Mediagazer: Comcast's purchase of TWC would reinforce high cable TV and broadband rates and slow speeds (Felix Salmon)

11:15 PM ET, February 17, 2014

Top News:

Talks for including Netflix on Time Warner set-top boxes are on hold after Comcast deal announcement — Netflix Talks for Time Warner Cable Carriage Said to Slow — Netflix Inc. (NFLX)'s effort to secure a place for its video-subscription service on Time Warner Cable Inc. set-top boxes …

Discussion: The Verge, @zseward and @notaaroncraig

New York Times:
Punching Above Its Weight, Upstart Netflix Pokes at HBO

Discussion: @realbengilbert, PandoDaily, The Daily Caller, Gawker, @laughingstoic, The Wrap, @brianstelter, @nycjim, @laceyvrose, @jbennet, @zseward, @rafat, @pkafka, @brucedaisley and @carr2n

Michael O'Connell / Hollywood Reporter:

Jimmy Fallon's Online Equity Could Redefine Late-Night Success (Analysis) — The web-literate host kicks off his “Tonight” tenure with a built-in brand of viral video sensations and 11.6 million loyal Twitter followers. — Jimmy Fallon with the Muppets — When Jimmy Fallon steps onto …

Discussion: NBC News

Bill Carter / New York Times:
‘Tonight’ Show Returns to New York After Nearly 42 Years

Discussion: Capital New York, TVNewser, @rockcenternyc, AM New York, NY Daily News, @chriscoffeytalk, Skift, @mmalkoff, @danielpink and CNN

Saeed Kamali Dehghan / Guardian:

Saudi Arabia's first female editor of national newspaper appointed — Somayya Jabarti takes over at helm of Jeddah-based English daily Saudi Gazette following departure of Khaled Almaeena — A woman in Saudi Arabia has been appointed editor-in-chief of a national newspaper …

Discussion: @estherbintliff

Ellen Barry / New York Times:

Magazine Editor in India Charged in Rape of Colleague — NEW DELHI — The police in the coastal state of Goa charged Tarun J. Tejpal, an investigative journalist and magazine editor, with raping and sexually assaulting a staff reporter during a November encounter in a hotel elevator.

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

Pando raises Series A of $1.2M+, about half its seed raise, led by “unconventional” Tennessee-based investors — The new Pando: “Speaking truth to the new power” — Two years and one month ago, I officially founded PandoDaily. I had $2.5 million of investor money …

Discussion: @rafat, @swyyft, @imeow, @samfbiddle, SouthernAlpha, @jasonschreier, @joshsternberg and @jason

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

Joe Berlinger to Direct Eight-Part Criminal Justice Series for Al-Jazeera America (Exclusive) — Award-wining filmmaker Joe Berlinger will direct and executive produce “The System,” an eight-part series on the criminal justice system, for Al-Jazeera America, TheWrap has learned.

Alison Langley / Columbia Journalism Review:

Axel Springer eyes global expansion — The German media conglomerate is vying for Forbes, but that may be just the beginning — As the story is told in Germany, Mathias Döpfner, chief executive officer of Axel Springer SE, one of Europe's largest publishing groups …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Kevin Gosztola / Firedoglake:

Imprisoned CIA Whistleblower Threatened with ‘Diesel Therapy,’ Suffers Shakedowns for Talking to Press — The federal correctional institution of Loretto, Pennsylvania, where former CIA officer John Kiriakou is serving a thirty-month jail sentence, appears to be scrambling to find …

Discussion: @minddetonat0r, @johnkiriakou and @trevortimm

Philiana Ng / Hollywood Reporter:

Sochi: Bob Costas Returns to NBC's Olympics Telecast After ‘Ill-Timed Affliction’ — The longtime Olympics host, still battling an eye infection, opened Monday's primetime broadcast with some humor: “I'm Bob Costas, sitting in tonight for Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira.”

Discussion: TVNewser, USA Today and Deadline.com

Felix Salmon:

Comcast's purchase of TWC would reinforce high cable TV and broadband rates and slow speeds — Monopolizing bandwidth — Paul Krugman makes a simple but powerful point about Comcast's acquisition of Time Warner Cable: … Broadband is the area which Krugman, and most other opponents …

Discussion: New York Times, Nieman Journalism Lab, New York Times, Home Media Magazine, @alexrubalcava, @ryanlcooper, @izakaminska and Mother Jones

Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:

Profile of blogger Brian Krebs who was first to uncover security breaches at Adobe and Target — Reporting From the Web's Underbelly — SAN FRANCISCO — In the last year, Eastern European cybercriminals have stolen Brian Krebs's identity a half dozen times, brought down his website …

Patrick Frater / Variety:

China Accused of Exporting Media Censorship Across Asia — HONG KONG — U.S. foreign secretary John Kerry sat down Saturday with a group of Chinese bloggers and promised to press the Chinese government to loosen its controls of the internet. — His visit came at a time when China …

Sam Kirkland / Poynter:

Mental Floss a big winner after Facebook's mysterious ‘high quality’ algorithm change — When Facebook announced in December that it was altering its News Feed algorithm to focus on “high quality content,” speculation centered on which sites might be in danger of excommunication as Facebook took aim at the viral bubble.

Discussion: Digiday and Salon

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Breitbart News Network plans global expansion with Texas and London operations — Breitbart News Network Plans Global Expansion — It has been nearly two years since the conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart died, but the online news organization that carries his name is not only continuing …

Discussion: @donal_blaney, @billmon1, @flipcritic and @erinmcunningham