Friday, February 26, 2010
Note to Readers
Thursday, February 25, 2010
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
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Other Shoe Drops
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Afternoon Links
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
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This Is His Country?
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.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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?
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Fueling Newspaper Sales
"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.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Afternoon on the Links
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
Sunday, February 21, 2010
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.
NYT political book bestseller list includes disgraced Last Train from Hiroshima book at #13.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
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.”
Friday, February 19, 2010
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
Health Survey
In Transition
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.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Up Against the Wall
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
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
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.