Mediagazer: Australian bill sees whistleblowing on intel ops punishable by up to 10 years in jail (RT)

6:00 AM ET, July 17, 2014

Top News:

In Modern Media Realm, Big Mergers Are a Bulwark Against Rivals — When the news broke on Wednesday that 21st Century Fox, Rupert Murdoch's huge media and entertainment company, made an $80 billion offer to buy Time Warner Inc., another big media conglomerate, it seemed like a seismic jolt in the business landscape.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @michaelroston, @peterlauria3, @cdixon, Top Digital Journal News, Deadline.com, Mashable and Business Insider

John McDuling / Quartz:

It's not TV that Rupert Murdoch wants: It's HBO — The shockwaves from the news that Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox recently approached Time Warner (and was rebuffed) about an $80 billion takeover are still rippling through New York's media scene today. — And the early consensus among analysts …

Discussion: Bloomberg and Mashable

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

What If Rupert Murdoch Really Is Unstoppable — and Immortal? — If the Media Mogul Really Wants to Buy Time Warner, Nothing Can Stop Him — Content Marketing 2014 — Rupert Murdoch appears to be convinced that not only will he live forever, but eventually he'll own every global media company of consequence.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, USA Today, BuzzFeed, Latest News & Headlines, Variety, @themarkberman, Variety, Media & Entertainment, @dellcam and USA Today

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal: 21st Century Fox Bid Puts CNN in Cross Hairs

New York Times:
Time Warner rejected $80B takeover bid by Murdoch's 21st Century Fox last month, no longer in discussions

Discussion: TimeWarner Blog, USA Today, Quartz, Bloomberg, TVNewser, Business Wire, timewarner.com, Forbes, New York Times, Re/code, Forbes, Latest News & Headlines, TVNewser, Multichannel News, Business Insider, @gerryconway, Deadline.com, Engadget, The Wrap, The Week Magazine, Talking Biz News, Top Digital Journal News, bookforum.com, USA Today, Mashable, VatorNews, Reuters, @smartfootball, @jackshafer, @poniewozik, Slate, Mediaite, Quartz, Capital New York, Variety, The Corsair, TheStreet.com, Bloomberg, euronews, Bloomberg, DW.DE, RTTNews, New York Post, AM New York, Bloomberg, Adweek, ABC News, International Business Times, US News, Comic Book, Capital New York, Business Insider, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Telegraph, Businessweek, AdAge, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, The Wrap, CNBC, Financial Times, Business Insider, The Drum, TIME, Reuters, Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Hollywood Reporter, Yahoo! Finance, Radio & Television …, Associated Press, The Huffington Post, Guardian, NY Daily News, Home Media Magazine, New York Magazine, C21Media, FierceCable, Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney.com, @erinade, Globe and Mail, VentureBeat, Talking Points Memo, Politico and Forbes

David Boardman / Poynter:

Essay: Hey, Publishers: Stop fooling us, and yourselves — For an industry built on a foundation of truth-telling, the newspaper business sure has trouble telling the truth about itself. — Last month at the World Newspaper Congress in Turin, Italy, the chief spokesperson for U.S.-based dailies …

Discussion: Guardian, Gigaom, Reflections of a Newsosaur, @chadedge, @pmarca, @samkirkla, @albertocairo, @bobstep, @geostanley, @derekmyoung, @samkirkla, @jillkimball, @stevebuttry and @greggriffin

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:
The newspaper crisis, by the numbers

Discussion: @gsterling and @stevebuttry

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Netflix says ‘no rules’ would be better than FCC's net neutrality proposal — Netflix filed a comment with the FCC yesterday strongly condemning the commission's new net neutrality proposal, which would allow internet service providers to offer so-called “fast lanes” to companies that can afford them.

Discussion: Softpedia News, @acedtect, The Hill, The Slanted, Netflix US & Canada Blog, Techdirt, Variety, Gigaom, FierceOnlineVideo News and BGR

Joe Strupp / Media Matters for America:

NPR Backs Off Planned “Downgrade” Of Ombudsman — National Public Radio is backing away from a revised job description for its ombudsman that suggested the person in the position should avoid “passing judgment” on any errors in NPR News coverage, calling that listing “a mistake.”

Discussion: @sulliview, @acarvin, @digiphile, @brianstelter, @dangillmor and @jayrosen_nyu

Tyler Hicks / New York Times:

Pulitzer-prize winning NYT photographer describes witnessing the deaths of four boys in Gaza — Through Lens, 4 Boys Dead by Gaza Shore — GAZA CITY — My day here began at 6 a.m. Photographing something as unpredictable as war still has a routine. — It is important to be out the door …

Discussion: TVNewser, New York Times, Guardian, NBC News, @grahamliddell, @cblatts, @justinraimondo and @lucykafanov

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:

Liberty Global Acquires ITV Stake From BSkyB for $824 Mln — Cable billionaire John Malone took another step to expand in TV programs and production with the purchase of a stake in ITV Plc (ITV), the biggest U.K. commercial broadcaster known for its top-rated show “Downton Abbey.”

Discussion: Variety, Guardian, Hollywood Reporter, Financial Times, Proactive Investors, RTTNews and Key 103 Manchester

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Amazon is testing “Kindle Unlimited,” an ebook subscription service for $9.99/month — Amazon is testing an ebook and audiobook subscription service called “Kindle Unlimited” that offers “unlimited access to over 600,000 titles and thousands of audiobooks on any device for just $9.99 a month.”

BBC:

BBC News to cut a further 415 jobs — The BBC's News department is to axe 415 jobs as cost-cutting measures continue, the BBC's director of news James Harding has announced. — The move is part of £800m efficiency savings required after the licence fee was frozen in 2010.

Discussion: Guardian, @trushar, @trushar, @imkevinyoung, @lucynews, @marcsettle, @marcsettle and @marcsettle

RT:

Australian bill sees whistleblowing on intel ops punishable by up to 10 years in jail — Neo-McCarthyism is on the march in Australia as the country's attorney general proposed a new bill which would see potential whistleblowers facing up to 10 years in prison for leaks.

Discussion: Guardian, Mashable, Engadget and Boing Boing

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A change in the IRS process for granting tax-exempt status could be a boon to nonprofit news — It took almost a year and a half for nonprofit news site Eye on Ohio to get its tax-exempt status approved by the IRS this spring. Launched in the fall of 2012 by former business reporter Lori Ashyk …

Simon Parkin / Eurogamer.net:

Some YouTubers covering video games are running advertorials, paid promotions, and product placement without disclosures — Blurred lines: Are YouTubers breaking the law? — From unmarked advertorial to paid social promotion, Simon Parkin investigates the ethics and legality of YouTube.

Discussion: Guardian, @renireni and Forbes

Reuters:

Apple agrees conditionally to a $450M settlement in e-book price-fixing case; $400M will go to consumers — Apple agrees to conditional $450 million e-books antitrust accord — (Reuters) - Apple Inc has agreed to pay $450 million to resolve U.S. state and consumer claims …

Discussion: Gigaom, ag.ny.gov, Hollywood Reporter, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Electronista, The Next Phase, Business Wire, Publishers Lunch, AppleInsider and The Verge

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Publishers have an updated evergreen strategy: Make the old new again — Here's an irony about the rise of the real-time Web: Sometimes what's new isn't always what performs best. — Publishers are doing all they can to wring out more value from their existing body of content.

Melissa Hellmann / TIME:

Nielsen Partners Up With Facebook to Track Television-Viewing Habits — Nielsen Media Research, the television-ratings company, will be partnering with Facebook to ascertain what television viewers are watching on their tablets and other mobile devices. — In the past, Nielsen solely tracked meters …

Discussion: Washington Post, French Tribune, redOrbit, NBC News, Tech Times, PC Magazine, Lost Remote, Cinema Blend, Tech Times and AllFacebook

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

Media reporter's advice for her replacement: ‘Turn your computer off once in a while’ — Until the end of the month, Johana Bhuiyan is a digital media reporter for Capital New York. Bhuiyan's headed next to cover tech for BuzzFeed's FWD. Before she leaves our tribe of media reporters …

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Setting the record straight: how a critique of tech media's flaws came back to bite an editor — There's No Crying In Inside Baseball — Many of you have likely read the latest in a series of profiles of Kara Swisher, the grizzled WSJ reporter who struck out with Walt Mossberg to found Recode.