Mediagazer: Too good to check: study of robot journalism spawns coverage showing journalism's weaknesses (Ryan Chittum/Columbia Journalism Review)

1:15 PM ET, March 19, 2014

Top News:

Leon Wieseltier / The New Republic:

Nate Silver could learn a lot from those op-ed columnists he maligns — Nate Silver could learn a lot from those op-ed columnists he maligns — I wish to say a word or two in defense of “bulls**t.” That is Nate Silver's meticulously chosen term—he does nothing imprecisely—for opinion journalism.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, @maxstrasser, @aelkus, @macloo, @dandrezner, @jay_ulfelder, @emilymbadger, @erikvoeten, @tnr, @rgolanvilella, @amelapay, @charliebeckett, @jackshafer, @abumuqawama, @daveweigel and @dylanmatt

Benjamin Wallace-Wells / New York Magazine:

Why Do We Expect So Much From Nate Silver? — “It is time for us to start making the news a little nerdier,” Nate Silver announced in an essay, written in a Red Bull—aided last-minute cram session, which aimed to explain the philosophy behind his new ESPN-housed data journalism venture, FiveThirtyEight, which launched this week.

Discussion: The Week, MIT, @bryanjoiner, @thestalwart, @nymag, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, @jayrosen_nyu, @themarkberman, @chadwickmatlin, Columbia Journalism Review, @edmundlee and @moorehn

Justin B. Smith / Medium:

Bloomberg Media—A New Direction — Bloomberg L.P. has built a significant media business over the last 20 years. Our television, digital, magazine, radio and live event platforms span the globe. Our influence is considerable, but Bloomberg Media's greatest potential has yet to still be realized.

Discussion: Poynter, @daweiner, @msquinn, @brianstelter and Talking Biz News

Brian Morrissey / Digiday:

Justin Smith's plan for where Bloomberg Media goes next — It has now been 100 days since former Atlantic Media CEO Justin Smith took over as CEO of Bloomberg Media. He has used that time to craft his vision for where Bloomberg goes next. — In Smith's eyes, Bloomberg Media's opportunity is immense.

Discussion: TVNewser, Mediawire Daily and Talking Biz News

Allison Schrager / Quartz:

The problem with data journalism — The recent boom in “data-driven” journalism projects is exciting. It can elevate our knowledge, enliven statistics, and make us all more numerate. But I worry that data give commentary a false sense of authority since data analysis is inherently prone to bias.

Discussion: @urbaninstitute, @noahpinion and @glichfield

Michael Holden / Reuters:

News Corp executives pressured ex-reporter to take phone-hacking rap - court — (Reuters) - The former royal editor at Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World told a London court on Wednesday senior figures at News Corp.'s British newspaper arm put pressure on him to take the flak for phone-hacking to protect others.

BBC: Phone-hacking trial: Andy Coulson ‘urged silence on hacking’

Marc Weisblott / Canada.com:

John Stackhouse is no longer the editor-in-chief of the Globe and Mail — There will be a new editor-in-chief at the Globe and Mail next week. — David Walmsley, who was most recently the director of content at CBC News, will return to the national newspaper where he previously worked …

Discussion: @taylor_owen, @newsillustrator, @canadadotcom and @mathewi

Rachel Bartlett / Journalism.co.uk:

Huffington Post UK pursues 60-second political news videos — In its first foray into short-form video content creation, Huffington Post UK has reported ‘more than 25,000’ plays of the first eight versions of its minute-long opinion-led videos — Huffington Post UK is the latest news outlet …

Erik Wemple:

Politico CEO declares ‘early success’ with Capital New York — Last December, Politico CEO Jim VandeHei engineered a re-launch of Capital New York, the news site that Politico's publisher had purchased in September. The re-boot involved hiring more staffers, going heavy on policy coverage …

Discussion: Politico and Capital New York

Thomas Johnson / Re/code:

Q&A with Ryan Singel of Contextly, a content recommendation startup — Not Content With Content: A Q&A With Contextly's Ryan Singel — Listicles. Viral videos. Videos you thought were viral, but were really Jimmy Kimmel — the Internet offers a plethora of daily distractions.

Patrick Frater / Variety:

Asian digital TV penetration to reach 97.5% with revenues of $46B by 2020 — Digital TV To Soar in Asia, Says Report — HONG KONG - Rapid conversion to digital delivery will drive up the number of digital TV homes in Asia by 501 million by 2020, according to new research.

Discussion: WorldScreen.com

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

Too good to check: study of robot journalism spawns coverage showing journalism's weaknesses — Automatic approval for weak study on robot journalism — Poor reporting accepts a flimsy report as gospel — “Could robots be the journalists of the future?” asks The Guardian.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and LAist

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Rap Genius wants to annotate the news — For publishers today, context is king. The recent surge in interest in explanatory journalism is predicated on the idea that there's a lot of value — and hence money — in publishers explaining dense topics to readers in a way that they can understand and easily digest.

Ray Clancy / Press Gazette:

Pro Scottish independence news website Wings Over Scotland raises £100k via crowdfunding — A pro-independence Scottish political website has raised nearly £100,000 via crowdfunding in the space of a couple of weeks. — Wings Over Scotland was founded in 2011 by journalist Stewart Campbell …

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The nonprofit Africa Check wants to build more fact-checking into the continent's journalism — The words are superimposed over a photo of a soccer stadium sitting empty at dusk: “Imagine a dead body in each seat of this World Cup soccer stadium...THAT is the amount of whites killed in [South Africa] in black on white violence!”

Discussion: @raju and @niemanlab

Cristian Giulietti / Online Journalism Blog:

Interview: president of IRPI Cecilia Anesi talks about secure leaks platform IRPILeaks — Last year the Investigative Reporting Italian Project (IRPI) introduced a platform for Italian and international whistleblowers, the first of its kind in the country. — The project has been called IRPILeaks …

Eugene Volokh / Washington Post:

Reverse defamation, the Newsweek Bitcoin story, and Satoshi Nakamoto — A recent Newsweek story identified one Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a 64-year-old engineer living in Southern California, as the Satoshi Nakamoto who is said to have created Bitcoin. Dorian Nakamoto denies it, and there's talk of a possible lawsuit.

Discussion: @jerrybrito and The Huffington Post

Donald R. Winslow / NPPA:

Reuters Denies Ethical Allegations, While Some Syria Photographs Still Questioned — In response to a story last week in The New York Times that raised serious ethical questions about the practices of some news photographers in Syria following the death last year in Aleppo …

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Pandora raises One price to $4.99 per month for new subscribers and scraps annual option, blames royalty rates — Pandora today announced changes to its Pandora One subscription plan, which charges users to listen without advertising. The company is keeping the same pricing …