Mediagazer: Missing Mexican journalist Gregorio Jimenez found dead (BBC)

9:05 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: The Huffington Post, Guardian, India Real Time, @starvfilmcritic, 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, @jayrosen_nyu, Washington Times and Al Jazeera America

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: Reuters and The Raw Story

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, Poynter, @thedailybeast, Pressthink and Erik Wemple

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

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 …

Thanks:@rorybrown

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

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: @niemanlab

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, Mediaite and @nickkristof

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.

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

Alice Su / Wired:

In the Middle East, Arabic Wikipedia Is a Flashpoint — And a Beacon — AMMAN, Jordan - Rami Tarawneh knew something was wrong when security in a Middle Eastern airport made him wait for three hours. The 36-year-old Jordanian traveled throughout the region often, but this was the first …

Ian Traynor / Guardian:

Edward Snowden asylum demand dropped by European parliament — MEPs fail to reach consensus on amendment to inquiry calling on governments to assure NSA whistleblower of his safety — The European parliament is to ditch demands on Wednesday that EU governments give guarantees of asylum …

Discussion: @janalbrecht

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: TechCrunch, Advancing Content, Gizmodo, TechWeekEurope UK, Electronista, @xor, @computionist, @michaelklishin, @folletto, CNET, Mashable, Marketing Pilgrim, ZDNet and mUmBRELLA

Paul Mooney / Nieman Reports:

The state of journalism in China, 25 years after Tiananmen — 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 …

Discussion: @david__moser and @niemanreports

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

Adam Weinstein / Gawker:

Business Insider Changed its Story on Buzzfeed — Yesterday, Business Insider chief correspondent Nicholas Carlson stuck a subtle shiv into his competitors at Buzzfeed, attributing the site's success in exploiting Facebook's ever-evolving newsfeed algorithm to its practice of buying traffic …

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

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

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

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