Mediagazer: Comcast Is Acquiring Video Ad Company FreeWheel For $320 Million (Ryan Lawler/TechCrunch)

8:35 PM ET, March 1, 2014

Top News:

Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:

On the meaning of journalistic independence — This morning, I see that some people are quite abuzz about a new Pando article “revealing” that the foundation of Pierre Omidyar, the publisher of First Look Media which publishes The Intercept, gave several hundred thousand dollars to a Ukraininan …

Discussion: PandoDaily, @jfagone, @mathewi, @kljdavis, @mattyglesias and @tilojung

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

First Look Media could preempt controversy by publishing a statement of principles endorsed by employees and investors — The price of eggs — Glenn Greenwald has responded to Pando Daily's story about the Omidyar Network and Ukraine with the force and speed we have come to expect. Good.

Discussion: @albertocairo and @jayrosen_nyu

Mark Ames / PandoDaily:

Pierre Omidyar co-funded Ukraine revolution groups with US government, documents show — Just hours after last weekend's ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, one of Pierre Omidyar's newest hires at national security blog “The Intercept,” was already digging for the truth.

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Comcast Is Acquiring Video Ad Company FreeWheel For $320 Million — Over the years, FreeWheel has become the go-to ad-serving platform for many TV networks that stream their content online. And it's about to become part of one of the biggest distributors of content online and off.

Discussion: Variety, Re/code and CNET

Los Angeles Times:

TV news employee rescued after being trapped in waist-deep mud — (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / February 28, 2014) — This post has been updated. — A TV news employee trying to report from the scene of an unstable Azusa hillside Friday got stuck in waist-high mud and had to be rescued.

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker, Deadline.com, Daily Mail, NY Daily News, The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Why the rise of sites devoted to explanatory journalism is a trend worth celebrating — Everyone complains about the weather but no one does anything about it, a famous curmudgeon once said. The same criticism could have been made — until recently at least — about the media's relentless focus …

Discussion: Poynter, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, (Re)Structuring Journalism, @moorehn, @rgibbs, @hancush and Politico

Abigail Edge / Journalism.co.uk:

Social ‘lie detector’ will help journalists verify online rumours — Following the rumours that came out of the London riots, researchers are developing a platform to automatically verify information from social media — A social media “lie detector” is being developed to help journalists verify rumours and other information online.

Peter Elkind / Fortune:

Employees at Bloomberg LP are attempting to unionize — Exclusive: If a drive to organize at the data-and-media giant is successful, it would be a first for the former New York mayor's company. — FORTUNE — Fearful of layoffs and unhappy with work conditions, employees at a unit of Bloomberg LP …

Discussion: @jtotoole

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Washington Post expands fact-checking project — and not just to movie trailers — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Leonardo DiCaprio are getting the same fact-checking treatment thanks to the latest evolution of The Washington Post's Truth Teller project. — The actor and the senator each figure prominently …

Karen Fratti / 10,000 Words:

Contextly, Woopie, Beatroot present at demo day for second class at media accelerator Matter — Digital Publishing Gets A Little Smarter (and Better Looking) With Matter's 2nd Round of Startups — This week, Matter's second round of start-ups took over New York City for a demo day at WNYC's Greene Space.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Jon Boone / Guardian:

Liberal newspaper Express Tribune cowed into silence by Pakistani Taliban — Media group opts for self-censorship on terrorism after Taliban admits murder of three employees for critical reports on militants — When it was launched four years ago, the Express Tribune set out to become …

Discussion: @abidifactor and @aakankshat

Jeff John Roberts / Gigaom:

Traders turn to Twitter for market news. Now they can measure mood, too — Financial firms once blocked Twitter to prevent employees leaking sensitive information. It worked, but there was a problem: reporters and companies were using Twitter to reveal important news, leaving traders to rely on second-hand accounts.