Mediagazer: US plummets to #46 in Global Press Freedom Rankings (J.C. Stearns/Free Press Blog)

10:00 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: Reporters Without Borders, The Huffington Post, Guardian, India Real Time, @starvfilmcritic, Freedom of the Press …, @freepress and @jcstearns

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

UK slips down press freedom index due to harassment of the Guardian — US also registers fall in latest world press freedom index — Major declines in media freedom in countries as varied as the United States, Central African Republic and Guatemala are highlighted in the latest annual …

Discussion: Poynter, Reuters, The Raw Story and American Press Institute

Agence France Presse:
US under fire in global press freedom report

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

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

Greenwald's ‘The Intercept’ Gets Intercepted on Day One — With access to Edward Snowden's treasure-trove and four months to prepare, the new magazine got scooped by the 168-year-old Associated Press on the world's biggest drone story Monday. — The Intercept has landed—but with a bang or a thud?

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, Capital New York, @thedailybeast, Pressthink and Erik Wemple

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Does a ‘savvy media observer’ require anonymity for smack talk? Apparently so! — In Lloyd Grove's column about The Intercept, a “savvy media observer and journalist” lets Glenn Greenwald's new publication have it: … Let's just let that waft on the breeze for a moment. — OK.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @ggreenwald, @sulliview and @antderosa

Austin Ramzy / New York Times:

Free Press Groups Warn of China's Influence on Hong Kong and Taiwan Media — Press freedom in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which have long been known for their boisterous news media, is under increasing pressure from China, as news outlets curtail coverage that might anger government officials …

Paul Mooney / Nieman Reports:
The state of journalism in China, 25 years after Tiananmen

Discussion: @alecash, @david__moser and @niemanreports

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:

The Facebook Effect on the News — Social networks are the new front page and homepage for news. But on Facebook, it's not the “news” that readers come to see or click to leave. — Around this time last year, I considered writing a story claiming that Facebook and Twitter were the new “homepages” for news on the Internet.

Discussion: @alexismadrigal and @theatlantic

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

Discussion: Forbes, Gawker, WebProNews, @niemanlab, @mims, @newswhip, @dskok, @timherrera, @moneyries, Business Insider and SocialTimes

Henry Taylor / The Media Briefing:

BuzzFeed's native advertising: are they really making ads you want to share? — BuzzFeed is a business built on sharing. That doesn't just mean shareable articles, it also means shareable ads. But do people really want to share this branded content? We thought we'd take a look …

Discussion: @blathnaidhealy, @mashplant and @henryctaylor, Thanks:@rorybrown

Gideon Spanier / London Evening Standard:

Net-A-Porter's glossy mag is raising hackles at Vogue — The glossy world of fashion magazines hasn't seen a war like this for years. Porter, a new print title published by online retailer Net-A-Porter, is going head to head with Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and other established names.

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: PandoDaily, Nieman Journalism Lab, Business Insider and Kirk LaPointe's …

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: Wall Street Journal and @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: American Press Institute and @niemanlab

Tess Stynes / Wall Street Journal:

Thomson Reuters Swings to Loss on Restructuring Charges — Company Says Revenue from Financial and Risk Division Fell 2.4% in Fourth Quarter — Thomson Reuters Corp. swung to a fourth-quarter loss as the financial data provider posted restructuring charges and revenue declined at its core financial and risk division.

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

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Ebook subscription service Oyster teams up with Disney and rolls out kids' vertical — Oyster, the New York-based startup that aims to be the Netflix for ebooks, has added about 100 titles from Disney Publishing to its service and is rolling out a new children's vertical Wednesday.

BBC:

Missing Mexican journalist Gregorio Jimenez found dead — The body of Mexican journalist Gregorio Jimenez, who was kidnapped a week ago, has been found buried in the town of Las Choapas, in eastern Veracruz state. — Mr Jimenez was abducted by masked gunmen from his home in Coatzacoalcos.

Discussion: GlobalPost and Associated Press

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, FishbowlNY, Mediaite, TVNewser and @nickkristof

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Facebook Lays Claim to Twitter's Live TV Territory — Social media giant cites new research demonstrating users comment on TV shows while they air — In their battle for advertising dollars, Facebook and Twitter have taken positions in the marketplace to differentiate themselves.

Discussion: @jimconnolly

Nick Vivarelli / Variety:

MacNeil/Lehrer Productions Teams Up With Al-Monitor For Middle East Web Specials — MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and Washington-based website Al-Monitor.com have teamed-up to produce a series of Web video specials on Middle East politics titled Trendlines to be streamed on the PBS NewsHour webiste …

Discussion: Rapid TV News and TV Media Insights

Richard Kastelein / TV App Market:

Nearly 70% of Europeans download or stream films for free — Nearly 70% of Europeans download or stream films for free, whether legally or illegally, according to a new European Commission study on audience behaviour. It also finds that 40% of smartphone owners and more than 60% of tablet owners watch films on their devices.

Discussion: infojustice

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: Google Public Policy Blog, Mother Jones, Softpedia News, TechWeekEurope UK, @xor, @pernillet, @evacide, The Colorado Independent and TechCrunch

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

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 …