Mediagazer: James Murdoch expected to be re-elected as BSkyB director (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

4:05 PM ET, October 31, 2012

Top News:

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: Forbes, CBS News, The Huffington Post, PandoDaily, Gawker.com, mediabistro.com, ZDNet and BuzzFeed FWD

New York Times:
Storm Sends News Media Scrambling

Discussion: AdAge

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: New Jersey Online, WebProNews, Storyful Blog, Poynter, The Verge, Chicago Tribune, Lifehacker.com Updates, The Raw Story, iMediaConnection Blog, Forbes and WorldViews

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: TechCrunch, New York Times, AMERICAblog, Guardian, ABCNEWS, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller, CNBC, Betabeat, Nieman Storyboard, Forbes, Gothamist, CNET, FishbowlDC, BuzzFeed, Real-Time News from Mobile and BuzzFeed

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:
Tweeting fake news in a crisis — illegal or just immoral?

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Broadcasting & Cable, mediabistro.com, Media & Entertainment, Techdirt, The Atlantic Wire, Philly.com, PublishersWeekly.com, Forbes, NetNewsCheck Latest, The Wall Blog, The Huffington Post, Poynter, Boing Boing, Felix, The Verge, Mashable! and AppNewser

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

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: AdAge, MediaPost, FishbowlNY, MinOnline, The Next Web and WebProNews

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 …

Discussion: Business Wire, ArtsBeat, Media Decoder, Slate, Media Decoder, /Film, Corporate Intelligence, Forbes and Forbes

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Disney buys Lucasfilm for $4.05B including ILM, LucasArts and other tech, Star Wars VII coming in 2015

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) …

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: The Verge, CNET, GigaOM and AllThingsD

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

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.

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

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