By: E&P Staff
In today's links, News Corporation's MySpace has announced the signing of its 100 millionth member, Google vows not to reveal search data in the way that AOL did earlier this week, and suggestion that the media isn't getting the whole story on the pipeline shutdown.***
MySpace Signs 100 Millionth MemberGuardian: Social networking site MySpace has today achieved the milestone of signing up its 100 millionth member. The News Corporation-owned community site has reached the figure just over three years after being launched by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. Mr Anderson appears as the first friend for every user who creates a profile on the website and the total number of his friends listed topped 100 million today.
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After Long Stress, Newsman in New Orleans UnravelsNew York Times: As of Wednesday night, Mr. McCusker, a veteran member of the Times-Picayune staff and son of an old New Orleans family, was in a jail cell under a doctor?s care, having been charged with reckless operation of a vehicle and hit-and-run driving, among other things. The public unraveling of such a well-known local photographer shined light again on the troubled state of mental health in New Orleans, where the struggle to return to normalcy has produced an epidemic of post-traumatic stress and depression and where psychiatric help is extremely limited.
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Viacom to Buy Online Media FirmLos Angeles Times: MTV Networks said Wednesday that it would acquire online video and games distributor Atom Entertainment Inc., accelerating the race of old-media giants to snap up websites that cater to young audiences.
The $200-million deal for Atom, a survivor of the dot-com bust, signals the increasing rivalry between MTV parent Viacom Inc. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. as they diversify into new media.
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Page Sixer Chris Wilson Jumps to 'Maxim'New York Daily News: Gossip reporter Chris Wilson is leaving the New York Post amid a federal probe of former Page Six colleague Jared Paul Stern, sources close to the case said yesterday. Wilson is leaving to go to a higher-paying gig at Maxim magazine, sources told the Daily News. The word is Wilson will go on vacation next week then work another two weeks before he leaves.
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Google Says It Won't Pull an AOLCNet: Google users should have faith that their Web searches won't end up being public information like they have at AOL, according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "We have systems in place that won't allow it to happen," Schmidt told reporters Wednesday after a keynote discussion at the Search Engine Strategies conference here. "Our No. 1 priority is the trust our users have, and that would be a violation of trust, so the answer is that would not happen."
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U.K. Tabloid Suffers Another Embarassment With Cell Phone Hacking ChargeWall Street Journal: Even by the standards of British tabloid journalism, the News of the World newspaper may have finally gone too far. Clive Goodman, the royalty correspondent at the paper, owned by News Corp., was charged late yesterday along with one other person for allegedly hacking into cellphone messages. Police have been investigating whether the men accessed the phones of the royal family or their staff as well as other celebrities and politicians
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Media Stutters While Pipelines CreakCJR Daily: "According to the Ernst & Young public relations department, the study at the heart of a Washington Times article wasn't really a study at all -- but rather "an analysis done for a bylined article" which Ernst & Young pitched to various news outlets including the Times (the full article is expected to appear at some later date in the Houston Business Journal)," writes Felix Gilette. "In other words, in the midst of this year's largest domestic oil crisis, the Times is happily taking its cues from an accounting firm's PR department. After all, who has time to scour Alaska for a relevant news angle when you can simply scour your inbox."
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Who's Least Sincere - Politicians, Journalists, or Readers?CJR Daily: On last weekend's Chris Matthews Show, New York Times columnist David Brooks made the following loose-lipped declaration: "One of the things I've found in life is that politicians are a lot more sincere than us journalists and we are more sincere than the people that read and watch us." If you need to read that again, we don't blame you.
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