Mediagazer: Senators lash out at NSA for excessive secrecy (Brian Fung/The Switch)

10:15 PM ET, July 31, 2013

Top News:

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’ — • XKeyscore gives ‘widest-reaching’ collection of online data — • NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches — • Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Did the media drop the ball on the Bradley Manning trial? — “The corporate media coverage of this trial, which is arguably one of the most important cases in modern American history, has been utterly shameful,” Nation reporter Jeremy Scahill said on “Democracy Now!”

Discussion: Guardian, @sulliview, @niemanlab, @piratenpartij, @abeaujon, Guardian, Variety, Democracy Now, Committee to Protect … and @lukewearechange

Brian Fung / The Switch:
Senators lash out at NSA for excessive secrecy

Discussion: ODNI Newsroom Feed, Forbes, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Hit & Run and Mashable

David Carr / New York Times:
Whistle-Blowers in Limbo, Neither Hero Nor Traitor

Discussion: Guardian, Forbes and AAP

Elias Groll / Foreign Policy:
What Does the Manning Verdict Mean for Edward Snowden?

Discussion: Electronic Frontier Foundation, New York Times, BBC and The Raw Story

David Batty / Guardian:

Bomb threats made on Twitter to female journalists — Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman and Independent writer Grace Dent among women threatened — Police are investigating bomb threats made on Twitter against several female journalists, including Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman.

Discussion: @dawnhfoster, @lauraslattery, @mjrobbins, @thestephmerritt, @mickpuck, @benisdangerous, @kevinbakhurst, @mwilliamsthomas, @robmanuel, @saralang, @leftstandingup, @ladysnarksalot, @lindasgrant, Jezebel, @orwellupgraded, @vivelebeeve, The Guardian World News and Guardian

Will Bunch / Philly.com:

The de-newspaperization of America — It used to be there were local newspapers everywhere. If you wanted to be a journalist, you could really make a good living working for your hometown paper. Now you have a few newspapers that make a profit because they are national brands …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, Columbia Journalism Review, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @johnrobinson, @will_bunch, @franklomonte, @tom_derrico, @jmartnyt, @jfdulac, GalleyCat, Associated Press, @friedgehnic, @tpbderek, @chucksoder, @tvtyewkyc, @geoffedgers and @chrisgeidner

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Plain Dealer ‘eliminated the jobs of approximately 50 journalists’ — The Plain Dealer's promised layoffs took place Wednesday morning. About 50 people lost their jobs, one report says. — “Many of those let go will be familiar names to readers - reporters, columnists …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Columbia Journalism Review, Crain's Cleveland Business, Facebook, Crain's Cleveland Business, Talking Biz News, @robcurley, @ericsandy, Erik Wemple, @frickmeghan, @alexandervision, @bobsegallwthr, @lew_jetton and @banditelli

Christopher Mims / Quartz:

Google is testing a local news product for Google Now — Google has hatched a plan to boost the visibility of its existing local news product, and in the process is testing a whole new way to get people to pay attention to the news that is geographically most relevant to them.

Discussion: GigaOM, Yahoo! News, TechCrunch, Engadget, @vincos, TechnoBuffalo, @mathewi, @tscurrie, @digiphile, @laureni, The Verge, SlashGear, @jason, @niemanlab, Search Engine Land and Pocket-lint

Ryan Singel / Wired:

Now That It's in the Broadband Game, Google Flip-Flops on Network Neutrality — In a dramatic about-face on a key internet issue yesterday, Google told the FCC that the network neutrality rules Google once championed don't give citizens the right to run servers on their home broadband connections …

Discussion: GigaOM, Free Press, BGR, Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Electronista, @benwoz, @benedictevans, Gizmodo, @ericmann, @clmazin, @shipilev, Forbes, The Verge and Boing Boing

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

Good Jill, Bad Jill: The queen of The New York Times — April was an unusual, if not the cruelest, month for New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, who in September will mark two years on the job. On Monday afternoon, April 15, Abramson—who, at 59, is the first woman to serve …

Discussion: Poynter, The Atlantic Wire, Capital New York, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, Jezebel, @carr2n, FishbowlNY, New York Magazine, @moorehn, @amyohconnor, @calflyn, @janinegibson and @nicohines

Reuters:

CBS Earnings Beat Expectations, Sumner Redstone Endorses Les Moonves — CBS Corp. reported a greater-than-expected 14 percent rise in quarterly earnings on Tuesday, helped by healthier results from its television business, and boosted its dividend. — The first-quarter report sent CBS shares …

Discussion: Radio & Television …, AdAge, Los Angeles Times, Deadline.com, Hollywood Reporter, @megjameslat, @dana_mcclintock, @jlafayette, CBS Corporation, @dana_mcclintock, @jboorstin and @jboorstin

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes: CBS President On ‘Illegal’ Aereo: 'We Don't Think It's Catching On At All'

Sara Morrison / The Wrap:

Fox News Sues TVEyes for Copyright Infringement — Says subscription service sells access to its content without permission nor compensation — Fox News Channel sued TVEyes, a $500-per-month TV and radio broadcast search service, for copyright infringement on Tuesday.

Discussion: Courthouse News Service and @buzzfeedandrew

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Social Video Startup NowThis News Launches The First-Ever News Channel On Instagram — A few weeks ago, Instagram announced Video, a way to share 15 second clips as well as photos with followers. Social web video startup NowThis News is taking advantage of it and launching the first-ever Instagram news channel.

Discussion: @julianxbrand, @nickidems, NewscastStudio, WebProNews, PYMNTS.com and Beet.TV

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Guardian's editor opens up on Reddit — Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, answered questions in an Ask Me Anything thread on Reddit today. Most of the conversation focused on the NSA PRISM leak, but he also goes into detail about his understanding of the paper's business model and strategy.

Discussion: @dangillmor and GigaOM

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Making TVs smart: why most smart TVs still feel pretty dumb — Making TVs smart is a three-part series that looks at why smart TVs have failed to take off — and what needs to happen for these devices to realize their vast potential. Look for parts two and three on Thursday and Friday.

Discussion: @codeandtheory

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Launches New Ad Unit For Responsive Sites — Google today launched a new responsive AdSense unit in beta that is specifically designed to run on sites that automatically adapt to different screen sizes. Now that responsive design has moved from being just a buzzword to something …

Discussion: support.google.com, Inside AdSense, @yinkawrites, Marketing Land and @niemanlab

Mia Shanley / Reuters:

Music streamer Spotify doubles 2012 revenues after expansion — (Reuters) - Music streaming web service Spotify more than doubled revenues in 2012 to 435 million euros ($577 million) as it expanded to new markets and almost doubled its users, documents showed on Wednesday.

Discussion: TechCrunch, VentureBeat and hypebot

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Spotify in 2012: revenues of $577.1m and a net loss of $77.9m

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @stuartdredge and Financial Times

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

TCA: Hulu's CEO Talks Kids Programming Ambitions, Premiere Strategy — Andy Forssell also sees opportunity for streaming site to be a TV Everywhere aggregate — Los Angeles - Hulu will have premiered 20 first-run titles by the end of this year and expects to double that number two years from now …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine and Variety

Mat Honan / Wired:

Embedded Posts: This Is Facebook's Real Public Offering — Facebook is making a shift to the public sphere, precisely because it's a public company. Everything it's been doing in recent months-even years-has been aimed at making Facebook content more accessible outside of just your circle of friends.

Discussion: newsroom.fb.com, Facebook Developer Blog, Digits, VentureBeat, Engadget, Los Angeles Times and CNET

Todd Spangler / Variety:

HBO Go Is Coming to Google Chromecast — HBO — looking to keep pace with online rival Netflix — is planning to bring its Internet-video service to Google's cheap Chromecast device for TVs. — “We are actively exploring supporting Chromecast as another way for our subscribers to enjoy HBO Go …