Mediagazer: Russia criticizes Britain over pressure on Guardian (Gabriela Baczynska/Reuters)

9:55 PM ET, August 21, 2013

Top News:

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Fox News firing tied to Ailes book — The decision last month by Fox News chief Roger Ailes to fire his top communications executive, Brian Lewis, was due to a number of factors, including what the network's parent company 21st Century Fox has described as “financial irregularities” and breaches of contract.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Huffington Post, @mlcalderone, @dylanbyers, @kenvogel, Inside Cable News and The Wrap

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Brian Lewis Talks About his Fox News Firing — Brian Lewis, who spent the last 17 years as the chief spokesperson for Fox News, is himself speaking out about his firing from the network. Though, in classic PR style, just barely. — Lewis, who joined Fox News in April 1996 …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, The Wrap, Politico, Los Angeles Times, FishbowlNY and The Huffington Post

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Fox News Sources Hit Back At Gabriel Sherman And Brian Lewis — Fox News sources are firing back against both Brian Lewis, the recently-fired Fox News executive vice president of communications widely reported to be Fox News chief Roger Ailes's right-hand man, and Gabriel Sherman …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mediaite, New York Magazine, @kbsmoke, @mmfa, The Corsair, Mediaite and Hollywood Reporter

Eric Hananoki / Media Matters for America:
Fox Newsers Circle The Wagons Around Boss Roger Ailes After He Fires His “Right-Hand Man”

Discussion: FishbowlDC, @mmfa, @mattgertz and The Huffington Post

Amy Davidson / The New Yorker Blog:

Manning's Sentence, Miranda's Detention — Bradley Manning has been sentenced to thirty-five years in prison. Military prosecutors had asked for sixty years, out of a possible ninety; his lawyer, David Coombs, had asked for “a sentence that allows him to have a life.” Manning is twenty-five years old now.

Discussion: Guardian, @titocurtis, @wikileaks, The New Yorker Blog, The Inquisitr, whistleblower.org and Macleans.ca

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

Networks Yawn Once More At Bradley Manning Story — Bradley Manning's sentencing on Wednesday received about as much attention from the cable news networks that every other phase of his trial did — that is to say, not a whole lot. — As they did when he was declared guilty …

Paul Lewis / Guardian: Bradley Manning to request pardon from Obama over 35-year jail sentence

Jesse Hicks / The Verge:
Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison for WikiLeaks disclosures

ACLU:
ACLU Comment on Bradley Manning Sentence

Discussion: @trevortimm, @jaredbkeller, Pressing Issues and The Huffington Post

Dara Kerr / CNET:

NSA and Intelligence Community turn to Tumblr — weird but true — In light of top-secret document leaks that show the U.S. government spied on people, the country's Director of National Intelligence launches a Tumblr blog for greater transparency. — Tumblr has a new blogger within its sphere: The U.S. Intelligence Community.

Discussion: IC ON THE RECORD, PC World, @penenberg, The Next Web, @digiphile, @digiphile, @marcambinder, The Verge and ZDNet

Mark Rumold / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
EFF Victory Results in Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding NSA Surveillance Unconstitutional

Discussion: Washington Post, @trevortimm, Techdirt, @mariabustillos, The Verge, ZDNet, The Switch, msnbc.com, @marshray, @dwlz, @holdenweb, @nick373, www.wnyc.org, @maassive, @declanm, @declanm, @dellcam, @miriamelder, @emptywheel, @jaredbkeller, @ggreenwald, @newsycombinator, emptywheel and Boing Boing

Geoffrey Ingersoll / Business Insider:
NSA Releases Court Opinion On ‘Unconstitutional’ Scooping Of Domestic Emails

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, Techdirt, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Los Angeles Times, VentureBeat, @bartongellman, Washington Post, The Switch, USA Today, Fox News, The Atlantic Wire, CNN, Politico, Gizmodo, @odnigov and ProPublica

Kimberly Dozier / Associated Press:
NSA collected thousands of US communications

Discussion: @newsobserver

Heidi Moore / Guardian:

Bloomberg forced to act after reports detail lapses over client data access — News organisation to put in place recommendations after report found Bloomberg journalists had access to private client data — Bloomberg is to change its corporate policies to maintain distance between its news …

Discussion: Forbes, Talking Biz News, Media & Entertainment, @asmitch and @mlcalderone

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Bloomberg News review suggests standards editor, ombudsman

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @sulliview and FishbowlNY

Barb Darrow / GigaOM:

Huffington Post to end anonymous comments — The Huffington Post which has logged more than 260 million comments in its history will end anonymity in those comments, founder Arianna Huffington said Wednesday morning. — “Trolls are just getting more and more aggressive and uglier …

Discussion: GigaOM, Nieman Journalism Lab, Adrants, @jeremyduns, @declanm, @niemanlab, @jilliancyork, FishbowlNY, @xor, @anildash, @michaelroston, @jaredbkeller, @wideasleepnima, @dangillmor and @stefanjbecket

Bloomberg:

Disney's ESPN Holds Preliminary Talks for Web-Based TV — Walt Disney Co. (DIS)'s ESPN sports network has held preliminary talks to offer programming on a Web-based TV service like those proposed by Google Inc. (GOOG), Sony Corp. and Intel Corp. (INTC) — An Internet TV provider …

Discussion: The Verge, CNET, Engadget, Pocket-lint, The Next Web, @efeng and Electronista

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

News Corp Launches Global Private Ad Exchange — News Corp today announced plans to launch a global programmatic ad exchange that will let advertisers buy across its more than 50 online and mobile products including WSJ.com, Times.co.uk and NYPost.com. — The move is only the latest …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, News Corp and AdAge

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Comcast says copyright threat to TorrentFreak an “error” — Internet giant Comcast claims that a legal threat directed at TorrentFreak was a mistake and that it has told the file-sharing news site to disregard it: — “This notice was sent in error, and we have advised TorrentFreak to disregard it.

Discussion: TorrentFreak, Poynter, The Switch, VentureBeat, @xor, Mashable, GigaOM, @boothsweet and Boing Boing

Richard Horgan / FishbowlNY:

Men's Journal Publisher Chris McLoughlin Moves Over to Rolling Stone — It was just last month that we were writing about the strategic alliance between Wenner Media's Fitness and Men's Journal. And how that deal quickly came together through the efforts of respective publishers Eric Schwarzkopf and Chris McLoughlin.

Discussion: AdAge and MinOnline

Michael Howard Saul / Metropolis:

CBS, Time Warner Cable Reach Truce Over Debates … There's a temporary armistice - for the sake of democracy — in the ongoing dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable Inc. — CBS and Time Warner have agreed temporarily to lift the blackout on CBS to ensure as many New Yorkers as possible …

Discussion: @zseward and New York Magazine

Washington Free Beacon:

Gay Reporter Kicked Off Kremlin Network After Protesting Anti-Gay Law — Reporter James Kirchick was kicked off the air of Russian TV Wednesday after he refused to talk about Bradley Manning and instead spoke about the Russian government's anti-gay laws. — “Being here on a Kremlin-funded …

Discussion: Politico, msnbc.com, TIME, BuzzFeed, Daily Dot, Mediaite, @niktwick, The Huffington Post, The Raw Story and Gawker

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Maker Studios Buys Blip, and a Home Outside of YouTube — Maker Studios, one of the biggest YouTube networks, is buying Blip, a video maker and distributor. — Blip officials informed their staff of the deal this morning, and it is expected to close in early September.

Discussion: GigaOM, VentureBeat, Daily Dot, VideoNuze Analysis, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Variety and @michaelpilla

Douglas Wolk / Slate:

How Ashamed Should You Feel About Using Spotify? — Music-streaming services really don't exploit performers. Songwriters, though—that's another story. — In June, David Lowery, singer-guitarist of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, posted part of a royalty statement to his blog The Trichordist.

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Layoffs to hit Disney/ABC TV Group — Disney is making cuts at its Disney/ABC Television Group. (Walt Disney Co.) — The Disney/ABC Television Group, which includes the ABC network, local TV stations and the Disney Channel and ABC Family cable networks, is restructuring its operations, which will result in layoffs across the unit.

Discussion: Variety, @tvnewslab, Reuters and TVSpy

Arti Patel / Folio:

Mag+ and Appboy Partner to Offer Publishers an Expanded Mobile Platform — New tools include enhanced customer tracking and marketing. — Mag+ announced its partnership with Appboy Wednesday, bringing a new management platform to the company's various digital publishers looking to deepen reader relationships on mobile.

Discussion: Mag+

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Here's how Beats Music is curating its subscription service — Beats Music, the yet-to-be-launched digital subscription service spearheaded by Jimmy Iovine, wants to edge out competitors like Spotify and Rdio through human curation, but the company hasn't really explained how this will work.

Discussion: Fast Company, Co.Labs, Dave Winer and Guardian

Bill Mickey / Folio:

Summit Business Media Reorganizes, Changes Name — Summit Professional Networks now aligned under three market verticals. — Summit Business Media is now called Summit Professional Networks. The name change reflects an effort over the last year and a half to group assets under …

Vindu Goel / New York Times:

Facebook Leads an Effort to Lower Barriers to Internet Access — MENLO PARK, Calif. — About one of every seven people in the world uses Facebook. Now, Mark Zuckerberg, its co-founder and chief executive, wants to make a play for the rest — including the four billion or so who lack Internet access.