Mediagazer: Details of the ‘Mega Conspiracy’ Behind Megaupload (Tom Gara/Corporate Intelligence)

6:30 PM ET, December 21, 2013

Top News:

Appreciating the digital difference — The emerging field of digital journalism has been subjected to intense scrutiny over the past decade. This scrutiny has often focused on the ways in which digital is different than print and broadcast journalism — with the differences usually portrayed as shortcomings.

Discussion: @zimbalist, @hblodget and Kirk LaPointe's …

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

DC staff irked as NBC News eyes cuts — David Gregory, host of NBC's 'Meet the Press Inset: NBC News boss Deborah Turness — NBC News boss Deborah Turness is spending the last few days of the year eyeing cuts — moves that could include axing some senior on-air talent, The Post has learned.

Discussion: Mediaite

Reuters:

Syrian photographer killed in Aleppo — (Reuters) - A Syrian photographer who took pictures for Reuters on a freelance basis has been killed while covering fighting in Aleppo, activists said. — Molhem Barakat died on Friday as he took photographs of a battle over a hospital between rebels …

Discussion: Gulf News, @libyanbentbladi, Associated Press, @randahabib and @andrewburton

Caroline Porter / Wall Street Journal:

A Montana Newspaper Turns Its Police Blotter Into a Local Best Seller — In Bozeman, Mont. the local police blotter has been turned into a funny, best-selling book that has readers snatching it off the shelves. WSJ's Caroline Porter reports. — BOZEMAN, Mont.—A man reported that someone got …

Matthew Hendley / Valley Fever:

Joe Arpaio Loses: New Times Co-Founders Win $3.75 Million Settlement for 2007 False Arrests — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors this afternoon voted unanimously to approve a $3.75 million settlement for New Times' co-founders, whose false arrests in 2007 were orchestrated by Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Discussion: The Raw Story, @trevortimm and @clarajeffery

Tom Gara / Corporate Intelligence:

Details of the ‘Mega Conspiracy’ Behind Megaupload … Some lively new details arrived today in the long saga of Megaupload, the file-sharing site whose founder, Kim Dotcom, is currently suing the New Zealand police while the U.S. government attempts to extradite him to face charges of criminal conspiracy.

Discussion: The Verge, Variety and Wired

Reuters:

Analysis: Time Warner Cable's missed chances begin slide to takeover buzz — (Reuters) - By some measures, it seems hard to find fault with how Time Warner Cable (TWC.N) has been run since it was spun off from its parent company, Time Warner Inc (TWX.N), in 2009.

Discussion: @tedataca and Reuters

William Launder / Wall Street Journal:

Should Forbes Be Valued as Online Business? — Publisher Aims to Convince Bidders It Deserves to Be Priced on Digital Properties — The owners of Forbes Media LLC are hoping to convince potential buyers it should be valued like a fast-growing digital media business, but people familiar …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Staci D. Kramer / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Connecting the dots — One of the most popular new games of 2013 was an addictive mobile app called Dots: A Game About Connecting from Betaworks. It's deceptively simple: a white board full of evenly spaced colored dots worth points when connected in a short amount of time.

Discussion: @niemanlab and Trust But Verify

David Sirota / PandoDaily:

Entertainment wants to be accessible, not free — Remember a few years back when Hollywood studios tried — and famously failed — to ram the Stop Online Piracy Act through Congress? Well, two things have happened since a coalition of Silicon Valley companies, technology think tanks …

Discussion: @sarahcuda and @davidsirota

Dave Eggers / Guardian:

US writers must take a stand on NSA surveillance — As the Obama administration responds to the NSA mass surveillance revelations, Dave Eggers reflects on the impact they have had on US writers, and asks if the prevailing sense of fear heralds an intellectual ice age

Discussion: @harikunzru, @davidulin and GalleyCat

Free Press:

A Sorry Moment in the History of American Media — We just experienced a shameful milestone in the history of U.S. media — and barely anyone noticed. — There are now zero black-owned and operated full-power TV stations in our country. — This sorry state of affairs is the culmination …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Report: No black-owned full-power TV stations remain in U.S.

Discussion: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, TVSpy and @deggans

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Raju Narisetti talks about why News Corp. bought Storyful and founder Mark Little talks about why he sold — We've written before about how crowdsourced verification of user-generated content is a significant trend in new media, and Storyful has been at the forefront of that wave since before most people had even heard the term.