memeorandum: Sydney on tenterhooks as gunman holds hostages (CBS News)

11:55 AM ET, December 15, 2014

Top Items:

CNN:

Sydney gunman reportedly demands ISIS flag as some hostages escape — Sydney (CNN) — Australia, and the world, looked on with dread Monday as a gunman holding hostages inside a darkened Sydney cafe demanded an ISIS flag and a phone call with Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Discussion: ABC News, PoliticusUSA, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, Daily Kos, BARE NAKED ISLAM and New York Magazine

Michelle Innis / New York Times:

Police Storm Cafe to End Sydney Hostage Siege — SYDNEY, Australia — Heavily armed police officers ended a hostage siege in Sydney early Tuesday, storming a downtown cafe where an armed man said to be a self-proclaimed sheikh had held employees and customers for more than 16 hours.

Discussion: Sydney Morning Herald, CNN, Guardian, Business Insider, Shakesville and Outside the Beltway

USA Today:

Sydney siege: Gunman issued demands, threats — A hostage crisis at a central Sydney cafe dragged deep into the Australian night with a lone gunman issuing demands and claiming to have bombs scattered around the city, multiple media outlets were reporting Monday.

Discussion: Fox News, Guardian, WTVR-TV, Associated Press, The Federalist, Hot Air, CNN, KFOR-TV and American Spectator

Brian Ries / Mashable:
Uber intros surge pricing during Sydney hostage siege, then backtracks after user outcry

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Verge, NPR and Guardian

Matt Siegel / Reuters:
Hostages held in Sydney cafe, Islamic flag seen in window: local TV

Discussion: Zero Hedge, NBC News, Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, CNN, Vox Popoli, BuzzFeed and Washington Free Beacon

Nicholas McCallum / 9news.com.au:
LIVE STREAM: Hostages held up by armed gunman in Sydney cafe

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, The Jawa Report, New York Times and “The Lid”

CBS News:
Sydney on tenterhooks as gunman holds hostages

Discussion: 5NEWSOnline.com, ABC News and Hot Air

Fox News:
Five hostages escape siege by suspected jihadist in Sydney cafe

Discussion: Hit & Run, Fox News Insider and Shark Tank

Dan Good / ABC News:
5 Hostages Flee Sydney Cafe, Standoff Drags On

Discussion: CNN, JustOneMinute, Guardian and Towleroad News #gay

BBC:
Sydney siege: Gunman takes hostages in Lindt cafe

Discussion: NBC News, Washington Post, Gawker, The PJ Tatler, New York Magazine, Associated Press, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and FOX News Radio

Bridie Jabour / Guardian:
Sydney siege: hostages held inside Martin Place cafe - live

Discussion: Gawker, The Huffington Post and Sydney Morning Herald

Daily Mail:
Terror in Sydney as gunman takes at least 13 hostages at Lindt cafe, forces crying women …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Steve Inskeep / WBUR:

Sen. Warren Warns That Spending Bill Sets Dangerous Precedent — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. (right), a member of the Senate banking committee, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the House financial services committee, express their outrage to reporters …

Discussion: The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo, New York Post, Fox News, Washington Post, New York Times, Daily Kos, Business Insider, The Federalist and Weekly Standard

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Dodd-Frank Damaged in the Budget Bill — On Wall Street, 2010 was the year of “Obama rage,” in which financial tycoons went ballistic over the president's suggestion that some bankers helped cause the financial crisis. They were also, of course, angry about the Dodd-Frank financial reform …

Discussion: Washington Post and Financial Times

Steve Inskeep / NPR:

‘Warning Shot’: Sen. Warren On Fighting Banks, And Her Political Future — Listen to the Story — Sen. Elizabeth Warren failed to stop a change in bank regulations last weekend, but she raised her profile yet again. — The Massachusetts Democrat tells NPR that her fight over a provision in a spending bill was a “warning shot.”

Discussion: OnPolitics and The Daily Caller

The Huffington Post:
The Speech That Could Make Elizabeth Warren the Next President of the United States

Discussion: AMERICAblog News and Philly.com

Peter Schroeder / The Hill: What does Warren want? — She has a spot in Democratic leadership …

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
Elizabeth Warren was told to stay quiet, but she didn't - and it's paying off

Discussion: New York Post, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, Hullabaloo, Campaign for America's Future, PoliticusUSA, naked capitalism and FOX News Radio

CBS News:

Most Americans consider waterboarding to be torture: poll — A barbed wire fence surrounds a military area is in the forest near Stare Kiejkuty village, close to Szczytno in Northeastern Poland, in this January 24, 2014 file photo. Poland threatened to halt the transfer of al Qaeda suspects …

Discussion: Washington Times, Hot Air, Washington Post, Politico, NBC News and Bloomberg Politics

Jane Mayer / New Yorker:

Torture and the Truth — It's hard to describe it as a positive development when a branch of the federal government releases a four-hundred-and-ninety-nine- page report that explains, in meticulous detail, how unthinkable cruelty became official U.S. policy.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Dish and Mike the Mad Biologist

New York Times: Brennan Draws on Bond With Obama in Backing C.I.A.

Aaron Sorkin / New York Times:

Journalists Shouldn't Help the Sony Hackers — “Jolie a ‘Spoiled Brat’ From ‘Crazyland,’ ” says The New York Post. — “Shocking New Reveals From Sony Hack,” says The Daily Beast. — “Sony's Hacked Emails Highlight Hollywood's Problems With Diversity,” says The Huffington Post.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Deadline, Mashable, The Daily Beast, Guardian and Screen Rant, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:
Sony Pictures Demands That News Agencies Delete ‘Stolen’ Data

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Re/code, Techdirt, Mashable, PandoDaily, Poynter and Gigaom, more at Mediagazer »

Stephen Battaglio / Los Angeles Times:

NBC's Brian Williams stays true to news, with a new contract expected — Riding an Amtrak train from Washington, D.C., to New York last week, Brian Williams gets the greetings and nods of recognition from passengers expected for someone who has spent 10 years in the anchor chair at “NBC Nightly News.”

Discussion: press.nbcnews.com, The Huffington Post, TVNewser, FTVLive and Mediaite

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Sen. Thune: Not closing door on 2016 run — Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) isn't ruling out a 2016 bid for the White House. — Republicans have an enormous field of potential candidates who are already making moves ahead of 2016. But Thune told The Hill he hasn't been focused on building …

Glenn Harlan Reynolds / USA Today:

The great campus rape hoax: Column — The truth - that rape on campus is becoming less common - doesn't fit the left's narrative. — Americans have been living through an enormously sensationalized college rape hoax, but as the evidence accumulates it's becoming clear that the entire thing …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Betsy's Page, The College Fix and Hot Air

David / Latest from Crooks and Liars:

Rove: CIA's Waterboarding Not Torture Like Japanese War Crimes Because We Raised Detainee's Legs — Republican strategist and former senior advisor to President George W. Bush argued on Sunday that the CIA's use of waterboarding on detainees could not be considered torture because it was “designed” to let the victim live.

Discussion: Booman Tribune and FOX News Radio