Top News:
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
Not a Very P.C. Thing to Say — How the language police are perverting liberalism. — Not a Very P.C. Thing to Say — How the language police are perverting liberalism. — Around 2 a.m. on December 12, four students approached the apartment of Omar Mahmood, a Muslim student …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Hit & Run, @normative, @juddlegum, @delong, @maxblumenthal, @kevingfox, @rustyk5, @adamweinstein, @jonathanshainin, @mobute, @poniewozik, @bigmeaninternet, @jonathanshainin, @antderosa, @chsommers, @mcurryfelidae07, @aherman2006, @tomscocca, @rustyk5, @saletan, @loly2k, @jillfilipovic, @bmichael, @rustyk5, @shaneferro, @moorehn, @shaneferro, @ryanchittum, The Federalist, @morninggloria, @hamiltonnolan, @rustyk5, @amandapalmer, @karenkho, @becketadams, @tomscocca and @jujueyeball
Justin McCurry / Guardian:
Hopes raised for release of Japanese journalist held by Isis — Jordan may be willing to free convicted suicide bomber in return for release of Kenji Goto and Jordanian pilot, says report — Jordan may be willing to free a convicted suicide bomber in return for the release of a Japanese journalist …
Discussion:
Reuters, Associated Press, International Business Times, @ninastrochlic, Guardian and NBC News
RELATED:
Yuri Kageyama / Associated Press:
Japan Turns to ‘I Am Kenji’ Facebook Page on Hostage Crisis
Discussion:
International Business Times, BBC, Associated Press, Canadian Press, ABC News, Reuters, NBC News, ABC, The Straits Times and Radio Free Europe/Radio …
Jinen Kamdar / The Twitter Blog:
Twitter starts rolling out group Direct Messaging, 30-second video capture and sharing — Now on Twitter: group Direct Messages and mobile video camera — A few months ago, we mentioned some features coming soon, and today we're excited to start rolling out two of them: group messaging and a new mobile video experience.
Discussion:
Guardian, Adweek, SocialTimes, LostRemote, Re/code, TIME, Pocket-lint, MacRumors, The Wrap, Gigaom, Telegraph, ReadWrite, Business Insider, Marketing Land, VideoNuze Analysis, TechCrunch, @sladurantaye, 9to5Mac, Electronista, Variety, @lauramaycoope, @karencivil, PandoDaily, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Re/code, The Next Web, VentureBeat, New York Times, Tubefilter, The Content Strategist, Refinery29, MacStories, Gizmodo UK and The Week
Trevor Timm / Guardian:
The war on leaks has gone way too far when journalists' emails are under surveillance — The US government's demands for the private emails of WikiLeaks staffers is outrageous. Disliking Julian Assange is a disgraceful reason anyone to stay silent — he outrageous legal attack on WikiLeaks …
Discussion:
@emilybell, Boing Boing, @biellacoleman, @trevortimm and Techdirt
RELATED:
Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:
Village Voice Owner Ponders M&A Options — Voice Media Group, owner of 11 alternative weeklies including the Village Voice, said Tuesday it was exploring “new strategies” including the possible sale of its publications or acquisition of other titles. — The company said it had hired merger …
Discussion:
AAN
Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Yahoo to Spin Off Rest of Alibaba Stake as Expected — Yahoo said it would spin off the rest of its stake in China's Alibaba Group today. It said the transaction will result in two independent public companies:
Discussion:
Re/code, Business Insider and @lanceulanoff
Alana Goodman / Washington Free Beacon:
Employees Organizing Push to Unionize Politico — Employees at Politico are organizing a push to unionize the news outlet, amid recent shakeups at the inside-the-Beltway publication. — The effort is being led by Mike Elk, a Politico labor reporter and a strident proponent of unions who started at the outlet last year.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Mediaite, @emmaroller, The Daily Caller and The Daily Caller
Rich McCormick / The Verge:
Snapchat's new Discover feature puts news and entertainment a swipe away from your stories — Snapchat has launched “Discover,” a new feature that highlights stories and videos provided both by outside publishers and by Snapchat's in-house team of journalists and videographers.
Discussion:
Snapchat, TVNewser, CNN, Multichannel News, LostRemote, FishbowlDC, The Content Strategist, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, TechRadar.com, Guardian, TrustedReviews, Telegraph, Music Ally, @sokane1, Mashable and Re/code
Tom LoBianco / Indianapolis Star:
Governor of Indiana plans to launch state-run, taxpayer-funded news service to compete with other media — Pence state-run news outlet will compete with media — Gov. Mike Pence is starting a state-run news service that will provide pre-written news stories to Indiana news outlets …
Discussion:
PRNewser, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post, Hit & Run, @ourright2know, Poynter, @crewcrew, @wibcraysteele, @tomlobianco, Raw Story, @davidsirota, @heycori, @indynewsie, @simonmaloy, @carrieritchie, @jonfine, @spj_tweets, Mediaite, @ericbradner, @ktumulty, Politico, @laurenstarky, @amoswtlcindy, @jdawsey1, @buzzfeedben, @ethanklapper and @tomlobianco
Mark Sweney / Guardian:
London Live local television station to cut third of staff — Evgeny Lebedev's channel to re-invest savings made from around 20 people going from news and current affairs teams into programming content — Evgeny Lebedev's struggling London TV station is to cut 20 jobs, around a third of its staff …
Richard Leider / YouTube Engineering …:
YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video instead of Flash — YouTube now defaults to HTML5 — Four years ago, we wrote about YouTube's early support for the HTML5 <video> tag and how it performed compared to Flash. At the time, there were limitations that held it back from becoming our preferred platform for video delivery.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, AppleInsider, VentureBeat and The Next Web
Ken Doctor / Capital New York:
Meet ‘Reveal,’ the show that could be ‘60 Minutes’ for our century — What might “60 Minutes” be like if it were launching in 2015? — It might look—or really sound—a lot like “Reveal.” You may have bumped into “Reveal,” a first-of-its-kind regular radio investigative-journalism show …
Bloomberg:
France seeks to sanction web companies as hate-speech accomplices if they host extremist messages — France Seeks to Sanction Web Companies for Posts Pushing Terror — The French government is stepping up the pressure on Google Inc. (GOOGL) and Facebook Inc. (FB) to help in the struggle against terrorist groups.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Techdirt and The Verge
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
YouTube's Offer To Musicians Isn't As Bad As Some Believe, But YouTube Should Still Change Its Policies — Last summer, there was some kerfuffle about YouTube allegedly threatening to kick musicians off of YouTube if they didn't agree to license their music to the subscription service it was building.
Discussion:
Guardian, PandoDaily and Engadget
Output Producer, CA — 
China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — 
Senior Assignment Editor, DC — 
Breaking News Editor, Tokyo — 
Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — 
Reporter - Ottawa Bureau — 
Local Government Reporter, IA — 
Research Director, CA — 
Immigration Enforcement Reporter — 
Presque Island Reporter, ME — 
Contributing Parks Ed. - SW, CA — 
AI Content Editor, WA — 
Legislative Reporter, TN — 
Editorial Assistant, Remote US — 
Elon Musk Reporter, NY or CA — 
Government & Politics Editor, WA — 
Business & GA Reporter. VT — 
Sports Reporter, WA — 
Energy Reporter, TX — 
Senior Reporter, SC — 
Trade & Climate Correspondent, DC — 
Reporter, WI — 
Political Newsletter Writer, CO — 
Jackson Reporter, MS — 
Music Editor, AZ — 
Breaking News Reporter, NV — 
Fearless Reporter/Producer, IA — 
Reporter II - Technology, Remote — 
Editor, Remote US — 
City Reporter, WA — 
Executive Editor, OR — 
Education & Budget Reporter, CA — 
Senior Writer/Editor, FL — 
Media Editor, Remote — 
