Mediagazer: Weeks in the Making, an Editorial on Snowden May Go ‘Beyond What Is Realistic’ (Margaret Sullivan/The Public Editor's …)

9:35 PM ET, January 2, 2014

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Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

Weeks in the Making, an Editorial on Snowden May Go ‘Beyond What Is Realistic’ — Most newspaper editorials don't generate a great deal of heat. Even fewer can be considered newsworthy. — The exception was one in The Times on Thursday, calling for Edward J. Snowden to be offered clemency or a plea bargain.

Discussion: Mediaite, @jayrosen_nyu, @sulliview, @froomkin, Talking Points Memo, VentureBeat, Latest News & Headlines, The Daily Caller, TheBlaze.com, @ggreenwald, TheHill and Pressing Issues

New York Times:

NYT editorial board calls for clemency or a plea bargain for Snowden — Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower — Seven months ago, the world began to learn the vast scope of the National Security Agency's reach into the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the globe …

Discussion: Mediaite, Jack Shafer, The Atlantic Online, WebProNews, SFist, CNET, Guardian, RT, The Huffington Post, Taking Note, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, Q13 FOX News, @jasonukman, The Corsair, VentureBeat, Techdirt, The FJP, The Switch, USA Today, @davidsirota, Politico, @astepanovich, @billmon1, @jbarro, @charlie_simpson, @gregmitch, @gregmitch, Latest News & Headlines, Gawker, @aclu, @ryan, @miafarrow, Daily Dot, TheBlaze.com, TheHill, Washington Post, @ggreenwald, thenation.com/blogs/180, @azmatzahra, Post Politics, Mashable, @emilybell, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine, The Raw Story, Kirk LaPointe's …, @sarahkendzior, @mattyglesias, @arusbridger, @cassandrarules, @lpolgreen, @wikileaks, @mlcalderone, @martindelius, @zeitonline, Business Insider, @oliverburkeman, @barryeisler, @brewster_kahle, @glennf, @profkeithdevlin, @guardianjessica, @jasonleopold, @moniguzman, @jesselynradack, @harper, @stevebuttry, @astepanovich and @fmanjoo

Guardian:

Snowden affair: the case for a pardon — Snowden gave classified information to journalists, even though he knew the likely consequences. That was an act of courage — In an interview with the Washington Post just before Christmas, Edward Snowden declared his mission accomplished.

Discussion: @d_starman, Latest News & Headlines, Mediaite, The Week, Hit & Run, @doughill25, RT, The Huffington Post, @timkarr, Fox News, @alexqgb and @maryagneskrell

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Ezra Klein Is Said to Plan to Leave Washington Post — Ezra Klein, an analyst, columnist and television commentator who runs The Washington Post's Wonkblog, is making plans to leave the newspaper after failing to win support for a new website he wanted to create within the company …

Discussion: Gawker, @thestalwart, @noahshachtman, @jbenton, @dangillmor, @jpodhoretz, @filmladd, @sarahw, @zerohedge, @carlycarioli, @nathanbabcock and The Huffington Post

John Paczkowski / Re/code:

Mossberg and Swisher of Re/code discuss competition and “old” vs. “new” journalism — Mossberg and Swisher Decode Re/code (Video) — Re/code.net, the new venture from the team behind the D: All Things Digital conference and technology news website, debuted Wednesday night.

Re/code:
Happy Re/new Year!

Dan Primack / Fortune:
NBC and Terry Semel back new Swisher/Mossberg site

Discussion: CNNMoney.com, TVNewser, Capital New York, @vivianschiller, @sdkstl, Talking Biz News, Variety and The Verge

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

How Netflix uses the 76,897 micro-genres it assigns to videos — How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood — If you use Netflix, you've probably wondered about the specific genres that it suggests to you. Some of them just seem so specific that it's absurd. Emotional Fight-the-System Documentaries?

Discussion: /Film, Deadline.com, @sriramk, The Verge, @alexismadrigal, @alexismadrigal, @alexismadrigal, Gizmodo, @harrisj and WebProNews

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

New York Times to Unveil Redesigned Website Next Week — The New York Times said Thursday that it would launch its redesigned website on Jan. 8. — The new platform, which will allow for better integration of video and photography with text, among other features, had been previously announced.

Discussion: Poynter, investors.nytco.com, FishbowlNY, NetNewsCheck Latest, Capital New York, @raju, Mashable, @sunny_hundal, @joshsternberg and @juddlegum

Michael Meyer / Columbia Journalism Review:

Evgeny vs. the internet — Evgeny Morozov wants to convince us that digital technology can't save the world, and he's willing to burn every bridge from Cambridge to Silicon Valley to do it — Depending on whom you ask, Evgeny Morozov is either the most astute, feared, loathed …

Discussion: @emilybell, @antderosa, @gabriel_anaya, @jbenton, @quods and @gilbert_makore

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Hearst's Swartz Eyes B2B Media, Entertainment, for Growth — Hearst Corp. had record revenue and profits in 2013, when it marked the fourth year in a row of growth on both fronts since the 2008 recession, Steven Swartz said in a New Year's letter to employees recapping the year he took over as chief executive.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and @lmoses

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

FBI Denies Requests For ‘60 Minutes’ Benghazi Source's Interview Records — NEW YORK — The FBI has denied Freedom of Information Act requests for records related to federal officials' interviews with Dylan Davies, a security officer who claimed to have witnessed the Benghazi, Libya, attack in a now-discredited “60 Minutes” report.

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Amazon Decides to Stop Hiding Its Web Video Service — Amazon has been spending time and money building up its Prime Instant online video service, but so far it hasn't spent much time telling people about it: It's very easy to invest a lot of time on Amazon.com without ever learning that the site …

Discussion: BTIG Research, Home Media Magazine, VatorNews, App Advice and Business Insider

Shahan Mufti / Columbia Journalism Review:

Malala Yousafzai's long and delicate dance with the press — In 2009, The New York Times posted a two-part documentary on its website about Pakistan's battle against Taliban militants. At the center of the documentary was an 11-year-old girl from the Swat region in northern Pakistan named Malala Yousafzai, and her father, Ziauddin.

Anupreeta Das / Wall Street Journal:

At Newspapers, Berkshire Rewrites Its Investing Script … Shortly after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper in 2012, things began to change. — Eight-year-old newsroom computers were replaced. A malfunctioning sound system …

Discussion: @preetatweets, @robcurley, @raju, NetNewsCheck Latest and @jayrosen_nyu

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

No books for you: U.S. starves public domain for another year — A new year means a new batch of copyrights expire, and works like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Bell Jar become as free to use as Charles Dickens or Shakespeare. Unless you happen to live in the United States, that is.

Discussion: The Verge