Mediagazer: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spyware … (Cory Doctorow/Boing Boing)

5:45 PM ET, May 27, 2013

Top News:

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

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:

Gawker's Rob Ford Crackstarter Hits Its $200,000 Goal — An online crowdfunding campaign has raised enough money to ransom a video that supposedly shows Mayor Rob Ford smoking a crack pipe. — A screenshot of Gawker's Rob Ford Crackstarter, as of about 4:15 this afternoon.

Discussion: canada.com, National Post, @karenkho, @tianafeng, Huffington Post Canada, @kevinjn, @brockwarner, @simoncott, Global News, @tomscocca, @thefoyeeffect, The Raw Story, @stevekupf 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: Forbes, Torontoist, @chaubtu, @thedriver_, @ak209, @aaltsted, @attiakiro, @baznet, @colbycosh, @lakarune, @danamira and @cp24

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

Discussion: CNN and The Next Web

New York Times:
Sweeping Leak Inquiries Reveal How Wide a Net U.S. Has Cast

Discussion: New York Times, Forbes, @mlcalderone, @mlcalderone, Kirk LaPointe's …, Dallas Morning News, Mother Jones, Mediaite, Boing Boing and Free Press

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: Guardian, mUmBRELLA, 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: VentureBeat, The Next Web, TorrentFreak and BGR

Ben Popper / The Verge:

Syrian Electronic Army: pro-government propaganda, or just trolling for lulz? — Hacker group is efficient, but it may not be effective — On May 4th, a series of odd tweets went out to the 5 million or so followers of the E! News Twitter account. “Exclusive! Justin Bieber to E!online: I'm a gay,” read the first one.