting 10 pictures to Instagram every second, and check out this dizzying website that displays in real …

Discussion: ReadWrite, New Jersey Online, WebProNews, The Atlantic Wire, Poynter, Storyful Blog, Felix, Chicago Tribune, Lifehacker.com Updates, iMediaConnection Blog and The Raw Story

David Carr / Media Decoder:

How Hurricane Sandy Slapped the Sarcasm Out of Twitter — Twitter is often a caldron of sarcasm, much of it funny, little of it useful. But as a social medium based on short-burst communication, Twitter can change during large events — users talk about “watching” the spectacle unfold across their screens.

Discussion: MediaPost, Forbes, Radio & Television …, CBS News, The Huffington Post, PandoDaily, Gawker.com, mediabistro.com, ZDNet and CNET

New York Times:
Storm Sends News Media Scrambling

Discussion: AdAge

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Marissa Mayer Makes a Media Deal — The Marissa Mayer messaging is that Yahoo's new CEO is about product, not media. But that doesn't mean she's shutting down everything her predecessor Ross Levinsohn was working on. — Example: Yahoo has struck a deal with Wenner Media …

Discussion: Folio, AdAge, CNET, MinOnline, MediaPost, Bloomberg, FishbowlNY, NetNewsCheck Latest, The Next Web and WebProNews

Guardian:

BBC to investigate death of journalist who complained of harassment — Family of Russell Joslin, who died on 22 October, accuses corporation of failing to act on his reports of sexual harassment — Police and the BBC are to investigate the apparent suicide of a journalist who complained …

Discussion: BBC

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:
Impressive integrity from two New York Times writers over BBC scandal

Discussion: Guardian and Telegraph

Michael Wolff / Guardian:
The Jimmy Savile scandal, Mark Thompson and the New York Times

Discussion: @michaelwolffnyc, London Review of Books, @emilybell and New York Times

Steve Schaefer / Forbes:

Trick Or Treat For Netflix: Carl Icahn Takes Ten Percent Stake — Billionaire Carl Icahn has taken a 9.98% stake in Netflix, according to a disclosure with the SEC Wednesday. — The 13D filing says Icahn Capital owns slightly more than 5.4 million shares (worth just over $465 million at recent prices) …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Media Money …, TechCrunch, The Wrap, AllThingsD and Reuters

Mark Milian / Bloomberg:

Wal-Mart to Sell Boxee TVs Challenging Apple and Roku — In a coup for New York-based startup Boxee Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) will sell and promote its new Web-connected device that brings live television and online video together, the companies said.

Discussion: Wired, Digital Media Wire, CNET, Engadget, The Verge, GigaOM and AllThingsD

Michael J. De La Merced / DealBook:

With Lucasfilm Deal, Disney Spends Big to Land a Lucrative Franchise — With its $4.05 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm, the Walt Disney Company is proving yet again that it is willing to pay up to land a big franchise. — Disney's takeover of Lucasfilm, keeper of the the Star Wars franchise …

Erik Kain / Forbes:

Eurogamer Confirms Journalist Lauren Wainwright Threatened Legal Action — Eurogamer editor Tom Bramwell has confirmed that video game journalist Lauren Wainwright threatened the publication with legal action after a columnist there quoted her public tweets. — It's a sad day for journalism.

Discussion: Eurogamer.net • …, Wings over Sealand and rpgcodex.net

Josh Stearns / Groundswell:

The Missed Opportunity of Newspaper Endorsements — Research, both scholarly and anecdotal, suggests that newspaper endorsements make little difference in the minds of readers. This fact led Edward Morrissey at The Week to argue that “Newspaper endorsements are at best meaningless anachronisms …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and Change of Subject

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

James Murdoch expected to be re-elected as BSkyB director — James Murdoch will not face another major shareholder revolt when investors gather at BSkyB's annual meeting on Thursday, with only a small proportion expected to vote against his reappointment as a company director.

Discussion: Telegraph

Elspeth Reeve / The Atlantic Wire:

Nerds Rush to Nate Silver's Defense — The great war between people who write about politics for a living is not between liberals and conservatives, but between humanities majors and math nerds, and their battleground is currently the validity of Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight election prediction model …

Discussion: Poynter, Nieman Journalism Lab, Daily Download, Wonkblog and Change of Subject

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism:

President Bollinger announces search committee for new dean — Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger has accounted the formation of a search committee to help in identifying the next dean of Columbia Journalism School, as Nicholas Lemann announced his plans to step down following a ten-year term in June 2013.