Mediagazer: NBCUniversal First-Quarter Financials Rise Amid Profitable Sochi Olympics (Georg Szalai/Hollywood Reporter)

8:40 AM ET, April 22, 2014

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Jennifer Khoury Newcomb / Comcast Voices:

Comcast Response to Netflix's Opposition to Time Warner Cable Transaction — Netflix's opposition to our Time Warner Cable transaction is based on inaccurate claims and arguments. There has been no company that has had a stronger commitment to openness of the Internet than Comcast …

Discussion: New York Times, ZDNet, Adweek, @jmcduling, @miriamgottfried, VentureBeat, @pkafka, TechCrunch and Re/code

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Netflix opposes Comcast-TWC merger over ‘anticompetitive’ concerns — Netflix has come out in opposition of Comcast's proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable, writing in a letter to shareholders that the merger would give the combined service provider “even more anticompetitive leverage” …

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, Variety, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Financial Times and Re/code

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Netflix Beats Expectations With 4M New Subscribers, Earnings Of 86 Cents Per Share — Netflix today released its first-quarter financial results, with the company beating analyst expectations. For the first three months of the year, the company reported earnings of 86 cents per share on revenues of $1.27 billion.

Discussion: multichannel.com, Softpedia News, @jbflint, @katyonthehill, @jank0, @pkafka, @lach1435, CNBC, AdAge, Forbes, Gigaom, Pocket-lint, Variety, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and YCharts

Crayton Harrison / Bloomberg:

Netflix Calls Out AT&T for Lackluster Streaming Performance — Netflix Inc. (NFLX:US), stepping up its criticism of Internet service providers, called out AT&T Inc. (T:US) for offering video-streaming speeds that trail even those of phone companies with inferior technology.

Discussion: Gigaom, Gigaom, Reuters and Businessweek

Jack Shafer:

Intelligence Community Directive 119, a gag order that makes the public less safe, not more — The top spook's stupid gag order — The nation's top spy has prohibited all of his spies from talking with reporters about “intelligence-related information” unless officially authorized to speak.

Discussion: @spytalker, @jaketapper, @trevortimm, @eriksherman, @mattdpearce and @mar4612

Steven Aftergood / Secrecy News:

DNI bars US Intelligence Community from leaking even unclassified information to media — Intelligence Directive Bars Unauthorized Contacts with News Media — The Director of National Intelligence has forbidden most intelligence community employees from discussing “intelligence-related information” …

Discussion: New York Times, @billmon1, @davidbarstow, Guardian, TheHill, The Huffington Post, @free_snowden, Politico and @davidfolkenflik

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Felix Salmon to Leave Reuters — Felix Salmon, a prominent writer at Reuters on finance and the news media, said on Monday that he was leaving the news agency. — Mr. Salmon declined to release details of his new job when reached by phone on Monday, but in an email sent to colleagues he explained he was …

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @nytfridge, @rolfewinkler, MediaWire Daily and Talking Biz News

Adam Satariano / Bloomberg:

Study: households spent 10% less at Amazon in states where online sales tax introduced — Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax — Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is taking a hit in states that are collecting an online sales tax. — In one of the first efforts to quantify the impact …

Discussion: Washington Post, SlashGear, @maudnewton and @puiwingtam

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

NBCUniversal First-Quarter Financials Rise Amid Profitable Sochi Olympics — UPDATED: The Winter Olympics boosted TV ratings, revenue and profit at the entertainment company owned by cable giant Comcast, which reported its second quarterly video subscriber increase in a row.

Discussion: The Wrap, International Business Times, Variety, FierceCable and NASDAQ.com

Shahan Mufti / Columbia Journalism Review:

Pakistan's most prominent journalist shot by gunman in Karachi — An apparent assassination attempt on Hamid Mir illustrates the price that comes with the higher profile and influence of the news media in Pakistan — Pakistan's most famous and influential journalist is recovering in a hospital …

Discussion: Pakistan Daily Times, Gulf News, The Hindu, PakTribune, The Nation, pakobserver.net, brecorder.com, BBC and The News International

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Here comes The Upshot, the new explanatory journalism effort from the New York Times — Ever since Nate Silver left his perch at the New York Times and took his FiveThirtyEight blog to ESPN, where he subsequently launched an ambitious experiment aimed at data-driven journalism …

Discussion: facebook.com, Capital New York, @upshotnyt, @dleonhardt, Digiday, @neil_irwin and The FJP

Jeremy Barr / Capital New York:

Jonah Lehrer quietly launches new blog, gets Gladwell boost — On March 28, disgraced ex-New Yorker writer Jonah Lehrer quietly launched a blog under his own name. — On Thursday, he got a Twitter boost from an unlikely source. — “Jonah Lehrer is back with a new blog. It is well worth reading.