Exclusive: Facebook seeks exec to build Hollywood, media ties (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook is looking to hire a big-name executive to cultivate relationships and strike deals with the film and music industries to bolster its media offerings.

In recent months, Facebook had discussions with former MySpace co-President and former MTV executive Jason Hirschhorn about a job spearheading the company's outreach to media companies, according to several people familiar with the situation.

While the talks do not appear to have gone anywhere, and it wasn't clear whether Facebook had approached others about the position, the efforts signal Facebook's intention to take a more hands-on approach in helping media companies bring their content to the social network.

"They had held the media industry at arm's length for a while. It was: 'We are a platform, come use us all you want but we don't necessarily need to partner with you.' But now the attitude has changed," said one of the people familiar with the situation.

"They realize that one of the next phases in its evolution is to work with the media companies," the person added.

Facebook and Hirschhorn both declined to comment.

Facebook's media push comes as the company faces fresh competition from Google Inc, which launched a rival social networking service in June.

Twitter recruited former Creative Artists Agency executive Omid Ashtari to be its "L.A. person" last November, according to a report in AllThingsD.com, and the company recently appointed Chloe Sladden to a new role overseeing content and programing efforts.

"The view is they're looking at Twitter and Google and their outreach to the media community and they don't want to fall behind the curve," the source said. "They don't want the media companies to think they're uninterested."

Facebook has gradually gotten closer to the media world, with Chief Operating Office Sheryl Sandberg joining the Walt Disney Co board of directors in December 2009, and Netflix Inc Chief Executive Reed Hastings taking a seat on Facebook's board in June.

Several movie studios have released movies that can be rented and viewed on Facebook this year, including Warner Brothers' "Dark Knight" and Universal Pictures' "Big Lebowski."

Facebook was aggressively exploring recruiting a media point-person a few months ago, but has since shifted its attention to other strategic priorities, the sources said. But with the company increasingly interested in making media a key part of the social network, people expect the search to pick up again soon.

THE GAMING LESSON

Facebook's media ambitions will be on display on Thursday at its annual developer conference in San Francisco, where the company is expected to unveil new music features.

The music platform will integrate streaming music services from companies including Spotify, Rhapsody and Rdio, directly into users' home pages, said several other people familiar with the situation. Facebook users who subscribe to the music services will be able to share songs and playlists with each other and see what their friends are listening to, the people said.

Facebook will also unveil new flavors of its "Like" button at the event, allowing users to flag Web pages or other online content with specific recommendations, such as "Read," "Watched" or "Listened," according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

For Facebook, building a deeper integration with music, movies and other media into its service makes it more likely that users will spend more time on its site, allowing the company to generate more advertising dollars.

Media also fits well with Facebook Credits, the payment system that Facebook has introduced for its users to buy digital goods on its site. Facebook takes a 30 percent cut of transactions using Facebook Credits.

The template for Facebook's media push is social games, which more than 200 million of its users play on the website every month. Companies like Zynga and Electronic Arts Inc's Playfish have built successful businesses developing social games that can be played on Facebook.

But recreating that magic with the media industry could be trickier.

While technology-savvy social game companies are adept at quickly creating products that shine on various "platforms," such as social networks or smartphone applications, traditional content providers don't possess the same kinds of expertise, said another person familiar with the situation.

"You can't just drop platforms in Hollywood," the person said.

"They make content well," he said. But, he noted, creating media that really shines on a social networking platform requires hand-holding.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Additional reporting by Peter Lauria and Yinka Adegoke in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Chinese state media say 16 dead in train accident (AP)

BEIJING – A Chinese bullet train lost power after being struck by lightning and was hit from behind by another train, knocking two of its carriages off a bridge, killing at least 16 people and injuring 89, state media reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency said four cars on the second train also derailed, but it did not say how serious that was.

The first train was traveling from the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou when the accident occurred in Wenzhou city at about 8:30 p.m. (1230 GMT), Xinhua said.

It said one carriage from the first train fell about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters). Pictures on the Internet showed one badly damaged car lying on its side by the bridge and the second car leaning against the bridge after landing on its end..

Xinhua quoted an unidentified witness as saying "rescuers have dragged many passengers out of the coach that fell on the ground."

The trains involved are "D" trains, the first generation bullet train with an average speed of about 95 miles (150 kilometers) per hour and not as fast as the new Beijing-Shanghai line.

Xinhua said the train hit by lightning was "D3115." It said the Ministry of Railways confirmed that it was hit from behind by train "D301."

China has spent billions of dollars and plans more massive spending to link the country with a high-speed rail network. Recently, power outages and other malfunctions have plagued the showcase high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai since it opened on June 30.

Official plans call for China's bullet train network to expand to 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of track this year and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.

The huge spending connected with the rail expansion also has been blamed for corruption, and Railways Minister Liu Zhijun was dismissed this spring amid an investigation into unspecified corruption allegations.

No details have been released about the allegations against him, but news reports say they include kickbacks, bribes, illegal contracts and sexual liaisons.

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U.S. news media debate naming Strauss-Kahn accuser (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – By now, anyone following the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case knows plenty about the woman who accused him: her age, origins, work history, relatives and, most recently, a series of lies and misstatements she gave to investigators.

But one detail has remained concealed by major U.S. media: her name.

Citing the unique stigma of rape, American news outlets have for decades refused to identify victims and alleged victims of sexual assault, even as they investigate their backgrounds.

As recent revelations raise doubts about the credibility of Strauss-Kahn's accuser, and the attempted rape case against the former International Monetary Fund chief appears close to collapse, news organizations have begun to revisit these long-held policies.

"It's an ethical minefield," said Adam Penenberg, a journalism professor at New York University. "It puts everybody in an impossible position."

The woman's name has already been published by numerous news outlets in Europe and Africa, where accusers' names are more routinely reported.

An Internet search will reveal it is on hundreds of websites. Some journalism experts say that renders the convention of anonymity increasingly meaningless.

No major U.S. news organization has yet revealed the woman's name, even as her credibility has been seriously questioned.

"Editors here have discussed the situation as new developments have emerged in this case," said Phil Corbett, the New York Times' associate managing editor for standards.

"As of now, the authorities continue to consider the woman to be the victim in an alleged sexual assault, and we have stuck to our normal practice of not identifying her."

Editors at Reuters debated the issue and decided the woman should remain unidentified, said Jim Gaines, the global head of ethics, standards and innovation.

"It was very brief, because we all know what the rule is," Gaines said. "It's hard to anticipate the circumstances under which we would name her, unless she named herself."

WHEN SHOULD POLICY CHANGE?

Are there circumstances that would justify dropping the policy and identifying the woman?

Several editors said a dismissal of the charges against Strauss-Kahn would probably be insufficient to convince them to use his accuser's name, unless, for example, authorities seek to charge her with perjury for suspicion of lying under oath.

"I would distinguish between charges being dropped and charges being brought against her," said Roger Smith, the national editor for the Los Angeles Times.

Corbett said there is no "clear, bright line" that would indicate when to use her name.

Journalists are not legally bound to conceal the identities of sexual assault victims -- the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that news outlets may use them if legally obtained. But with rare exceptions, the media have refrained from doing that.

One exception was NBC News' decision in 1991 to identify the woman who accused a Kennedy family member, William Kennedy Smith, of raping her. That sparked a national conversation about privacy and the media's responsibility to rape victims.

The prevailing view, then as now, is that sexual assault is uniquely damaging and worthy of an exception.

"The reality is that as journalists, we have a special responsibility to help ensure that women feel safe reporting sexual assault. It's not like other crimes," said Bruce Shapiro, head of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University in New York.

FEAR OF SACRIFICING PRIVACY

Some experts say there is also a societal obligation to encourage victims to come forward without fear of sacrificing their privacy.

"What about the next woman, and the one after that?" said Alisa Solomon, a journalism professor at Columbia.

A handful of journalists assert the practice of withholding victims' names runs counter to journalism's goal of providing a complete and truthful account.

One dissenter is Geneva Overholser, who as editor of the Des Moines Register won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for public service for a series about a woman's ordeal as a rape victim.

"We're setting ourselves up to do something that feels very much like social work, not journalism, and that's not our role," said Overholser, now the director of the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California.

To Overholser, the debate in the Strauss-Kahn case only underscores the problem with concealing the name in the first place. By splashing his name and photo across front pages while withholding hers, she said, there is an implicit judgment that one side is wrong and the other is right.

"If anything, it helps continue the stigma," she said. "We're signaling to rape victims that they have to go and sit in a dark corner."

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, editing by Jesse Wegman and Grant McCool)

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