Mediagazer: At Front Lines, Bearing Witness in Real Time (David Carr/New York Times)

10:50 PM ET, July 28, 2014

Top News:

Andy Orin / Lifehacker:

I'm Ira Glass, Host of This American Life, and This Is How I Work — Ira Glass is a writer, producer, storyteller, performer, and a familiar voice. His show This American Life has set the contemporary standard of nonfiction radio shows, and has influenced and inspired countless others to grab a mic and give podcasting a try.

Discussion: @chasejarvis

Pierre Omidyar / First Look Media:

First Look rethinks approach, focuses on incubating ideas over launching digital magazines — Nine Months in, First Look is Still Very Much a Startup — It's been some time since I've shared what we're working on at First Look Media and I wanted to provide an update.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Folio, Pressthink, Gigaom, @chanders, PandoDaily, @jayrosen_nyu, @daveweigel, The Intercept, @michelemclellan, @zandarvts, @gabestein, @gregorydjohnsen, @raju and Capital New York

Jim Brady / NetNewsCheck:

Lessons Learned From Project Thunderdome — “Do we think local news organizations — in the disaggregated Web world we live in and the even more atomic mobile world we're speeding into — actually need much national news anymore?” asks Jim Brady, who was head of Project Thunderdome until …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, @mjenkins, @dailybreezeme, Poynter, @jbinckes and @mattderienzo

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

Convicted in absentia, sentenced to ten years in Egypt prison: British Al Jazeera journalist tells of ‘burning sense of injustice’ — A British Al Jazeera journalist convicted in absentia over terrorism offences in Egypt has spoken out against the “burning sense of injustice” he and colleagues feel.

Globe and Mail:
Jailed journalist Mohamed Fahmy denied presidential pardon in Egypt

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Christian News …, Gulf Business, @lindseyhilsum and @indexcensorship

David Carr / New York Times:

At Front Lines, Bearing Witness in Real Time — My social media feed has taken a bloody turn in the last few weeks and I'm hardly alone. Along with the usual Twitter wisecracking and comments on incremental news, I have seen bodies scattered across fields and hospitals in Ukraine and Gaza.

Discussion: Prof Chris Daly's Blog, @antderosa, Gigaom and @digiphile

Julian Hattem / The Hill:

GAO: FCC flying blind on broadcasters' sharing deals — The Federal Communications Commission is largely flying blind when it comes to its oversight of broadcast companies that share resources, according to the Government Accountability Office. — The office, which acts as Congress's investigative arm …

Discussion: Reuters

Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:

HBO works on expanding reach by bundling with Internet + basic cable for $40-$50/month — HBO Pushes Web Expansion as Bewkes Battles Murdoch Bid — Jeff Bewkes is looking to the Internet to accelerate growth at his prized TV network, HBO, as he seeks to demonstrate to investors that Time Warner Inc. …

Discussion: BGR, Deadline.com, VentureBeat, Re/code, The Huffington Post and MediaWire Daily

Julio Alonso / Medium:

Spain's lower house approves tax on online news aggregators; requires paying for news snippets — The Story of Spain's Google Tax — As has happened elsewhere, France, Belgium and Germany come quickly to mind, Spanish newspaper editors have been arguing for long that Google is taking unfair advantage of them.

Discussion: Techdirt, Quartz, Business Insider, Global Voices and Boing Boing

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Apple to Buy Radio App Swell for $30 Million — Apple is close to buying the Pandora-for-talk-radio app Swell, according to multiple sources. — The deal is worth about $30 million, these sources say. — Swell had raised $7.2 million from investors including DFJ, Google Ventures and InterWest Partners.

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

FCC should help reach deal to end Dodgers TV standoff, lawmakers say — A group of Southern California lawmakers wants the Federal Communications Commission to broker a deal to end the bitter standoff between Time Warner Cable and other pay-TV providers over distribution of SportsNet LA …

Discussion: Multichannel News, @repcardenas, @replindasanchez and Variety

Corey Pein / The Baffler:

At its worst, entrepreneurial journalism disdains ethics and ignores journalism's mission — Amway Journalism — Like uninsured New Agers afflicted by terminal illness, journalists facing the collapse of their industry are turning in desperation to faith healers, quacks, and hucksters of all sorts.

Discussion: @jxpaton, @coreypein, @ryanchittum, @aaronmesh, @sherrynoik, @ryanchittum, @jvagle, @ceodonovan, @readwriteradio, @helaineolen, @anatsuno, @thebafflermag, @profjeffjarvis and @coreypein

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

NPR One Delivers A Curated Public Radio Stream For The Smartphone Era — Radio is an increasingly perplexing mode of content delivery as we gain access to more and better streaming services with on-demand programming. But the serendipity of radio is still appealing, the ability to turn …

Discussion: NPR, Nieman Journalism Lab, Mashable, AllAccess.com, 9to5Google, VentureBeat and Gizmodo

Ben Cardew / Guardian:

MH17: how Storyfuls social sleuthing helped verify evidence — Stories such as the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines plane show the importance of checking Twitter and YouTube content — In the aftermath of an event as tragically uncertain as the MH17 plane disaster …

Discussion: Mediashift, @mjenkins, @cairbreuk and @fiona_rogers