Mediagazer: Why Sen. Feinstein Is Wrong About Who's a “Real Reporter” (Morgan Weiland/Electronic Frontier …)

5:55 AM ET, August 10, 2013

Top News:

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Armstrong Confirms “Hundreds” Of Layoffs At Patch, 400 Sites Shuttered Or Partnered Off, And A New CEO — We reported yesterday that AOL's hyper-local news service would lose hundreds of employees today, and now we have confirmation from a well-placed Patcher privy to the call …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Forbes, @talkingnewmedia, The Epoch Times, Beyond Search, FishbowlNY, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, CNNMoney.com, LA Observed, ZDNet, streetfightmag.com, WebProNews, Fast Company, @passantino, Adweek, Kirk LaPointe's … and Business Insider

Joe Coscarelli / New York Magazine:

AOL CEO Reportedly Fired Someone for Taking His Picture During a Meeting About Layoffs — AOL's plan to close or outsource half of its 1,000 hyperlocal Patch sites will come with what CEO Tim Armstrong calls “impacts” — he means layoffs — but the ax will fall slowly over the next week or so.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Atlantic Online, Business Insider, Businessweek, @lenzabel, VentureBeat, Boing Boing, Boing Boing, San Francisco Peninsula …, The Wrap, Betabeat, Mashable and Valleywag

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

No layoffs at Patch today — AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told Patch editors Friday there would be no “impacts,” or layoffs announced today. The “impacts” will arrive on a rolling basis over the next week, he said. — Armstrong said in an earnings call earlier this week that AOL would sell …

Discussion: Pressfolios Blog and @loislane79

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Obama's NSA Conference Could Be Subtitled ‘The Guardian Gets Results’ — President Obama's press conference on Friday was full of headline-making news about new proposals to reform the American surveillance system. But another headline could also be appropriate: “Journalism gets results.”

Brian Beutler / Salon:
Glenn Greenwald offered Brazilian protection from U.S.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Alex Ben Block / Hollywood Reporter:

CBS and Time Warner Cable Resume Negotiations — at a Distance — Meanwhile TWC subscribers in Wisconsin, where Journal Broadcasting stations are also blacked out, file a class action suit as the carriage dispute approaches its second week. — Even as the war of public war of words continues …

Discussion: AdAge, Los Angeles Times, PC Advisor and Reuters

Mike Reynolds / Multichannel:

TWC Customers File Lawsuit over Retrans Disconnect with Milwaukee Station — Plaintiffs Seek Class-Action Status over Disconnect with Journal Broadcast's WTMJ — A trio of Time Warner Cable customers has filed a lawsuit against the cable operator over its retransmission-consent dispute with WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee.

Discussion: JSOnline, The Desk, Inside TV, TMJ4 and FierceCable

Riva Gold / Digits:

Wikipedia Co-Founder Refuses to Comply With China's Censorship — Wikipedia Co-Founder Jimmy Wales said he would rather have no Wikipedia in China than comply with any form of censorship. — In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, Mr. Wales said the company will always refuse …

Discussion: SlashGear and Digits

Christy Choi / South China Morning Post:
Wikimedians should fix ‘broken journalism’, Jimmy Wales tells Hong Kong conference

Discussion: @fabriceflorin, @jchristychoi and @kirstystyles1

Morgan Weiland / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Why Sen. Feinstein Is Wrong About Who's a “Real Reporter” — During the Senate Judiciary Committee's August 1 mark-up of the shield law bill aimed at protecting journalists' sources, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reportedly objected to the definition of journalist provided in the bill as introduced …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

SpinMedia puts A.J. Daulerio in charge of its music and entertainment properties — A.J. Daulerio tells Jason Whitlock he will be an editorial director at SpinMedia. Among his charges, he says: Spin, Vibe, Celebuzz, The Frisky. — Daulerio tells Whitlock Spin and Vibe are …

Discussion: Fox Sports Radio

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Jack Dorsey on Twitter's turning point as a news entity: The day a plane landed in the Hudson — After seven years with Twitter as a part of the social-media ecosystem, we've become pretty accustomed by now to the idea that the service functions as a real-time news platform …

Discussion: @mathewi

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

Consumer watchdog says Apple did ‘considerable harm’ with ebook pricing, supports DOJ ruling — Eddy Cue, the Apple exec accused of orchestrating the price fixing (right), leaves court. — The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) said in papers filed in federal court that Apple caused considerable …

Jordan Kahn / 9to5Mac:

Twitter #music app gets new ways to discover artists, scans iPhone library for personalized recommendations — Twitter updated its Twitter #music iPhone app today with several new ways to discover new artists in addition to personalized recommendations based on the content in your iPhone's music library.

Discussion: App Advice, The Verge, iClarified and The Next Web

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Google rolls out digital textbooks, to buy and rent — but students should shop around — Google has launched a digital textbooks section of Books on Google Play in the U.S., as promised. The textbooks are available through the Play website, Android and iOS apps.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Softpedia News and Android Police