Mediagazer: AT&T Sued Over Refusal to Carry Al Jazeera Cable Network (Jef Feeley/Bloomberg)

11:45 PM ET, August 20, 2013

Top News:

Steven Erlanger / New York Times:

British Newspaper Has Advantages in Battle With Government Over Secrets — LONDON — Alan Rusbridger, the mop-haired, soft-spoken editor of The Guardian newspaper, finds himself in a shadowy battle with the British government over purloined secrets that the government will have a hard time winning in the Internet age.

Discussion: @buzzfeedandrew, @stefanjbecket, @dangillmor and @ewenmacaskill

Julian Borger / Guardian:

NSA files: why the Guardian in London destroyed hard drives of leaked files — A threat of legal action by the government that could have stopped reporting on the files leaked by Edward Snowden led to a symbolic act at the Guardian's offices in London — Guardian editors on Tuesday revealed …

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

Conspiracy to commit journalism — “If sunlight coalitions are to succeed, they won't succeed by outwitting surveillance. Not better technology, but greater legitimacy is their edge.” — The mood toughened just over a month ago, when I received a phone call from the centre of government telling me: “You've had your fun.

Discussion: msnbc.com, @evgenymorozov, Charlie Beckett, The Huffington Post, Guardian, Committee to Protect …, @gsmaverick, @dangillmor, @jeffjarvis, @jjn1, @jeremyduns, TIME, VentureBeat, Kirk LaPointe's … and Hot Air

Tim Ross / Telegraph:
David Cameron accused of sanctioning detention of Glenn Greenwald's partner David Miranda

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @willblackwriter and @davecameroon

Sarah Young / Reuters: British authorities say detention of reporter's partner ‘legally sound’

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
David Miranda's lawyers threaten legal action over ‘unlawful’ detention

Discussion: NBCNews, @fleetstreetfox, @jlllow, Guardian, @tomporteous and BBC

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:
UK agents, seeking to stop leaks, destroyed The Guardian's hard drives

Discussion: BuzzMachine, The New Yorker Blog, Reuters, @dansabbagh, Guardian, @stevestreeting, TechCrunch, @chanders and @0xabad1dea

Milo Yiannopoulos / The Kernel:
David Miranda's detention was entirely legitimate

Discussion: The Huffington Post, WebProNews and The Week

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Al Jazeera Makes Limited American Debut — There was ample attention in journalistic circles as Al Jazeera America had its premiere on Tuesday — particularly among those who could not watch. — The news channel — which replaced Current TV at 3 p.m. Eastern time — was expected to be carried …

Discussion: Politico, Reuters, Hollywood Reporter, @rafat, New York Magazine, Bloomberg and @brianstelter

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Al Jazeera hints at new online programming for cord cutters and cable hold-outs — Al Jazeera launched its U.S. cable network Tuesday, but a significant part of its potential audience couldn't tune in: Viewers used to watching Al Jazeera's international channel online found themselves blocked …

Discussion: The Wrap, Broadcasting & Cable, USA Today, @riy, Deadline.com, Inside TV and Variety

Jef Feeley / Bloomberg:
AT&T Sued Over Refusal to Carry Al Jazeera Cable Network

Discussion: @adamgellings, @rolandsmartin and @sherman4949

Justin D. Martin / Quartz:
One thing Al Jazeera could do to gain credibility: hire an ombudsman

Discussion: PolicyMic, @qz and @digiphile

Alex / digiphile:
Al Jazeera America bets on an American audience for serious journalism

Discussion: Poynter and FP Passport, Thanks:@digiphile

Michael Kinsley / The New Republic:

A Q&A With Jill Abramson The Times' top editor on mean bosses, liberal biases, and the demise of the Washington Post — For generations, the publishers of the great American newspapers were accidents of birth—sons and daughters (and assorted other relatives) who inherited their positions atop the masthead.

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Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

Who Gets to ‘Snow-Fall’ or ‘Jockey’ at The Times, and Why? — At Wired magazine's annual business conference in New York last May, the executive editor Jill Abramson made the observation that at The Times, “snow-fall” had become a verb. — “Everyone wants to snow-fall now, every day, all desks,” she said.

Discussion: @mcely, @jsablichnyt, @rubinafillion, @kimjnews and @moorehn

Marc Tracy / The New Republic:
How to Build a Smarter Times, According to the Times' Own Journalists

Discussion: Gawker, GigaOM, @jessicalessin and The New Republic

Sara Morrison / The Wrap:

Fox Confirms Brian Lewis Fired for ‘Financial Irregularities’ (Updated) — Executive vice president of corporate communications and longtime employee suddenly leaves the company — Brian Lewis, senior advisor to Roger Ailes and Fox's executive vice president of corporate communications …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Gawker, Broadcasting & Cable and Variety

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Washington Post considered using robot sportswriters — Last year, The Washington Post considered using automated writing to cover the region's many high-school sports, Brook Silva-Braga reports. Currently, the paper has four reporters on that beat, and deputy high school sports editor …

Discussion: @howardkurtz, @nprrussell, @leongettler and @niemanlab

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

New Revelations Detail How The NSA Scans 75% Of The Internet Through Telco Partnerships — Today the Wall Street Journal reported the existence of several NSA programs that were either previously unknown, or little was known about. Meet Blarney, Fairview, Oakstar, Lithium and Stormbrew.

Andrew Blankstein / Los Angeles Times:

Coroner, family link Michael Hastings to drug use at time of death — An LAPD officer investigates the scene of a firey crash that killed journalist Michael Hastings. Hastings died when his vehicle crashed into a tree and caught fire in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles in June.

Discussion: All documents, Hollywood Reporter, @defensebaron, Speakeasy, @kimzetter, @anblanx, @lauraelizdavis, Talking Points Memo, The Wrap, The Raw Story, LA Observed, The Informer, Gawker, @jameshohmann and New York Magazine

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Exclusive : Conde Nast launches new subscriber service with Amazon — (Reuters) - Magazine publisher Conde Nast announced a major partnership with Amazon on Tuesday in which the Internet retailer will handle print and digital subscriptions for its stable of glossy publications like Vogue, Wired and Vanity Fair.

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, Condé Nast, FOLIO, CNET, FishbowlNY, AdAge, @tcarmody, Mashable, Guardian, Fast Company, @sdkstl, Reuters, eMedia Vitals, Canadian Magazines and @rajunarisetti

Kevin Roderick / LA Observed:

LA Times to hire bloggers, names Seattle bureau chief — The Los Angeles Times has zigged and zagged with blogs in the past — at one time I think there were more than 40, then most were killed or consolidated. Now it sounds like the plan is to go big into staffing up “exciting new blogs” …

Groklaw:

Forced Exposure — The owner of Lavabit tells us that he's stopped using email and if we knew what he knew, we'd stop too. — There is no way to do Groklaw without email. Therein lies the conundrum. — What to do? — What to do? I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to figure it out.

Discussion: Forbes, GigaOM, It's a Gadget, RT, Gizmodo, ZDNet, PandoDaily, Daily Dot, @jayrosen_nyu, TechCrunch, BBC, VentureBeat, Electronista, Fast Company, @rsingel, @cykod, The Verge, Memex 1.1, @thomas_drake1, @calebgarling, @evacide, Slashdot, WebProNews, ReadWrite and @textfiles

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
More NSA Spying Fallout: Groklaw Shutting Down

Discussion: TechCrunch, Engadget and TechCrunch

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Bad earnings for Barnes & Noble: Nook revenues plunge 20%; Riggio won't take stores private — In the past quarter, Barnes & Noble's CEO resigned, and the company announced it would stop manufacturing tablets in-house as a way to cut heavy losses in the Nook division.