Mediagazer: Why ESPN Backed Out of a Concussions Investigation With ‘Frontline’ (Marc Tracy/The New Republic)

3:34 AM ET, August 23, 2013

Top News:

Why ESPN Backed Out of a Concussions Investigation With ‘Frontline’ — “Frontline,” the prestigious, multiple-Emmy-winning investigative news show produced by Boston's PBS member station, announced late Thursday afternoon that a 15-month-old partnership with ESPN in which they published …

Discussion: New York Times, @ourand_sbj, @ourand_sbj, @richarddeitsch, @ckrewson, @add, @jayrosen_nyu, @abnormalreturns, @carlzimmer, @marcatracy and @noamscheiber

PBS:

A Note from FRONTLINE: ESPN and “League of Denial” — You may notice some changes to our League of Denial and Concussion Watch websites. From now on, at ESPN's request, we will no longer use their logos and collaboration credit on these sites and on our upcoming film League of Denial …

John Koblin / Deadspin:

ESPN Pulls Out Of Frontline Concussion Investigation [UPDATE] — For a while now, ESPN's big alibi, the thing Bristol would trot out any time someone questioned the company's journalistic bona fides, was its joint investigation into NFL head injuries with PBS's Frontline. Now that's done with.

Discussion: SBNation.com, Variety, @deadspin, @brianstelter, Los Angeles Times, @shinguardian and @dangillmor

The Independent:

Exclusive: Edward Snowden leaks reveal UK's secret Middle-East web surveillance base — Data-gathering operation is part of a £1bn internet project still being assembled by GCHQ — Britain runs a secret internet-monitoring station in the Middle East to intercept and process vast quantities …

Discussion: Guardian, @noahcrothman, @malonebarry, @leginsurrection, Agence France Presse, @piratepartyuk, @julijuxtaposed, USA Today, @jeyal_rusi, @johnhorneuk, @tjmcintyre and @samcoatestimes

Kim Sengupta / The Independent: Agencies should not be upset if we reveal that they run a listening centre in the Middle East

BBC:
David Miranda: High Court restricts inspection of data

Discussion: CNN, ITV, Agence France Presse, Index on Censorship, The Independent, Associated Press, Politico, @thelwa and Sky News

Michael Holden / Reuters: London police say disclosure of Snowden-linked data could risk lives

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

What the Media Owes to Bradley Manning — Yesterday, former U.S. soldier Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified U.S. government documents to Wikileaks. Journalists and news outlets owe Manning more than gratitude.

Discussion: New York Times, @mlcalderone, @carr2n, Los Angeles Times, @id4ro, @firetomfriedman, @federico_garca, @nicoleperlroth, FishbowlNY, The Lede, TechCrunch and The Week

Scott Stump / TODAY.com:
Bradley Manning: I want to live as a woman

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Bradley Manning news raises questions about how to refer to transgender people in stories

Discussion: The Public Editor's Journal, The Huffington Post, msnbc.com, New York Magazine, @asmith83, Taking Note, The Wrap, The Tell, Reuters, The Week, The Inquisitr, Slate, @clementine_ford and @jesshopp

Josh Peterson / The Daily Caller:

Sources: Koch Industries not buying LA Times, Chicago Tribune — Koch Industries will not be buying the Tribune Company's eight newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times, The Daily Caller has learned. — Sources with knowledge of the business proceedings told …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, USA Today, Big News Network.com, The Huffington Post, @ctironman, Politico, The Wrap, @michaelpilla, @thedcvince, Hollywood Reporter, @obrien, @saramorrison, @carlzimmer, New York Times, @shortformernie and Reuters

Free Press: Koch's Loss a Win for Local Communities

Dave Seyler / Radio & Television Business Report:

NAB counters ACA request for FCC standstill rule — American Cable Association leader Matt Polka sent a letter to Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn asking that the Commission take steps to prevent program blackouts during retransmission consent negotiation impasses.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and Variety

Todd Spangler / Variety:
CBS Extends Verizon FiOS Deal, as Time Warner Cable Blackout Continues

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, Adweek, New York Times, Media & Entertainment, Radio & Television …, AdAge, TVNewser, Broadcasting & Cable and MediaPost

Lisa de Moraes / Deadline.com:
CBS Chairman Lesllie Moonves: Time Warner Cable Offered Deal Verizon Just Signed

Discussion: AllThingsD

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

New York Times experiments with tweetable highlights in ‘SNL’ story — Dave Itzkoff's oral history of “Saturday Night Live” auditions has a new feature for a New York Times article page: highlighted sentences that you can click to tweet. — “It's a one-off experiment on this story,” …

Discussion: New York Times, @girljournalist, @franzstrasser, @harrisj, @eric_andersen, @derekwillis, Business Insider, @carr2n, @poynter, PopWatch, The Verge and The Hairpin

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Pandora Revenue Beats The Street, Grows 58% To $162M For Its Last Quarter Before iTunes Radio — Streaming radio platform Pandora just released its second-quarter earnings, and it largely beat the street's expectations. Total revenue increased 58 percent year-over-year to $162 million.

Discussion: AllThingsD, Reuters, Forbes, App Advice, @sisario, @jboorstin, 9to5Mac, Pocket-lint, @jboorstin, New York Times, Talking New Media, MSN Money, CNET and MacRumors

Quartz:

Apple, closer to its vision for a TV set, wants ESPN, HBO, Viacom, and others to come along — Years of halting negotiating with cable companies haven't gotten Apple much closer to its grand vision for television. But a newer strategy of talking directly to content providers seems more promising.

Discussion: MacRumors, New York Times, Business Insider, Yahoo! News, Electronista, Businessweek, App Advice, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, @jessicalessin and @acoyne

Jay Yarow / Business Insider: This Is The Only Thing You Need To Read About Apple And Televisions Right Now

Bill Mickey / Folio:

Federated Media Launching Native and Programmatic Ad Service Blend — Aims to bring direct marketing qualities to custom content services. — When publishers latch onto something, they tend to take all the way. With content, it's publish anywhere, anytime.

Free Press:

Good Luck Trying to Watch Al Jazeera America — Much excitement and fanfare heralded the debut of Al Jazeera America, but you may want to pause before you celebrate the arrival of this new journalistic venture. — See, the launch of the channel is one thing. Actually being able to view it is another.

Discussion: Forbes, @dangillmor and @jcstearns

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Chill out, DRM's not the reason that guy lost his (public domain) Google ebooks — There's a story getting a bunch of attention on the internet this week about Jim O'Donnell, a Georgetown professor who went to Singapore and updated his Books on Google Play app there.

Discussion: Motherboard

John Kroll Digital:

Why today's newsrooms need ‘digital people,’ and how to identify them — Steve Buttry, digital transformation editor for Digital First Media, challenged journalists recently to tell him why they should be hired as newsroom leaders. Been there, done that, ready for a different set of frustrations.

Discussion: @hbcompass, @panzer, @kaidiekmann, @gilasakawa, John Kroll DigitalJohn … and @stevebuttry