Mediagazer: Syria conflict: NBC crew freed after gunfight

7:40 AM ET, December 18, 2012

Top News:

Mike Brunker / NBC News:

Richard Engel and NBC News team freed from captors in Syria — Richard Engel at the end of a reporting trip in Syria in July of this year. — NBC News' Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and members of his network production team were freed from captors in Syria after a firefight …

Guardian:

Syria conflict: NBC crew freed after gunfight - live updates — Sort by: — Ahrar al-Sham — The group who helped release Engel and his crew are among the most extreme salafi groups in the rebel movement, according to report into Syrian Jihadism [pdf] released by the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in September.

Jack Shafer:

Newtown teaches us, once again, to discount early reports — “It's inevitable that some first reports will be wrong,” Dan Rather warned viewers on Sept. 11, 2001, as he and his colleagues at CBS covered terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in real time.

Discussion: BuzzFeed

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:
Errors in Newtown Shootings Coverage Reflect Growing Pressures

Discussion: ZDNet and Softpedia News

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Connecticut shootings: Not a media story

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Media Decoder and College of Journalism feed

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Sandy Hook coverage: Is ‘good enough’ good enough?

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Tea Party Nation, The Daily Beast, CJR, Mediaite, Hit & Run, Yahoo! News, TVNewser and AdAge

Eric Deggans / Tampa Bay Times:
Understanding Newtown shooting coverage: Accepting errors in breaking news seems the biggest mistake

Discussion: New York Times

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

Did NPR's Andy Carvin overreach his Twitter calling on Newtown shooting? — Carvin became a one-man social media hub on the Arab spring, but the school shooting exposed flaws in his retweet method — If it bleeds, it leads - that most reliable axiom of journalism - may be nowhere as true as on Twitter.

Discussion: Poynter, @mattseaton, @bradleydaviswsj, @tamerelg, @ckanal, @fieldproducer, @antderosa, @jayrosen_nyu and @jayrosen_nyu

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

In real-time journalism, declaring what you won't report can be just as important as what you will — It started with confusion at the scene of the crime. A source told CNN the killer was named Ryan Lanza. — Soon several news organizations published images from a Facebook profile belonging to a man with that name.

Discussion: Guardian and Yahoo! News

Adam Poltrack / Digital Trends:

The Aereo Internet TV legal battle: What's happening, and why it matters — Not yet tuned in to the legal battle between Aereo and the big TV networks? We're here to catch you up and explain why the outcome may be so important. — “No cable required.” That's the battlecry that Internet startup, Aereo, foregrounds on its website.

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Washington Post signs up with NewsCred in push for dollars, exposure — NewsCred, which offers publishers and brands a growing library of elite news content, announced this week that the Washington Post is the latest to join its syndication service. — According to NewsCred CEO Shafqat Islam …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Business Insider and AllThingsD

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Google partners with top Japanese writers association to let authors know their rights — Google has tightened its offensive on copyrighted content in Japan after it agreed to a strategic partnership with Japan PEN, one of the country's top writers' associations, which affirms its commitment …

Discussion: Plagiarism Today

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Rupert Murdoch Wants Stricter Gun Laws After Newtown, But Fox News Doesn't Get the Memo — At 7:58 p.m. on Saturday evening, gun control's newest advocate took to Twitter to call for stricter firearm legislation. “Nice words from POTUS on shooting tragedy,” wrote News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch …

Discussion: CNN, Inside Cable News and The Huffington Post

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

News Outlets Send Letter To Romney Campaign Contesting Expenses — Nine news outlets that covered the election sent a joint letter Monday to former Romney campaign officials to contest expenses billed to their reporters. BuzzFeed, which is among the outlets that signed the letter, first reported on the dispute last week.

Discussion: Gawker, New York Magazine and @jbenton

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

More Evidence of Strong 3rd Quarter for U.S. Ad Spending — A second service that tracks advertising spending is reporting a relatively strong increase in the United States in the third quarter. — American ad spending climbed 7.1 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago …

Discussion: Digiday and Adweek

Sam Thielman / Adweek:

Participant Media Acquires Documentary Channel, Halogen TV — Participant Media has acquired cable networks Documentary Channel and Halogen TV and will combine them into a single as-yet unnamed cable network to launch next summer with a distribution of some 40 million households …

Discussion: The Wrap, Media Decoder, The Content Strategist, Chickaboomer, Cable Television News, AdAge and Broadcasting & Cable

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Baron: It's ‘probable’ Washington Post newsroom will shrink — Incoming Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron tells Paul Starobin “It's probable” the paper's headcount will go down, but that he hopes the Post can do more on local reporting. “I don't think for a minute that local journalism …

Paul Starobin / The New Republic:
Martin Baron's Plan to Save The Washington Post

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Hulu's Year-End Report: We're Pretty Darn Big! (And We're Not Saying Anything Else.) — Hulu has put out its 2012 numbers and, boy, are they good for a company that everyone said would never work: Almost $700 million in revenue, and “more than” three million paying customers for its Hulu Plus subscription service.

Discussion: Hulu Blog, The Appside, TechCrunch, C21Media and AdExchanger

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Hulu's 2012: Revenue up 65% to $695M, subscribers double to 3M, 28% more advertisers

Discussion: GigaOM and Reuters

Dan Gillmor / Guardian:

Why we all have a stake in the Freedom of the Press Foundation — This new nonprofit to protect WikiLeaks and other whistleblowers from payment systems blocking deserves our support — Two years ago this month, the major online payment systems - Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and more …