Mediagazer: The Onion Denies Taking A Serious Line On Syria (Rosie Gray)

2:05 PM ET, August 29, 2013

Top News:

NPR:

Area Man Realizes He's Been Reading Fake News For 25 Years — Before Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert became establishments in news satire, there was The Onion. Thursday, “America's Finest News Source” turns 25. — Two college students founded the fake news organization …

Discussion: @ruhlman, @opbmorning, PopWatch, Kirk LaPointe's …, @johnhenrysilva, The Latest Word, @davechensky, @aparnamuk and @clarajeffery

Rosie Gray:

The Onion Denies Taking A Serious Line On Syria — Satire or campaigning? The Onion has been one of the most consistent voices on Syria for months. — WASHINGTON — Though The Onion is a satirical newspaper, its Syria coverage in the past few months has been anything but …

Discussion: The Onion, @michaelroston, @_richardhall and Variety

Ben Popper / The Verge:

HuffPost Live laying off staff and shuttering LA office as it expands internationally — According to several sources familiar with the matter, HuffPost Live will be laying off around 20 staffer from its Los Angeles office, not counting stagehands, cutbacks that will essentially shutter the LA outpost.

Discussion: TVNewser, LA Observed, Poynter, Media Week, @huffpostlive, @blakehounshell and AllThingsD

Al Jazeera English:

Al Jazeera journalists detained in Egypt — Four-man team arrested on Tuesday, while two other staff members have been held for several weeks. — Al Jazeera correspondent Wayne Hay, cameraman Adil Bradlow, producers Russ Finn and Baher Mohammed are currently being detained by Egyptian authorities.

Discussion: TVNewser, @rosjordanaje, @thinink, @brianstelter, @andrewchappelle and @erinmcunningham

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Automattic takes on Storify with WordPress Media Explorer for curating tweets and YouTube videos — Automattic has released a Media Explorer tool for the WordPress blogging platform that lets authors curate trending content from Twitter and YouTube all without needing to leave their post.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, WordPress.com News, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Jane Darby Menton / Yale Daily News:

Woodward to teach ‘Journalism’ — In the spring, aspiring Yale journalists will have the opportunity to learn from one of the most famous names in the field, Bob Woodward '65. — Woodward will teach the spring section of “Journalism,” an intensive seminar that the English Department offers each spring and fall.

Discussion: @abeaujon and @froomkin

Farhad Manjoo / Slate:

Silicon Valley's richest people: Why they're the target of Gawker Media's Valleywag — That's Valleywag's editorial vision in a nutshell, but it could be so much more. — It was a day that ends in Y, so last week Sam Biddle, editor of Gawker's tech-gossip site Valleywag, decided to post a quick hit on Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

Discussion: @on3ness, @tcarmody, @mathewi, @om, @smilotweets, @samfbiddle, @samfbiddle, @louishau, @leshorn, @paleofuture, bookforum.com and TechCrunch

Mark Walsh / MediaPost:

Tumblr's Coatney Joins Al Jazeera America — Al Jazeera America today announced former Tumblr media director Mark Coatney has been named the channel's first SVP, digital media. In that role, he'll oversee the network's Web site and be the “senior decision maker” for all things digital, according to a spokesperson.

Discussion: The New York Observer, Poynter, Fast Company and Mediabistro

Dante D'Orazio / The Verge:

Instapaper gets complete redesign after Betaworks purchase, new mobile apps soon — Instapaper is in the midsts of an overhaul. After being purchased by Betaworks this past April, the first major changes to the read-it-later service since creator Marco Arment gave up control of the app are here.

Discussion: betaworks, @piercedavid, I4U News, Engadget, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, Pocket-lint, Instapaper and Gizmodo

Sarah Laskow / Columbia Journalism Review:

The lawyers hackers call — Tor Ekeland works out of the smallest office I've ever seen, in the kind of Brooklyn coworking space where a guy is inexplicably asleep in the common area at 2:30 in the afternoon. The office has three chairs and glass walls and is not much wider than the doorway.

David Kravets / Wired:

White House Copyright Czar Jumps to Industry Anti-Piracy Group — Victoria Espinel, the nation's copyright czar until two weeks ago, has been named president of an anti-piracy trade group that lobbies governments on behalf of the software industry. — Espinel resigned earlier this month …

Discussion: The Verge, Plagiarism Today, Politico, Washington Times, RT, @padresj, Techdirt, Digital Media Wire and Hillicon Valley

Alexander Nazaryan / The Atlantic Wire:

Bad News: When Journalism and Business Collide — Journalism and business have never been on the best of terms. Long before a listicle of cute cat photos passed for investigative longform, Norman Mailer described a journalist as someone who is “not talented enough to be a novelist …

Discussion: @kirstensalyer

Guardian:

BBC's head of human resources accused of ‘corporate fraud and cronyism’ quits — Lucy Adams, criticised for her role in multi-million pound severance pay deals to top executives, will not get pay-off — Lucy Adams, the BBC's head of human resources accused of presiding over …

Reuters:

Univision adds reporters, comedians to new cable network Fusion — U.S. Spanish language broadcaster Univision is ramping up Fusion, its new English cable news network aimed at younger viewers, hiring hundreds of staffers as it prepares to enter the crowded cable market.

Ian Jolly / College of Journalism feed:

Is the BBC getting caught in the transatlantic drift? — The BBC may be an international broadcaster - and indeed communicates in many languages through the World Service - but its use of English is among the things most likely to generate audience discontent.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Spotify Gets a New Biz Dev Head From 21st Century Fox — Spotify has hired a new dealmaker: The streaming music service has hired Jorge Espinel, who has spent the last four years working on digital strategy at News Corp and 21st Century Fox, as its new head of global business development.

Discussion: CNET, Softpedia News and hypebot

Freddie Laker / VentureBeat:

Smart TV security: When TV watches you — Freddie Laker is the founder and CEO of Guide. — If you've ever watched a television show aimed at children, you'll notice that the characters often break the fourth wall to interact with their pint-sized audiences.

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Amazon launches Kindle, Kindle Store and self-publishing platform in Mexico — Kindle is now available in Mexico: On Thursday, Amazon launched the Mexican Kindle Store. It's also selling the basic Kindle and front-lit Kindle Paperwhite through Mexican chain store Gandhi.

Discussion: CNET, PublishersWeekly.com, Publishing Perspectives and Amazon.com