Mediagazer: News Corp. Says It Was Not Told of Subpoena for Reporter's Phone Records (Amy Chozick/New York Times)

10:30 PM ET, May 27, 2013

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Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Plans for American Al Jazeera Channel Shifting Focus to U.S. News — While it has a foreign name, the forthcoming Al Jazeera cable channel in the United States wants to be American through and through. — When Al Jazeera's owners in Qatar acquired Al Gore's Current TV in January …

Discussion: @howardmortman

Amy Chozick / New York Times:

News Corp. Says It Was Not Told of Subpoena for Reporter's Phone Records — News Corporation said on Sunday that it had no record of being notified by the Justice Department nearly three years ago of a subpoena for the telephone records of a reporter at its Fox News cable channel.

Discussion: The Verge

Devlin Barrett / Wall Street Journal:
DOJ Notified News Corp. About Phone-Record Seizure

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Kathryn Blaze Carlson / Globe and Mail:

As Gawker reaches ‘Crackstarter’ goal, destination for funds remains murky — Gawker.com says it has lost contact with those in custody of the video since one of its writers, John Cook, broke the crack story earlier this month, reiterating to donors Monday morning, “Our confidence …

Steve Kupferman / Torontoist:

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Discussion: canada.com, @tomscocca, @tianafeng, @thefoyeeffect, National Post, @simoncott, Huffington Post Canada, @brockwarner, Global News, @kevinjn, @karenkho, The Raw Story and Mediaite

Peter Sterne / The New York Observer:

Why Are Canadians Giving Gawker Money? — Last week, Gawker editor launched a crowd-funded project to purchase an alleged videotape of Toronto, Canada mayor Rob Ford smoking crack. They called it a “Crackstarter,” a play on Kickstarter, and aimed to raise $200,000 from viewers like you.

Discussion: @cp24, Forbes, @chaubtu, @baznet, Torontoist, @ak209, @colbycosh, @thedriver_, @danamira, @aaltsted, @lakarune and @attiakiro

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Yahoo's Bid for Hulu in $600M to $800M Range — Even as It Preps Other Big Deals in Mobile and Communications — According to numerous sources close to the situation, Yahoo has bid from $600 million to $800 million for the premium video site Hulu. — The reason for the wide range is due …

Associated Press:

Germany's Top-Selling Tabloid to Introduce Paywall — BERLIN — Europe's top-selling newspaper said Monday it will introduce a paywall for part of its online offerings starting next month. — Main news stories will remain free of charge online, but a subscription will be required to view features …

Discussion: Reuters

Brian Morrissey / Digiday:

Behind Twitter's Savvy Embrace of TV — Internet companies for the past decade plus have looked at TV with a mix of envy and disdain. The envy springs from the $120 billion the TV industry rakes in annually, a number that reliably climbs even as Internet execs scream hysterically with their Mary Meeker time-spent slides in hand.

Discussion: @chloes

Katharine Viner / Guardian:

Welcome to Guardian Australia — Thank you for joining us on the day we launch our new digital edition. We hope you will take part in its success — Today we launch Guardian Australia, the Guardian's third international digital edition, focusing our unique style of journalism on this vast and fascinating country.

Discussion: mUmBRELLA, Guardian, Crikey and @marklittlenews

Erika Solomon / Reuters:

Sniper kills Syrian journalist from pro-government TV — (Reuters) - Sniper fire killed a well-known Syrian journalist working for a pro-government television channel near the Lebanese-Syrian border on Monday, the state news agency said. — Yara Abbas, a reporter for the al-Ikhbariya news channel …

Discussion: GlobalPost, Associated Press, presstv.ir, In Serbia News and Al Jazeera English

Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:

US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spyware, ransomware and trojans to attack pirates! — The hilariously named “Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property” has finally released its report, an 84-page tome that's pretty bonkers.

Discussion: The Next Web, VentureBeat, TorrentFreak and BGR

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

The Big Items on the FCC's To-Do List — Did anyone really think that Julius Genachowski wouldn't leave the media ownership rules for the next guy? Or the always-in-court, nearly impossible to legally defend broadcast indecency rules? Even with 11th-hour pushes to take on both …

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

Viacom's Sumner Redstone celebrates 90 with big bump in net worth — Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom, celebrated his 90th birthday on May 27, 2013. This year the mogul enjoyed a bump in net worth. (Lawrence K. Ho / May 27, 2013) — Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone celebrated his 90th birthday Monday.