Mediagazer: Behind the Scenes at Fox (Brian Stelter/New York Times)

6:40 PM ET, May 6, 2013

Top News:

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Howard Kurtz's Mea Culpa Isn't Good Enough — Merely repeating an apology and stressing one's sincerity is not a ticket back to play on the journalism field. — I wish I could say that Howard Kurtz's mea culpa on “Reliable Sources” was convincing. But it wasn't.

Discussion: Poynter, TVNewser, Erik Wemple, Politico, Variety and Chickaboomer

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Howard Kurtz's Bad Reporting About Jason Collins Cost Him a Lot of Money — Contrary to appearances, Howard Kurtz didn't lose his job at the Daily Beast over his boneheaded reporting about gay basketball star Jason Collins, or over his excessive extracurricular work. What he did lose was money — quite a lot of it.

Discussion: Tampabay.com and The Huffington Post

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Who Will Run Al-Jazeera America? Who's In, Who's Out, Who Passed (Exclusive) — The scoop on the leading candidates of the biggest new news network to hit cable — One of the biggest jobs in media is a new position and a high-risk opportunity: running Al Jazeera America.

Discussion: USA Today, The Huffington Post, Capital New York, Politico, The Corsair, Chickaboomer and TVNewser

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Monday Q&A: The New York Times' new head of video production on plans for growth — Rebecca Howard occupies a unique position at The New York Times. She came to the paper with experience from the AOL/Huffington Post video department and Fox Digital Studios, where she has worked on both branded and original content.

Discussion: Soup

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Behind the Scenes at Fox — A few days before the presidential election last November, Roger Ailes, the chief executive of Fox News, ordered that Geraldo Rivera's microphone be cut off after Mr. Rivera angrily defended the Obama administration against charges levied by others on Fox.

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker, The Huffington Post, Wonkette, Tucson Citizen, TVNewser, The Raw Story, Wonkette, Inside Cable News, TheBlaze.com, New York Magazine and jdp feed

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

Big Bird, Caillou and Sonic could be part of YouTube's subscription slate — YouTube is reportedly close to launching paid channel subscriptions on its site - and we've found a number of clues that hint at kids content being part of this initiative. — YouTube is getting close to launching …

Discussion: New York Times, Electronista and Home Media Magazine

Matt Brian / The Verge:
Google reportedly launching paid YouTube subscriptions this week

Discussion: Financial Times, The Atlantic Wire, GMANetwork.com, Daily Mail, CNET, VentureBeat, BGR India, NDTV Gadgets, PC Advisor, Pocket-lint, NME and Engadget

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Planet Money's crowdfunded T-shirt project surpasses goal by more than $200,000 — Donors to Planet Money's crowdfunded project to report out the life of a T-shirt have contributed more than five times the amount of cash the program hoped to raise in a Kickstarter campaign. In its pledge, the program says it will:

David Carr / New York Times:

For Media Moguls, Paydays That Stand Out — What's the difference between a media mogul and a chief executive elsewhere in the business world? About $10 million in compensation, give or take. — Leaders in other industries may be well paid, but as the accompanying chart shows, they earn far less than their media counterparts.

Discussion: The Newspaper Guild

Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:

The Knight Foundation's curious funding decisions — Among the odder aspects of Howard Kurtz's very bad week (as reported by Michael Calderone of the Huffington Post) is the revelation that Daily Download, the thoroughly mediocre (at best) website with which Kurtz is more or less associated …

Discussion: TIME, FishbowlNY, @jayrosen_nyu, The Huffington Post, Nieman Journalism Lab and The Huffington Post

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

The New York Times And Retro Report Look Back At Old News Stories — NEW YORK — On CBS, Dan Rather called the Mobro barge “the most-watched load of garbage in the memory of man.” Over on NBC, Tom Brokaw described how the “homeless garbage barge” from Islip, N.Y., was refused entry in North Carolina …

Discussion: New York Times, paidContent, Poynter, Retro Report and The Week

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

DirecTV Spurns Dish's View That Wireless Is Satellite-TV Savior — The two largest satellite-television companies in the U.S., after almost two decades of building their businesses with similar strategies, are now heading in almost exactly the opposite directions.

Gustavo Arellano / Navel Gazing:

OC Register to No Longer Accept Adult Ads—Wait, You Didn't Know They Ran 'Em? — Whenever people get on our case about the sexytimes ads we run in our infernal rag, I always point out that the Orange County Register run those sames ads, except smaller, coded, and in the back pages of its Sports section.

Discussion: Poynter and LA Observed

Randy Bennett / TVNewsCheck.com:

Newspapers: A Cautionary Tale For Local TV — The parallels between TV stations today and newspapers in 2005 should be heeded by local TV executives. The trends are equally troubling and there is much they can learn from newspapers' experience and response. Clearly, audience and advertisers are moving to digital platforms.