Mediagazer: Journalism, Scientology, and Manti Te'o: Finding the Leper with the Most Fingers (Mobutu Sese Seko/Gawker)

12:50 PM ET, January 17, 2013

Top News:

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

Deadspin's editor-in-chief explains editing, reporting behind Manti Te'o story — Deadspin Editor-in-Chief Tommy Craggs says Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey were faced with a tough question when reporting their now famous Manti Te'o story: “What lengths do we go to to try and prove a negative?”

Discussion: The Dan Patrick Show and Poynter

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

Linking and checklists could have prevented journalists from Manti Te'O ‘girlfriend’ hoax embarrassment — Last year I blogged about four reasons linking is good journalism. Make it five. — Journalists who practice thorough linking to provide context and attribution for their stories …

Discussion: BBC, ABCNEWS, The Week, CBSSports.com Sports News …, Deadspin, Erik Wemple and BuzzFeed

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

Deadspin's Burke: Te'o story shows ‘diminished role’ of investigative journalism — Deadspin's widely circulated report on Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's began with a tip. Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey got an anonymous email last week saying: “Hey, you know, something is fishy …

Discussion: TVNewser, Tampa Bay Times, Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Times, PopWatch, South Bend Tribune, BuzzFeed, @amzam, @nicknotned and msnbc.com

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Notre Dame football player Te'o girlfriend hoax 'became truth through the media" — The sports editor at The South Bend (Ind.) Tribune was, not suprisingly, in a meeting when we called Wednesday to ask about the Deadspin bombshell that the widely reported stories about Notre Dame linebacker …

Discussion: Deadspin, Poynter, ESPN, Forbes, Yahoo! News, Slate, TVNewser, FishbowlNY, Fast Company, CNN, South Bend Tribune, The Atlantic Wire, JIMROMENESKO.COM, L.A. NOW, Speakeasy, Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post and The Boston Globe

Spencer Hall / SBNation.com:
The List: People who never looked up Lennay Kekua

Discussion: New York Times, Erik Wemple, Fast Company, Yahoo! News, The Huffington Post, Chickaboomer, Change of Subject, The Verge, Deadspin and South Bend Tribune

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Knight News Challenge funds photography app with built-in verification data — A mobile app that will help amateur journalists send photos to news organizations securely and with embedded verification data is among eight projects funded by the latest Knight News Challenge grants.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Knight Foundation, NetNewsCheck Latest, AllThingsD, Betabeat and PandoDaily

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab: Wikipedia plans to expand mobile access around the globe with new funding

Byron Tau / Politico:

Survey: Users trust social media as news source — Voter trust in political information from Facebook, Twitter and other social media services is now on par with that in traditional news sources, according to a new survey shared with POLITICO. — Recent years have seen candidates increasingly devoting …

Discussion: @michaelroston

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Rolling Stone finally comes to iPad, with buy links to iTunes — In a May 2011 interview with AdAge, Rolling Stone founder and publisher Jann Wenner memorably described magazine publishers' embrace of the iPad as “premature” and spurred by “sheer insanity and insecurity and fear.”

Discussion: Engadget, NetNewsCheck Latest and Good E-Reader

Jeff Blagdon / The Verge:

Aaron Swartz's embattled prosecuting attorney releases first statement, says conduct was ‘appropriate’ — US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz is breaking the silence on her office's prosecution of Aaron Swartz. After extending her sympathy to those affected by Swartz's death …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Guardian, bizjournals, Techdirt, SlashGear and TechCrunch

Joe Coscarelli / New York Magazine:
Congresswoman Proposes 'Aaron's Law' Directly to Reddit After Aaron Swartz Suicide

Discussion: The Next Web, Hit & Run and nbcnews.com

The Huffington Post:
Darrell Issa Probing Prosecution Of Aaron Swartz, Internet Pioneer Who Killed Himself

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Mashable!, CNET, TIME, The Verge, Guardian, Stanford CIS Blog, TechPresident, Techdirt, Chicago Sun Times, The Atlantic Wire, Associated Press and Hillicon Valley

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

YouTube Is Ready to Invest in Vevo, but the Deal Isn't Done — YouTube is set to make another big investment in a content partner. This time around it's Vevo, the music video site. — YouTube and its owner Google have agreed to buy a minority stake in Vevo, according to people familiar with the deal, which hasn't been finalized.

Discussion: Guardian, Fast Company, The Next Web, Softpedia News and CNET

Alexander C. Kaufman / The Wrap:

BuzzFeed Story on Gun-Toting Journalists Infuriates Reporters (Updated) — BuzzFeed political editor McKay Coppins has a target on his back after posting a story Thursday that turned a sardonic eye on the shooting range trips of a cadre of well-known New York journalists.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Soup, Capital New York, The Wrap, @antderosa, @weareyourfek and @antderosa

Mobutu Sese Seko / Gawker:

Journalism, Scientology, and Manti Te'o: Finding the Leper with the Most Fingers — This has been a fantastic week for media outrage, especially on Twitter. On Monday, a pro-Scientology ad in the Atlantic that was mocked up to faintly resemble an article generated hours of castigating tweets and countless op-eds.

Discussion: HyperVocal, The New Yorker Blog and Guardian

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Amazon opens music store for Apple devices, songs start at 69 cents — Amazon is making another major push to chip away at Apple's dominance in online music with the launch of an MP3 store specifically optimized for devices like the iPhone and the iPod touch.

Discussion: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, CNET and GeekWire

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Advance Publications Buys Digital Agency Pop To Assist Transition to Digital — Agency Will Continue to Operate Independently — Advance Publications, parent company of Conde Nast and magazines like Wired, Vogue and Vanity Fair, has acquired Pop, a digital ad agency based in Seattle.

Discussion: GeekWire

Eric Ostermeier / Smart Politics:

FOX Still Shunned at Obama Press Conferences — The favorite news outlet of conservatives ranks just ninth in presser questions in Obama's first term, getting to ask questions at only half the rate of the Big 3 broadcast networks — During Barack Obama's news conference on Monday the president called on seven reporters.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, Politico, The Daily Caller and TVNewser

Will Sommer / Washington City Paper:

Washington Post Mexico Bureau Chief Admits Plagiarizing Academic Journal in Panama Story — What is it with the Washington Post's bureau chiefs and lifting copy? Just months after the paper's India bureau chief admitted to paraphrasing quotes from an Indian magazine, William Booth …

Discussion: Politico, Poynter, @wapoombudsman, @wapoombudsman, @wapoombudsman and mediabistro.com

Craig Silverman / Poynter:
Washington Post clarifies practices and standards for corrections

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and The Public Editor's Journal

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

News companies must pay for swiping Twitter pics (but our photo laws are still a mess) — News agencies can't simply help themselves to the photos they find on Twitter. That's the upshot of a closely watched court case involving a freelance photographer who sued the Washington Post …