Four in the afternoon

1. Using social media to report on Egypt. Mashable

2. The Burbank Leader has followed through on its pledge to sue the city of Burbank for merit-based bonuses paid to city employees. Burbank Leader

3. The nonprofit California Watch has launched a new partnership with several newspapers across the state. CFIR

4. Facebook is making an aggressive push to get in the comments game on media websites - especially startups. CNET

Lingering questions about NPR post- Williams

How much did the heavy-handed management style of former NPR news chief Ellen Weiss have to do with her forced resignation in the wake of the Juan Williams firing? Paul Farhi at the Washington Post gets an inside look and finds a communication breakdown between Weiss and NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, and some relief inside the NPR newsroom at Weiss's departure. Here's part of the story:

Inside NPR, Weiss's sudden departure caused mixed reactions. While some saw it as capitulation to outside pressure, others were privately joyful. They viewed Weiss's tenure as divisive and questioned her judgment on several fronts, especially her personnel decisions. 

Some of the hard feelings toward Weiss in NPR's newsroom sprang from a bruising cutback in December 2008, the first employee layoffs at NPR in 25 years. NPR eliminated 64 jobs and wiped out three programs in a move designed to close a $23 million budget gap. Some of NPR's most-seasoned journalists were let go, including hosts Alex Chadwick and Jacki Lyden, correspondents John McChesney and Elaine Korry and editor Marcus Rosenbaum. (Lyden was later restored to part-time status.)

Video of Egyptian protests

Mohamed Ibrahim Elmasry, a Canadian computer science professor staying in Cairo, captured dramatic video of police and protesters clashing on a bridge near Tahir Square. I found the videos on the New York Times' Lede blog.

Al Jazeera and social change in the Middle East

Broadcast news, whatever its allegiances and whatever platform it uses, has great power to organize the collective mind around ideas, ideals and events. While Twitter, Facebook and other social media have been profiled as part of the coverage of protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and Iran, not as much has been said about the role of Al Jazeera. The New York Times yesterday published a fascinating piece on just this subject. From the story:

In many ways, it is Al Jazeera’s moment — not only because of the role it has played, but also because the channel has helped to shape a narrative of popular rage against oppressive American-backed Arab governments (and against Israel) ever since its founding 15 years ago. That narrative has long been implicit in the channel’s heavy emphasis on Arab suffering and political crisis, its screaming-match talk shows, even its sensational news banners and swelling orchestral accompaniments. 

“The notion that there is a common struggle across the Arab world is something Al Jazeera helped create,” said Marc Lynch, a professor of Middle East Studies at George Washington University who has written extensively on the Arab news media. “They did not cause these events, but it’s almost impossible to imagine all this happening without Al Jazeera.”

Read the rest here.

If you want to hear Al Jazeera's coverage, the live English-language stream is here.

Four today

1. It's about to get more crowded on Gmail. Searchengineland (via Nieman Lab)

2. I'm a little late on this... but Times food writer Mark Bittman is making his exit. NYT

3. The NYT public editor responds to LAT environmental editor Geoff Mohan over a story that questions the latter paper's mojo. Poynter

4. The man who bought a newspaper company with other people's money, and then ended up in bankruptcy court, doesn't want to be "the media's bitch anymore". LA Observed

Singleton: "the news side is my real passion"

Westword has a lengthy interview with Dean Singleton, who cites health issues and his age as the reason he decided to step down CEO of MediaNews Group. Singleton will stay on as executive chairman of the company and serve as publisher of the Denver Post and Salt Lake Tribune.

The interview offers hints about what's next for MediaNews. Consolidation, of course, is on the agenda. Singleton couches the consolidation plans in talk of expansion, which would indicate that mergers with are on the horizon too add to company's properties, since even he can't spin shrinking as a form of growth.

He also talks about mobile and social media strategies, which MediaNews has been working on some time. And Singleton offers a more cautious view of pay walls than I've read before:

"We're experimenting with pay walls, but there's no certainty pay walls are going to work," he concedes. "The best reason to have a pay wall is that it sends a message to consumers that all information is not free. And I think having sent the message for fifteen years that it is, we need to send a different message -- that all information isn't free. Although you can't have a total pay wall, because we're generating a lot of traffic, and a lot of revenue, for the content we have."

MediaNews has already outlined a strategy where features, sports and some user-generated content would go behind pay walls, with breaking news still free. But the statement above, along with the desire to merge operations with other papers, makes me wonder if MediaNews wants to limit pay walls to niche content, such as Politico has done with its Politico Pro.

Then there is Singleton's homage to news, a sentiment most people who work (or worked) on the news side would have liked to have seen in practice when he was wielding the axe:

"Newspapering is my primary love, and the news side is my real passion. Having been a CEO for 27 years at MediaNews and for eight years prior to that for another company that I didn't own, I've been a newspaper CEO for 35 years. And I've been very much a businessman, because that's what you have to do to build a company. I love the business side of newspapering, no question. But my first love is and always has been the news side. And I don't have any intentions of drawing a breath of life outside of newspapering."

A nice career epitaph. I'm not sure it will stick.

NYT editor opens up about relationship with WikiLeaks*

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller has written a long piece talking about how his paper came into possession of the WikiLeaks cables and battlefield dispatches, and its relationship with WikiLeaks's quirky, genius founder, Julian Assange. The story is here.

*Update: I should have noted that Keller's article is an introduction to a 2000-page e-book the NYT will publish Monday on the WikiLeaks affair. The first two chapters are profiles of Assange and the alleged source of the WikiLeaks material, Pfc. Bradley Manning. The rest appears to be a compilation of past stories, along with links to the cables that served as the basis for reporting. The book will sell for $5.99.

Four in the afternoon

1. The New York Times readies its tiered paywall for launch in February. NYT

2. Could new Google search protocol weed out Patch? OJR

3. Poynter talks Twitter/Facebook mini-narratives. Poynter

4. Convict monkey escapes from cage. AP

What's ahead for MediaNews - and what's left behind

In the best of possible worlds, the shakeup at MediaNews that left company president Jody Lodovic without a job and CEO Dean Singleton with a (severely?) diminished role would serve as an object lesson in how moral cheapness leads to downfall; a final judgment on mass consolidations and layoffs divorced from any sense of journalistic mission, ethics or service; karma for all the dedicated journalists told their dedication was a childish distraction, and for all the readers told they must accept lower and lower standards under the same brand name.

But, I doubt such lessons will be learned. There are now two forces at work in MediaNews, and neither of them is reflection. The first will accelerate change, which is inevitable. The second will shape the change, which is worrisome.

The first force results from the removal of Singleton as CEO. The new directors are no less interested in moneymaking than he and no more interested in quality journalism. Yet, they come without the baggage and ego that clouds strategic decision-making.

The second force results from the removal of the baggage and ego that at least served as a check on the most drastic consolidation plans. The new board is not going to try to preserve a newspaper company, as Singleton has. This could be a benefit to innovation, creating a potential for a sane and creative digital strategy (which is sorely lacking in MediaNews). But this also removes a check on pain.

Martin Langeveld, a former MediaNews executive now at Nieman Journalism Lab, has an excellent post about what to expect, and he makes a convincing argument that Singleton no longer much of a hand in in the company:

While Singleton may have ideas for strategic consolidations, without Lodovic he lacks the necessary financial engineering savvy, and without control of the board, he can’t make anything happen. The new title for Singleton looks and feels like a face-saving ambassadorial position.

In other words, it is time to look beyond Lean Dean. He is not the future.

So, who is in charge and what do they want? Alden Global Capital is the group that now has board control of MediaNews, and the investment company has a deep financial interest in a number of other distressed newspaper companies, many of which might be ripe for a leveling consolidation. Again, from Langeveld:

Clearly, Alden is the outfit with the most skin in the game, having investments in MediaNews, Freedom, Philadelphia Media, Journal Register, Freedom, Tribune and Postmedia. (Incidentally, as a further extension of this network, JP Morgan Chase, which has been involved in the Tribune, Freedom and Journal Register reorganizations, is the largest stockholder at Gannett, with a 10.2 percent “passive” investment.)

With all these interrelationships among investors and “distressed” newspaper firms, it’s not hard to see why Dean Singleton might say that achieving some kind of “consolidation” will be a full-time job. Still, it seems unlikely that Singleton will get to pull the strings, when the money behind the interlocking investment structures is controlled by billionaire Randall Smith, Alden’s founder, who built his fortune through investments in junk bonds and distressed properties. Alden acquired most of its newspaper stakes through its Alden Global Distressed Opportunities Fund, which it launched in 2008 and which is now worth nearly $3 billion. Alden has offices in New York, Dallas, Dubai and Mumbai, along with a tax-haven presence on the Channel Island Jersey.

The beginning of the consolidation process is likely to be here in Southern California, with some form of merger between MediaNews Group's Los Angeles Newspaper Group and the Orange County Register, owned by Freedom Communications. But Alden also has a stake in the Tribune Co, which owns the Los Angeles Times. This could lead to a distribution partnership that serves as a basis for mergers in other parts of the country.

Again, Langeveld:

For example, in New England, a combination of MediaNews, Journal Register and Tribune would have properties in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts — totaling about 25 percent of circulation in those states, on a par with the current California partnership. On a countrywide basis, the companies in which Alden appears to have a stake and some degree of influence, as detailed above, have about 15 percent of all circulation and if fully merged, would be about 10 percent bigger than the current champion, Gannett.

Hopefully, we'll see more reporting on Randall Smith, the billionaire owner of Alden, and get a sense of where he wants to go.

Newspaper, the movie

Andrew Rossi spent a year inside the New York Times, documenting the paper's inner workings and the work of media critic David Carr, as he did his own documenting of the collapse of the newspaper industry. "Page One" is premiering this week at Sundance. Here's a summary:

The film deftly makes a beeline for the eye of the storm or, depending on how you look at it, the inner sanctum of the media, gaining unprecedented access to the New York Times newsroom for a year. At the media desk, a dialectical play-within-a-play transpires as writers like salty David Carr track print journalism’s metamorphosis even as their own paper struggles to stay vital and solvent. Meanwhile, rigorous journalism—including vibrant cross-cubicle debate and collaboration, tenacious jockeying for on-record quotes, and skillful page-one pitching—is alive and well.

MSNBC and Olbermann part ways

From the New York Times:

Keith Olbermann, the highest-rated host on MSNBC, announced abruptly on the air Friday night that he is leaving the show immediately.

The host, who has had a stormy relationship with the management of the network for some time, especially since he was suspended for two days last November, came to an agreement with NBC’s corporate management late this week to settle his contract and step down.

Four in the morning

1. The Pearl Project has completed its investigation into the murder of Daniel Pearl. Key finding: "Twenty-seven men were allegedly involved in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal bureau chief Daniel Pearl, but only four have been charged and convicted." The rest of the report is here: Pearl Project (found via LA Observed)

2. 25 essential writing tips you may or may not agree with. Guardian

3. NPR and its 1.4 million Facebook fans. Nieman Journalism Lab

4. The USC j-school news site Neon Tommy is having an open house "today from 3-4 p.m. in the West Lobby of the Annenberg School. All are welcome."

JPL privacy lawsuit fails at Supreme Court

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal government's right to conduct extensive background checks on contract employees, rejecting a suit brought by employees at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada-Flintridge that said the checks violated privacy rights.

The Washington Post has the story here.

Digression: I once had the pleasure of interviewing the lead plaintiff in the case, JPL image analyst Robert Nelson, about his Quixotic effort to get national media attention for his analysis of Bush's infamous bulge (the one on his back in his 2004 debate with John Kerry. Here's a Salon story for reference). My article got spiked, and then erased from the computer system, by former San Gabriel Valley Tribune executive editor Tal Campbell for being too political. Memories.

Republican chop shop

House Republicans have introduced a list outlining $2.5 trillion in cuts over ten years. Rail projects and health care make up the bulk of the cuts, but there are savings from cultural programs, too. From David Weigel's piece in Slate:

And cuts that get revenge for Juan Williams: $445 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $167.5 million from the NEA, and $167.5 million from the NEH.

Union meh*

The union representing employees at MediaNews Group's Northern California newspapers has struck a deal that sounds a lot like what non-union employees in the chain's Southern California newspapers got - a week-long furlough and a vacation freeze in exchange for a wobbly pledge not to lay anyone off. FishbowlLA has the story here.

*Correction: As a comment rightly points out, the non-union LANGers will be forced to take 10 furlough days, not five as stated above.

Four in the afternoon

1. The New York Times has named Carolyn Ryan as Metro editor. Poynter

2. The war against cliches in journalism. The Cutline

3. The city of New York will launch an internal social network to spur innovation. gov20

4. More thoughts on the downfall of Lean Dean. Ken Doctor

MediaNews and Freedom are thinking merger

The shakeup in the MediaNews Group boardroom, led by news that Dean Singleton is stepping down as CEO, isn't just a case of musical chairs. As the Wall Street Journal reports, two of the three new board members named today work for a company that is part owner of Freedom Communications, publisher of the Orange County Register. An insider told WSJ that the company, Alden Global Capital, is thinking merger.

MediaNews owns nine newspapers in Southern California, some of which already have a working relationship with the Register.

But the consolidation plans could go much further. From the WSJ:

MediaNews Group Inc., publisher of more than 50 daily U.S. newspapers including the Denver Post, is eyeing a merger with Freedom Communications Inc. and possibly several other newspaper companies, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

-snip-

The person ... said Alden wants to roll at least some of its various newspaper holdings into a single company. Alden was part of a group of financial firms that emerged last year as the winner of the auction of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. Alden also owns a stake in Journal Register Co., which publishes the New Haven Register among a group of other papers.

Singleton to step down as MediaNews CEO*

There's a massive shakeup in the boardroom of MediaNews Group. Chairman and CEO Dean Singleton has announced he will relinquish his position atop what is now the second-largest newspaper chain in the country. Singleton, who has come to symbolize aggressive cost cutting, consolidation and cheapness in the newspaper industry, will become executive chairman of the company.

Additionally, President Joseph Lodovic said he will resign, effective immediately. An interim president has been named in his place.

MediaNews has launched a search to replace the two men.

From the Denver Post:

MediaNews also said it will launch a search for the newly created position of chief revenue officer. Michael Sileck, a MediaNews director, will serve in that position on an interim basis.

"In light of the significant opportunities and challenges we and the industry are facing, our company is best served by having separate executives focus their full efforts on both the strategic landscape, and on implementing an effective plan to expand our revenue streams and meet our operational and efficiency goals," Singleton said in a statement.

MediaNews also named three new directors: Heath Freeman, Bruce Schnelwar and Eric Krauss.

*Update: The Post article does not offer any background on the three new directors. According to Silicon Valley Business Journal, Freeman is managing director of Alden Global Capital; Schelwar is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Smith Management LLC as well as managing director of Alden Global Capital, and Krauss is chief financial officer of Action Sports Inc.

When financiers get put in charge, and a chief revenue officer is hired, one can be fairly certain that the banks that helped bail the company out of last year's bankruptcy are not happy with performance. As I wrote in March, "Bank of America and the other major creditors probably won't be very patient about seeing returns on their investment after forgiving [$765 million of] debt." And, apparently, they weren't.

What this means for a company that already has furloughs and a vacation freeze on tap is hard to know. Further consolidation almost seems impossible - nevertheless, that's the plan. And Singleton will be in charge. Here's the company press release, explaining Singleton's role now that he has more free time on his hands:

...focus on opportunities to optimize the company’s portfolio of properties and consolidation opportunities in the newspaper industry.

Porfolios are rarely optimized through investment and adding newsroom staff.

I learned something from Patch

The Santa Monica Patch reports that KCRW is starting a paid-internship program. Who knew?

A traffic accident is just a text message away

Poynter has a cheerleader column up today congratulating the Orange County Register for pushing stories out on mobile devices. According to the story, roughly 25 percent of the paper's digital traffic last weekend came via mobile sources.

The Register's well-named social media guru, Sonya Quick, said a 10-car wreck in Newport Beach was responsible for the spike. From her email to Poynter:

Three people died in the accident. The story’s many versions accounted for a large portion of our mobile traffic over the weekend. 

Social: The original story was shared 323 times on Facebook and in 26 tweets. The follow-up story was shared 148 times on Facebook and in 16 tweets. I have seen that social links are a much more significant source of referral traffic on our mobile website when compared to our full website. 

E-mail: This story is about people. Based on people being injured who were likely friends and family to many, and based on the number of social shares, I’m guessing that the story was shared via e-mail much more than an average story. 

Alert: The accident resulted in a 10-hour closure of West Coast Highway (also known as Pacific Coast Highway) on Saturday. Our newsroom sent an alert about the accident that alerted thousands of people to the article. (We have a news alert tool built into our content management system which allows us to send breaking news out to text message subscribers, @ocreggiefacebook.com/ocregister fans within seconds). Twitter followers and

Remember unions? Harper's writers do.

John Arthur, liberal businessman and owner of Harper's magazine, is "locked in a bitter contract dispute" with his recently unionized staff, reports New York magazine. At least one editor, Ben Metcalf, has accused Arthur of retaliation and top staff have since left the publication.

The New York magazine story plays up the irony of a liberal boss fighting his liberal staff over a liberal cause: unionization. But the real trouble stem from vanity and a failure adapt to the changing times. From the sorry:

The current crisis began a year ago, when MacArthur fired the magazine's editor-in-chief, Roger Hodge. The two men had once been close, but their relationship had frayed as the red ink mounted: Newsstand sales dropped, MacArthur's appetite for losses waned, and Hodge tried to defend the staff from cuts. According to Harper’s' most recent tax filing in 2009, MacArthur invested $4.4 million into the magazine. (In 2006, his losses were only $2.9 million.)

In the months following Hodge’s ouster, the staff became alarmed when MacArthur’s name began appearing on top of the masthead (previously it had been underneath the editors' names, along with the business staff). Senior editors Bill Wasik, Luke Mitchell, and Jen Szalai departed, along with web editor Paul Ford. To fill Hodge's position, MacArthur appointed Ellen Rosenbush, Harper’s' longtime copy chief, as acting editor. The move struck many staffers as a way to have a more pliant editor in charge: Rosenbush helped edit MacArthur's monthly column in the Providence Journal and his book You Can't Be President. Staffers also complained that MacArthur’s business plan was doomed to fail. He seemed to show little interest in the web in general or the iPad in particular, at a moment when The Atlantic, its longtime thought-leader rival, had invested heavily online and had reaped benefits both in prestige and in financial viability. “He said no one will ever make money on the web,” one staffer told me on condition of anonymity. 

Ugly.

Some MediaNews ads go on autopilot

The Bay Area News Group, which is part of the MediaNews Group empire, has signed a deal with Wire2 to install software that will allow realtors to create their own open house ads on the newspaper chains' websites and will sync up with obituary information on Legacy.com, reports News and Tech. From the story:

Ad Hawk Open Homes lets real estate agents oversee the design and placement of their own ads without requiring the need to talk to an ad rep. BANG hopes to have half its open-house ads converted to self-service by March and 90 percent by year-end.

The Obituaries site integrates obituary information with a listing on Legacy.com. More than 30 area funeral homes have already signed up to use the portal.

This is how they do more with less.

New Yorker profiles AOL and Patch

New Yorker media writer Ken Auletta has written a profile of AOL and its effort to become a major online content provider (i.e., online news operation) - including the recent explosion Patch sites around the country. Auletta's assessment isn't kind, saying the content is "piffle."

Here's how PaidContent summarizes Auletta's view of Patch (New Yorker story is subscription only):

Patch, which Auletta puts at 700 outlets and has 750-plus now, is too much like “digital Yellow Pages” plus has tension between journalism and boosterism—and probably costs too much to last at an estimated $30 million a quarter.

The hectic effort to get Patch to the 750 number before the close of 2010 certainly had an effect on quality - something the managers of Patch admitted internally. Whether AOL has a strategy to turn this around, now that it has numbers, remains the central question. Auletta doesn't think it will. Again, from PaidContent:

AOL gets points for hiring hundreds of journalists for Patch and hiring some talented journalists overall, but loses some for failing to hire an editor in chief. It also loses some for losing reporters. AOL refugee Jeff Bercovici told Auletta one reason he switched to Forbes.com was to get his calls returned but also cited the pressure to reverse a downward trend. And this was written when FanHouse was an AOL brand; late last week Armstrong announced plans to outsource most of sports, health and real estate. Auletta’s take: AOL does not seem to be saving journalism, and journalism does yet seem to be saving AOL.” He carefully leaves the door ajar for that possibility but clearly doesn’t expect it.

 The New York Times had a story yesterday that gives us a glimpse of the Patch metrics (found via LA Observed):

Traffic on individual sites is low; former editors say that the average post attracts just 100 views and that they considered 500 page views a wild success. But the overall traffic is growing quickly.

In December, Patch had just over three million unique visitors, 80 times that of a year earlier, according to comScore.

Yet over the years, a number of so-called hyperlocal news sites have failed, and the idea is largely unproved financially.

Murdoch's News of the World still dogged by phone-hacking scandal

The Guardian reports that an assistant editor of news at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World paid a private detective to hack into a sports agent's voicemail. News Corp has long held a single reporter had at the paper paid for illegal taps, but there have been allegations that the practice was systemic at the gossip rag.

When you get beat by 'em, join 'em

The Associated Press had prevailed in its lawsuit against sued L.A. artist Shepard Fairey for the latter's use of an AP photo as the basis for his "Hope" posters of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. Now comes word that the two sides have settled out of court, with Fairey agreeing to work on a series of Hope posters based on AP images. The two parties will share the profits.

Here's the AP announcement (via Nieman Journalism Lab):

In settling the lawsuit, the AP and Mr. Fairey have agreed that neither side surrenders its view of the law. Mr. Fairey has agreed that he will not use another AP photo in his work without obtaining a license from the AP. The two sides have also agreed to work together going forward with the Hope image and share the rights to make the posters and merchandise bearing the Hope image and to collaborate on a series of images that Fairey will create based on AP photographs. The parties have agreed to additional financial terms that will remain confidential.

Correction of the day

Howard Kurtz, now writing for the Daily Beast, issued a whopper correction today for a story he wrote back in November. Turns out he confused Rep. Darrell Issa's spokesman for the congressman. Here's the correx:

When I conducted the telephone interview for my Nov. 27 article on California Rep. Darrell Issa, my unambiguous understanding was that I was speaking with Rep. Issa. I subsequently learned that I was speaking to his chief spokesman, Kurt Bardella. None of the views ascribed to Issa are inaccurate, but the attribution throughout the story should have been to his spokesman, not to the congressman. We have since corrected the article. The earlier version also mentioned Darrell Issa’s “tendency to refer to himself in the third person.” In fact, that usage was appropriate because the interview was with his spokesman.

At least he corrected it, I guess.

Four today

1. Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") and Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation") will join KCRW's Evan Kleiman on February 9 at USC to talk about the way we feed ourselves. LA Weekly

2. KOCE has rebranded itself PBS SoCal and plans to expand its staff in Los Angeles as it becomes the main PBS affiliate in Southern California, taking over from the PBS divorcee KCET. Franklin Avenue (via LA Observed)

3. When ordered to turn over information about several users in connection with the federal investigation of Wikipedia, Twitter successfully challenged the court's gag order and told the subjects of the investigation what had happened. Wired

4. Media organizations need to update their codes of ethics to keep up with the times. Poynter

Jerry Brown is revoking your cell phone privileges

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to show voters that he means what he said in the campaign about cutting back on spending. And, so, he has ordered roughly 48,000 state-owned cell phones be confiscated from state employees, the Sacramento Bee reports.

From the Bee:

"It is difficult for me to believe that 40 percent of all state employees must be equipped with taxpayer-funded cell phones," Brown said in a written statement.

The state currently pays for 96,000 cell phones, the governor added.

"Some state employees, including department and agency executives who are required to be in touch 24 hours a day and seven days a week, may need cell phones, but the current number of phones out there is astounding."

Turtle smugglers busted at LAX

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers detained two Japanese nationals at LAX after finding 55 endangered turtles - alive - in their luggage. The men also had $16,212 in undeclared currency, which was also seized.

Here's part of the CBP press release:

The exotic reptiles, identified as endangered species, were found alive wrapped in cloth bags and concealed inside five Japanese cookie boxes. Turtles and tortoises are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

CBP officers seized 15 Fly River, 14 Snail Eating, 3 Chinese Big-Headed, 5 Indian Flap, 11 Chinese Soft Shell turtles and 7 Star tortoises.

I have no idea why they decided to list the reptiles in that order, but there you have it.

MySpace cuts again

MySpace will cut 500 jobs from its worldwide operations, AP confirms. A good number of those people work at the company's headquarters in Beverly Hills. The decision was expected and comes two years after another mass layoff, which sent 420 people out the door. MySpace is owned by News Corp.

Bloomberg hires for Daily News reporter for Capitol beat

James Nash, who worked for the LA Daily News before heading to the Columbus Dispatch to cover the Ohio statehouse, will be the Capitol reporter in Sacramento for Bloomberg News. Nash has also done stints at the LA Business Journal and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside.

Feds charge ex-CIA officer in leak to NY Times

Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who worked on the agency's Iran desk, has been charged with 10 counts of disclosing classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen.

From the Associated Press story:

The indictment did not say specifically what was leaked but, from the dates and other details, it was clear that the case centered on leaks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Risen for his 2006 book, "State of War." The book revealed details about the CIA's covert spy war with Iran.

-snip-

The indictment is the latest move in an aggressive Obama administration campaign to crack down on leaks, even as the administration has supported proposed legislation that would shield reporters from having to identify their sources.

NPR news exec resigns in wake of Williams firing

NPR released two memos today. The first says NPR must update its ethics guidelines based on an independent review of news analyst Juan Williams's firing. The second says Ellen Weiss, senior vice president of news at NPR and the person who called Williams to give him the boot, has resigned. The two memos are connected, obviously, though its not yet clear whether Weiss was forced out or bolted because of the NPR board's blatant meddling in news business.

Copies of both memos are here.

According to the first memo, the NPR board has demanded the news division establish a committee to review and update its code of ethics, both to ensure NPR journalists doing work for outside media outlets have more free rein and so the news division's "practices encourage a broad range of viewpoints to assist its decision-making, support its mission, and reflect the diversity of its national audiences"

The NPR board also gave CEO Vivian Schiller a renewed vote of confidence, but has withheld her bonus for 2010.

The second memo, written by Schiller, offers some background on Weiss's tenure at NPR and says who will step in for her until a new senior vice president of news is named, but it offers no detail on why she left. Was she forced out to give House Republicans their pound of flesh? Or is her exit a protest over how NPR has handled the Williams affair?

Here's more from NPR's news blog, which steps lightly around the connection between Weiss and Williams:

For background on the Juan Williams dismissal, you might start here. Alicia Shepard, NPR's ombudsman, previously said that the firing "was poorly handled." Williams previously said he thinks he was fired because "I appear on Fox." Weiss was the NPR executive who informed Williams of his dismissal, which came after he said on Fox News Channel that he gets nervous when he sees people in "Muslim garb" on airplanes. NPR said the remark was the latest in a pattern of problem comments made by Williams over recent years.

As NPR's David Folkenflik reports for our newscast, after Williams' dismissal "conservatives blasted NPR, and Fox News' most prominent opinion hosts made a cause of it. Republican lawmakers threatened to cut federal funding for public broadcasters."

As for the review done by Weil, Gotshal & Manges, David summarizes the findings this way: "It found that the termination of Williams' contract was entirely legal. But the board said the report called for a full review of the company's policies on ethics and outside appearances and for them to be applied consistently to all personnel."

He adds that Weiss "joined NPR in 1982 and rose through the ranks, holding a variety of key positions, such as executive producer of All Things Considered and national editor. She helped lead coverage of some of the biggest stories and highest-impact investigations in recent years. And she is credited with leading the network through an era of wrenching changes in journalism. But her dismissal of Williams — by phone — became a flashpoint in the debate."

The Constitution and free speech*

After making clear they weren't going to mention the slavery bits, or prohibition, members of the House of Representatives proceeded to read aloud the U.S. Constitution to open the second day of the 112th Congress. As they reached the Article II requirement that the president must be a natural born citizen, a woman in the gallery got up and screamed, "Except Obama," and added something about Jesus (video here). The outburst invited a terse gaveling from the chair.

*Update: David Weigel at Slate has tracked down the birther screamer. Her name is Theresa Cao and, naturally, she has a blog. Peruse it here if you'd like.

Cops can read your texts

A California Supreme Court ruled today law enforcement has the right to search text messages on your mobile phone if you're arrested, AP reports. The decision presumably gives cops the right to search through emails and any other data on your mobile phone or laptop if its in your possession at the time of the arrest.

This strikes me as a bad idea from a civil liberties standpoint, but is something that should be of concern to journalists as the use of mobile devices to capture images and record notes become more commonplace.

Public fight, private settlement by the Bay

The San Francisco Weekly and Bay Guardian have ended their feud over ad rates and have agreed to a confidential settlement, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.The locally owned Guardian had successfully sued the alt-chain Weekly for $21 million over cut-rate ad pricing.

Fortunately, the terms of the settlement, the details of which I expect will be unearthed soon enough, did not require the papers to like each other:

Bruce Brugmann, the Guardian's editor and publisher, said Monday that the case produced "a model for protecting other small, independent businesses facing predatory pricing schemes from competitors."

Andy VanDeVoorde, a Village Voice Media executive, said SF Weekly would "continue business as usual" and "has continued to widen its lead over the Guardian, despite the six-year legal distraction."

(h/t Romenesko)