Mediagazer: NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies (Ewen MacAskill/Guardian)

1:35 PM ET, August 23, 2013

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James Andrew Miller / New York Times:

N.F.L. Pressure Said to Lead ESPN to Quit Film Project — Pressure from the National Football League led to ESPN's decision on Thursday to pull out of an investigative project with “Frontline” regarding head injuries in the N.F.L., according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation.

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Marc Tracy / The New Republic:

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 …

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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.

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PBS:
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Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

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Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:

Snowden: UK government now leaking documents about itself — The NSA whistleblower says: ‘I have never spoken with, worked with, or provided any journalistic materials to the Independent’ — (Updated below) — The Independent this morning published an article - which it repeatedly claims comes from …

Robert Booth / Guardian: UK government given Tuesday deadline over David Miranda data

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald Challenge Independent Story

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Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

What Is Medium? — The site from Twitter's co-founders is one year old, and still mysterious — Just about a year ago, a new website from two of the founders of Twitter launched. It was called Medium. The new site was invite-only, but outsiders could read from various collections.

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Anil Dash / Medium:

What Medium Is — Think YouTube, not Blogger. Hard Knocks, not Harvard. — If you enjoy this piece, please support my campaign to bring clean water to the region of Orissa, India where my family is from. A donation of just $45 can bring one person safe water for life.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu and @emilygould

Ewen MacAskill / Guardian:

NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies — • Top-secret files show first evidence of financial relationship — • Prism companies include Google and Yahoo, says NSA — • Costs were incurred after 2011 Fisa court ruling

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, ZDNet, @occupywallstnyc, Softpedia News, emptywheel, The Verge, Engadget, Gizmodo and Techdirt

The Independent:
Exclusive: Edward Snowden leaks reveal UK's secret Middle-East web surveillance base

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

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Who abandoned negotiations first: Koch brothers or Tribune? — Charles and David Koch walked away from negotiations to buy Tribune Co.'s newspapers because digital assets like CareerBuilder and Classified Ventures wouldn't convey with the sale, Josh Peterson reported in The Daily Caller Thursday afternoon.

Discussion: New York Times, The Wrap, Reuters and @michaelpilla

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Koch Brothers Not Buying Tribune Company

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

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Col Allan declares himself MacArthur, as the ‘New York Post’ roils — “Like MacArthur I shall return.” — That's what Col Allan, the New York Post's pit bull of an editor-in-chief, wrote in an email to Capital earlier this week, likening himself to Gen. Douglas MacArthur …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @neilchenoweth and @joepompeo

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:

Gingrich Will Be Back in the ‘Crossfire’ on CNN — ARLINGTON, Va. — In defeat, the 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls have mostly faded from view, in ways that seem true to type. Mitt Romney is a contented grandfather. Rick Santorum is head of a Christian movie company.

Discussion: TVNewser, TVWeek.com, Politico, @markleibovich and TheBlaze.com

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Citing Steve Jobs email, DOJ claims Apple changed in-app purchase to retaliate against Amazon — The federal government on Friday filed a revised proposed remedy for Apple in the ebook case, following a hearing earlier this month with a judge and counsel for Apple.

Discussion: PublishersWeekly.com and 9to5Mac

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters: U.S. proposes shorter injunction in Apple e-books case

Mat Honan / Wired:

Comment Sections Are Wastelands Ruled by Trolls. Here Are Alternatives — Online comments are trollish and broken. Luckily, there are some great alternatives. Illustration: Tavis Coburn — A decade or more ago, Internet publishers entered into what now seems like a collective delusion …

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

Don't stop the music! Pandora ends 40-hour mobile limit — Six months after capping free mobile listening at 40 hours, Pandora is letting listeners keep the music going as long as they like without a fee, mostly because it's found other ways to crimp how long you tune in. — Follow @@joan_e

Discussion: SocialTimes, PR Newswire, AppleInsider, The Verge and The Next Web

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Pandora Revenue Beats The Street, Grows 58% To $162M For Its Last Quarter Before iTunes Radio

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

ThaiPublica: Investigative journalism and ‘cute’ interactives — A look at an investigative news site for Thailand inspired by ProPublica — ThaiPublica looks to uncover stories relating to the government, business and finance — Copyright: Image by katerha on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Tal Kopan / Politico:

Media group asks AG to remove Risen subpoena — Nearly four dozen media organizations wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday asking him to withdraw the Justice Department's subpoena of New York Times reporter James Risen in a leak case.

Discussion: Main Justice