Mediagazer: Rance Crain's views on the world of biz journalism (Chris Roush/Talking Biz News)

3:50 AM ET, August 1, 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: @sulliview, @piratenpartij, @abeaujon, Foreign Policy, @niemanlab, Mediaite, Variety, Democracy Now, Committee to Protect … and @lukewearechange

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

Discussion: Guardian, Hillicon Valley and AAP

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

Discussion: Mashable, Forbes, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Hit & Run and BBC

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: The Huffington Post, @thestephmerritt, @saralang, @ladysnarksalot, @billbarnwell, Jezebel, @lauraslattery, @robmanuel, @mickpuck, @mjrobbins, @kevinbakhurst, @lindasgrant, @dawnhfoster, @vivelebeeve, @mwilliamsthomas, @benisdangerous, @leftstandingup and @orwellupgraded

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, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Crain's Cleveland Business, GalleyCat, Columbia Journalism Review, @majorcbs, @franklomonte, @adamwagner1990, @johnrobinson, @jmartnyt, @jfdulac, @tom_derrico, @will_bunch, @urvaksh, Facebook, Associated Press, Erik Wemple and Poynter

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Comcast and CBS Post Strong Results, Aided by Web — Judging by the second-quarter earnings reported by two major media companies on Wednesday, the good times are still rolling in the television business. — Comcast reported that its earnings rose to $1.7 billion from $1.35 billion …

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

CBS President On ‘Illegal’ Aereo: 'We Don't Think It's Catching On At All' — Considering how hard his company has been trying to obtain a legal death warrant for Aereo, CBS president Les Moonves affected a suspiciously nonchalant air when talking about the streaming TV service on Wednesday's earnings call.

Discussion: Home Media Magazine

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 …, CBS Corporation, @megjameslat, @dana_mcclintock, Los Angeles Times, @jlafayette, @dana_mcclintock, @jboorstin, @jboorstin, AdAge, Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.com

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

Christopher Flavelle / Bloomberg:

If Politics Is So Easy, Why Can't Journalists Do It? — Chrystia Freeland, a columnist and senior editor at Thomson Reuters, said last week that she's quitting her job to run for political office in Canada, where she was born. Freeland is an accomplished journalist and the author of a book …

Discussion: @edmundlee, @scroll, @scottbix, @bloombergview and @adwooldridge

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, BGR, Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Free Press, Electronista, @ericmann, DSLreports, Gizmodo, @benedictevans, Forbes, @benwoz, @clmazin, @shipilev, Mashable, The Verge and Boing Boing

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, @mattcover and @buzzfeedandrew

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

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: GigaOM and @dangillmor

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: Variety and Home Media Magazine

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Rance Crain's views on the world of biz journalism — Rance Crain is president and editorial director of Crain Communications Inc., which publishes nearly 30 local weekly business newspapers and trade papers. — Crain's career began as a reporter for Advertising Age in its Washington bureau …

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, @niemanlab and WebProNews

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: PYMNTS.com, @julianxbrand, NewscastStudio, @nickidems and WebProNews

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