Mediagazer: The Only Thing the Broadcasting Treaty Is Good For Is Crushing Innovation (Parker Higgins/Electronic Frontier …)

2:00 AM ET, April 18, 2013

Top News:

Ellie Hall / BuzzFeed:

Media Melts Down Over Reports Of Boston Suspect — Reports of “arrest” backpedaled to “no one in custody” in less than an hour. Here's a timeline of the conflicting and confusing reports.

Discussion: ChartGirl, The Atlantic Online, Erik Wemple, Gawker, Daily Dot, Mediaite, @mlcalderone, @mlcalderone, PandoDaily and The Daily Beast

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

CNN Explains Walking Back Marathon ‘Arrest’ Report — On Wednesday afternoon, CNN's John King walked back his earlier report that “an arrest” had been made in the Boston marathon bombing, wrapping up a chaotic hour of conflicting reports on networks and news sites over whether an arrest had been made.

Discussion: Poynter, Associated Press, Gawker, TVNewser, CBS Boston, Deadspin, The Raw Story, The Week and New York Magazine

Cory Bergman / Breaking News Blog:

A tough call on a big story — A day ago, we explained how we balance speed with rumor control at Breaking News. Then we were faced with a tough decision, challenging our convictions on a very big story. — Despite three major news organizations reporting an arrest in the Boston bombings, we waited.

Discussion: Hollywood Life, Charles Apple and Inside

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Daily News’ doctored front-page photo from Boston bombing — Detail from the original photo (left) and the ‘News’ front page (right). via Charles Apple — The Post was derided Tuesday for apparent inaccuracies in its reporting on the bombing at the Boston Marathon.

Discussion: 10,000 Words, Mediaite, Nieman Journalism Lab, Charles Apple, Poynter, PandoDaily, The New York Observer, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine, Softpedia News, Jim Romenesko, Vanity Fair, Erik Wemple, The Verge and msnbc.com

Patrick Boehler / South China Morning Post:

New regulations in China ban journalists from quoting foreign media — On the day Chinese journalists woke up to news that the New York Times won a Pulitzer for its report on former Premier Wen Jiabao's family fortune, China's media regulator issued new regulations banning reports on foreign media coverage.

Discussion: Bloomberg

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Tumblr's David Karp on the closing of Storyboard: It 'didn't work' — Tumblr founder David Karp elaborated this morning on his recent decision to shut down Storyboard, the blogging behemoth's in-house editorial operation. “We gave it a year, and after evaluating it, we decided …

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines, Columbia Journalism Review, VentureBeat and CNET

Eliza Kern / paidContent:
Tumblr CEO David Karp says at least 70 users have turned blogging into book deals

Discussion: Betabeat

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Aereo CEO Says Fox's Threat Would ‘Disenfranchise’ 54 Million People — With the threat by News Corp. COO Chase Carey to pull the Fox network off the airwaves and turn it into a cable network, the case of American Broadcasting Companies et. al v. Aereo officially spilled over from the law courts into the court of public opinion.

Discussion: AdAge and VentureBeat

Tim Kenneally / The Wrap:
Aereo Lawsuit: Networks Seek Re-Hearing After Appeals Court Setback

Discussion: paidContent, The New Yorker Blog, VatorNews, Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, Indiawest.com, Poynter, Zatz Not Funny!, Broadcasting & Cable and Variety

Ronald Grover / Reuters:

Exclusive: Guggenheim advises on Hulu sale, may also bid - sources — (Reuters) - Hulu has hired Guggenheim Partners to advise on a sale of the company, even as the financial services firm is considering making its own bid for the video streaming service, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Discussion: Business Insider

Parker Higgins / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

The Only Thing the Broadcasting Treaty Is Good For Is Crushing Innovation — For those of us following the continuing saga of the unnecessary and harmful WIPO Broadcasting Treaty, its latest manifestation is starting to have the feel of a tired movie franchise.

Discussion: keionline.org

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:

Wall Street Journal: time to look in the mirror — Its Pulitzer shutout reaches six years — Stop me if you're heard this one: … For a long time, I've been rooting for the newsroom of Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal to win a Pulitzer Prize (not the Op-Ed page, which seems to have no trouble).

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, The Atlantic Online and Talking Biz News

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

65 percent of Buzzfeed's traffic now comes from mobile devices — The world is ending for traditional media companies, but new players who ignore the rules, and bet on mobile, will prevail, argues Huffington Post Co-Founder and Buzzfeed Chairman Kenneth Lerer.

Discussion: Poynter

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Supreme court rules web browsing does not infringe newspapers' copyright — Dispute over copyright was between Meltwater, which alerts PR agencies to articles, and the Newspaper Licensing Agency — The UK supreme court has ruled that readers who open articles via a website link are not breaking the law …