Mediagazer: Will.i.am owns an equity stake in Beats, played a key role in its success (Daniel Roberts/Fortune)

3:20 AM ET, May 19, 2014

Top News:

Editor's Exit at The Times Puts Tensions on Display — Back in 2010, before she became executive editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson sent me a handwritten attaboy note about a big story. It still hangs in my cubicle: “You wrote a story about the trashing of a once great American institution and people never tire of that.”

Discussion: @pkafka, @ravisomaiya, @gabrielsherman, @wesleylowery, @karaswisher, @om, @jsablichnyt, @ianadelman, @samgustin, @jpbarlow, @sulliview, @edmundlee, @laura_nelson, @pkafka, @sdkstl, @nikkifinke, @nickbilton, @jayrosen_nyu, @ezraklein and Talking Points Memo

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Dear Jill: From One Pushy Media Dame to Another — Let me be perfectly clear when it comes to ousted New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson: She has, on some occasions I have spent time with her, scared the bejesus out of me. — That said, it was in a very good way.

Discussion: Globe and Mail, @choire, @joshuatopolsky, @antderosa, Mashable, Poynter, @joannastern, @moorehn, The Wrap, Capital New York, HBR.org, Forbes and Business Insider

Ken Auletta / New Yorker:

Guardian's Gibson weighs in on NYT and Abramson: “Jill should not have been hung out to dry” — Why Jill Abramson Was Fired: Part III — In my last post exploring why Jill Abramson was fired as executive editor of the New York Times by Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. …

Discussion: The Corsair, @jswatz, @molly_knight, @buzzfeedandrew, @jamesrbuk, @dylanbyers, @moorehn, @jamesrbuk, @jayrosen_nyu, @jonathanchait, @nycjim, @alexberenson, Mashable and The Rumpus.net

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Sources: Sulzberger fired Abramson because he felt she misled him, others in recruiting Gibson — Sulzberger's last straw — New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger fired executive editor Jill Abramson after concluding that she had misled both him and chief executive Mark Thompson during …

Discussion: Pressing Issues, New York Magazine, bookforum.com, @karaswisher, @ryantate, Capital New York, @freddoso, @lpolgreen, @catekustanczy, @kailijoy and @tcarmody

Dylan Byers / Politico:

NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger publicly defends firing of Abramson, citing poor management, denies pay issues — N.Y. Times defends Abramson firing — New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. released a statement on Saturday stating that former executive editor Jill Abramson was fired because …

Susan B. Glasser / Politico:

Female journalists in leadership positions keep getting stuck in “editing while female” trap — Editing While Female — Field notes from one of journalism's most dangerous jobs. — Over the weekend, I had a long dinner in Paris with a close friend from our days together as foreign correspondents in Moscow.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Buttry Diary, @dannysullivan, @miriamelder, @davidfolkenflik, @buzzfeedben, @erikwemple, @themarkberman, @lheron and New York Times

AT&T:

AT&T agrees to acquire DirecTV in stock-and-cash deal for $95 per share — AT&T to Acquire DIRECTV — Creates Content Distribution Leader Across Mobile, Video & Broadband Platforms — The premier pay TV brand with the best content relationships now poised to deliver video to multiple screens …

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, The Verge, TechCrunch, Washington Post, Re/code, Home Media Magazine, Engadget, Variety, Electronista, Forbes, Mashable and Gigaom

BuzzFeed:

AT&T Buys DirecTV For $67 Billion In Second Major Deal To Reshape TV Industry — The deal, announced Sunday night after roughly a month of negotiations, follows Comcast's impending acquisition of Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion. Both deals will face intense regulatory scrutiny. — AP

Discussion: Variety, @peterlauria3, New York Times and Bloomberg

Steve Kovach / Business Insider: DirecTV deal valued at $48.5B, or $67.1B with debt; AT&T frames purchase as a way to extend internet access to rural areas

Nathan Mattise / Ars Technica: AT&T and DirecTV vow to follow FCC's 2010 net neutrality guidelines for three years after deal closes

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion: Sources — Deal would be biggest ever for YouTube — Google's YouTube has reached a deal to buy Twitch, a popular videogame-streaming company, for more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the pact.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Ars Technica, Beet.TV, The Next Web, Washington Post, @errorjustin, @jenabellalol, The Next Web, @drew, TechCrunch, USA Today, The Verge, iMore, @amir, Engadget, Re/code, Business Insider, The Verge, @amir, @drew, Gigaom, Mashable, Tech2 and 24/7 Wall St.

Wall Street Journal:

Google's acquisition talks with Twitch still at an early stage — Google in Talks About Possible Acquisition of Twitch — Google's Talks With Live Video-Streaming Service at Early Stage — Google Inc. is in talks about a possible acquisition of Twitch, a fast-growing live video-streaming service …

Discussion: @ow and @benfritz

Margalit Fox / New York Times:

William Worthy, a Reporter Drawn to Forbidden Datelines, Dies at 92 — William Worthy, a foreign correspondent who in the thick of the Cold War ventured where the United States did not want him to go — including the Soviet Union, China, Cuba — and became the subject of both a landmark …

Discussion: Nieman Reports, The Boston Globe, @mlcalderone, Whistleblower Protection Blog, @qhardy and @jackshafer