Mediagazer: Discovery Reports Higher First-Quarter Earnings (Jon Lafayette/Broadcasting & Cable)

11:55 AM ET, May 7, 2013

Top News:

Adrian Chen / Gawker:

Newly Declassified Memo Shows CIA Shaped Zero Dark Thirty's Narrative — Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden revenge-porn flick Zero Dark Thirty was the biggest publicity coup for the CIA this century outside of the actual killing of Osama bin Laden. But the extent to which the CIA shaped the film has remained unclear.

Discussion: The Wrap, Globe and Mail and gregmitchellwriter …

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

No One Watched Howard Kurtz's Apology Sunday — The CNN media critic used the first 15 minutes of his Reliable Sources show Sunday to apologize for a rash of recent reporting errors. Even lower ratings than usual. — How many people do you think tuned in to watch Howard Kurtz's public shaming on Reliable Sources Sunday?

Discussion: Poynter

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Howard Kurtz's Bad Reporting About Jason Collins Cost Him a Lot of Money

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Tampabay.com

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.

Discussion: @kenericson and @dskok

Dominic Patten / Deadline.com:

‘They Stole It’: Dr. Phil Sues Gawker Over Manti Te'o Hoaxer Video — Dr. Phil claims that Gawker caused his ratings to drop by lifting video from his show and he's going after them for it. The copyright infringement suit is over the TV shrink's interview with the man who says he fooled …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, TMZ.com and Mediaite

Deirdre Mask / The Atlantic Online:

Why Do NPR Reporters Have Such Great Names? — What makes NPR reporters' names so particularly mellifluous? There's that pleasing alliteration — Allison Aubrey, Louisa Lim, Carl Kassell, Susan Stamberg. And it's hard to match those mouth-filling double-barrelled names.

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Double coverage: How The Boston Globe used its dual sites to cover the marathon bombing — April 15 was always going to be a big day for The Boston Globe. Marathon Day is traditionally one of the busiest for the newspaper, with its staff deployed around the city following the race …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Boston Globe

C. Custer / Tech in Asia:

Baidu Buys PPS Video for $370 Million, Now China's Biggest Video Platform — Well, the rumors are true. Chinese search company Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) announced today that it has acquired PPS.tv's streaming video service for $370 million. The acquisition bolsters Baidu's video offerings …

Discussion: Forbes, Quartz, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, TechNode and The Next Web

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

MSNBC.com Staffs Up — MSNBC.com is staffing up ahead of a major relaunch later this year. The relaunched site will focus on the world of politics and the personalities that populate MSNBC's programming. There will also, however, be plenty of political news and information.

Discussion: Politico and TVSpy

Christy Wilcox / Syria Deeply:

My Friend Austin Tice — There is no way to sum up my friend Austin. When I try, I think of passion, tenacity, humor and, oddly enough, Taylor Swift. Austin is a hard-driving conflict correspondent, a former Marine, a student at Georgetown law school. But Taylor's country pop is his favorite.

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Discovery Reports Higher First-Quarter Earnings — International grows while streaming revenue declines — Discovery Communications reported higher first-quarter earnings as international growth offset a decline in digital distribution revenue. — First-quarter net income rose 4% to $231 million …

Discussion: The Wrap, Radio & Television …, MediaPost, Hollywood Reporter and Reuters

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

Want a job at Gawker Media? You can get a head start by being a regular commenter — The new weekend editor at Gawker's auto-focused Jalopnik blog got hired because he was a knowledgeable commenter on the site, an example of how the feedback loop between writers and readers can pay off for blogs.

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

Business Insider goes native — All but erasing the line between editorial and marketing — Here's a Business Insider vertical called the “Future of Business.” Let's hope it's not the future of news. — The problems start with the banner across the top of the page: