Mediagazer: Al-Jazeera shuts down its Egypt channel (Sarah El Deeb/Associated Press)

9:15 AM ET, December 23, 2014

Top News:

Jason Koebler / Motherboard:

Sony Threatens to Sue Twitter Unless It Removes Tweets Containing Hacked Emails — Sony's battle on people disseminating its hacked and leaked emails has extended from news outlets to random Twitter users to, now, Twitter itself. Sony's lawyer has threatened Twitter with legal action …

Ira Teinowitz / The Wrap:

Dish to FCC: Comcast Deal Would Cause Competitors ‘Irreparable Harm’ — Dish Network is insisting on its opposition to Comcast's deal to buy Time Warner Cable, telling the FCC the deal would cause “irreparable harm” to the entertainment industry and consumers while providing “no discernible benefits.”

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Variety and Business Wire

Amy Schatz / Re/code:
FCC Delays Comcast-Time Warner Cable Review Again as New Documents Found

Discussion: Gigaom, @gigibsohnfcc, Hollywood Reporter and Bloomberg

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

HuffPost plans to drop AP stories, relaunch site in 2015 — Heading into the new year, The Huffington Post is planning to stop using Associated Press stories while increasing its reporter headcount, gearing up for a relaunch and rolling out more international editions.

Discussion: @sarahw, @samsteinhp, @alexweprin, @alexweprin, @clarajeffery, @katienelson and @joepompeo

Raju Narisetti / Nieman Lab:

Proposal: create Journalist Rescue Fund to place journalists in danger in safe academic posts — Could a Journalist Rescue Fund take threatened reporters out of harm's way? — Over the past 22 years, 1,059 journalists have been killed. Worldwide, some 430 journalists are in exile from their home countries.

Discussion: @pamelacolloff and @lheron

Jordan Chariton / The Wrap:

Rolling Stone Outsources Internal Investigation of Botched UVA Rape Story to Columbia Journalism School — Rolling Stone Magazine added a new editor's note to its inaccurate University of Virginia campus rape story Monday. — Also Read: Rolling Stone UVA Rape Controversy: Friends of Alleged Victim Remember It Differently

Discussion: Washington Post, FishbowlNY, SPLICETODAY.com, @brianstelter, The Huffington Post, @brianstelter, @erikwemple and @erikwemple

Brian Merchant / Motherboard:

Behind the Daily Paywall: The Site that Pays You to Read Pirated Articles — The Daily Paywall is a new website that's loaded with tens of thousands of pirated articles from some of the world's top paywalled newspapers, and its proprietor will pay you to read them.

Discussion: @mikeisaac, @dabeard, @bcmerchant, @bcmerchant, Engadget and @paolocirio, Thanks:@rossneumann

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

Making ethical choices about Sony emails requires news judgment; legal analysis is murky and complicated — Sony Emails, Free Speech — and Trying a Little ‘F2F’ — Somewhere in academia, an enterprising law professor is putting together a lecture on the hacked Sony emails, considering the legal and free-speech issues they raise.

Discussion: Forbes

Sarah El Deeb / Associated Press:

Al-Jazeera shuts down its Egypt channel — CAIRO (AP) — The Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera news network on Monday shut down its Egypt channel, quieting a major source of tension between the two countries at a time when regional efforts are underway to reconcile between the two countries over the Gulf nation's support for Islamists.

Discussion: Al Bawaba and Daily News Egypt

Mark Joyella / TVNewser:

Fox News Viewers Wage War on Dish: Thousands Call to Complain, Disconnect — Dish customers lost Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network Saturday night, as talks between the network and satellite provider collapsed. — Since late Saturday night, talks have stopped.

Discussion: @insidecablenews, @tvnewser, Inside Cable News, TVSpy, FishbowlNY, Lost Remote and Raw Story

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Google still surfaces news in search results in Spain after shutting down the News site — How Google News Lives On In Spain Despite Being Closed — Did Google News really close in Spain? If you consider Google News to be the ability to browse stories by topic, especially from a dedicated home page, yes.

Discussion: 9to5Google

Sean Beherec / Arkansas Business:

Fairfax Media sues Arkansas archivist for failure to digitize, return photos after finding its photos on eBay — Sydney Morning Herald Owner Sues John Rogers — An Australian media company is suing North Little Rock sports memorabilia collector and photo archivist John Rogers …

Bryan Bishop / The Verge:

Art house theaters petition Sony to let them show The Interview — Sony Pictures has been blaming theater chains for its decision to cancel the release of The Interview last week, but US independent movie theaters are making that a tough argument to sell. First the director of Art House Convergence …