Mediagazer: Crikey agrees to destroy copies of leaked News Corp financial statements (Nic Christensen/mUmBRELLA)

6:40 AM ET, August 21, 2014

Top News:

U.S. staged secret Syria operation in failed bid to rescue Foley, other journalists, hostages — U.S. staged secret operation into Syria in failed bid to rescue Americans — On Wednesday, President Obama spoke at a news conference in Martha's Vineyard about American journalist James Foley …

Tom Risen / US News:

James Foley and Syria's News Repression — Syria was ranked the most dangerous nation for journalists like Foley, who was kidnapped and murdered. — Journalist James Foley rests at a Libyan airport in 2011. Foley was later captured in Syria, which one press freedom group has deemed …

Discussion: @usnews

James Ball / Guardian:

James Foley and the daily horrors of the internet: think hard before clicking — Outcry over footage of Foley's apparent beheading raises difficult questions about editorial ethics - and our own choices — With depressing frequency in this summer of diverse horrors, we hear tales …

Discussion: Jack Shafer, Gigaom, New York Times, Mediaite, @dankennedy_nu, Digital Life, @hazelpress, Guardian, @chionwurah, @mlbrook, @millie, Hollywood Life, PandoDaily, @losowsky, ThinkProgress, BBC, The FJP, The Wrap, @postbaron, @moorehn, Business Insider, New York Magazine, Facebook, WAVE-TV and USA Today

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
UK warns that viewing, downloading or sharing Foley video may be a crime under terrorism legislation

Discussion: USA Today, @mathewi, @vaultsan, @joshhalliday and @dangillmor

Kim Williams / Sydney Morning Herald:

Former CEO Kim Williams calls News Corp leaks a festival of vengeance — During my time at News Corporation there were frequent frustrating leaks, much like the one this week, a comprehensive set of numbers on the company's Australian enterprises. — The leak, published in Crikey …

Discussion: Guardian

Nic Christensen / mUmBRELLA:

Crikey agrees to destroy copies of leaked News Corp financial statements — Independent news website Crikey has agreed to take down and destroy all electronic and hard copy versions of leaked confidential News Corp financial documents, which showed the Australian newspaper division …

Discussion: Guardian, Crikey, Sydney Morning Herald, Crikey, @kieragorden, @nicchristensen, @themurdochtimes, Crikey, Crikey, Crikey, @chrismurphys, Sydney Morning Herald, mUmBRELLA, @peterjhinton, @ivorytowerjourn and mUmBRELLA

Nikhil Pahwa / MediaNama:

Thomson Reuters emails Indian digital publisher Medianama: we'll take your articles if you don't tell us not to — Thomson Reuters: we'll take your articles if you don't tell us not to — We received a email from Thomson Reuters last evening, informing us that unless we write …

Discussion: @sachinkalbag, @sirajdatoo, @rafat, @qhardy, @rohanv, @earleyedition and @dmjreports, Thanks:@nixxin

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

SoundCloud to incorporate ads, allow artists to collect royalties, prepares to introduce paid subscriptions — Popular and Free, SoundCloud Is Now Ready for Ads — SoundCloud is the ubiquitous wild child of the digital music world. Without paying artists or record companies …

Discussion: TechCrunch, SoundCloud, Gigaom, Engadget, The Next Web, The Verge, Music Week, @soundcloud, @caseynewton, @haynes_dave, Music Ally and Your EDM

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:

Huffington Post teams up with Beacon Reader to fund a local journalist reporting in Ferguson for a year — The Huffington Post Is Not Leaving Ferguson — What happens in Ferguson and the St. Louis metro area the day after everybody leaves? — It's a question on the minds of nearly every resident …

Discussion: The Local News Lab, Guardian, @attackerman, @mathewi, @adviserdavid, @jcstearns, @khillmatic and Beacon

Charlotte Higgins / Guardian:

BBC looks beyond the walled garden in a changing media world — In part eight of our nine-part series, Charlotte Higgins looks at how 20 years ago the BBC was a fortress in a broadcasting world it largely invented itself, and how viewing habits are changing and the technical innovator …

Discussion: @chiggi and @arusbridger

Lockhart Steele / The Verge:

Vox's Lockhart Steele commits to blogging again, hints at turning Chorus CMS into platform — The retro-futuristic future of blogging — I've been thinking about ecosystems lately. As we're digging deeper into YouTube at Vox Media, I'm coming to appreciate the ways YouTube personalities interact …

Discussion: @nbj914, @davisshaver, @fimoculous, @verge, @smalera, @petersontee, @dangillmor and LockhartSteele.com

Natalia Zinets / Reuters:

Ukraine bans Russian TV channels for airing war ‘propaganda’ — (Reuters) - Ukraine has blocked 14 Russian television channels from its cable networks to stop them spreading war propaganda, an Interior Ministry official said on Tuesday. — Television news has played a vital role …

Discussion: RT, Committee to Protect … and Broadband TV News

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Startup NimbleTV Expands ‘Virtual Cable’ Service, Drawing Legal Scrutiny — It's not exactly Aereo, but startup NimbleTV — which offers existing pay-TV subscribers access to their channels and DVR recordings over the Internet — has attracted the attention of industry lawyers who are examining whether the service is legally in bounds.

Discussion: Multichannel News

Hadas Gold / Politico:

NYT will comply with Afghanistan's order for correspondent Matthew Rosenberg to leave country — NYT's Rosenberg expelled from Afghanistan — The New York Times will comply with an order from the Afghan attorney general's office ordering correspondent Matthew Rosenberg to leave the country …

Discussion: New York Times, RT and FishbowlNY