Behind the News
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July 02, 2009 03:55 PM
More PitneyGate Fallout?
Press focused on who asked questions at Obama town hall
We may, thankfully, be putting Pitneygate behind us. But reading through press coverage of President Obama’s town hall meeting on health care reform yesterday, one could be forgiven for thinking that the episode is still weighing on the minds of the Washington press corps.
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Nico Pitney, of course, is the national editor of The Huffington Post, who made... -
July 02, 2009 02:39 PM
In (Partial) Defense of Connie Schultz
Jeff Jarvis’s Low Lob
Like Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz, I am sincerely worried about the future, as the revenue streams dry up and along with it, support for in depth, investigative, and accountability journalism by newspapers.
I’m also not a fan of the solution she outlined to protect newspaper profits in her June 28 column. It’s unworkable, illogical, and...
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July 01, 2009 05:57 PM
Good News, For a Change
Non-profit consortium launches Investigative News Network
With the near-daily drip of bleak news about the journalism world (today’s edition: Gannett reportedly plans to cut at least 1,000 jobs), we could all use some reason for optimism. And, fortunately, some has arrived: A consortium of non-profit news publishers including the Center for Public Integrity, NPR, MinnPost and many others has announced plans to launch an...
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June 30, 2009 05:58 PM
L’Affaire Froomkin, as Told by Froomkin
Froomkin and Rosen on accountability, impartiality, and the dangers of the journalistic lobotomy
Jay Rosen calls it "the Froomkin kissoff." Others call it, less colorfully, "l'affaire Froomkin." Many call it politically motivated. Some call it "dumb, short-sighted, and self-destructive." Some just call it stupid.
However you choose to describe it, the event in question--the unceremonious dismissal of Dan Froomkin, the immensely popular blogger, from...
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June 29, 2009 11:16 AM
#Dickwhisperer: A History
The tussle that makes us all look "pathetic"
Twitter, as of yesterday afternoon, has a new a new hashtag: #Dickwhisperer. Nope, not a typo: #Dickwhisperer. This being a reference to the exchange—entertaining, granted, but only by virtue of its supremely cringe-inducing awkwardness—that took place between Huffington Post editor Nico Pitney and Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank on yesterday morning's Reliable Sources. The exchange that...
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June 26, 2009 05:23 PM
Braking News
End breaking-news alerts delivered through e-mail? Not so fast
Traditional news got beat yesterday. First, the professional celebrity-stalkers over at TMZ broke the news--a full hour before any other news outlet did--that Michael Jackson had died. Then Wikipedia, in a reprise of the role it played upon Tim Russert's death last year, updated its MJ entry to reflect the news--before major news outlets posted anything...
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June 26, 2009 11:00 AM
Three Strikes and You’re Fired
When the punishment for factual inaccuracy doesn't fit the crime
Matt McCann wasn’t supposed to spend his summer working for St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
For the second year in a row, McCann, a journalism student at St. Thomas, had landed a summer internship at the Telegraph-Journal. But that ended abruptly in May when he was fired a day after the paper published a story...
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June 23, 2009 10:38 AM
The Great American Tweet-Off
Howard Kurtz, media critic, vs. Roland Hedley, "Doonesbury" character
Can you tell the real reporter from the fictional character, based only on the messages they send on Twitter?
The real person:Name: Howard Kurtz
Title on Twitter: Media Guy, Washington Post
Followers include: Roland Hedley
Twitter ID: HowardKurtz
The fictional character:Name: Roland Burton Hedley...
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June 19, 2009 05:22 PM
140, One Million
Notes from the 140 Characters Conference: if "journalism is a battle," what's the fighting about?
Robert Scoble, the man with the quickest laugh in the room, any room,
strode up on stage, triumphant. He grinned wide, even for a fellow
who's already the jolliest about town, Silicon Valley normally, where
his personal brand as a far-sighted observer of social technology
trends looms large.On stage Tuesday at the 140 Characters Conference,...
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June 19, 2009 12:36 PM
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
When the man you think is Kim Jong Il's son isn't
South Korean construction worker Bae Seok-bum is used to being teased about his uncanny resemblance to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. His friends sometimes call him “Comrade Chairman.” He takes it in stride, and at one point uploaded a photo of himself to a Web site in order to show people how much he looks like the Dear Leader....
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June 17, 2009 04:23 PM
#DailyShowFail?
Stewart's send-up of CNN: surprisingly unfair
Here's something you might have missed in all the talk about Iran's "Twitter Revolution": it's totally mockable!
Indeed. During his segment on "IranDecision2009"—a play on The Daily Show's "Indecision" election series—last night, Jon Stewart briefly described the unrest in Iran (framing the protests as a conflict between supporters of Mahmoud "I'm-a-dick-in-a-jad" and "the guy who looks...
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June 16, 2009 05:31 PM
Remember Moldova
Let's hold off on pronouncements about the latest "Twitter Revolution"
"However things turn out in Iran, this will probably be forever known as the Twitter Revolution," Kevin Drum noted yesterday. "It's too easy to call the weekend's activities the first revolution that was Twittered," Marc Ambinder declared, "but when histories of the Iranian election are written, Twitter will doubtless be cast as a protagonal technology that...
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June 15, 2009 02:00 PM
Brother’s Keeper
Spanish-language Philly paper gets libelous, Anglo media don’t notice
Personal rivalries have spiraled into defamation at a Spanish-language newspaper in Philadelphia. In April, Al Día, the area’s largest-circulation Latino community paper, paid out $210,000 after losing a libel suit to former city solicitor Kenneth Trujillo. It’s a big story with implications for Philly’s media community—but you wouldn’t know it if you relied on the English-language press.
Trujillo sued...
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June 12, 2009 02:50 PM
World of Paine
Remembering Thomas Paine, America's original muckraker
Two hundred years ago this week, the radical journalist and pamphleteer Thomas Paine died an ignominious death. But during his life, Paine was renowned as the philosophical architect of the American Revolution, a true democratic populist who voiced ideas that are still considered dangerous. Common people can govern themselves justly and democractically. Liberty should not be forsaken for security. Both...
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Desks
The Audit Business
- Amplifying the Drumbeat on the “Overdraft Protection” Racket The issue picks up momentum in the financial press
- Journal: Wall Street Pay Could Set Records
The Observatory Science
- Some Optimism for the Future of Science Journalism And especially for international collaboration
- NSF “Underwriting” Coverage… And other controversies from the World Conference of Science Journalists
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- More PitneyGate Fallout? Press focused on who asked questions at Obama town hall
- The Economy Today: School’s Out With Money Tight, Classes Are Slashed