Mediagazer: Obama May Back F.B.I. Plan to Wiretap Web Users (Charlie Savage/New York Times)

1:35 PM ET, May 8, 2013

Top News:

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

NowThisNews Raises a New Round to Help Bring Pregnant Panda Videos to Your Phone — NowThisNews, the startup that's trying to create a video news service for the iPhone generation, has raised another $4.8 million. — In addition to earlier investors, who include Lerer Ventures …

Discussion: VentureBeat

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

AOL's Earnings Are Light, but Revenue and Ad Sales Are on Track — This looks like a pretty good performance from AOL: Tim Armstrong's Internet company came in a couple pennies light on earnings in its Q1, but hit its revenue marks. — As important: Its underlying numbers look pretty good.

Discussion: Forbes, paidContent, Street Fight, New York Times, FishbowlNY, mediabistro.com, TechCrunch, Reuters, MarketWatch, @jeffjohnroberts and Beet.TV

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Obama May Back F.B.I. Plan to Wiretap Web Users — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of Investigation plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people …

Discussion: CNET, The Raw Story, @stevesilberman and @carr2n

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Google, authors wrangle in court again over digital books — The authors are asking for $3 billion in damages related to Google's digital books project, while Google is asking for class action status to be revoked. — Google and the Authors Guild are wrangling in court again …

Discussion: @bloombergnews and PublishersWeekly.com

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Advocate owner says he ‘tried to buy’ Times-Picayune — In a May 2 interview, WWL-TV anchor Melanie Hebert passed on a viewer question to John Georges, the new owner of the Baton Rouge, La.-based Advocate: Would he be interested in buying the Times-Picayune of New Orleans, with which his paper is engaged in a growing newspaper war?

Discussion: Baton Rouge news … and New Orleans Times-Picayune

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Breaking: Pink slips for ‘Daily News’ staffers, Joanna Molloy and Albor Ruiz among them — The Daily News is now undergoing what employees of the tabloid have been fearing for weeks: Multiple insiders tell Capital that layoffs have hit the newsroom today. — Several sources put the total number of pink slips at around 15.

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Get your cat on: BuzzFeed creates new section where readers can publish — Users will now get their own vertical on BuzzFeed, where they can submit according to their “Cat Power.” — Viral site BuzzFeed launched a new content vertical on Wednesday called “Community” that consists entirely of user-submitted content.

Discussion: BuzzFeed

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Confessions of a Newspaper Ad Exec — The woes of the newspaper world in digital media are well known: a decimated subscription base, lower ad revenue and declining relevance. — Newspapers are continuing the long process of change, but the road is bumpy.

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …, Thanks:@haniyarae

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Former News Corp. Top Executive Tom Mockridge to Become CEO of Virgin Media — He will run the company once John Malone's Liberty Global closes its acquisition of the U.K. cable operator. — John Malone's Liberty Global said Wednesday that it has picked former News Corp. top executive Tom Mockridge …

Discussion: Reuters, Variety, Bloomberg, The Register, Bloomberg, RTTNews, Deadline.com, Guardian, Telegraph and Pocket-lint

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Government acts on health care costs, in part because of Time story — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will release a data file showing prices for inpatient services at U.S. hospitals, Steven Brill reports. Brian Cook at the department's Centers for Medicare …

Discussion: TIME, The Huffington Post and The Week

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Maddow Rips Apart Politifact: ‘You Are Ruining’ Fact-Checking, ‘Truly Terrible’ — One of Rachel Maddow's favorite punching bags is the fact-checking site Politifact, for being self-appointed arbiters of truth who make rulings that appear to go against the very facts they lay out.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Politifact.com Truth …, The Raw Story, @dylanbyers and Wonkette

AllThingsD:

Yahoo's Mayer Has Met with Hulu Execs in a Preliminary Look-See at Premium Video Unit — According to numerous sources close to the situation, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently met with top execs at Hulu, the premium video service whose big media company owners have been considering selling it for some months.