For most Americans, yesterday– November 11, 2011– was an interesting-looking set of numbers that made 11:11 AM and 11:11 PM particularly fun to commemorate (by that most revered of American traditions, typing away semi-thoughtlessly on Twitter). The date was something slightly more controversial for the last remaining Wonder of the Ancient World, however, as Egypt shut down the Great Pyramid at Giza citing maintenance issues, but facing controversy as a number of groups were rumored to plan the performance of rites to commemorate the date.

Al-Jazeera announced this morning in a statement that Wadah Khanfar, the network’s director of eight-years, has resigned and is to be replaced by a member of the Qatar royal family. Khanfar has been credited with both revolutionizing the Arab media landscape and extending Al-Jazeera’s reach well beyond that region, and the timing of his departure, not long after the release of an incriminating WikiLeaks cable, begs questions.

If Wikileaks began as a mission to enter history for releasing the largest number of sensitive federal documents in history, it may have achieved that this week, at the cost of their own reputations and, potentially, a number of lives. The group released the entirety of its U.S. dispatch archive suspected to have been delivered to them by current military prisoner Bradley Manning– a release that was prompted by a Guardian editor publishing the password to an encrypted file holding some of the documents in his book, and threatens to put many lives across the world in danger.

The Guardian reports this morning that Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the now-defunct News of the World and a man, it has been said, whose “DNA is absolutely integrated into the newspaper which he has represented across the media with vigour” has been arrested in the still-widening phone hacking and police bribery scandal. The Guardian‘s Amelia Hill reports Kuttner, 71, did not know when he reported to a London police station for questioning that he was to be taken into custody. “Kuttner is believed to have been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to section 1 (1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977, and on suspicion of corruption contrary to section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906.” (The paper notes those are the same charges facing former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks)

Current TV host Keith Olbermann, writing for The Guardian, describes the experience of being hired–and fired–by Rupert Murdoch. “From my vantage point,” Olbermann writes, “the most important fact remains that, after my exit, Rupert had to keep paying me not to have to work for him: $800,000 over the next eight months. It was the best job I ever had.” Olbermann, who was hired by Murdoch to be part of an expanded Fox Sports cable effort that included Olbermann hosting a nightly show to compete against ESPN’s legendary SportsCenter–an effort Olbermann describes as one of Murdoch’s “first abject failures in American television.” Olbermann says the failure was the result of multiple mistakes on the part of bosses at News Corp.: “for once, Murdoch’s mafia failed him.”

The Guardian is reporting that Sean Hoare, a former News of the World reporter who was first to allege that former editor Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead. “Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home,” reports the Guardian‘s Amelia Hill, James Robinson, Caroline Davies.

A report by The Guardian has revealed that British newspaper News of the World interfered with the investigation into the disappearance of Milly Dowler, a young girl last seen alive in March of 2002.

Scotland Yard is now looking into allegations that News of the World hired a private investigator to hack into the girl’s voice mails. What’s more, it appears that journalists at the paper read — and then deleted — several of the girl’s messages in the days following her disappearance “in order to free up space for more messages,” inadvertently giving her family false hope that she may still be alive.

A report by Al Jazeera includes video the network suggests shows “evidence for the first time of allied boots on the ground” in Libya, in what could break a United Nations resolution over any “occupation force.” In the video, Tony Birtley, a veteran war correspondent, describes a group of six men as “a group of armed foreigners, possibly British…seen liaising with the fighters. It could be to facilitate forthcoming helicopter attacks.” The UK Guardian notes the Al Jazeera report, first broadcast on Sunday, never explains why Birtley suspects the men are British:

In an interview in today’s Guardian, Rachel Maddow urged others in the cable news business who may be gay to come out, citing it as a “responsibility” to the gay community. The comments were reported by Business Insider as a specific direction to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, with the breathless (and erroneous) headline “Maddow To Cooper: ‘You Have A Responsibility To Come Out’ Of The Closet.” Maddow took to her blog to clarify she meant nothing of the sort: “he literally was never discussed during the interview at all — even implicitly.”

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has given an extensive interview to the UK’s Guardian newspaper, talking about growing up, coming out, and working in cable news. She also says flatly that–for high profile cable news hosts like herself–”if you’re gay you have a responsibility to come out.”

Maddow, who says she grew up in a “very conservative, nasty little town” in California and came out while a student at Stanford, concedes the idea of inspiring pride in the gay community “gives me joy.” The Guardian‘s Hadley Freeman then asks about “an equally well-known news presenter who is widely assumed to be gay but has never come out,” asking if Maddow feels frustration for this “presenter” who goes unnamed in the article:

As 13-year-old singer Rebecca Black‘s “Friday” video racks up YouTube clicks – and Black reportedly earns loads of cash for her surprising hit song – we’re left to wonder about what Black’s story says about the music industry, the Internet, and us. Ark Music Factory, the company behind Black and other young stars, should be thrilled with all the attention, says Rhodri Marsden in The Independent, since their “whole business model is about reaction, not content.” But they have virtually “disappeared” from the spotlight faced with the inevitable backlash, which is “baffling – like pretty much everything connected to the ‘Friday’ phenomenon.”

It always sounds nicer when the Brits say it, right? Okay, not necessarily in this case. Roy Greenslade, writing in the Guardian describes Sarah Palin as a phenomenon–or, in the headline, a “creature”–created by television and ultimately, he argues, destroyed by television. “Do you remember that uniquely American political phenomenon Sarah Palin? Of course you do, but you have been hearing and seeing much less of her lately. And no wonder,” he writes.

A common thread woven throughout coverage of Egypt’s revolution was the manner in which ousted leader Hosni Mubarak‘s government attempted to control news flowing out of the country, and it seems that’s also the case in Libya. There, however, Muammar al-Gaddafi‘s government (despite the Libyan leader’s continued insistence that the Libyan people essentially govern themselves) takes a slightly different tactic: Smiling and shaking one’s head while gently wondering how people could be complaining about something so obviously silly as censorship.

The U.S. press systematically refer to Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi as a crazy, narcissistic despot whose people are suffering and whose country is in turmoil. But, for a brief slice of time in 2007, people reading through certain U.S. and British publications may have found themselves reading about a new or “changed” Gaddafi, a Gaddafi committed to paving the way for democracy in Libya.

There’s a reason for that.

Call it a tale of two media break-ups. Shortly after the New York Times’ Bill Keller penned a scathing (and shockingly personal) account of what it was like to work with Julian Assange, UK collaborator The Guardian has done the same. While their rendition of experience does not fail to leave out the requisite depiction of Assange as overbearing and paranoid, the overall tone of the story, rather than vengeful, is surprisingly self-effacing.

The noose around the necks of Wikileaks is now tightening at a rapid pace, with the United States finally getting overtly involved. Last night, Icelandic Parliamentarian and producer of Wikileaks’ “Collateral Murder” video Birgitta Jonsdottir stated she had just been notified that the US Department of Justice had sent Twitter a subpoena for all of her activity on Twitter– and that of Julian Assange, and anyone involved with Wikileaks.

Say what you will about Wikileaks supreme hero/villain Julian Assange, he has crafted quite the reputation as one of the most difficult men to work with in the world, despite fronting an organization that relies upon collaboration with the media. Vanity Fair‘s latest extensive feature goes behind the scenes into how at least one newspaper, The Guardian, kept Assange at the table. Hint: it involved “a great deal of coffee followed by a great deal of wine.”

WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange told The Guardian that he believed there is a “high chance” that he’d be killed in prison if he were to be extradited to a US jail on espionage charges. Jack Ruby died of lung cancer while serving in prison for killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the suspected assassin of President John F. Kennedy. While Assange appears to have his U.S. historical figures confused, his point remains.

There’s megalomania, and then there’s this: back in the ’90s, when you were busy drinking Zima and watching Melrose Place, Saddam Hussein commissioned a Koran to be written in his own blood. And now, eight years after his death, Iraq is, well, a bit unsure of what exactly they should do with the gruesome artifact.

The New York Times and the Guardian have published the first reports of the US Embassy cables, obtained from WikiLeaks, this afternoon. The Times was first to go live just after 1 pm EST, with the Guardian following shortly afterwards. The reports contain information from over 250,000 confidential American diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and distributed to the Times, the Guardian, and Germany’s Der Spiegel.

Whether you think that this week’s massive leak from WikiLeaks was heroic or evil, you really need to read this fascinating timeline of its publication put together by the Columbia Journalism Review. While the story of how Pfc. Bradley Manning copied and disseminated the material and was then captured has become common knowledge, the series of events that led to WikiLeaks, The Guardian, The New York Times, and Der Spiegel simultaneously publishing their accounts of the material is less widely known.

As the riots in Greece over the government’s austerity plan rage on, some news outlets our reporting a surprisingly light side to the violent proceedings. Apparently, a dog named Kanellos has somehow managed to show up in the middle of a number of protests right as reporters were taking pictures.

Yesterday, an Italian court convicted three high-ranking Google executives of violating the privacy of an autistic child. The three were given suspended sentences of six months’ imprisonment.

Today marks the launch of what the right wing internet has been anxiously awaiting: Tucker Carlson‘s The Daily Caller a.k.a. the conservative answer to The Huffington Post. The D.C. (coincidence?) looks sharp and leads with a marquee story probably hoping to set the tone for the site. In a large, two-tone font: “The Gate Crasher: The Mysteries of Carlos Allen.” But how’s the online peanut gallery reacting?

How journalists approach Twitter, and whether they should (or even want to) is still a matter that’s up for debate in some circles (ahem, Washington Post!). But what’s becoming increasingly clear, is that when used correctly twittering can often add to the power (i.e. readership) of a journalist.