In the Belly of the Murdoch Beast I always feel a little better when I go home to Los Angeles. My hometown takes a lot of flak about its Tinseltown image and how "fake" the people are supposed to be. But I can assure you that the working folks of my hometown are as real as the 99-percenters anywhere else in the country. Last week, more than a hundred of my fellow "real" Angelenos took their concerns about the corporate media and their power to corrupt our democracy right into the lap of one of their most notorious figures: News Corp. potentate Rupert Murdoch.

Dave Saldana, SavetheNews.org

News Corp. Shareholders Vote Heavily Against Rupert Murdoch's Sons In a challenge to Rupert Murdoch's family-succession plans, more than one-third of the votes cast by News Corp. shareholders opposed returning the media mogul's two sons, James and Lachlan, to the board.

Dawn C. Chmielewski and Meg James, Los Angeles Times

Rupert Murdoch Maintains Control of News Corp. Despite criticism, Rupert Murdoch isn't adapting his management style. At 80 years old, he continues to control his media empire with a tight grip. After all, his company, News Corp., although publicly traded, features a dual class-share structure that allows Murdoch to effectively control director elections and other matters that are subject to shareholder vote, even though he does not own a majority of the company's outstanding shares.

Nathaniel Parish Flannery, Forbes

AT&T's T-Mobile Purchase Unlikely to Pass, CWA Chief Tells Focus Deutsche Telekom AG's $39 billion sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T is unlikely to receive U.S. court approval at a February hearing, Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen told Focus. While U.S. federal courts have in the past overruled the Justice Department, the chances it will happen this time are about 20 percent, Cohen said, according to the German magazine.

Sheenagh Matthews, Bloomberg News

Judge Says No to Sprint Request for AT&T Documents Sprint Nextel lost a bid to get access to masses of AT&T documents that it had hoped to use in its lawsuit aimed at stopping AT&T's $39 billion acquisition of discount rival T-Mobile.

Diane Bartz, Reuters

Sprint Must Wear Its 'Customer Hat' to Stay in AT&T Case Sprint's lawsuit to stop the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile went before a federal judge. One antitrust expert explains why Sprint may be on a legal limb and what it must do to avoid having the case tossed out of court.

Jeff Roberts, paidContent

Rural Phone Carriers Fear FCC Plan Will Drive Up Local Rates A coalition of rural telecom carriers sounded the alarm on proposed federal regulatory reforms aimed at expanding broadband Internet service.

Dave Dreeszen, Sioux City Journal

FCC to Vote on Broadband Funding An FCC vote on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation is set for Oct. 27 and rural telecom providers are hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.

Gabe Licht, Daily Reporter

Spectrum Feud Lands Before Supercommittee The grudge match between TV broadcasters and the wireless sector is entering its most intense round yet, forcing supercommittee members to choose sides now that the deficit-reduction panel is eyeing auctions of the nation's airwaves as a surefire way to raise billions.

Kim Hart, Politico

The 'Media Circus' of Occupy Wall Street Coverage Big news: The establishment media are finally picking up on the Occupy Wall Street story. In fact, Occupy Wall Street coverage increased to nine percent of the overall news hole from Oct. 10–16 -- up from two percent two weeks prior. Increased airtime and column inches, however, don't necessarily equal quality reporting.

Megan Tady, SavetheNews.org

The Case of the Disappearing Local TV Journalist While meeting with journalism students in Boulder, Colo., this month, Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron played a collage of videos wherein the same newscasters delivered the same local news with only one significant difference -- the station names at the bottom of the screen. Aaron said this is an example of "covert consolidation" -- a trend quietly sweeping newsrooms in small towns and major cities that has cost journalists' jobs, degraded their working conditions and gutted the quality and quantity of local news available to the public.

Kari Lydersen, In These Times

How People Use Tablets and What it Means for the Future of News Eighteen months after the introduction of the iPad, 11 percent of U.S. adults now own a tablet computer of some kind. About half get news on their tablet every day, and they read long articles as well as get headlines. But a majority says they would not be willing to pay for news content on these devices, according to the most detailed study to date of tablet users and how they interact with this new technology.

Pew Research Center

NPR's Michele Norris Stepping Away from Hosting Duties Michele Norris, an All Things Considered co-host since December 2002, is stepping away from that post until after the 2012 presidential campaign because her husband has taken a senior position with President Obama's re-election effort.

Mark Memmott, NPR