In your harrowing Wednesday media column: an Al Jazeera reporter is held in Iran, Chattanooga newsman in Nazi cop row, Uganda's tabloids go hard on "Homos," the NYT's web traffic inches downward, and Bill Gallo dies.

  • Al Jazeera reporter Dorothy Parvaz, who's been missing in Syria for the past two weeks, has reportedly been deported to Iran, and is "being held in Tehran." Meaning she seems to be, at least, physically safe, but still not free. Not quite time to celebrate just yet.
  • The editor of the Chattanooga newspaper used the phrase "Nazi cops" in an internal memo to describe the behavior of police who'd threatened to arrest some of the paper's interns for being on public property. This drew a stern rebuke from the local chief of police. Next time, be sure to use the phrase "fascist cops" instead. More journalistic.
  • The Atlantic has an absolutely bananas story about the tabloid newspaper industry in Uganda, which includes some bottom-feeder rags that "expose" "Homos," some of whom are then bludgeoned to death. (In the USA, bludgeonings of gay people are slightly more rare.) Sample headline: "We Shall Recruit 1,000,000 Innocent Kids by 2012-Homos." And that's just from the New York Post! So the ones in Uganda must be really harsh! Hey-o!
  • "The New York Times' share of United States page views for all newspaper websites dropped from 13% in March to 10.6% in April, its lowest share in 12 months," Nat Ives reports. That's presumably because of the new paywall. But, worth reiterating: the readers they lost were all freeloading bums, anyhow.
  • Longtime NY Daily News sports cartoonist Bill Gallo has died at the age of 88.

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