Top News:


The soul of a new machine: Gawker struggles with the slippery slope between viral and true — When you come across a viral story about a heart-warming incident that you know will get millions of pageviews, how closely should you look into the claims that the viral story is based on?
Discussion:
BuzzMachine, Medium, @paulcarr, @mattbors, @jayrosen_nyu, @qhardy and @antderosa


Pew surveys of audience habits suggest perilous future for news — News organizations have been confronting the problem of a shrinking audience for more than a decade, but trends strongly suggest that these difficulties may only worsen over time. Today's younger and middle-aged audience seems unlikely …
Discussion:
Kirk LaPointe's<br …

Asking Americans the naive questions of an outsider, Al Jazeera obtains profound answers — An Outsider Looks at Life in America — NEW YORK — Al Jazeera wants to make its name as American as pizzaburgers. — But when Al Jazeera, the Qatarbased television empire that has long broadcast …


Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Founder, Has His Cinema Moment — Before there was a documentary about WikiLeaks — before there was a major motion picture about its founder — Julian Assange was a star. — With his mysterious hacker back story and shock of silver hair, Mr. Assange burst …
Discussion:
@ggreenwald and @jayrosen_nyu


At crucial time, cable news fails on shutdown, Obamacare — Lots of coverage on MSNBC, Fox and CNN, but few facts, little clarity — I did something foolish last week. I spent at least four hours a day with cable TV news, starting Tuesday. — I was hoping for some information and clarity …
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Politicians, gov't agencies turn to Twitter amidst #Shutdown — The U.S. federal shutdown this week means that for many government departments and agencies Twitter accounts and websites are temporarily paused while negotiations continue. But others have not let the cessation stop them getting …
Discussion:
@grossman


Wall Street Journal Asia digital editor Adam Najberg on the business of paywall journalism — Adam Najberg is digital editor for Asia at the Wall Street Journal, the first newspaper to charge its readers for content online. — In this interview, Najberg talks to Mumbrella Asia's editor Robin Hicks …
Discussion:
@rajunarisetti

Egypt journalist gets suspended jail term in military trial — An Egyptian military court Saturday handed a journalist a six-month suspended jail term for reporting without authorisation in a military zone of the Sinai , his lawyer and an army source said. — Ahmed Abu Derra was acquitted …

Who's a Journalist? Closing in on a Definition — The debate over “who's a journalist” is getting more urgent. Fortunately, the outlines of a definition are becoming clearer. Might some basic ethical tests help in further drawing the lines? — Once mainly a subject for navel-gazing …
Discussion:
@froomkin and @radleybalko

How Twitter's Business Model Is Just Like Broadcast TV — Only Worse — In its IPO filing, Twitter describes itself as a “global platform for public self-expression and conversation in real time.” Casually, it is referred to as a microblogging service or an internet social-messaging network.
Discussion:
@zimbalist, AdAge and @peterlauria3
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Vivian Schiller Is Lead Candidate for Twitter's Head of News Position — According to sources close to the situation, NBC News chief digital officer Vivian Schiller is currently the leading choice for Twitter's Head of News position, which the company hopes to name soon.
Discussion:
@mlcalderone, @karaswisher, Talking Biz News, @johnekdahl, @agolis, @sachapfeiffer and Capital New York


Profile: Marcy Wheeler, the expert behind the NSA-focused emptywheel blog — THE WOMAN WHO KNOWS THE NSA'S SECRETS — Trawling for needles in the data haystack
Discussion:
@nslayton, @jayrosen_nyu, @jlllow, @trevortimm, @straightedge, @kgosztola, @medeabenjamin, @astepanovich, @ggreenwald, @seanpaulkelley, @mmasnick, @rsingel, @repjustinamash, @wizardkitten and @timkarr


Former NYT writer Raymond Bonner describes government investigation into his reporting — How a Telecom Helped the Government Spy on Me — Over the past several months, the Obama Administration has defended the government's far-reaching data collection efforts, arguing that only criminals and terrorists need worry.
Discussion:
@propublica, @jasonleopold and @timkarr