Mediagazer: Meet Michelle Boatley, fake Thomson Reuters legal publication reporter (Jim Romenesko)

2:50 PM ET, April 27, 2013

Top News:

Alexander C. Kaufman / FishbowlNY:

AOL Music Shuttered, Staff Laid Off [Updated] — AOL has shuttered its AOL Music division and laid off its staff, according to pink-slipped employees on Twitter. — Spinner.com, a rock-music news site under the AOL Music banner, announced suddenly on Thursday afternoon that it was shutting down.

Discussion: AllThingsD, Mashable, Variety, The Verge, RapFix, AllAccess.com, Fast Company, Radio & Television …, Softpedia News and CNET

Jim Romenesko:

Meet Michelle Boatley, fake Thomson Reuters legal publication reporter — A few years ago, Boatley was cranking out stories left and right — short pieces about law firm layoffs, merger deals, and firm expansions. — Then she vanished. — People who knew the secret about Boatley thought she had been killed — by her editors.

Discussion: Gawker

Philip Bump / The Atlantic Wire:

Don't Call It ‘Nerd Prom’: A White House Correspondents' Dinner Guest Analysis — On Saturday night, Washington's media elite and the government they cover will sit down together for a meal, lots of drinks, and a few tame jokes. The annual event is formally known as the White House Correspondents' Dinner …

Discussion: LAist

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
White House Correspondents' Association dinner isn't costly, but the parties are

Discussion: Mediaite, Christian Science Monitor, The Huffington Post and Chickaboomer

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Glenn Beck on the CNN ‘Pit of Despair’ and Why He Got Out of Cable TV — Glenn Beck thinks the television industry as we know it is dying, but that's not why he left it to start his own digital network, The Blaze. He's making a lot more money now than he did at Fox News, but that wasn't it either.

Discussion: TVNewser, The Raw Story and Mediaite

Michael McLaughlin / The Huffington Post:

Cambridge Police Department's Twitter Strategy Tested By Boston Bombing Manhunt — Anyone in Cambridge, Mass., who sees flashing lights or hears sirens need only log onto the police department's Twitter account to find out what's going on. — Bank robberies, fights, downed trees …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Koch Brothers Could Buy Tribune Papers To Add Media Division … David and Charles Koch control what is believed to be the nation's largest privately held company, Koch Industries. They share a strong libertarian bent against high taxes and government regulation.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Hit & Run and FishbowlNY

Garance Franke-Ruta / The Atlantic Online:
Why Big Cities Make Media Liberal—and Why the Koch Brothers Can't Do Anything About It

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, msnbc.com and Wonkblog, Thanks:@underoak

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Banned in China: Bloomberg and New York Times say they had no choice — Media outlets operating in China face an unpleasant dilemma: self-censor or else lose access to millions of readers and a valuable news market. Both the New York Times and Bloomberg News chose the second option, and don't regret the decision.

Discussion: The Official Google Blog

David Folkenflik / NPR:

China Seeks Soft Power Influence in U.S. Through CCTV … At a time when so many major American news organizations are cutting back, foreign news agencies are beefing up their presence abroad and in the U.S. One of the biggest new players arrives from China and, more likely than not, can be found on a television set near you.

Philip Ball / Nature:

Crowdsourcing in manhunts can work — Despite mistakes over the Boston bombers, social media can help to find people quickly. — The social news website Reddit was left red-faced last week after misidentifying suspects in the bombings at the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts …

Discussion: Poynter

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

New Reality Show to Skip TV, Play Entirely on Social Media (EXCLUSIVE) … Who says a reality show has to air on TV? — The Chernin Group is producing an audacious new unscripted series that will be distributed entirely on social-media platforms instead of having a home on TV, according to sources familiar with the production.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Powerhouse reporter Bob Hennelly to leave WNYC; station suffers a digital divide — WNYC has lost one of its heavyweights: Bob Hennelly, a longtime investigative reporter who's been with the National Public Radio affiliate for more than a decade, is leaving the station.

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

Time Warner Cable to Squeeze More Profit From Fewer Users — Time Warner Cable Inc. customers should prepare to pay more for the services they want. — The cable company is scaling back its discounts after years of offering low introductory rates on all-encompassing packages of Internet, television and phone service.

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Kindle TV: why does Amazon need a set-top box? — With competitors swarming the biggest screen in the house, Amazon makes a move of its own — News that Amazon is building a set-top box to rival offerings from Apple, Google, and Roku arrived yesterday as a surprise — but not a shock.

Discussion: VatorNews, ReadWrite, The Next Web, Kindle Review, Wall Street Journal and GigaOM