Mediagazer: AT&T, DirecTV To Pitch Capitol Hill on Benefits of Merger (Ted Johnson/Variety)

3:10 AM ET, June 24, 2014

Top News:

Jared Malsin / Columbia Journalism Review:

In Egypt, a Kafkaesque trial concludes with a victory for censorship — Three Al Jazeera journalists, arrested in December, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms based on questionable evidence — It began with murmuring. Someone sobbed. Then the courtroom melted into a chaos of shouting …

Discussion: mUmBRELLA, Crikey, @ksaloomey, Mashable, FiveThirtyEight, UK - The Huffington Post, @channel4news, @matinastevis, The Stream and Guardian

Bridie Jabour / Guardian:
Australia's foreign affairs minister appeals to Egypt's president to help journalist Greste

Discussion: ABC, ninemsn, @lenoretaylor, Agence France-Presse, NEWS.com.au, Committee to Protect … and The Newspaper Guild

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Kerry hits ‘draconian’ Al Jazeera convictions

Discussion: @mattrhodes, Foreign Policy and The Huffington Post

Patrick Kingsley / Guardian:
Al-Jazeera journalists jailed for seven years in Egypt

Discussion: CNN, Al Jazeera English, Committee to Protect …, Daily Dot, Crikey, New York Times, The Huffington Post, Variety, Press Gazette, @alistergreste, Mashable, The Independent, mUmBRELLA, @psawers, Huffington Post Canada, @jackmirkinson, @williamryan_, @abuaardvark, @patrickkingsley, @abcnewsintern, @ianwoodssky, @camanpour, @mishalhusainbbc, @skynewsbreak, @skynewsbreak, @iburrell, @nycjim, @nycjim, @paulbernaluk, @paulmasonnews, @mwhanna1, @malonebarry, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Amnesty International, National Union of Journalists, BBC, Poynter, Sky News, ITV, BBC, Associated Press, mUmBRELLA, UK - The Huffington Post, CNN, Channel 4, Reuters, Middle East Eye, Associated Press, Telegraph, The Wrap, @jeromestarkey, @arusbridger, The Newspaper Guild, @miafarrow, @the_intercept, @rj_gallagher, @sulliview, @petertatchell, @inigogilmore, @marklittlenews, @jeffjarvis, @katz, @davidbangladesh, @ltribe, @margotkiser, @nervana_1, @jonathanwatts and @williamjhague

Bill Carter / New York Times:

TV Ratings in U.S.-Portugal Tie Show World Cup's Draw — With an audience of 25 million viewers for Sunday's game between the United States and Portugal, the World Cup is moving into elite territory as a sports property on American television. Ratings for the game were the highest …

Discussion: TVNewser, The Wrap, Capital New York, Reuters and ESPN MediaZone

Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:

Nielsen and comScore Can't Tell You How Many People Streamed USA's World Cup Tie With Portugal — It's becoming clear the World Cup is a hit on U.S. television this year, judging from huge ratings for Sunday night's riveting game between the U.S. and Portugal.

Tom Goldstein / SCOTUSblog:

SCOTUSblog will appeal credential decision, which said blog was not independent of law firm — The walls erected by traditional media — This was a morning of ironies. At 9:30 a.m., six members of the blog staff were live-blogging the Supreme Court's orders, followed by opinions at 10 a.m. There were 10,000 readers.

Discussion: @freedomofpress

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
SCOTUSblog's appeal fails; can't get Senate press credential

Discussion: @scotusblog, @abeaujon and @billadairduke

Bloomberg:

Twitter Denies Blocking Extremist Accounts in Russia — Twitter Inc. (TWTR) said it hasn't agreed to block extremist accounts in Russia, rebutting earlier statements by the country that access was being restricted. — Instead, the San Francisco-based microblogging service said it's …

Discussion: ITAR-TASS, @policy, VatorNews, @bloombergnews, @policy, BuzzFeed, The Hill, Global Voices and VPN Creative

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Vanity Fair to host conference in San Francisco this fall, charging $5K a ticket — Vanity Fair's Fall Conference Taps Power of the Rolodex — Vanity Fair magazine will host a conference in San Francisco this fall, becoming the latest publication to enter the potentially lucrative …

Discussion: @markhor, @nytmedia, @pkafka and Re/code

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Amazon Adds More Video Ads — Now showing in Amazon's video store: Another word from its sponsors. — The e-commerce giant, which has started quietly experimenting with video ads, is adding more of them to its “Amazon Instant Video” store. Amazon is now offering a small selection …

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney.com:

CNN partnering with Georgia Institute of Technology to study drone use for journalism — CNN to study drone use for reporting — Seeking to speed up government rule-making about the use of drones in newsgathering, CNN and the Georgia Institute of Technology said Monday that they would jointly study …

Discussion: Politico, TVNewser, @brianstelter, @dorseyshaw and Poynter

Ted Johnson / Variety:

AT&T, DirecTV To Pitch Capitol Hill on Benefits of Merger — AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, in scheduled appearances on Capitol Hill on Tuesday with DirecTV chairman and CEO Michael D. White, plans to tell lawmakers that their proposed $49 billion merger may lead to lower prices for consumers across the marketplace.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and Wall Street Journal

Fiona Lowenstein / Columbia Journalism Review:

Why you should pay attention to Upworthy measuring engagement in ‘attention minutes’ — By ]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/home/posting/public_html/behind_ the_news/upworthy_attention_minutes.php on line 235 — Warning: include() [function.include] …

Discussion: Capital New York, Upworthy Insider, BuzzFeed, Gigaom and Digiday

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Disney Not Pursuing Equity Stake in Vice Media — Time Warner is still considered a suitor for the media company, though the two parties are $400 million apart. — Reports suggesting that several major media conglomerates are interested in paying big money for a stake in Vice Media are overblown …

Discussion: Quartz, The Wrap and New York Times

CBC News:

Bell Media laying off up to 120 across Toronto TV operations — Bell Media is laying off up to 120 people across its Toronto television operations. — Bell Media owns and operates numerous channels in the Toronto area, including CTV, CTV News Channel, TSN, MuchMusic, Comedy, CP24 and BNN.

Discussion: Toronto Star, Canadian Press and Huffington Post Canada

David Hepworth / Guardian:

Felix Dennis personified the buccaneering spirit magazines have lost — Outrageous and passionate, Dennis was a shrewd operator who made small fortunes from the mis-steps of the big boys — I first met Felix Dennis in an upscale New York restaurant on a hot July Saturday in 1983.