lateralsymmetry asks: The story of the Seattle Times running an ad for a gubernatorial candidate (ostensibly to raise recognition of their own advertising power) is garnering them a lot of criticism. My question: how does running an ad for a candidate differ from writing an endorsement? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
» SFB says: Newspapers are set up with separators between the various departments, including news, editorial and advertising. The goal is that they’re not supposed to have influence on what they do for one another, especially financially. The Seattle Times making an endorsement in their editorial pages shouldn’t have an effect on their coverage, and political ads shouldn’t have an effect on the news coverage or the editorial page. The Seattle Times, on the other hand, ran political ads for a candidate and cause the management supported in an effort to promote the value of political advertising in print. This was a bad idea — mainly because it set a terrible precedent. (And also, there’s this thing called the Ad Council which does this kind of thing already.) If someone bought the ad for Rob McKenna in the Times, it would’ve cost them nearly $80,000. To put it simply: The editorial section doesn’t have a financial interest in sharing their views. The ad department, however, does. And they basically overstepped their bounds, putting the news and editorial departments in a very tough spot. How can the paper report objectively on the election now that they’ve run a full-page ad supporting the Republican candidate? The editorial page is hidden away from this kind of influence for a reason. The Seattle Times threw the separation between departments out the window by running this ad. And, as a large metropolitan daily, they deserve the criticism they’re getting. — Ernie @ SFB
If you haven’t seen it yet, the new iOS news app Circa is really cool — incremental news for those of you using your phones and stuff — but it’s missing something: Numbers and blurbs. As an experiment for kicks, here’s what that would look like.
As I’ve said many times, I’m not big on comparisons unless they’re awfully close parallels, and I fail to see any relationship between war and the name of a football team.
And here, I also agree very strongly with The Star’s longtime policy on this matter. I remain unconvinced by every argument I’ve ever heard that the name is not a racial epithet, plain and simple. And I’ll even break my usual rule about commenting on issues outside The Star’s journalism to say that I find it inconceivable that the NFL still allows such a patently offensive name and mascot to represent the league in 2012.
I almost always come down on the side of publishing a word when it’s the crux of a debate (as I did here in the first paragraph). It isn’t healthy for discourse to pretend any words or thoughts don’t exist.
But I see no compelling reason for any publisher to reprint an egregiously offensive term as a casual matter of course. As brighter minds than mine have noted, nobody would be surprised if a newspaper or website decided not to name a team that used any other racial slur. I don’t understand why this should be any different.
The paper is from a region that also has a team with Native American themes, the Kansas City Chiefs. Think this is a good policy? (ht USA Today)
Video footage has emerged showing U.S. freelance journalist Austin Tice being held by a group of masked men toting assault rifles in the first direct evidence of his condition since his disappearance in mid-August.
The 47-second video clip was posted onto YouTube on Sept. 26 and came to light on Monday after it appeared on a Facebook page associated with supporters of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It is the first to show Tice since he disappeared while reporting on Syria’s civil war. Tice contributed stories to multiple news outlets, including The Washington Post and McClatchy.
The video opens with shaky footage of a convoy of three vehicles moving through scrubby mountain terrain, before cutting to a small knot of armed men, faces obscured, leading Tice up a mountain path while calling “Allahu al-Akbar,” or “God is great.”
A blindfolded Tice is then pushed to his knees and filmed speaking a partially indecipherable prayer in Arabic. Tice, visibly distressed, cries out “Oh Jesus, oh Jesus” in English, before reverting to Arabic, seconds before the footage is cut.
An important development regarding the disappearance of Austin Tice, the American freelance journalist who went missing while reporting on the Syrian uprising in August.
FOIA Online goes live
Starting today, October 1, journalists who submit Freedom of Information Act requests will be able to keep track of their requests through a new system called FOIA Online. The system, which will be used by the EPA, National Archives and Records Administration, Merit Systems Protection Board, Federal Labor Relations Board, and the Departments of Commerce and Treasury, should help both journalists and agencies track requests more efficiently.
From the Sunshine in Government blog:
The new system, called FOIA Online, allows anyone to search pending FOIA requests and documents already released as the result of previous FOIA requests, submit a new FOIA request to an agency, track requests, see the status of any request and receive agency correspondence and documents all within the new system. And for FOIA geeks like us, it provides anyone the ability to search the tracking data, identify trends and keep tabs on how well (or poorly) any agency is fulfilling its obligations under FOIA.
This is really good news for the open-government types.
Launching early in January of this year, Battabox has quickly become a household name in Nigeria. Bringing a new and different approach to News and Entertainment, Battabox aims to give Nigerians a chance to have an input in how their news and stories are being shared. Their tagline is ‘Nigeria like you’ve never seen before’ and that is exactly what they show you. From important news features to silly everyday activities, Battabox covers it all; giving the viewers, as well as those involved, a different perspective on things going on in Nigeria. We had the opportunity of speaking with the founder, who happens to be the ex-CNN correspondent to West Africa, Christian Purefoy, who gave us insight to what Battabox is about.
Rise Africa: I see you studied International politics and International History in University, was there anything in particular that attracted you to Journalism?
Christian Purefoy: I got into Journalism because I enjoy writing. That was the main thing; studying international politics obviously helped. I enjoy it because for me, it’s a big part of what makes the world go round. I had an opportunity to go to Nigeria so I followed that through. Funnily enough I got into it because of the writing but I ended up in video and enjoyed that even more.
This is really cool stuff. The site, if you’re curious, is over here.
Today is the last daily issue for a number of newspapers in Louisiana and Alabama, including the New Orleans Times-Picayune. (The change was announced a few months ago.) The Birmingham News got in this little symbolic note in its date. End of story.
(ht Romenesko)
Former New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, who led the paper as its publisher for 29 years (between 1963 and 1992), and was the company’s chairman until 1997, has died. He was 86 years old. To give you an idea of his impact on the paper: He introduced the paper’s incredibly popular (and widely-imitated) feature sections, and also played a role in the paper’s deciding to print the Pentagon Papers in 1971. During this period, the paper grew to be one of the largest and most-well-regarded in the world. An important journalistic figure who will be missed.
The Islamist armed groups have become increasingly repressive as they have tightened their grip over northern Mali. Stonings, amputations, and floggings have become the order of the day in an apparent attempt to force the local population to accept their world view. In imposing their brand of Sharia law, they have also meted out a tragically cruel parody of justice and recruited and armed children as young as 12.
Read more after the break.
“On July 30, the Islamist authorities in Aguelhoc stoned to death a married man and a woman he was not married to for adultery, reportedly in front of 200 people. They also have punished women for failing to adhere to their dress code – which requires women to cover their heads, wear long skirts, and desist from wearing jewelry or perfume – and for having contact with men other than family members.” Scary stuff.
Happy Birthday, USA Today. The newspaper critics once described as “television you can wrap fish in” is turning 30-years-old. Read “A Newspaper That Influenced Us All” in Garcia Media, a fascinating look back at what this project meant to the industry and its design community.
FJP Fun Fact: USA Today did try to launch a television program. Called, originally enough, USA Today: The Television Show, it launched in 1988 and was cancelled a year and a half later due to poor ratings.
FJP Quibble: USA Today launched on September 15th, 1982, so happy pre-birthday.
A very kind post here from Mario Garcia — and today’s our 30th birthday! We’re looking forward to the next 30 years.
Ball-shaped logo or not, fact is that USA Today did a lot to modernize newspapers. Happy birthday, fellas!
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
D.C. residents: Innovative crime journalism project needs help to keep going
A pitch for some friends and a public service: Laura Amico and her husband Chris have put a lot of energy into a great project in the Washington DC area — a site, Homicide Watch, that quite literally tracks every reported homicide in the District. It’s grown into a public service that’s drawn hundreds of thousands of pageviews per month and helped keep people aware of stories that would’ve gotten ignored by a traditional newspaper. Unfortunately, a deal with a local media outlet to keep the service alive fell though at the last minute, which (due to its founder receiving a prominent fellowship at Harvard) will force the site into hiatus. All is not lost, however — a Kickstarter project to help keep the site going for another year is showing early signs of success; the project has raised a fifth of its desired $40,000 goal in a single day. It’s a smart project and one that the DC community needs. Read up here to find out more.
Just an update: With three days to go, Homicide Watch has just over $1,000 to go before it reaches its funding goal. Here’s a bump to help it get over its goal. If you need a little extra push beyond that, check out this piece digital supergenius Clay Shirky wrote explaining how important this project is.
EDIT: Thanks to a little help from one David Carr, who wrote a piece about Homicide Watch for the New York Times, they just surpassed their Kickstarter goal. Great news!
“We got a call from Samsung India saying ‘You can either be a part of this and wear the uniform, or you’ll have to get your own tickets back home and handle your hotel stay from the moment this call ends…
A few minutes later, we got a call from the Samsung India guy who said that our flights on the 6th have been cancelled, and that they’re bringing us back on the 1st instead. But this is only if, and only if, we agreed to wear at least the samsung branded shirt at the unpacked event, and not blog about any of this incident.
“None of this should leave Berlin. Or Reach India” – Clinton Jeff
It sounds like Samsung frayed some wires, considering that the bloggers were decked in full Samsung swag and expected to demo products all day — when they were really there to actually cover the conference itself. As TheNextWeb’s Brad McCarty puts it: “So take care, bloggers and those hoping to be. The next time that you’re offered a trip in exchange for coverage, you might find yourself being fitted for a uniform, signing NDAs and demoing products upon which you’re supposed to be reporting.”
(Side note: Accepting tickets/gifts for things like this would be a no-no for many journalists — a noted political columnist recently got publicly reprimanded for this very type of thing — but bloggers who scrape by may work under different rules.)
Jonah Lehrer just lost his Wired job, too: With Lehrer’s reputation already in tatters after it was found he fabricated quotes in his most recent book, NYU professor and occasional Wired contributor Charles Seife (on the request of Wired), did an analysis of Lehrer’s Wired work. The above graphic shows what Seife found. As you see, only one of the 18 listed articles doesn’t have a single checkmark on his list of journalistic misdeeds. While Wired chose initially not to publish the piece, Slate had no problem throwing it on their site. The result? Wired just issued this statement: “Lehrer’s failure to meet WIRED editorial standards leaves us no choice but to sever the relationship.” Ouch.
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