In 'Exile' No More: My New Post

The Nation magazine has just announced my hire to write their first super-active media blog. You can read their announcement, my own piece on it being "40 years in the making," and go to the Media Fix twitter feed. More TK. -- Greg Mitchell

Ban Aid

NPR blogger uses all 119 words recently banned by Tribune CEO.

'The Onion' May Make You Cry...from Laughter

Funny or die, indeed:

Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere - watch more funny videos

Massa Hysteria

Sour Gropes

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Strupp and Away, Mitchell Next

Hope you saw the Strupp posting below about his new job. Congrats to Joe, of course, and check out his links below. He's already off to a fast start.

As for me, I was hired for a very exciting new gig last month (includes a lot of Web stuff and new twitter feed) and it will be announced in a few days, so watch this space, you'll read it here first! As always, you can contact me at: epic1934@aol.com. -- Greg Mitchell

Strupp in New Job

Joe Strupp started a new job with Media Matters for America.

He will be doing investigative reporting on the media, so send any and all tips, source ideas and story ideas to him at jstrupp@mediamatters.org or joestrupp@aol.com.

He also has a blog now on the media, with items similar to those he had done at E&P.

See a press release about it at

http://tinyurl.com/y8tca9u

And his first story, on Newsday and the Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, at

http://tinyurl.com/y9gxk9c

'Exile' in Exile?

Note to readers: Little or no posting for a few days, with one of us out of the country and so forth. But we might still get some stuff up. In either case, see you soon.

CIR vs. FBI

The Center for Investigative Reporting, which recently launched an effort to focus on unsolved civil rights cases, today criticized the FBI's decision to close dozens of such unsolved cases.

"So the FBI's decision to close, without prosecution or further disclosure, all but a few of the 108 unsolved murder cases it began re-examining three years ago, only highlights the vital need for investigative reporting that can find the truth, tell the stories and fill in the gaps in our nation's history," the CIR release stated.

The entire statement is HERE. -- Joe Strupp

After the Fox

Anchor Management

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Rove Spins War (Again)

Both AP and NYT came out yesterday with extracts from Karl Rove's upcoming memoir, in which he writes that, yes, he made a major mistake on Iraq--not defending Bush more vigorously against charges that he misled the nation into war over mythical WMD. David Corn of Mother Jones is out with a quick compilation of evidence that bolsters that Bush lied case -- Corn co-authored the book Hubris largely on this subject -- and concludes:

As Rove makes the rounds on his book tour, he ought to be pressed on all this. There is no doubt that the Bush posse mischaracterized what was known and not known about WMDs in Iraq. It was easy—and useful—for them to do so, for they didn't care to get this right. (After all, as Rove writes, the Iraq war would have likely not occurred without the WMD argument: "Congress was very unlikely to have supported the use-of-force resolution without the WMD threat.") Bush and his aides, Rove included, were not looking to lead an informed debate based on the best information available; they were aiming to start a war. Almost by any means necessary. They spun the nation into Iraq—and now Rove is spinning to cover that up.

Thursday Linkage

Kelly Kennedy's book on Iraq unit just out and getting press. She's the fine Military Times reporter.

Long Island Press alleges Cablevision, new owner, is "destroying" Newsday.

Alan Mutter: web copyright fight coming.

If you have somehow missed the David Broder smackdown of colleague Dana Milbank. Like NYT, Post policy has generally been you can't attack your own. Dan Froomkin weighs in here on Rahm E.

Golf writers want bad boy John Daly disciplined for tweeting Florida Times-Union reporter's cell number.

Noting the Beatles

Bizarre editor's note in tomorrow's NYT, obviously after legal action, going back to 2008 article on guy who worked with Beatles, at center of their controversy with Maharishi--Times agreed to post on Web long, long statement by guy.

Rove Over the Cliff?

The upcoming Karl Rove memoir is now getting revealed a few days before pub date--AP might have had the first scoop earlier today. Now NYT's Peter Baker has a copy and weighs in. Excerpt:

Mr. Rove adamantly rejects accusations that the administration deliberately lied about the presence of such weapons in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. But he acknowledges that the failure to find them badly damaged Mr. Bush’s presidency, and he blames himself for not countering the narrative that “Bush lied,” calling it “one of the biggest mistakes of the Bush years.”

Mr. Rove’s book offers the most expansive account yet of the Bush presidency by one of the people most responsible for it. Addressing the most controversial and consequential moments of Mr. Bush’s eight years in power, Mr. Rove takes responsibility for the widely criticized Air Force One flyover after Hurricane Katrina and writes that he secretly cried in his White House office when he learned he would not be indicted in a C.I.A. leak case.

For the most part, his book, “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight,” to be published by Threshold Editions on Tuesday, is an unapologetic defense of Mr. Bush and his presidency, and takes aim at Democrats, the news media and disloyal Republicans for what he describes as hypocrisy, deceit and vanity. He also recounts his hardscrabble upbringing in a family broken by divorce and his mother’s suicide.

Steiger on Murdoch's NY Push

I asked former Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Paul Steiger what he thought of the Journal launching a New York metro report next month.

"Rupert Murdoch is a billionaire and I am not," was his first reaction to the News Corp. chairman who confirmed the plan Tuesday. "When I was there, we did regional sections and we had a lot of fun with them. I suspect the folks at the Journal will do it on a much bigger scale and I will be eager to see how it turns out."

Steiger, who headed the Journal newsroom from 1991 to 2007, is now editor-in-chief of ProPublica.com. -- Joe Strupp

Facebook Drives More Traffic to Broadcast....

...than to newspaper sites. Editor's Weblog reports the findings from a new Hitwise report on its site.

But it also says Google, the highest traffic site on the Web, still sends more of its links to newspapers than to any other outlets. See it HERE. --Joe Strupp

David Brooks, "The Bi-Sexual" at 'NYT'

David Brooks

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Oh, Caption!

Howard Kurtz tweeted today that this is worst caption foulup in NYT history. Well, that's saying a lot, but it's got to be close. Don't miss this screen capture from yesterday afternoon.

Wednesday Linkage

ProPublica has updated its county-by-county "recovery tracker."

San Jose Merc brings back stand-alone biz section -- but Wash Post defends putting biz in section A.

For month or February, E&P Exile topped the remaining E&P blog by better than 2-1 in traffic.

Wash Post to launch $1.99 iPhone app.

All A-Twitter: It will hit 10 billion tweets today.

Southern Poverty Law Center: violence from hate groups ready to explode in USA. Number of groups at record level.

'NYT' Names Accuser

After shielding name of woman who accuses aide of New York Gov. Patterson in domestic attack, the Times published it tonight, saying others had brought it out.  It also provided new testimony against the governor from woman he allegedly asked to help hush it up. 

Yes, We Mexican-can-can

Love this Media Matters tweet: Murdoch reportedly doesn't believe rumor of NYT sale, "least of all to a Mexican," but doesn't "mean that racially." http://bit.ly/cre8OP

What's Up, Murdoch? A New York Edition

Rupert Murdoch confirmed Tuesday in remarks before the New York Board of Realtors that The Wall Street Journal will launch a New York metro edition in April.

This confirms news reported earlier this week in a New York magazine article about Murdoch that said the new edition was more a way to counter The New York Times than establish a new proft center.

Remarks from Murdoch released by Dow Jones are below. --Joe Strupp

.. so in the next few weeks, one of our other papers will be giving the (NY) Post some competition on their home turf. I'm talking about The Wall Street Journal.

You've probably already read a little about the new section on New York we'll be launching next month. Let me tell you how different that alone makes us. I challenge you to find a story about newspapers today that isn't about reducing coverage, laying off reporters, or cutting back on delivery services. When you open up a paper today, the most depressing news is often about newspapers themselves.

Here in New York, we're doing just the opposite. We're adding a whole new section and taking on reporters and editors. We believe that in its pursuit of journalism prizes and a national reputation, a certain other New York daily has essentially stopped covering the city the way it once did. In so doing, they have mistakenly overlooked the most fascinating city in the world - and left the interests and concerns of people like you far behind them. I promise you this: The Wall Street Journal will not make that mistake.

I can't tell you all the details. I can tell you that the new section will be full color - and it will be feisty. It will cover everything that makes New York great: state politics, local politics, business, culture, and sports. Oh yes - and real estate.

Favre Out -- Or Not?

A Minnesota Viking fan, from Wisconsin no less, wants Vikings quarterback Brett Favre to return for another season so badly he took out a full-page ad in Favre's hometown paper to make his case. The ad ran in the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, which is located in Favre's off-season hometown. It drew the attention of a Wisconsin television station that offered a video report. -- Joe Strupp

Rick Sanchez: Too Much Bull, or Red Bull?

The Uninformant

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Tuesday Linkage

Financial Times' paid online subs rose 15% last year.

Two corrections on NYT's Charles Blow's Saturday column appear, including getting wrong that mother in Precious is a crack addict.

Roger Ebert is on Oprah's show today. He can't talk due to his many operations but he tweets that on the show he does some magnificent "typing." But hasn't that always been true?

Gannett ends wage freeze.

Traffic at E&P's main site in month of February one-third what it was last fall.

Reno paper wants emails related to governor's alleged affairs.

BBC considers deep cuts in its Web site.

Arianna Huffington on pay wall advocates allegedly "missing the point," dahling.

Afghanistan bans coverage of current Taliban attacks, saying it only encourages them.

Amazing Prophecy in Ogden?

New outlets are now reporting that Hazmat teams have been called to an IRS office near Ogden, Utah, with one or two workers taken out on stretchers and others undergoing de-contamination showers after a suspicious white substance was found. Some in media making links to the recent terror attack on IRS building in office by deranged pilot. Amazingly, the local paper in Ogden reported on the fears of workers in a local IRS office after the Austin attack. An excerpt:

Some Internal Revenue Service employees in Ogden are expressing concern for their safety after a man apparently intentionally flew his single-engine plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, causing heavy damage and injuring at least two people. "You are not safe," said a woman who works in an IRS building at 23rd Street and Wall Avenue but declined to give her name.

"Anybody can get you."

Another IRS employee who works in the same Ogden building described the actions of the pilot in the Texas incident, identified as Joe Stack, 53, of Austin, as "pretty sick" but unpreventable.

"It could happen anywhere," the man said. "A lot of people don't like the federal government."

The Rupe Scoop

Gabriel Sherman writes in New York magazine this week that Rupert Murdoch is not slowing down as his company keeps pumping up The Wall Street Journal to battle The New York Times, still loses money with the New York Post, and rolls on with his other worldwide properties. -- Joe Strupp

Posting Here Resumes

Not much action here at Exile since Thursday due to mammoth NY storm, just getting back in the swing of things now. Sorry from Mom Nature.

Magazines Sites Pay Off?

A Columbia Journalism Review report on magazine Web sites says there is no uniform editing approach for the online versions, but some are making money with no-pay access.

A New York Times story on the report stated: "There was wide variance in most of the answers to survey questions - how and whether the sites made money, for one. Only a third of the Web sites reported making a profit."

It also stated that editing was less important to the Web versions than print, sparking concerns about quality. -- Joe Strupp

Note to Readers

Sorry, no posting last night and today due to New York storm and loss of web access.  See you soon.  

Slicing 'The Onion'

Two of the writers for The Onion, the satirical web and print paper, sat down with a Masschusetts newspaper reporter to discuss their mix of satire, parody and outright funny stuff.

The Republican of Springfield, Mass., chatted with Sam West and Jack Kukoda when the pair appeared at nearby Westfield State College.

"Its voice is consistent," West said in the story. "It's expanded, but the core sensibility is still there." -- Joe Strupp

It's Summit Day

Summit's Eve

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Other Shoe Drops

The New York Times, long rumored to be working on a big story about Gov. David Patterson, today published a lengthy report on his aide's alleged deeds, which prompted the governor to suspend him.

Is this the big story the paper had supposedly been working on for months? 

See the Times story HERE. See an AP report on the suspension HERE.  -- Joe Strupp

Afternoon Links

37 jobs lost at the Portland daily, mainly in newsroom. News here.

4 journos working on Chauncey Bailey Project win McGill award.

It's official: AP Stylebook now officially calls our current massive downturn The Great Recession.

That recently fired Calif publisher now charged with fondling women.

Toyotathon...of Death

Jon Stewart accelerates coverage.
Toyotathon of Death - Unintended Acceleration Problem

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This Is His Country?

Mike Leonard of The Herald-Times in Bloomington, Indiana, is a columnist and reporter who has followed singer John Mellencamp's rise from smart-aleck kid rocker to local boy spokesman for causes such as poor farmers.

He penned a column on CNN.com that seeks to prove the case that Mellencamp, left, could be the man to replace retiring Indiana senator Evan Bayh. -- Joe Strupp

Wednesday Linkage

Wash Post profit jumps--even the newspaper makes money.

Politico with possible scoop on Obama team's plan to launch re-election bid--just a little more than a year away.

Where's Joe Heller or George Orwell when we really need him? NYT headline: "Gates Calls Europe Anti-War Mood Danger to Peace"

NAA: Local newspapers (and their ads) continue to be most credible with readers.

NYT's Bill Keller on shakeup at his paper -- and journos with "A.D.D."

A chat with Sharon Waxman, the ex-NYTer now running the popular The Wrap entertainment site.

Mr. Brown, You've Got Some Lovely Daughters

As it's done a lot lately, NYT Mag posted very early an upcoming feature: This one on new Mass. Sen. Scott Brown (who just went against conservatives in helping to advance jobs bill). Bonus: He's pictured in leather shorts. Also check out multimedia time line and video. Excerpt from Frank Bruni piece:

Brown’s exposure owes at least as much to, well, his exposure. Back in 1982, when he was 22, he posed nude for Cosmopolitan magazine, which named him the sexiest man in America. The layout of the photograph skimped on some key information, but the accompanying interview made space for his fantasies, which he said turned to women who were “tall, athletic and have longish hair and beautiful legs . . . hmmm, I’m getting excited!”

Nearly three decades later, as he campaigned for the Senate, that article drew widespread notice, as did the fact that Brown, at 50, seemed as plausible a centerfold as ever. An obsessive exerciser, he competed in more than six triathlons, both abbreviated and full length, in the first half of 2009 alone. The trim, muscular results of all that swimming and sweating explained an atypical addition to the Washington press corps that shadowed him during a visit to the nation’s capital just after his victory. A reporter for the gossip site TMZ was on hand to ask him if he was “bringing sexy back to the Republican Party.”

He’s certainly bringing it a résumé and panache that aren’t the norm. And he’s transporting them — in the unlikely event that you haven’t yet heard — in a green GMC Canyon pickup truck. Seldom has a politician got more mileage out of a vehicle, and I don’t mean Brown’s crisscrossing of Massachusetts during the campaign.

Glenn Beck: A Commie?

Rage Within the Machine - Progressivism

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Fueling Newspaper Sales

U.S News & World Report writes about new technologies that would turn old throwaway items, including used newspapers, in to fuel.

"University of Central Florida professor Henry Daniell has developed a groundbreaking way to produce ethanol from waste products such as orange peels and newspapers," the report states. "His approach is greener and less expensive than the current methods available to run vehicles on cleaner fuel -- and his goal is to relegate gasoline to a secondary fuel."

So one slogan could be "All the News that's Fit to Fuel Your Car." Maybe not. -- Joe Strupp

Tuesday Linkage

Famed Mississipi reporter Jerry Mitchell, who got "genius grant," continues civil rights murder probes here.

Love this NYT headline as millions more go off unemp benefit roll this month: "Daring to Think Private Jet Again."

@DalaiLama verified on Twitter on Monday. Naturally, he is not following anyone.

A bit more on mysterious NYT op-ed writer on Afghanistan assaults - and NYT explains why employer not mentioned.

Seattle Times pension plan way, way in debt.

A harsh critique of NYT plan to charge fairly high feed for iPad edition.

Traffic at Editor & Publisher this month site lowest in 8 years.

Afternoon on the Links

Fun correction of the week: NYT admits New Yorker editor did something "pumped up" not "pimped up."

Newspapers have lost 105,000 jobs since 2001.

A rather tortured explanation in Politico why it let a reporter return to the fold.

The Krugman Blues

The New Yorker helps boost its profile of the NYT columnist with video up on its site of the great Loudon Wainwright III singing his tune "The Krugman Blues."

Monday Linkage

Howard Kurtz: Scientologists hire 3 top journos, including Pulitzer and Emmy winners, to probe...St. Pete Times.

David Carr for Monday's NYT probes Tigermania.

Tip jar disappears at Miami Herald site.

After a 10-month lag, Jay Rosen resumes his influential PressThink blog with a look at political journalism.

Ross Douthat in column joins ranks of those saying National Enquirer should be taken seriously as Pulitzer winner. No mention of parent company killing scoop on Tiger Woods in the tabloid in exchange for a cover shoot.

Leonard Pitts: Problem for journalists today is people do not believe in "objective facts," only "facts" that fit their 0pinions.

Charles Pierce at his Boston Globe blog says, love that Olympics hockey but enough with Al Michaels and the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice -- it wasn't exactly D-Day.

NYT political book bestseller list includes disgraced Last Train from Hiroshima book at #13.

Sunday Linkage

NYT public ed repeats call for Ethan Bronner to be reassigned from Jerusalem bureau due to son's service in Israeli Army.

Worker at Newark Star-Ledger busted by FBI for sending suspicious powder to his boss.

Wash Post still refuses to call torture...torture.

Nick Kristof writes amusing column imagining news media run like health system--no single payer!

'NYT' With Book Bombshell

There's a stunning piece just posted at NYT site from tomorrow's paper on a book I wrote about last month--Charles Pellegrino's Last Train from Hiroshima. I wrote about it in the context of it being bought by James Cameron for a movie (I have written dozens of stories on the subject and co-authored the book with Robert Jay Lifton Hiroshima in America). Pellegrino is an old friend of Cameron and worked with him on Titanic and other projects. Now William J. Broad in the Times reveals that a key revelation in the book is based on a hoax.

Pellegrino fell for a story from a guy who claimed he was a last minute substitution on an A-bomb bomb and told the story of a partial "dud" -- made up out of whole cloth. The author now says he will revise the book ASAP. Here's an excerpt below. -- Greg Mitchell

That section of the book and other technical details of the mission are based on the recollections of Joseph Fuoco, who is described as a last-minute substitute on one of the two observation planes that escorted the Enola Gay.

But Mr. Fuoco, who died in 2008 at age 84 and lived in Westbury, N.Y., never flew on the bombing run, and he never substituted for James R. Corliss, the plane’s regular flight engineer, Mr. Corliss’s family says. They, along with angry ranks of scientists, historians and veterans, are denouncing the book and calling Mr. Fuoco an imposter.

Facing a national outcry and the Corliss family’s evidence, the author, Charles Pellegrino, now concedes that he was probably duped. In an interview on Friday, he said he would rewrite the book for paperback and foreign editions.

“I’m stunned,” Mr. Pellegrino said. “I liked and admired the guy. He had loads and loads of papers, and photographs of everything.”

The public record has to be repaired, he added. “You can’t have wrong history going out,” he said. “It’s got to be corrected.”

On the Tweeting Press Secy and More

I did a radio thing today (summary and link) on the White House's new infatuation with Twitter and also its relations with bloggers and who will lead the "pack" in 2010 campaign coverage. -- Greg Mitchell

Not So Mighty Quinn

Big dust-up at Wash Post over column by Sally Quinn about big "dysfunctional" family battle--her own--over weddings.   Involves, of course, hubby Ben Bradlee, Ben Bradlee Jr., his ex-wife Martha Raddatz, more. 

Blocking the Blogs

NYT gets blogs ready for construction of pay wall.

Health Survey

Contra Costa Times compares life expectancy and health disparities in different zip codes.

Headline of the Day

From NYT online: "Can Condoms Save Polar Bears?"

In Transition

Always useful Friday wrapup of week web/print/media transition news from Mark Coddington at NiemanLab.

Friday Linkage

NiemanLab: AP's nonprofit distribution pilot-- It's been 6 months, ProPublica, CPI say few stories picked up.

NPR ombud weighs in on NYT reporting Olympics results as they happen.

Post-Katrina shooting by the New Orleans police previously reported on by ProPublica gets attention of the FBI,

National Enquirer declared eligible for Pulitzer after earlier getting ruled out.

NYT reports on Obama's "compromise" health plan to arrive before next week's "summit."

New ongoing photo/video "mashup" from ASNE, check out sample here.

Up Against the Wall

New study finds pay walls at Web sites don't, won't, work. Others disagree. Or as Buddy Holly put it, "Wall, All Right."

Tiger, Tiger, Spinning Bright?

After months in seclusion, and seeing his personal life played out in tabloids, on tabloid shows and the Internet, Tiger Woods will face the press Friday (no questions though) in what is being billed as an apology and, hopefully, explanation of what happened.

This is key to his ability to return to golf as the larger-than-life figure he was. He also needs some major mea culpa to remain Mr. Endorsement with his slew of ad deals, most of which have remained since his Thanksgiving Day accident.

I am curious to see how Tiger does. He has long been a difficult person for reporters to get close to, not to mention his fellow golfers. Will he open up enough to get some forgiveness for a real act of contrition, or will he stay stubborn? A guess is his people know that a full explanation and true remorse will win the day and the future endorsements and money.

Even more interesting will be: how much will the media overplay whatever he says? Also, if it is shown live, look for ratings to match O.J.s murder acquittal announcement. -- Joe Strupp

Thursday Linkage

Toyota places more ads in U.S. newspapers on Thursday, with open letter from president of U.S. operations on quality concerns.

HBO debuts doc film on NYT's Nick Kristof tonight, will be repeated several times, of course.

NYT gives Mark McGwire another chance to admit steroids helped him hit HRs --and once again, he blows it.

Politico looks at new twitter feed for President's press secretary Gibbs.

Will Bunch: New "conspiracy" woes for rightwing Texas governor candidate. Two others sweep newspapers endorsements in contest.

Was NYT frontpager on Tea Party this week something of a whitewash?

'NYT': Tape Delay Be Damned

Clark Hoyt, the NYT public editor, out with an entertaining blog piece on how and why the paper is reporting Olympics results as they happen even if some readers may be wanting to look away and wait for Bob Costas in prime time. He also takes up questions of spoiler alerts or hiding winners a click away from home page. Excerpt:

The Times has no intention of changing its approach: report results as soon as it can, as prominently as they deserve. “Our job is to report the news,” said Tom Jolly, the sports editor. He said NBC “has made a business decision to show the highlights on a taped basis. We’re not beholden to presenting the news the way NBC does.”

That means that when Lindsey Vonn goes for gold in the women’s downhill this afternoon, The Times will report what happens immediately, no spoiler alert, no tape delay.

I was leaning toward recommending putting Olympics results a click away from the home page, so that readers like Waters and Gooch wouldn’t have their fun spoiled when they came to the paper’s site for other news. But after I talked more with Jolly and read some comments from other readers on the Web site, I changed my mind.

ASNE Awards Out

Big winners for articles include Newark's Star-Ledger, Boston Globe, another win for Dave Rohde of NYT on his kidnapping, commentary by Nicholas Kristof, more.

Good Sports

How USA Today is growing sports brand using online community approach.

Not Exactly a Shock

Nielsen reports survey showing 85% of Web users want it to remain free. Some people claiming this dooms pay. Huh? Why wouldn't 100% of users want it to free? Question is not desire but how many will pay up if no good options.

No Stopping Toyota

After running three versions of full-page newspaper ads in the past few weeks to respond to its growing recall problem, Toyota has now gone to the Op-Ed page again.

James Lentz, COO of Toyota Motor Sales USA, wrote an Op-Ed for USA Today Wednesday that seeks to tell readers the company is committed to safety as it steers through this difficult period. This comes a week after a similar piece ran in The Washington Post Feb. 9.

"All of us at Toyota - including our 172,000 North American employees and dealership personnel - are firmly focused on maintaining the safety and reliability of the vehicles our customers drive and ensuring we emerge a stronger company," the piece notes. -- Joe Strupp

Wednesday Linkage

Publisher of Manteca Bulletin in California fired after unspecified complaints by employees.

Did NYT and others falsely report that James O'Keefe was dressed in his pimp costume inside ACORN offices?

Vatican newspaper reveals some material from World War II archives to be put online amid controversy over Pope's actions re: The Holocaust.

Dangers of journo transparency: That TV newsman in UK who confessed on camera to mercy killing has now been arrested.

Traffic at full Editor & Publisher site remains less than half what it was before death and rebirth, and stalled.

Major AP probe on rising tide of homelessness in suburbs across U.S. "truly reaching a stage of being alarming."

'NYT' Plagiarist Resigns

After getting suspended. Now he's gone. He still says "inadvertent," though sloppy and stupid.

Chip Off the Old Block

Politico's Matt Wuerker wins annual Herblock award for editorial cartooning.

Pulitzers Coming, Ready or Not

The Pulitzer Prizes will hold their preliminary jury judging on March 1, 2, and 3. The winners will be announced Monday, April 12, according to prize officials.

Again this year, submissions from Web-only news outlets will be eligible in all 14 journalism categories.

The first Pulitzer Board member from a predominantly Web-oriented newsroom, Jim VandeHei of Politico, will serve on the Pulitzer Board, which determines the final winners. -- Joe Strupp

Newspaper: French Exposed Soldiers to Radiation

AP reporting on this guinea pig shocker from French paper on 1961 bomb test. Excerpt:

France's military purposely exposed soldiers to a 1961 nuclear test in the Sahara Desert to study how the atomic bomb would affect their bodies and minds, a French news report said Tuesday, citing a classified defense document.

Reacting to the report in Le Parisien newspaper, the government pledged full transparency. Defense Minister Herve Morin denied that soldiers in the April 25, 1961 operation were used as human guinea pigs, but said ''it is obvious that today nobody would carry out tests in such conditions.''

In total, France conducted 210 nuclear tests, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996. After decades of pressure from victims, the government finally agreed last year to compensate them.

Le Parisien newspaper said it had obtained a 260-page confidential document summarizing France's nuclear tests in the Sahara, including the April 25, 1961 aboveground test, which was code-named ''Gerboise verte'' or green gerboa.

'NYT' Suspends Reporter

The Times has suspended the reporter at center of conflict with WSJ over alleged "plagiarism" with his fate to be decided this afternoon, apparently., Jeff Bercovici reports. Excerpt:

How harshly should a newspaper deal with a reporter who makes a string of serious but possibly honest mistakes? Editors at The New York Times (NYT) will answer that question today when they determine the fate of Zachery Kouwe, a business reporter who copied passages from competing news outlets in numerous articles.

Kouwe, who covers mergers and acquisitions, has been suspended pending the verdict from his bosses, expected to be delivered at a meeting on Tuesday afternoon. The first public disclosure of his transgressions came Sunday in the form of an editor's note stating that Kouwe had "improperly appropriated wording and passages" and "reused language from The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and other sources without attribution or acknowledgment." The editor's note did not use the word "plagiarism," suggesting that Kouwe's superiors were taking a nuanced view of his transgressions.

Clown Time Is Over?

Dana Milbank of Wash Post coming out with book at end of year on Glenn Beck: The Tears of a Clown.

Rohde, Once Captured, Captures Polk

David Rohde, who was abducted and held for seven months last year by the Taliban, is among recipients of the prestigious George Polk Award from Long Island University.

Other winners include Bloomberg News, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Stars and Stripes. -- Joe Strupp

Tuesday Linkage

The world's oldest paper boy vows to keep going until 100.

Wash Post reports Obamas spent Valentine's Day in Chicago. One problem: story was a year old.

White House now using Twitter to monitor reporters tweets, new stories, and correct ones they find fault with.

One of the winners of Polk Award announced today: the anonymous videographer of the death of Iranian martyr Neda, shot in the street.

Great Esquire profile of Roger Ebert.

World's best-designed newspapers awards announced by SND.

RealClimate probes recent poor coverage of climate change.

NYT knew about capture of top Taliban guy last Thursday, only published today when news spread locally over there.

Monday Links Updated

Wash Post reports Obamas spent Valentine's Day in Chicago. One problem: story was a year old.

Beat the Press business columnist Dean Baker that AP ran editorial disguised as news piece on deficit.

Dave Eggers discusses his Panorama newspaper and more.

AP involved in 40 records request lawsuits last year -- and news orgs in general have gotten more aggresive under "transparent" Obama admin.

NAA: Newspaper inserts under siege.

White House revamps communications strategy (and Robert Gibbs has gone on Twitter).

NYT editorial hits Obama admin on not going after Bush/Cheney lawbreaking.

For the week of Feb. 8-14, this blog once again easily topped the E&P blog in page views by better than 2-1, latest numbers show. Thanks again for your support, even though we are doing this very part-time.

Spy vs. Spy Updated

Now it's editor vs. editor as New York Magazine gets its hands on letter Thomson of WSJ wrote to Keller of NYT about alleged plagiarism scandal involving Times biz writer. But Thomson and Keller have wrangled before. -- Greg Mitchell

Reporter Flies with Dove

New York Daily News reporter is featured in new ad for Dove soap. Perhaps a Senate camnpaign is in his future. He writes about it here.

Holy Kouwe: A Serious Correction

A biggie from the NYT today.

In a number of business articles in The Times over the past year, and in posts on the DealBook blog on NYTimes.com, a Times reporter appears to have improperly appropriated wording and passages published by other news organizations.

The reporter, Zachery Kouwe, reused language from The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and other sources without attribution or acknowledgment.

The Times was alerted to the problem by editors at The Wall Street Journal. They pointed out extensive similarities between a Journal article, first published on The Journal’s Web site around 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 5, and a DealBook post published two hours later, as well as a related article published in The Times on Feb. 6.

Those articles described an agreement on an asset freeze for members of Bernard L. Madoff’s family, in a lawsuit filed by a court-appointed trustee. In the Times article and the DealBook post, several passages are repeated almost exactly from the Journal article.

A subsequent search by The Times found other cases of extensive overlap between passages in Mr. Kouwe’s articles and other news organizations’. (The search did not turn up any indications that the articles were inaccurate.)

Copying language directly from other news organizations without providing attribution — even if the facts are independently verified — is a serious violation of Times policy and basic journalistic standards. It should not have occurred. The matter remains under investigation by The Times, which will take appropriate action consistent with our standards to protect the integrity of our journalism.

'NYT' Public Editor Backs Paper on Patterson

It's been a raging issue all week, with NY Gov. Patterson even appearing on Larry King to charge that the NYT had been spreading, or at least inviting, rumors about a scandal involving him -- even without running a story. Now the paper's public editor appears with his own probe, which concludes that it was right for the Times to hold off comment and let the reporting speak for itself, whenever (and if) it does appear. Excerpt:

I think The Times and Paterson were caught in a terrible spot, but I think the paper is right to maintain its silence until ready to speak with an article on its own pages. It could have denied the Paterson rumors. But what if the next time it really was looking into a scandal involving a public figure? Silence then would speak volumes. The demands for comment on work in progress could be limitless.

Keller is right when he says, “The only honorable thing I know to do in such a situation is to finish our reporting as expeditiously as possible and tell readers what we’ve learned.”

The Limits of Transparency

I am quoted in a new L.A. Times story by James Rainey about reporter transparency: If you lay bare exactly where you are coming from, does that allow almost any ethical conundrum? Here's an excerpt. -- Greg Mitchell

Lobdell and Minkow formed the new website to bring more attention to those kinds of investigations and to lend the credibility the journalist built working for years in the mainstream.

But the newfangled business model flies in the face of traditional journalism's conflict-of-interest codes. At most major news outlets, including this one, reporters can't own stock in industries they cover. Rules often forbid speculation and short-selling stocks under the theory that those practices would give journalists incentive to accentuate a company's negatives.

But Lobdell said that readers will know, from the get-go, if his outlet has a business interest in a stock crashing. And they will be able to judge his work with Minkow accordingly.

My former colleague argues that investigative journalism has withered so badly as mainstream news outlets contract that it's worth trying unorthodox business models.

Shooting Star Dimmed

When the horrific Virginia Tech shooting occurred in 2007, leaving 33 dead including the gunman, it was The Collegiate Times, the campus newspaper, that went above and beyond the call with coverage, inside stories, and details of the horrible rampage.

Now the student government wants to cut funding to the newspaper and other media outlets, according to The Roanoke Times. It notes that the paper is accused of violating policy by allowing anonymous comments.

I suggested three years ago that the paper be considered for a Pulitzer Prize for its work,which was honored when its editor was invited to the White House Correspondents Dinner that year. This cutback in funding would be the ultimate irony and the ultimate shame. -- Joe Strupp

Friday Links

A major Wash Post exit: Bart Gellman leaves for TIME.

Now they tell us: computer and e-reader screens do not cause eyestrain, actually.

Walter Shapiro at Politics Daily hits NYT on Patterson coverage--and more.

The usual good weekly wrapup from NiemanLab including the buzz about Buzz.

Jeff Light formerly of OC Register named editor of San Diego Union-Tribune.

We've been busy with other things this week but still this blog has easily topped the E&P blog in traffic every day for the past month.

The idea was mocked at the time but analyst Alan Mutter claims the the L.A. Times' new early print deadlines are working out well.

NYT/CBS Poll: Obama Still Tops GOP

Result of new survey finds Obama not doing great but public finds Bush, the GOP, and Wall Street more responsible for flagging economy. Some other good signs for him, relatively speaking. Excerpt from NYT recap:

While the president is showing signs of vulnerability on his handling of the economy — a majority of respondents say he has yet to offer a clear plan for creating jobs — Americans blame former President George W. Bush, Wall Street and Congress much more than they do Mr. Obama for the nation’s economic problems and the budget deficit, the poll found.

They credit Mr. Obama more than Republicans with making an effort at bipartisanship, and they back the White House’s policies on a variety of disputed issues, including allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military and repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

The poll suggests that both parties face a toxic environment as they prepare for the elections in November. Public disapproval of Congress is at a historic high, and huge numbers of Americans think Congress is beholden to special interests. Fewer than 1 in 10 Americans say members of Congress deserve re-election.

Berkeley Rebels Again

The Berkeley Daily Planet announced Thursday that it's going from print to online only.