Mediagazer: How The FCC Plans to Save the Internet by Destroying It: An Explainer (Ryan Singel/Medium)

10:15 AM ET, April 25, 2014

Top News:

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

More than a social network: Facebook aims to be the source for breaking news — Facebook has always been filled with “news,” just not the kind you'd find in a daily newspaper. — Recently, however, Facebook had made several moves to shift the content of your News Feed towards hard news …

Discussion: Capital New York, @mikeisaac, @startupljackson and @niallharbison

Josh Constine / TechCrunch: Storyful's Verification Tech Could Stop Fake News From Spreading On Facebook

Andy Mitchell / Facebook:
Facebook partners with Storyful to launch FB Newswire, a news feed for journalists on Facebook and Twitter

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Former Tumblr President John Maloney is Now Circa's New President — What do you do after you help a young CEO build a giant digital property? — Take a couple years off, then try doing it again. — That's what John Maloney is doing. The Web veteran, who spent four years running …

Discussion: @benjlerer and @circa

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Comcast Says Netflix Slowed Down Its Own Streams — A couple days after Netflix and Comcast fought in public, the two companies, who are supposed to be partners, are at it again. — Three days after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings publicly opposed Comcast's planned acquisition of/merger with Time Warner Cable …

Discussion: @dangillmor

Jennifer Khoury / Comcast Voices Blog:
Comcast: Neflix degraded its Comcast streams, seeks to shift its costs onto all Internet users

Discussion: Softpedia News, @michaelpryor, Washington Post, @samgustin, @davezatz, @om, @jyarow, @pkafka, Guardian, Business Insider and Daily Dot

Ken Florance / Netflix US & Canada Blog:
Netflix says it opposes Comcast/TWC merger because Comcast charges both Netflix and its customers to connect to each other

Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

Pandora's success hinges on eating terrestrial radio's lunch, company says — Pandora is now much more attractive to advertisers who typically buy ads on terrestrial (aka traditional) radio, the company said during an earnings call today. — While terrestrial radio might be boring and filled …

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
Pandora reports Q1 loss, guidance hits sour note again

Discussion: USA Today, Pandora, Wall Street Journal and Hollywood Reporter

Paul Farrell / Guardian:

Journalists' sources are no longer safe in Australia — Can government agencies instantaneously track down journalists' sources? It's looking more and more likely, and it's a dangerous state of affairs — The idea of living in a world where government agencies could almost instantaneously track …

Discussion: @wendy_bacon, @colvinius, @ms_em_, ZDNet, @farrellpf and Guardian

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Microsoft, AOL Strike Web Video Distribution Deal — AOL and Microsoft compete for advertisers' dollars. But they've figured out a way to cooperate, too: The two rivals have struck a deal which lets Microsoft distribute AOL's videos on some of its properties.

Simon Ostrovsky / VICE News:

‘I Had It Pretty Easy, Because I Was Let Go’: Simon Ostrovsky On His Detention in Sloviansk — On Thursday, armed gunmen who held me prisoner for four nights and three days released me into the streets of Sloviansk, in eastern Ukraine. My release was as unexplained as my capture.

Discussion: Poynter, @ilvestoomas, @natvasilyevaap and @joshuafoust

Glyn Moody / Techdirt:

Russia Orders Bloggers To ‘Register’; Outlaws Anonymous Blogging, Continues Clampdown On Social Media — As we've reported, Russia has been steadily trying to bring the Internet under control with ever-more stringent measures. After tackling general Web sites through powers that allow …

Discussion: @craigmod, Engadget, The Huffington Post and The Verge

Michael Foley / The Irish Times:

Opinion: Time to redefine the regulatory system for journalism in Ireland — Opinion: Time to redefine the regulatory system for journalism in Ireland — The media regulatory system in Ireland has a decidedly old-fashioned feel. On the one hand, there is the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland …

Discussion: @tupp_ed and @faduda

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

Aftermath of Ukraine Photo Story Shows Need for More Caution — The Times led its print edition Monday with an article based in part on photographs that the State Department said were evidence of Russian military presence in popular uprisings in Ukraine. The headline read: “Photos Link Masked Men in East Ukraine to Russia.”

Discussion: Consortiumnews.com, @billmon1, Mediaite and @jayrosen_nyu

Maryclaire Dale / Associated Press:

Philadelphia newspaper guild won't bid for company — WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Workers at Philadelphia's two largest newspapers won't be able to mount a bid for their troubled company, after a wealthy potential backer balked at the projected $77 million opening price.

Nicole Levy / Capital New York:

Cosmopolitan.com hires Jill Filipovic, burnishes feminist cred — Betting that articles about restrictions on women's reproductive rights are just as shareable as slideshows of cleavage at its best, Cosmopolitan.com has hired feminist writer Jill Filipovic to cover politics, particularly the impact of policy on women's rights.

Marlise Simons / New York Times:

Two Lebanese journalists charged over publication of classified information — 2 Journalists in Lebanon Are Charged by Tribunal — The international tribunal dealing with the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon has charged two leading Lebanese journalists with contempt …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Automattic acquires visual editor Scroll Kit, company to shut down in 3 months — Automattic Buys Scroll Kit, A Code-Free Website Builder That Once Got Legal Heat From The NYT — WordPress maker Automattic's acquisition spree to build out its platform continues apace.

Discussion: Scroll Kit, @kraykray, Digiday, @codybrown, @automattic, @gluejar and VentureBeat

Reporters Without Borders:

Reporters Without Borders and Torservers.net, partners against online surveillance and censorship — Reporters Without Borders and Torservers.net have joined forces to create and maintain 250 additional relays for the Tor network. — “In doing this, our two organizations are thumbing …

Discussion: @runasand

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Q&A: David Leonhardt says The Upshot won't replace Nate Silver at The New York Times — Yesterday, The New York Times launched The Upshot, a new politics and policy vertical that was conceived when Nate Silver left the paper for ESPN. The project is led by David Leonhardt …

Discussion: 10,000 Words, @jayrosen_nyu, Globe and Mail, @mathewi and Daily Dot

Marc Parry / Chronicle of Higher Education:

As Researchers Turn to Google, Libraries Navigate the Messy World of Discovery Tools — Many professors and students gravitate to Google as a gateway to research. Libraries want to offer them a comparably simple and broad experience for searching academic content.

Discussion: @beineckelibrary

Ryan Singel / Medium:

How The FCC Plans to Save the Internet by Destroying It: An Explainer — The FCC wants to make good on President Obama's pledge to make net neutrality into law. It's just having a very hard time actually doing it. — Net Neutrality is the simple concept that the company that provides …