Mediagazer: Network 18 to massively ‘downsize staff, cut costs’ (Prashant Jha/The Hindu)

11:25 PM ET, August 15, 2013

Top News:

Barton Gellman / Washington Post:

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year, audit finds — The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:

Court: Ability to police U.S. spying program limited — The leader of the secret court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the government's vast spying programs said that its ability do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans.

Discussion: Gawker, The Switch, @csoghoian, @inego_, @micahflee, @digiphile and @jayrosen_nyu

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:
Snowden downloaded NSA secrets while working for Dell, sources say

Discussion: ZDNet and Hillicon Valley

Philip Bump / The Atlantic Wire:

Syrian Hackers Use Outbrain to Target The Washington Post, Time, and CNN — For a brief period on Thursday morning, the Washington Post's website redirected some visitors to a webpage controlled by the Syrian Electronic Army. In a brief statement, the site didn't indicate how the infiltration occurred …

Discussion: Ask The Post, The Switch, Krebs on Security, Deadline.com, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, ZDNet, The Verge, Graham Cluley, CNNMoney.com, @rajunarisetti, Featured stories, Consumerist, VentureBeat, The Wrap, Digiday, FishbowlNY and The Drum

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Washington Post website hacked — Readers were “redirected to the site of the Syrian Electronic Army,” Senior Social Media Producer TJ Ortenzi writes in an editor's note. “The Post is working to resolve the issue.” — The New York Times' website was down Wednesday …

Discussion: E Hacking News [ EHN ], The Daily Beast, The Switch, Mashable, New York Magazine, ABC News, Washington Post, Bloomberg, AllThingsD, ZDNet, Digits, Hillicon Valley, FishbowlNY and @poynter

Bryan Goldberg / PandoDaily:

Take Two — I messed up. — There has been a lot of response to my fundraise blog post on PandoDaily on Tuesday. Most of that response has been negative. And there are many good reasons for the criticism: — It over-simplified the editorial landscape.

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @amandamarcotte, Flavorwire, Fast Company, @brooke, @saramorrison, @erikmal, @atotalmonet, @jayrosen_nyu, Business Insider, @bgoldberg, @spencerchen, @thestalwart, @morninggloria and Globe and Mail

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

What Was This Bro Thinking? Bustle.com's Bryan Goldberg Explains Himself — Considering he only wanted to launch a women's-interest website, Bryan Goldberg must have been surprised to find himself the internet's primary object of hatred yesterday. — No doubt it had a lot …

Discussion: @maura, @abenedikt, Slate, @maureenoco, @laureni, @samfbiddle, The Hairpin and Valleywag

Jeanine Poggi / AdAge:

Al Jazeera America Debut Approaches, With Fewer Commercials — Cable News Network Will Have Just Six Minutes of Ad Time per Hour — Al Jazeera America will have fewer commercials than other cable TV networks when it begins transmitting on Tuesday. — The cable news network will air …

Discussion: Variety, B&C, Adweek, TVNewser and Hollywood Reporter

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:
Al Jazeera America faces more than the usual new-kid challenges

Discussion: @jbflint

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Robert Feder partners with Tribune — Longtime Chicago media columnist Robert Feder is launching a standalone media blog next month through a partnership with the Chicago Tribune. — The editorially independent Web site, RobertFeder.com, will be owned by Feder, but licensed and marketed …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Viacom-Sony TV Is a Big Deal. It's Also the Same Deal We Already Have. — Viacom's deal to deliver its cable TV shows to a new Web video service from Sony isn't final. — But it is a big deal: As the Wall Street Journal first reported today, this is the first time a major programmer has agreed …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, SlashGear, @pkafka, @jbflint, GigaOM, Engadget and @shaliniwsj

Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Sony and Viacom Reach Tentative Internet TV Deal

Discussion: @claytonmorris, The Verge, Business Insider and @brianstelter

John Ourand / SportsBusiness Daily:

Sources: Distributors Hold The Line On Fox Sports 1 Sub Fee — The frenzied rush that saw several of the country's biggest distributors agree to carry FS1 at launch occurred only after Fox surprisingly backed off its asking price of $0.80 per subscriber per month, according to multiple high-level sources.

Discussion: @ourand_sbj and The Big Lead

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:
Fox Sports 1 will launch with DirecTV, Dish and Time Warner Cable

Discussion: Variety, Bloomberg, Reuters, Reuters, BWW TV Stories, Sporting News Bob …, Fox Sports, Business Insider and @auerheat

Aaron Smith / CNNMoney.com:

Buffett's Berkshire dumps Gannett, buys Dish Network — Warren Buffett's investment firm Berkshire Hathaway dumped its shares of newspaper giant Gannett according to SEC documents, and took a new position in Dish Network. — In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Fortune, San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, Reuters, Stocks To Watch, Gannett Blog, Forbes and GigaOM

Prashant Jha / The Hindu:

Network 18 to massively ‘downsize staff, cut costs’ — PRASHANT JHA — Hundreds of employees of the Network 18 group - one of the country's leading broadcasters, which owns CNN-IBN, IBN 7, and CNBC-TV 18 among other channels - stare at an uncertain future as the company …

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Maer Roshan Joins Board of Directors at Assignmint.com — Maer Roshan, former editor of Radar and founder of the recently shuttered The Fix, is joining the board of directors at Assignmint.com, a start-up job management site designed to streamline the editorial process between freelance writers and publishers.