Mediagazer: Patch's move to bring back laid-off editor is a sign that the firm is hiring journalists again (Jon Chesto/Boston Business Journal)

10:50 PM ET, February 20, 2014

Top News:

Why Venezuela's Revolution Will Be Tweeted — The country's street protests are playing out dramatically on the social network. — We can't seem to agree about whether social media fuels, merely facilitates, or actually hinders protest movements. But in Venezuela, where five people …

Discussion: @hemlockmartinis, The Dish, @valtmc, @anupkaphle, CNN and NPR

BBC:

Venezuela threatens to expel CNN over protest coverage — Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has threatened to expel the US news network CNN from the country over its reporting of recent protests there. — Mr Maduro said he would take action if CNN did not “rectify its coverage”.

Discussion: @fieldproducer

Danny O'Brien / Electronic Frontier Foundation: Venezuela's Internet Crackdown Escalates into Regional Blackout

Om Malik / Gigaom:

Om Malik leaves day-to-day operations at GigaOm, becomes full partner at True Ventures, site raises $8M more — Now that Gigaom is all grown up, it's time for the next chapter — It's a new year (although it's well underway) and I'm excited to talk about the new phase at Gigaom.

Discussion: Om Malik, @twittner, @alexia, @jason_pontin, @timoreilly, @kentgoldman, @waltmossberg, @om, @tomkrazit, TechCrunch, @nitashatiku, @johnolilly, @hblodget, @laurengoode, @carr2n, @satishd, @mims, @pkafka, @rafat, @pkedrosky, @ashleymayer, @msquinn, @thekenyeung, @caseynewton, @mikeisaac, @tonysphere, Pulse 2.0 and PE Hub Blog

BBC:

Brooks denies knowing of NoW hacker — Rebekah Brooks has said she never heard of a private investigator who has since been jailed for phone hacking while she was editor of the News of the World. — Mrs Brooks said that during her leadership of the paper, she never heard investigator Glenn Mulcaire's name mentioned.

Discussion: Telegraph, Guardian, Reuters, @alcanlin, Press Association, Bloomberg, Digital Spy, NBC News, Daily Mail, @bbcbreaking and Kirk LaPointe's …

Herald Scotland:
Rebekah Brooks acquitted of one charge of misconduct in phone hacking trial

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Rebekah Brooks: NoW spent up to $250,000 on Divine Brown story

Discussion: The Independent, Press Association, ITV and @kamintone

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Rebekah Brooks not on trial for having worked for Rupert Murdoch, court told

Discussion: New York Times, Deadline.com and The Independent

Gregg Carlstrom / Foreign Policy:

Why Egypt Hates Al Jazeera — The network's Cairo-based staff, who stand accused of running a terror cell from a luxury hotel, find themselves caught in the middle of a regional power struggle. Cairo — Last summer, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy was one of thousands of protesters who took to Tahrir Square …

Discussion: @maitelsadany and @daliaezzat_

Maggie Michael / Associated Press:
Trial of Al Jazeera reporters begins in Egypt as Human Rights Watch group denounces charges

Discussion: @inigogilmore, Guardian, Associated Press, Al Jazeera English, @leloveluck, @leloveluck, Agence France Presse, BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, allAfrica.com and Sky News Australia

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

FCC wants to improve quality of closed captioning — FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to improve closed captioning. — “Five wins and a very light power reese know” sounds more like gibberish than a weather forecast. — But that was the closed captioning on a WeatherNation report last month.

Discussion: TVWeek.com

Julian Hattem / The Hill:
FCC: ‘No intention’ of muzzling press

Discussion: Poynter, Hot Air, @sodagrrl, Hit & Run and Mediaite

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

‘House of Cards’ Binge-Watching: 2% of U.S. Subs Finished Entire Series Over First Weekend — Binge-watching on the rise compared to drama series' first season — There are some dedicated “House of Cards” fans out there. — Approximately 2% of Netflix subscribers on U.S. broadband networks took …

Discussion: @elliottberger and The Verge

Jon Chesto / Boston Business Journal:

Patch's move to bring back laid-off editor is a sign that the firm is hiring journalists again — When Susan Petroni learned on Jan. 29 that she would lose her job as Framingham editor for the Patch network of news sites, the news didn't come as a big shock.

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

M.L.B., N.B.A., N.H.L. and others to launch joint digital sports channel with Time Inc. — Three of the “big four” U.S. sports leagues are teaming up to launch a new digital video channel, in conjunction with Time Inc. The channel, called 120 Sports, will launch later this spring …

Discussion: Folio, Variety, FishbowlNY, Tubefilter, Business Insider, PR Newswire, @kevinmdraper, Adweek, @dylanbyers and @capitalnewyork

Sarah Kendzior / Politico:

What does our addiction to disaster porn say about us? — What does our addiction to disaster porn say about us? — Journalist Simon Shuster said it was “straight out of Hieronymus Bosch.” Writer Philip Gourevitch thought it was more like Bruegel. But the main word to describe …

Discussion: Gigaom, Mediaite, Guardian, The Daily Caller, TIME, @chanders, @chanders, @buzzfeedben, @buzzfeedben, @jonathanliew, @yasmeen973, @mlcalderone, @mims and Erik Wemple

Baltimore Sun:

Baltimore Sun Media Group to buy City Paper — Staff reports — The Baltimore Sun Media Group said today it is buying the alternative weekly City Paper for an undisclosed price. The transaction is set to close in March, the company said. — The move brings together two of the Baltimore area's most well-known news organizations.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Erik Wemple, @carr2n, Poynter, @suitsandsoot, @alexkoppelman, @pinkgrammar, @jfruh and AAN

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Before Facebook Deal, WhatsApp Was Helping BuzzFeed and Shazam Go Viral With New Platform Tools — Unlike mobile messaging competitors like Line and WeChat, WhatsApp has taken a resolute stance against becoming a platform that distributes games and other apps.

Discussion: Facebook, Sequoia Capital, Fortune, Nieman Journalism Lab, The New Yorker Blog, DealBook, CNNMoney.com, The Verge, TechCrunch, The Verge, Quartz, @nishachittal, Gawker, @mattbuchanan, @buzzfeedben, @antderosa and @ezraklein

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Journalism Lab:

News video curator Watchup will update app in March to incorporate ads, add PostTV as partner — Right back after these messages: Watchup adds ads and partners with The Washington Post — The news video aggregator Watchup aims, in a sense, to recreate something like the traditional …

Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch, Idea Lab, @harmancipants and @crovitz

Maryclaire Dale / Associated Press:

Rivals debate auction rules for Philly newspapers … PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The top investor in Philadelphia's largest newspapers wants the company sold in a quick, closed auction among current partners while a rival wants a slower sale open to all. — The Philadelphia Inquirer …

Discussion: Philadelphia Magazine

Rem Rieder / USA Today:

Awards underscore the value of important work and reinforce commitment to do it. — Among the long list of inexact sciences in the world, picking award-winners is right up there. And that's true whether the subject is movies, music or journalism. Let's start with movies.

Discussion: @nsncgroup

Thomas Erdbrink / New York Times:

Iran's Judiciary Closes a New Pro-Government Newspaper — TEHRAN — An Iranian newspaper aligned with the country's reform-minded new president was closed on Thursday by Iran's judiciary, only six days after its first issue, local news outlets reported. — It is unclear whether the closing …

Discussion: Associated Press