Journalists at Work: Recent Episodes
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The text message arrived at 12:44 a.m. We were asleep, but Holly heard the ping. Messages after midnight are almost always bad news. “You guys are going to wake up to news of another mass shooting. Don’t watch the video.” The warning came from Jackson Gilbert, our youngest son who will graduate in May from a police academy. Jackson wasn’t simply trying to protect us from seeing a gruesome massacre. No, it soon became clear that the slaughter of dozens of worshippers at mosques in ChristChurch, New Zealand, was carried out by a white nationalist terrorist who livestreamed it on social media. And authorities, social media websites, #NoNotoriety advocates, and many journalists around the world were encouraging people to refuse to watch, share or repost the horrific video. Their message: Don’t give the shooter the infamy he covets. Don’t promote his self-serving, anti-immigrant manifesto. Don’t glorify the cowardly act of killing unarmed people in houses of worship. Don’t inspire would-be copycats — be aware of the “contagion effect.” As I explained Sunday in an interview with WWJ News Radio, I’m sympathetic to #NoNotoriety movement. We talk about it every semester in the media ethics course I teach at Oakland University. Many …
Trying to digest the Wednesday Michael Cohen hearing is giving us heartburn, too. What, exactly, happened there? We may find out eventually. In the meantime, OU journalism alum Mike Larson honed in on an interesting phenomenon – a number of Republican members of the House Oversight Committee entered stories from mainstream media sources such as The Washington Post and CNN in to the official court record “to try to strengthen” their arguments that Cohen has no credibility. The Republicans are, after all, the party of the president who disparages MSM as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people,” and voters who are most likely to say they distrust the press. Ironic, isn’t it? These Republicans give the media credence when it suits their agenda. Don’t know how you spent your Friday, but we painstakingly sifted through this full-length video of the hearing – a written transcript will not be available for a few more weeks, we’re told – to aggregate those requests. Look below. The trend is obvious – facts matter. Meanwhile, Mike Larson. I’m sure you’re doing terrific work as managing editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times, but we send our appreciation for your witty and visionary social …
GARRY: If I was a writer and producer for NPR’s On The Media, I’d be delirious about the choices of content to fill 60 minutes of airtime for the weekly podcast. This has been a bizarre week in news ABOUT the news. Jump to Teen Sues Washington Post Jump to Orchestrated Attack on Jussie Smollett Justice Thomas authors sharp criticism of free-press law Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court should consider overturning a 55-year-old landmark ruling that protects freedom of the press. Thomas took dead aim at NY Times v. Sullivan, a Civil Rights Era decision that makes it difficult for public officials to win libel suits against the news media. Thomas’ opinion, offered as an aside in a case involving Bill Cosby, seems more related to President Trump. The president this week blasted The Times as the enemy of the people and complained about “Saturday Night Live” lampooning him. DJT has repeatedly called for “opening up libel laws” to make it easier to sue the media for defamation. The 1964 ruling was intended to protect the right of the press and American citizens to criticize government and public officials even when minor errors are made in that criticism. …
President Trump is traveling to McAllen, Texas, today to make his case for the construction of a border wall. There will be ample media coverage of his stop there, which, of course, is strategically arranged to reinforce his argument that there is an immigration crisis so severe, it’s a threat to our national security. But here’s a view from another window, with a more personal perspective on the contentious debate – local news. Below you’ll find a resource of links to 11 hometown news organizations in border communities in four states. Local journalism often gets short shrift in the national news cycle, but we think the work of these journalists has inestimable merit – and we’re not alone. A recent Poynter Institute of Media Studies poll indicated that people trust their local news far more than the national media. SPOILER ALERT: We did not conduct a scientific content analysis of these sites, but anecdotally we found that an overwhelming amount of coverage – both news and opinion – was anti-wall. One of the most-often cited concerns is economy – something you don’t hear much about from Trump or national news media. Most of these communities, it turns out, rely heavily …
Holly: Election workers are slogging through a laborious and expensive recount in Florida as the races for U.S. Senate, governor and commissioner of agriculture are too close to call. There’s also some weirdness in the results. In Broward County, for starters, a ridiculous percentage of voters – 3.7 percent – left the Senate vote box blank. Zounds! That’s a lot of “undervoting.” In typical fashion, there’s the partisan mudslinging. But the fact is, the race may have been sullied by poor ballot design. Mark Wilson of Fast Company sums up that scenario: “Every county across the U.S. is allowed to design their own voting ballot. In the case of Broward County, the ballot begins with a long list of instructions on how to vote. Right below this long column sits the Senate race box. It’s plausible that voters who skimmed the instructions may have skipped right over the Senate race box. Their eyes went straight to the governor’s race instead, which appears clearly on the top of the page, one column over from the instructions.” This explanation is picking up a great deal of credible steam from main stream media – and more significantly – from design experts. It also underscores how essential …
Americans are voting today on the value of watchdog journalism. Sure, a mid-term election in the U.S. is historically a referendum on the man occupying the Oval Office. Today is bigger than that. If you believe the news media have a fundamental responsibility to act as a check on the power of the government at a time when Donald Trump’s party controls Congress and the Supreme Court, you have a golden opportunity to send that message to the White House today. Trump disparages journalists at every opportunity because — in our view — members of the press are fulfilling their duty. In the words of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, the purpose of the press is to “serve the governed, not the governors.” Yet, just last week: After the horrific shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, the president scolded reporters for inciting violence. When suspicious packages were mailed to CNN and other Trump critics, the president urged civility while condemning the “fake news” media as the source of partisan anger that divides America. He announced he will use his pen to change the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. He then railed against Constitutional scholars, members of Congress from both political parties, and media …
Doing journalism can be as dangerous as it is honorable. Especially for those who dare to dissent, like Jamal Khashoggi, the progressive Saudi journalist who was openly critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi, as you no doubt have heard, is missing in what is now being referred to an “apparent assassination.” He is one of more than 1,000 journalists who have been the victims of targeted killings since 2006. And more have been killed in the first nine months of 2018 than all of last year, according to data compiled by both The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. While their numbers vary slightly, the agencies are in agreement that this has been a deadly year for journalists, even in the U.S. and Western Europe, where press freedom is a considered hallmark of society. This year in the U.S. alone, five journalists were gunned down in June at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland. “There is an increase in attacks on journalists and journalism as an institution that is important to democracy and to the foundation of human rights,” Dr. Courtney Radsch, the advocacy director for CPJ told the New York Times this week. “And we see that …
Garry: What qualities make a college professor so unforgettable that former students travel from all over the country to wish them well in retirement? In the instance of Jane Briggs Bunting, those students say they sensed that she truly cared about them, wanted them to excel in both life and work, and instilled in them the confidence to do so. Yes, as a journalism teacher, they say, Jane was taxing. Her media law classes — conducted in the Socratic style — were legendarily rigorous. Yes, Jane terrified some students. Yes, she could be exacting to the point of causing tears. She made it clear that verified facts mattered most in reporting and writing, but your grammar and spelling better be perfect, too. Partisanship, the appearance of bias, and laziness were not tolerated. My poorest grade as an undergraduate student came in her media law class, but I admire her like no other. Whatever I’ve accomplished in the field of journalism is a credit to her. Many Oakland University alums and staff members will recognize Jane as the long-time director of the journalism program and the adviser for the independent campus newspaper, The Oakland Sail, which later became The Oakland Post. …
You’d have to be avoiding the news with some resolve not to know that “Fear,” the new book by journalist Bob Woodward, was released today. The bestseller, which details chaos and ineptitude in the Trump administration, is based on hundreds of interviews – many with confidential sources inside the White House. The WH – following the time-tested strategies used by previous presidents – is attacking the book’s veracity. The criticism, however, isn’t exactly hurting sales. As we write this, “Fear” is literally flying off the shelves. In fact, Amazon is sold out. For those of you about to indulge, or just wondering what all the fuss is about, here are four things to know about the author: 1. He’s immortalized in film. It’s been 44 years since “All The President’s Men” made Woodward and Carl Bernstein two of the most respected reporters in the history of journalism. The 1976 film version of that whodunit political classic — starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford — chronicled “Woodstein’s” coverage of “Watergate,” which was primarily based on an anonymous source nicknamed “Deep Throat. For journalists our age, the dogged and dangerous investigative work done by Woodward and Bernstein is often cited as the reason we …
Newsrooms are extraordinary places no matter whether they are as tiny as The Oakland Post or as vast as The New York Times. The majority are more like the modest digs at the Annapolis Capital Gazette than the expansive office settings we’ve all seen depicted in films such as The Post or HBO’s “The Newsroom.” It is our experience that most people who toil in them feel that journalism is some sort of higher calling — or as the legendary Ben Bradlee often described it, “a holy profession.” There are always a few curmudgeons, but by and large newsrooms are filled with decent, honest people who care deeply about their communities, their audience, their colleagues, and their craft. They enjoy telling stories — good ones as well as bad ones — and most are well aware the history of their calling. Most take exceptional pride in constructing and delivering — on deadline — a print newspaper, program, website, or broadcast. These are, of course, intensely challenging but fundamentally important times to be working in journalism. The public has long been suspicious of the conduct of journalists. We are not held in high regard like nurses or firefighters — in part because its our …