Mediagazer: For journalism students in Sochi, covering Olympics is ‘pretty f-ing epic’ (Kristen Hare/Poynter)

6:30 AM ET, February 12, 2014

Top News:

US plummets to #46 in Global Press Freedom Rankings — According to a new report from Reporters Without Borders, there was a profound erosion of press freedom in the United States in 2013. — After a year of attacks on whistleblowers and digital journalists and revelations about mass surveillance …

Discussion: Freedom of the Press …, @freepress, @jcstearns and Reporters Without Borders

Agence France Presse:

US under fire in global press freedom report — Paris (AFP) - Conflicts continued to weigh heavily on the media last year but press freedom was also under increasing threat from abuses by democracies like the United States, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders, Reporters Without Borders, @umairh, Washington Times, @jayrosen_nyu and Al Jazeera America

Will Oremus / Slate:

The Rise of the Facebook Truthers — Journalists will believe anything about the social network, as long as it's totally outlandish. — Something about Facebook makes journalists lose their minds. How else to explain the seemingly unending procession of stories based on wild speculation and implausible conspiracy theories?

Discussion: Forbes, PandoDaily, Business Insider and Mashable

Adam Weinstein / Gawker:
Business Insider Changed its Story on Buzzfeed

Discussion: TechCrunch, Nieman Journalism Lab, Kirk LaPointe's …, @saramorrison, @miriamgottfried, @moorehn, @nickconfessore, @mattdpearce, @johngapper, @johnjcook, @jackshafer, @antderosa, @fullstopmag, @gawker, SocialTimes and @stephenbhull

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Buzzfeed CEO: Here's Why Facebook Isn't Crushing Us

Discussion: WebProNews, @niemanlab, @mims, @newswhip, @dskok, @timherrera, @moneyries, Mediawire Daily and Business Insider

Reuters:

Turkish editor hits out at media coercion under Erdogan — (Reuters) - A prominent Turkish newspaper editor has openly decried government pressure on the media, saying journalists live in fear, in unusually blunt criticism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's leadership months ahead of elections.

Discussion: @pamukhum

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Are publishers overselling social traffic at the expense of search? A dialogue with Danny Sullivan … You may have seen my column yesterday on the rise of content designed for social sharing — a category that for me includes everything from pure-viral outlets like Upworthy to more newsy but still sharing-optimized sites like Quartz.

Discussion: @niemanlab

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Why the NYT published the general location of a planned drone strike and the AP held back — New York Times Editor: Government Requests To Hold Info Are ‘Almost Blanket Policy’ — NEW YORK — The Associated Press revealed Monday that the U.S. government is considering a drone strike …

Discussion: New York Times

Reuters:

Longtime NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw diagnosed with cancer — Veteran news anchor Tom Brokaw, the face of “NBC Nightly News” for more than two decades, has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting blood cells in the bone marrow, but is hopeful about the outcome of his treatment, the network said on Tuesday.

Discussion: NBC News, Mediaite and @nickkristof

Alex Kantrowitz / AdAge:

Mozilla To Sell Ads In Firefox Web Browser — Mozilla Will Serve Ads Within Tiles Of Its New Tab Pages — Mozilla will soon sell ads within its Firefox browser, the company announced Tuesday. — Wait, what? Mozilla made itself the villian of the online ad business early last year …

Discussion: Advancing Content, @xor, @computionist, CNET, @michaelklishin, Mashable, Marketing Pilgrim, ZDNet and mUmBRELLA

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

For journalism students in Sochi, covering Olympics is ‘pretty f-ing epic’ — They left a day early to miss a snow storm, took a detour to Amsterdam and waited in some serious (and kind of dangerous) lines at Olympic Park, but after a few days, a team of student journalists are reporting from Sochi.

Discussion: @tayim and @poynter

Nicole Perlroth / NYT Bits:

The Day the Internet Didn't Fight Back — So much for mass protest. — A consortium of Internet and privacy activists had long promoted Feb. 11 as the day the Internet would collectively stand up and shout down surveillance by the National Security Agency.

Discussion: Softpedia News, TechWeekEurope UK, @pernillet, @xor, TechCrunch, The Colorado Independent and PandoDaily

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Impatience Has Its Reward: Books Are Rolled Out Faster — “Annihilation,” the chilling first novel of a trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer that was released last week, tells the story of a scientific expedition to a mysterious place called Area X that has been cut off from the rest of the world.

Discussion: Melville House Books, @almostzara, Jezebel and Pressing Issues

Mallary Jean Tenore / IVOH:

David Bornstein: To create social change, focus on solutions — In a recent talk at Middlebury College, David Bornstein shared some interesting remarks about the importance of solutions journalism and its impact on society. Bornstein is co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network …

Discussion: @mallarytenore

Paul Mooney / Nieman Reports:

Command and Control — The state of journalism in China, 25 years after Tiananmen — A deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, continues to reverberate. In the photo illustration above, Pavel Maria Smejkal removed the tanks and bus …

Steve Rubel / AdAge:

IAB Says Free Speech Depends on a Healthy Ad Ecosystem — Advertisers Create the Means for Free Expression — Skip “The Lego Movie” last weekend? No worries. If you were one of the 500 that attended the Internet Advertising Bureau's Annual Leadership Meeting this week …

Thanks:@steverubel

Matt Waite / Drone Journalism Lab:

Drones, journalism, the FAA and the crackdown that isn't a crackdown — Since last week when a Connecticut TV station employee tried to use a drone at a fatal accident scene and was reported to the FAA by the local police, I've been getting a lot of calls from reporters asking if the FAA is cracking down on drone journalism.

Michael Melia / Associated Press: Drones Create New Ethical Minefields For Journalists