This afternoon, news rooms worldwide were on hold as they waited to see which way the Italian court’s would swing on Amanda Knox’s appeal. In hopes of being first, or at least quick, many newsroom probably had two stories, near-ready for publishing: one assuming she was found guilty once more, the other reporting that she has been set free. When she was acquitted, most outlets got the story up quickly and correctly. One, however, got things wrong. Perhaps hoping to get the jump on the story, the Daily Mail hit go on the wrong one, proclaiming the exact opposite of how things actually went: “Guilty: Amanda Knox looks stunned as appeal against murder conviction is rejected.”

According to a report by ProPublica and the Guardian, key members of the family that controlled The Wall Street Journal now say they would not have agreed to sell the paper to Rupert Murdoch if they’d known about the phone-hacking underway at the time at News Corp’s News of the World. “If I had known what I know now, I would have pushed harder against” the Murdoch bid, said Christopher Bancroft, a member of the family that controlled Dow Jones & Company, publishers of the WSJ.

As the expanding scandal into the phone hacking at now-gone British tabloid News of the World brings News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch to the U.K. to do damage control, questions are being asked what impact the ongoing British investigations may have on the wider Murdoch media empire, specifically the U.S. based company. The U.K.’s Guardian asks this morning whether Murdoch’s son James, long believed to be the one groomed to replace his father atop at News Corp. in New York, may become a liability. “America is largely uninterested in the scandal’s details, but its causes might point to a long-term systemic weakness in the company.

A series of clever yet risque promos for a British reality show about a group of London lesbians has sparked an investigation by a UK media regulator. The promos, for Candy Bar Girls, a reality show about the “lives and loves” of six lesbians living in London’s Soho neighborhood, have received at least ten complaints about their mildly racy content airing during daytime hours when kids could be watching. As the Guardian reports, “each of the on-air promos for the new reality show feature teasing close-up images that appear to be of two women engaged in sexual activity, intercut with lines such as ‘Red… hot… lesbians’ and ‘Pussy… loving… ladies’” only to pull back and reveal innocent activities, such as working out, playing chess, or petting a cat.

In a series of graphic and gruesome photos posted on the website of the UK’s Guardian, the aftermath of the U.S. raid on the compound of Osama bin Laden is made vividly clear. The photos, the newspaper says, come from the news agency Reuters, which said “the photos [were] taken by a Pakistani security official who entered the compound after the early morning raid on Monday. The official, who wished to remain anonymous, sold the pictures. Reuters is confident in their authenticity.”

British military officials accidentally allowed the release of secret naval information in a screwup described as “potentially catastrophic” by a Conservative Member of Parliament. The release happened when Ministry of Defense documents were released with sensitive information redacted–but in such a way that blacked-out portions were restored by simply copying and pasting the document into [...]

Nevermind. That Al Qaeda threat splashed across the front page of Rupert Murdoch‘s Sun a few weeks ago? Well, in a page two correction yesterday, editors just wanted to pass on an update on that story: yeah, turns out that scary bit we told you, well that wasn’t true. Sorry. Moving right along.

As the Guardian‘s Roy Greenslade writes today, the pre-Christmas story about a supposed terrorist plot against a live holiday episode of a popular UK television show, Coronation Street, had British journalists smelling a rat from the start. “It had that familiar…ring of complete nonsense.”

The highly anticipated new release of confidential documents Wikileaks has been touting all week on its Twitter account may have one foot out the door. Earlier today, German newspaper Der Spiegel– one of five major international newspapers Wikileaks granted access to the files– posted answers to general questions about the diplomatic wires set to leak, in which they suggest tomorrow is the big day. That post has since been removed from their website.

In a blow to global warming deniers everywhere, an official review released today has cleared all the Climategate scientists from charges of dishonesty. Turns out what they were guilty of was not sharing enough.

The American media been unequivocal in condemning BP CEO Tony Hayward for everything from his negligence and insensitive comments, but on the other side of the pond, it has been a little more difficult to disown a man who was once their geological boy genius with a “disarming smile” set to save one of the nation’s greatest companies from an administration wrought with ethical breaches.

New technology invariably brings, along with change, a torrent of anxiety about what that change will lookl ike. This anxiety can be more or less poetic. “Twitter is crack for media addicts,” wrote George Packer in a recent blogpost. The new anxiety – induced, primarily, by the new media – is the prosiest prose.

Sometimes intrusive journalism is just that: intrusive. It wantonly disregards a subject’s privacy in pursuit of the petty dividend of a byline. Yet with Salinger, the intrusions seem more than anything acts of generosity, if occasionally ham-handed. What tragedy attends on Salinger’s death is, ultimately, in the realm of PR: Salinger has missed the chance to explain himself.

From ESPN’s Twitter policy to the Washington Post’s social media guidelines, the mainstream media has become increasingly weary of their employees’ behavior on the internet. In fear of an amorphous ethical line, and largely attempting to avoid claims of bias, companies are warning their Twitter-happy social networkers to tread lightly and the BBC is the latest to issue guidelines. But their situation is a bit different.

The internet was abuzz this weekend when Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a fervent opponent of Israel and frequent Holocaust denier, was actually of Jewish ancestry. Many major media outlets proliferated the story, which has since been been refuted. Why did the web get fooled?

Youth sexuality-exploiting/cool clothing company American Apparel will no longer be able to run an ad campaign because it sexualized a girl who appeared to be under 16, a British ad watchdog ruled. This raises a couple of questions: What does an under-16 year-old look like? Have they ever seen an American Apparel ad?

Neat Guardian article on zaaaaany search engines that aren’t Google. I’m switching to Yandex. (RQ) Save the whales has nothing on this. (JB) Start spreading the news, I’m going online. (GM)

After yesterday’s allegations from the UK’s Guardian that Rupert Murdoch‘s tabloid journalists had been wiretapping public figures, London police have already dropped their investigation. The New York Times is reporting that the case was opened, and then closed just a few hours later.

Rupert Murdoch has developed his own journalism bailout plan: Hush money! The Guardian is reporting that Murdoch’s News Paper Groups have been settling cases out of court — to the tune of $1.6 million — that would have revealed his journos to be using “criminal methods” to get stories.

What sort of criminal methods?