CNN Steubenville Rape Coverage Compared To The Onion, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Mysterious Miscarriage Interview, Feedly Fills The Google Reader Void: Monday Media News

By Ellen Killoran | March 18 2013 2:37 PM

Twitter has been abuzz with a bombshell interview Gwyneth Paltrow gave the Mail on Sunday’s “You” magazine this weekend, but the aggregating frenzy has repeatedly invoked a word Paltrow did not use in the published story, and has possibly misconstrued something she did say. Almost every headline about the interview talks about Paltrow’s “miscarriage” of her third pregnancy -- and while it’s clear from the interview text that she did tragically lose an unborn child, there are a number of medical reasons outside of miscarriage that a pregnancy can “not work out” (Paltrow’s words) – ectopic pregnancy for one, along with a variety of health complications that would require termination. We can certainly understand why Paltrow would choose not to provide any further details of her pregnancy loss. But we are mystified why she would confess it for the first time to a British tabloid, even with a book to promote. We know she is an avowed Anglophile, but there are far more reputable publications across the pond. Perhaps this one gave her quote approval or some other form of control? (Pure speculation here, folks.) But if that’s what happened, then we have to wonder how or why this got out of the cage: “Regardless of what happens in our marriage, I chose the best father,” she said of husband Chris Martin. Yikes!

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In her brief reference to the pregnancy, Paltrow reportedly said “I nearly died.” But again, she did not specify whether her life was actually at risk, or if she was more colloquially talking about her unbearable grief. Still, many of the headlines and tweets about this story make it sound like the pregnancy itself almost killed her. We don’t know that isn’t true, but we don’t know for sure that it is. Qualifiers, people! Use them. Here’s a link to the full interview. (The Daily Mail, HuffPo)

When Google announced it was shutting down Google Reader last week, talk quickly turned to which RSS feed alternatives would survive – or thrive – in its absence. Initially, there was some concern that “the shutdown could affect a wider selection of Internet users” because “a number of related RSS services relied on the Reader API code to do their thing.” (That’s a direct quote from The Next Web because I don’t really understand.) But Feedly, which can import your Google Reader data with a simple click of a button, has seen its user base grow by half a million and counting in the last few days. According to a recent blog post, Feedly’s No. 1 goal is to “keep the service up.” Shoot for the moon, Feedly! (Memeburn, TNR)

The PEW Research Center has released its annual State of the News Media report. The news, naturally, is not good. The report addressed “signs of the shrinking reporter power” and “a news industry that is more undermanned and unprepared to uncover stories, dig deep into emerging ones or to question information put into its hands,” among other encouraging bits. (StateoftheMedia.org)

In other State of the Media news, the Boston Phoenix, which announced its closure last week, was ranked fourth on the report’s Top 20 American Alternative Weekly Newspapers , with a 2012 circulation of 103,629. This was a 28.53 percent drop from 2011, the most significant – by a long shot – fall in circulation among all 20 alt weeklies. (Poynter) Also, apparently Fox News is now less biased than MSNBC. (Mediaite)

Gawker has an eye-opening story about the unlikely friendship between “Girls” creator Lena Dunham and New York Times media columnist David Carr, who has championed that polarizing triple threat since his glowing review of “Tiny Furniture.” According to this story, it was largely because of Carr’s blessing that Judd Apatow hooked up with Dunham for HBO’s “Girls.” Carr knew “that the director/writer/producer had a woman problem,” writes Jon Koblin. “Dunham was someone who could make Apatow's then-checkered track record with female characters disappear.” The Observer’s Foster Kamer tweeted his mild disdain for the story, saying: “No shots to John, but this kind of arbitrary thing seems like hair-pulling in the sandbox of those Denton crushes on.” (Gakwer, Twitter)

Many, many people think that CNN was far too sympathetic to the convicted Steubenville rapists. There’s currently a petition circulating (of course) which demands the broadcaster issue a public apology for seeming more concerned with the well-being of the perpetrators than the victim, and it has 30,000 signatures and counting. Indeed, CNN’s coverage of the verdict delivery was rather preoccupied with how the convicted rapists' “lives would be ruined,” even though they will probably be out of jail in a few years, because they will carry the stigma of a registered sex offender. In response, Thought Catalog dug up a 2-year-old video parody from the Onion about a college basketball player struggling to overcome his trauma at having raped a girl in his dorm room. (Mediaite, Thought Catalog)