The medical examiner's report in the death of muckraking journalist Michael Hastings has been released and, conspiracy theories aside, the coroner has determined his death on June 18th was an accident, and that he had traces drugs in his system at the time he died.

As gun violence continues to plague Chicago, the Chicago Tribune presents its series "Chicago Under the Gun." The project, which pairs up Tribune crime reporters with photographers and videographers, offers small but heartbreaking and important slice-of-life glimpses into some of the city's shootings.

Journalists are generally human disasters: stimulant-addled, barely-functional hoarders unable to focus on anything other than scrabbling after the next story with an addict's claw-handed fury. I type this encased in the stale, coffee-stained shirt that proves it. Journalists, in other words, are the people least likely to spend time setting up arcane email encryption technology that could very well prove of no use to them. And yet they are among the people who could benefit the most.

As the series gets further into its second season, it is broadening, deepening, and becoming even more thought-provoking. There has been no diminution of its trademark sharp scripts and superior acting, which combine for superior story-telling. All television dramas strive for this; few achieve it. Among current or recent offerings, Mad Men does. So does The Good Wife and a few others, but the list isn't long. My opinion for some time now has been that The Newsroom is the best of the current lot and has the potential to be one of the better television series ever. Nothing in this latest episode gives any pause in that opinion, much less any change.
This may not have been the most exciting episode but it was among the most interesting. As the chapter title suggests, the anchorman's character is further developed and filled-out, as he is seen having to balance family tragedy with professional duties. One of the main story lines of the season—how the news network got in trouble with a big story that proved to be wrong—gets considerable new development. As with every episode, plenty of romance is interwoven.
Best line of this installment: When the anchorman, irritated by a Twitter twit, is reminded of an ancient truth: "Relatively small people will try to raise their profile by standing on your neck."
Small nit: I didn't think the frog joke worked.
I liked this episode—a lot. It holds your attention and builds considerable interest for

New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner struggled to address a reporter from the United Kingdom’s ITV network during a campaign event on Thursday. Har har har har har. The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple annotated a transcript of the exchange:

Today the Daily Beast reported that an intercepted conference call between “more than 20 al Qaeda operatives” led nearly two dozen U.S. embassies scattered across Southwest Asia and North Africa to shut down over the weekend, a precautionary measure that American officials later extended through August 10. Based on testimony from three unnamed U.S. officials, reporters Eli Lake and Josh Rogin say al Qaeda lieutenants in Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Islamic Maghreb discussed vague plans of attack with al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and the terrorist group’s Yemeni leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi. One of the unnamed officers compared the call to a meeting of the “Legion of Doom.”

BuzzFeed writer Erik Malinowski claims that last week's New York Times Magazine story about misinformation online, in which Malinowski is referenced as someone who spread false rumors after the Boston Marathon bombing, contains some errors of its own.

In a New York Times Magazine longread today, journalist Jay Caspian Kang goes deep into the story of the time the internet falsely accused a missing Brown student, Sunil Tripathi, of being a suspect in April's Boston Marathon bombing. The article is heartbreaking.

The plot thickens, the pace quickens and this new season of master screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's latest work becomes more interesting with each episode. "Gripping" might be the better word. For some viewers "addictive" may soon become more apt. By whatever description it's good, very good. And if the first 2 episodes of the new run are any indication, it'll get better every week.

Helen Thomas, whose long run as part of the White House press corps earned her the unofficial title of its "dean", has died at the age of 92.

Ahmed Samir Assem was one of the 51 people killed on Monday when Egyptian soldiers began firing on a crowd gathered outside a Republican Guard building. But unlike the other victims, many of whom were supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi, Assem was a photographer for Egypt's Al-Horia Wa Al-Adala newspaper. Now there are reports he captured the last moments of his life while doing his job.

This gem is thanks to ShortFormBlog's coverage of the abortion protests being waged at the Texas Capitol today.

Noah Gallagher Shannon, whose New York Times Magazine essay about being on a doomed plane drew critics skeptical of his story, has given an interview to the Atlantic to walk back some of his earlier claims.

Andrew Rosenthal, New York Times editorial page editor, says he sees nothing wrong with changing yesterday's Obama-NSA editorial to soften a sentence that originally read, "The administration has now lost all credibility." "We didn’t soften it one iota from its original intent," Rosenthal told the Times' public editor.

The word "derp" appeared today on the websites of Business Insider, New York Magazine, and The New York Times—in a post by Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. This is a good sign that we should stop using it.

Finally, someone comes out and says it: New York magazine is built on a lie.

Photojournalist Rob Hart was among the 28 staffers laid off when the Chicago Sun-Times decided to get rid of its entire photography department last week. To busy himself, Hart has started a Tumblr, "Laid off from the Sun-Times," that offers a glimpse into what life is like as a freshly unemployed photojournalist.

A photojournalist is a photojournalist, even in times when he maybe shouldn't be. Which is why when Chicago Sun-Times photographer Al Podgorski discovered this morning that his entire department was being wiped out, the first thing he did was reach for his camera to capture the moment.

Prehistoric fertility god and former CNN host Larry King is bringing his current show, Tales from the Cryptkeeper, to Russia Today, and adding another show, Politics With Larry King, to the Kremlin-funded cable news and YouTube channel. "I would rather ask questions to people in positions of power, instead of speaking on their behalf," King says in the promo spot.

The New York Post, a bastion of journalistic integrity, gave a highly sympathetic forum to retired NYPD Detective Louis Scarcella to set the record straight after an investigation by the New York Times found that Scarcella falsified evidence and forced confessions during the 1980s and 1990s.