Mediagazer: Current TV has low-watt appeal (Claire Atkinson/New York Post)

10:35 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: Big News Network.com, @penenberg, GigaOM, @cschweitz, @felixsalmon, @moorehn, The Wall Blog, The Verge and Mashable!

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Councilman Pushes For Charges Against Twitter User Who Spread Falsehoods

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

David Holmes / PandoDaily:
Meet the man behind “Is Twitter Wrong?” who helped debunk fake pictures during Hurricane Sandy

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

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

Cotton Delo / AdAge:

Hurricane Sandy Boosts Local Online News Brands — Companies that sell batteries, bottled water and other goods that people rely on to help ride out a storm have an obvious business opportunity during major weather events such as Hurricane Sandy. Online local news organizations can be added to that list.

Discussion: Street Fight

New York Times: Storm Sends News Media Scrambling

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, CNET, Bloomberg, AdAge, The Next Web, MediaPost, FishbowlNY, MinOnline and WebProNews

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

The Math Behind Disney's “Star Wars” Deal — Disney is paying George Lucas $4 billion for his “Star Wars” empire. Did it get a good deal? — That all depends, of course, on whether people want to see the next three “Star Wars” movies Disney says it is lining up.

Discussion: Forbes

Michael J. De La Merced / DealBook:
With Lucasfilm Deal, Disney Spends Big to Land a Lucrative Franchise

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, CNBC, TechCrunch and AllThingsD

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

How to get your readers to love paywalls — Okay, maybe “love” is too strong a word, but a new study suggests that newspapers enacting paywalls should emphasize financial need, not profit motives, when announcing them to readers. — The study, “Paying for What Was Free …

Discussion: online.liebertpub.com, IU News Room and JIMROMENESKO.COM

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, Telegraph and Guardian

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Current TV has low-watt appeal — Current TV's small numbers will make it tough to attract big bids. The cable network, which recently put itself up for sale, is hoping to lure buyers even as it struggles with low ratings and questions about its cable distribution.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Chickaboomer

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, Engadget, Digital Media Wire, CNET, The Verge, GigaOM and AllThingsD

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