Mediagazer: Why Facebook's ‘Satire’ Tag Is Necessary, and Why Smart People Fall for Fake News (Melissa Dahl/New York Magazine)

5:05 PM ET, August 22, 2014

Top News:

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Lab:

The Guardian and St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial pages are teaming up for Ferguson coverage — It started, like so many things now do, with a tweet. On August 12, three days after Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. and just as the protests there were beginning …

Discussion: American Journalism Review, @mccanner, @tonymess, @losowsky, Mother Jones, RT and Guardian

Ryan L. Schuessler:
Flood of cameras, appalling media behavior in Ferguson spur freelancer to opt out of spectacle

Discussion: Guardian, @justcris, @anildash, @iamsakuma, @vdcphotonews, @vdcphotonews, @amaditalks, @yvonnemmu, @ryanschuessler1, VDC Photo Blog, The Daily Caller, @clairecmc, Hot Air, @penenberg, Mediaite, Gawker, @april_davis, @antderosa, @tomgara, @mmasnick, @elisewho and @_peech

Pew Research Center:
Cable, Twitter picked up Ferguson story at a similar clip

Discussion: TVNewser, Variety, Columbia Journalism Review and SocialTimes

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:
A Ferguson Story on ‘Conflicting Accounts’ Seems to Say ‘Trust Us’

Discussion: msnbc.com, @only4rm, @rukmini_shrini, @lawalazu, @lawrence, @the_fjp, @elizabethdrewoh, Pressing Issues, @occbaystreet, @jayrosen_nyu, @dangillmor and @johnmcquaid

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Execution of U.S. journalist reveals the changing business of war coverage — (Reuters) - A chilling video showing the execution of journalist James Foley by Islamist militants marks the second time an American reporter has been beheaded by captors overseas, echoing the murder …

Discussion: @richarddeitsch, NPR, @jammastergirish and Journalism News

Martin Chulov / Guardian:
James Foley and fellow freelancers assumed more risks as media outlets cut back budgets

Discussion: @brightey, @blakehounshell, @javierespinosa2, @martinchulov, @janemartinson, @joshuahersh, @remcoand, @hahellyer, @robcrilly, @beltrew, @davidc7, @benplesser, @allison_good1, @eefita, @renireni, CNN and Forbes

Tom Risen / US News:
How James Foley advised and encouraged a freelance reporter to go to Syria in 2012

Discussion: New York Times, Guardian, @tomrisen and @jamesrisen, Thanks:@tomrisen

Peter Sterne / Capital New York:

Beleaguered Spin Media's new C.E.O., Stephen Blackwell, lays out a plan — Last week, as Capital first reported, Stephen Blackwell was named the new C.E.O. of Spin Media Group—a collection of more than a dozen online music and lifestyle publications that together bring in about 30 million monthly uniques.

Discussion: MediaWire Daily

Ryan Tate / Wired:

Newsletter Thrillist set to exceed $100M in revenue this year, says co-founder Ben Lehrer — The Newsletter That Became a $100M Business Selling Stuff to Dudes — Once upon a time, Thrillist was just an email newsletter with a circulation of about 600 New Yorkers.

Our Bad Media:

The Paste-American World: How Fareed Zakaria Plagiarized In His International Bestseller (And The Magazines He Used To Run) — Last Tuesday, Fareed Zakaria responded to our initial blog post showing that he had clearly and inappropriately copied and pasted other journalistsÂ' work.

Discussion: Politico, @mickey_mccauley, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, @mcmoynihan, @leftleaningec, @raju, @bro_pair and @nycsouthpaw

Todd Shields / Bloomberg:

Comcast and Time Warner Cable Get Questions From the FCC — Federal regulators asked Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) to explain its Internet and content policies as part of the U.S. review of the company's $45.2 billion bid to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) — Comcast was asked …

Discussion: Multichannel News

Catalina Albeanu / Journalism.co.uk:

How FT is experimenting with aggregation service Antenna — FT Antenna gathers content from Twitter to keep FT readers up to date with the latest top stories on social media — Read more — Other top stories — Also on Journalism.co.uk...

Discussion: TheMediaBriefing

Kenneth Irby / Poynter:

Veteran photojournalist talks about going into hotspots — “The entire world is appalled by the brutal murder of Jim Foley by the terrorist group, ISIL,” President Barack Obama said on Wednesday. “He reported from difficult and dangerous places, bearing witness to the lives of people a world away.”

Discussion: @viiphoto and @cengizyar

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Video discovery app N3twork launches, provides access to Apple TV via AirPlay — A Video Startup Teaches Apple TV Some New Tricks — Remember when AirPlay was going to be a big deal? — AirPlay is Apple's system for beaming stuff from users' phones, tablets and laptops to Apple TVs, and then onto actual TV sets.

Discussion: Forbes

Al Jazeera English:

Appeal filed over jailed Al Jazeera staff — Lawyers for the three journalists imprisoned in Egypt say there were several breaches of process in their trial. — Lawyers for three Al Jazeera English staff jailed in Egypt have filed appeals against their convictions.

Melissa Dahl / New York Magazine:

Why Facebook's ‘Satire’ Tag Is Necessary, and Why Smart People Fall for Fake News — People are pretty great at missing the joke. — Shares — Earlier this week, Facebook announced a plan to start testing a “satire” tag, which you may soon find affixed to headlines like …

Discussion: @melissadahl, @anxiaostudio, @doug_pruim and Subtraction.com + Feed

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

Al Jazeera's negotiations with distributors eroded value of Current TV, Gore complaint claims — Al Gore Had Reservations About Selling Current TV to Al Jazeera, Court Papers Say — Current TV Co-Founders Have Sued Al Jazeera for Withholding Money From 2013 Deal