Mediagazer: TV antenna maker Mohu targets cord cutters with new Channels device (Janko Roettgers/Gigaom)

7:00 PM ET, February 21, 2014

Top News:

CNN:

Venezuela tells CNN journalists to ‘get out’ — Sorting fact from fiction in Venezuela — (CNN) — Venezuela has revoked or denied press credentials for CNN journalists in the country, following the president's announcement he would expel CNN if it did not “rectify” its coverage of anti-government protests.

Discussion: Business Insider

Frank Bajak / Associated Press:
Activists say Venezuela is blocking walkie-talkie app Zello and websites Pastebin and NTN24

Discussion: @wexler and @nancypelosi

Hadas Gold / Politico:
Venezuela revokes CNN press credentials

Discussion: Poynter, Columbia Journalism Review, @maitwiter, @nickkristof, @cnnee, @hadas_gold, Mediaite and BBC

Jim Romenesko:

Report: Baltimore City Paper staffers will lose their jobs, but could be rehired by the Sun — Fern Shen reports Baltimore City Paper staffers met Thursday afternoon with their new boss at the Sun and were told that everyone loses their jobs, but could be rehired.

Discussion: bizjournals, Baltimore Brew, @camilledodero, @maura, @carr2n and The Huffington Post

Tom Scocca / Gawker:

Baltimore Is One Step Closer to Being a Zero-Newspaper Town — It's not even possible to get mad at the Baltimore Sun now. The Baltimore Sun is a nursing home where newspapering goes to die, or to sink into terminal urine-soaked frailty and confusion. Yesterday it announced it had received …

Discussion: @crash_landers, @tomscocca, @johnmcquaid, @jackshafer, @max_read, Digital Media Wire, Erik Wemple, Baltimore Sun and AAN

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Proposed FCC study of news organizations sparks outcry — A proposed government study of how media organizations gather news has incited a powerful backlash, particularly among conservatives, who said that it could be part of an official effort to intimidate or second-guess journalists.

Discussion: Media Channel, Erik Wemple, Fox News, Poynter, Los Angeles Times, The Switch, Hit & Run, Hot Air, Broadcasting & Cable, The Daily Caller, Mother Jones, @jondelano, The Verge, Mediaite, The Newspaper Guild and The Hill

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times: FCC's new closed captioning rules had long journey

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

Is There Any Escape From ‘Recommended for You’? — Based on what The New York Times thinks I'm interested in reading, I am not a fun person. — “Recommended for You,” which tracks readers' habits and predicts their interests, finds me especially interested in the troubles of Gov. Chris Christie …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, @justinbrookman, @dangillmor, @mathewi and @sulliview

Leo Mirani / Quartz:

Turns out Twitter is even more politically polarized than you thought — This is what Twitter looks like when two groups with different political views talk about the same thing: — As part of a new study on Twitter's network structures, the Pew Research Center and the Social Media Research …

Discussion: @gregdklein, SocialTimes and AppNewser

Pew Internet:
Mapping Twitter Topic Networks: From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters

Discussion: @accenturesocial, Business Insider, PBS, Al Jazeera America, Des Moines Register, @jesseholcomb, The Technology Chronicles, CNET and Washington Post

Associated Press:

White House bars media from Dalai Lama meeting — WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House defended its decision Friday to bar reporters and photojournalists from a meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama, while acknowledging the news media's legitimate interest in covering the two leaders' encounter.

Discussion: Politico, The Huffington Post, @fieldproducer and NPPA

Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:

Garrick Utley, Former NBC Anchor and Foreign Correspondent, Dies at 74 — Garrick Utley, a former anchor for NBC News who for many years was one of a rare breed in television news reporting, a full-time foreign correspondent, died on Thursday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 74.

Discussion: Robert Feder, Gawker, Capital New York, @glennthrush, @danielalpert, CNN and @louiseslaughter

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Sources say Amazon readying a Web TV box competing with Apple TV and Roku, for March rollout — Amazon Gets Its TV Box Ready, Again — Amazon is gearing up to take on Apple and Roku, again. — Industry sources say Amazon is getting ready to launch a Web TV box that would compete …

Discussion: Softpedia News, Polygon, WebProNews, 9to5Mac, Pulse 2.0, Forbes, VatorNews, ReadWrite, BGR, MacRumors, Mashable, VentureBeat, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, The Verge, CNET, GeekWire, App Advice, Business Insider and VG247

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Southern Living Puts its Name on Branded Communities — Diehard fans of Time Inc.'s Southern Living can live in a Southern Living-branded house filled with Southern Living-branded décor, thanks to the brand's formidable stable of brand extensions. There are home goods (furniture …

Discussion: @steve_katz

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Dish's Charlie Ergen: I'm Nervous About Comcast-TWC, Surprised Our Business Hasn't Been Worse — Optimism is supposedly one of the qualities people look for in politicians and business leaders. Apparently no one told Charlie Ergen, who seemed less concerned with soothing investors …

Bloomberg:

Roku Said to Be Weighing Initial Public Offering in U.S. in 2014 — Roku Inc., the maker of set-top boxes that connect TVs to the Internet, is weighing an initial public offering in the U.S. this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. — A decision to move ahead hasn't been made …

Discussion: Gigaom

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Om-Niscient: A Much-Deserved Mash Note to Tech Blogger Om Malik — Of course, I was jammed yesterday with a trip and then the big news of Facebook forking over $19 billion for WhatsApp in the endless hamster-wheel cycle that is sometimes my life, so I missed the news about Om Malik.

Discussion: TechCrunch, @doctorparadox, @hunterwalk, @mhelft, @jayrosen_nyu, @mathewi, Om Malik, Talking Biz News, Pulse 2.0, Gigaom and PE Hub Blog

Guardian:

Phone-hacking trial told of ‘bin man’ who sold documents to newspapers — Rebekah Brooks explains reference to ‘binology’ on invoice sent to the News of the World in 2001 while she was editor — A man who used to go through the bins of lawyers and other high profile people would sell material …

Jeff Bercovici / Playboy:

Nick Denton: Gawker, Crowdsourcing & Kinja — Manti Te'o had a fake girlfriend. Rob Ford smoked crack. Brett Favre texted photos of his junk to a young woman. That these and countless other onetime secrets are now public knowledge is thanks to Nick Denton, the founder and owner …

Discussion: Gigaom, Forbes, Capital New York, @taylorlorenz, @thestalwart, @mslaurenrae, bookforum.com, @psigrist, @pkafka, @jayrosen_nyu, @lhfang, Erik Wemple, @jyarow and The Wrap

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Telegraph: Jason Seiken confirms MacGregor and Evans in editing roles — TMG editorial chief also announces three deputies and creates digital director roles for content and visual journalism — Telegraph Media Group's editorial chief, Jason Seiken, has announced a number of changes to the senior editorial team.

Discussion: @mediaguardian and Press Gazette

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Purdue clears police who detained student journalist — Police at Purdue University were within their rights to detain a student journalist and seize his camera, an investigation led by the school's police chief determined. — Hayleigh Colombo and Dave Bangert of the (Lafayette, Ind.) …

Discussion: jconline.com

David Bauder / Associated Press:

Jimmy Kimmel's Sochi wolf video hoax attracts criticism from media executives, others — KIMMEL'S WOLF HOAX: ABC NEWS KNEW AHEAD OF TIME — ABC News received advance warning of Jimmy Kimmel's prank about a wolf supposedly prowling the athletes' village in Sochi but didn't steer …