Mediagazer: The Murdoch trials and the Australian media airbrush (Rodney E. Lever/Independent Australia)

8:05 AM ET, February 14, 2014

Top News:

Edward Wyatt / DealBook:

Industry Shifts May Aid Comcast in Takeover Bid — On the face of it, the merger of the country's two largest cable companies would seem like a nonstarter, given its steep regulatory hurdles and skepticism from consumer watchdogs. — But Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable comes …

Discussion: DealBook, Los Angeles Times, Mashable, Reuters and DealBook

Michael J. Copps / Columbia Journalism Review:

Journalists need to generate a national discussion on the future of the internet — Journalists need to generate a national discussion on the future of the internet — Dear Journalists: — You may wonder why a long-time regulator like me is writing to you.

Discussion: @edwardericsonjr, @cjr, @mparekh and Boing Boing

Amy Schatz / Re/code:

Peering could replace net neutrality as one of the key issues in Comcast-Time Warner review — Sleeper Issue Peers Around the Corner of Comcast-Time Warner Deal — Comcast executives scored big points three years ago with the Federal Communications Commission by volunteering to abide …

Discussion: @waltmossberg and Deadline.com

Susan Crawford / Bloomberg:

Comcast's Time Warner Deal Is Bad for America — David Cohen, Comcast Corp.'s executive vice president and the mastermind behind its deal to buy Time Warner Cable Inc., sounded pugnacious and confident on a recent conference call with investors. Regulatory and antitrust approval of the deal …

Heidi Moore / Guardian:
The Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is not a marriage made to last

Discussion: Fortune, Corporate Intelligence, @moorehn, @rwc356, @moorehn, Business Wire, AlterNet.org, MoneyBeat, Digits and Variety

Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
Charter Likely to Pursue Other Acquisitions

Discussion: MoneyBeat and Law Blog

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Local stations ‘have reason to sweat’ over Comcast-Time Warner deal

Discussion: AdAge, Gigaom, Latest News & Headlines, USA Today, bizjournals, Businessweek, BusinessJournalism.org …, PC Magazine and The Newspaper Guild

Lance Ulanoff / Mashable: The National Domination of Comcast and Time Warner in 1 Map

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Comcast lists all the ways a merger with Time Warner is “pro-consumer”

Discussion: Comcast Voices Blog and Fast Company

Katy Bachman / Adweek:
FCC Backs Off Study of Newsroom Editorial Practices

Discussion: NationalJournal.com and Wall Street Journal

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Piers Morgan questioned ‘under caution’ by Scotland Yard's hacking squad — Piers Morgan, the CNN presenter who used to edit the Daily Mirror, has been interviewed under caution by Scotland Yard detectives investigating phone-hacking. — In a statement to The Guardian through his spokesperson …

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

Twitter Photos Blocked In Venezuela, Users Say — A social media crackdown as protests threaten the government. — WASHINGTON — Twitter photos and videos appear to be blocked in Venezuela as the government there attempts to reassert control amid widespread public protests.

Discussion: Softpedia News, Committee to Protect …, The Next Web, @romustgo and BBC

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Guardian Media Group takes 15% stake in digital training company — Decoded, based in London's Silicon Roundabout, has trained more than 7,000 people to ‘Code in a Day’ — The parent company of the Guardian has taken a minority stake in Decoded, the London-based digital training company …

Peter Travers / Rolling Stone:

De La Soul to Make Entire Catalog Available for Free — Pioneering hip-hop group also releasing flood of new music — In honor of next month's 25th anniversary of their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul are making their entire catalog available for free download for 25 hours on the group's website.

Discussion: BetaNews, The Verge, Pocket-lint, Gizmodo, The Next Web, All, Engadget and NME

Rodney E. Lever / Independent Australia:

The Murdoch trials and the Australian media airbrush — The mainstream media in Australia has given little attention to the Murdoch trials in London. Rodney E Lever says this is an astonishing abuse of power. — What is now usually referred to in British media as “the hacking trials” …

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Wall Street Journal:

Pandora to let advertisers target listeners based on its sense of their political leanings — Internet Radio Service Builds Profiles of Its Audience — Pandora Hopes to Build Ad Revenue by Pinpointing Likely Voting Preferences — Next time you listen to a Bob Marley channel on Pandora Media Inc. …

Discussion: @wsjpersonaltech, @zeynep, @peteskomoroch, @a_grossman and @cschweitz

BBC:

NME sales dip below 20,000 copies — Sales of music magazine NME have hit their lowest yet, falling below 20,000 copies a month during the second half of 2013 despite last year's relaunch. — New ABC circulation figures show that the 62-year-old publication sold an average of just 18,184 a week.

Discussion: Guardian and Guardian

Associated Press:

Greek judge bans investigative TV show — You are here — Home » Greece » Greek judge bans investigative TV show — ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A Greek judge on Thursday banned a leading private TV station from airing an investigative report into a deadly migrant boat accident …

Matt Sheehan / The Huffington Post:

The Chinese Press Battles For Hearts And Minds Abroad — SAN FRANCISCO — At 9:25 p.m. on New Year's Day, Feng Yan parked his minivan outside the Chinese consulate here, doused the front door of the building with gasoline, and lit the place on fire. The blaze engulfed the front entrance …

Alan Jacobs / Text Patterns:

Today's email newsletters follow Grimm's precedent, who aimed for a “fit audience, though few” — Grimm's heirs — The last year or so has seen an intriguing renewal of a genre from the early years of the internet: the email newsletter. A couple of months ago Alexis Madrigal described …

Discussion: American Press Institute

India & World:

Columbia University students launch website on India's elections — New York: A group of Indian students at Columbia University here has launched a website focused exclusively on India's upcoming general elections, promising to provide a comprehensive and “no high-brow and jargon-led” reportage of the event.

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Editorially to shut down its collaborative writing service on May 30 — editorially 220x56 Editorially to shut down its collaborative writing service on May 30Editorially has announced plans to close its Web-based collaborative document product after failing to gain enough traction for it.

Discussion: STET

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

Ready to break the internet? Netflix's “House of Cards” premiere is a big test of how video gets to you — “My wife and I like to lay in bed and watch Netflix,” Tom Wheeler, chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission, said the other day. But when their internet connection slows down …

Discussion: Techdirt, @jmcduling, @pkafka, Digits and Engadget

Anupreeta Das / MoneyBeat:

Buffett's exit from Graham Holdings more closely resembles a friendly restructuring — Buffett to Graham: Parting Like Friends, With Benefits? … Warren Buffett's more-than-40-year business relationship with the Graham family could be coming to an end. But it's not clear what assets …