The Coming Storm Item on Andrew Sullivan's "Daily Dish" raises an intriguing question. While everyone's reporting resources have been tied up simply trying to cover the far-flung effects of the unfolding Katrina nightmare, how soon will we start to get the accompanying political/government stories that ask tough questions about Bush administration priorities and preparedness?

The bet here is that angle -- likely to be fueled by bloggers and assorted White House foes -- is just around the corner.

8/31/2005 6:06:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Interesting page one Globe piece by Bob Hohler today on the dozen Red Sox players who are evangelical Christians. Frankly, my biggest complaint is that given the subject matter, the story could have easily been twice as long.

The article says the Sox players comprise the largest group of evangelicals of any major league club. While baseball is certainly a game of statistics, I wonder how that information is available.

8/31/2005 11:45:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

From his mouth to God's ears. A couple of days ago, the Los Angeles Times's Tim Rutten wrote a piece pointing to a drop in the ratings for political talk radio and suggesting that maybe the era of right-wing hot talk was waning. Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine and a pretty savvy industry analyst told Rutten that the idea of politically partisan talk "is an anomaly in the history of talk radio...The standard for the medium is more populist than partisan...The host is on the little guy's side and skeptical of all politicians, whether they're Republicans or Democrats."

That would surely be a nice change for an industry that's been a wholly owned subsidiary of the conservative wing of the Republican party for the past decade or so. And I bet liberals would be happy to stop listening to Al Franken if conservatives agreed to turn off Rush Limbaugh.

Anyway, that brings us to the situation at WRKO-AM, the one-time king of Boston talk that has grown tired and musty in recent years. There's recently been a management shakeup there, and as today's Boston Globe story suggests, programming changes may be in the offing.

One of my sources, a veteran of the local radio business, predicts serious changes at WRKO with Howie Carr -- and perhaps Limbaugh and right-wing ranter Michael Savage -- surviving. "There will be some heavy moves made sooner than later," the radio vet predicts.

Of course, getting rid of Limbaugh and Savage would bear out Harrison's prediction that real populism rather than rabid partisanship is the next wave for a business that is still feeding off the foul-smelling fumes of anti-Clinton animus.

8/31/2005 10:28:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

It certainly looks like in New Orleans, we are bearing witness to the slow motion destruction of a great American city. Latest headline on the Times-Picayune web site is the chilling "A City Under Water."

More evidence of the web's ascension in the media firmament -- here's todays' New York Times story about how the besieged and battered news outlets still reeling from Katrina managed to get the story out.


As many problems as I have with its prime time lineup (Larry Kings's schmaltzy schmoozing is not for me and Aaron Brown is just too weird), CNN is the place I go when big news breaks. And I'm an unabashed Miles O'Brien fan. But this Los Angeles Times blurb seems to further confirm the indisputable rise of the "Fair and Balanced" Fox News Channel as the dominant cable outlet in good times and in bad.

8/31/2005 9:33:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Here's a shocker. After the Washington Post, after much internal prodding and criticsm, wisely decided to pull out of its co-sponsorship of the Pentagon's Sept. 11 "Freedom Walk" -- belatedly recognizing that the paper could be sucked into a politicized, pro-administration event -- the conservative Washington Times volunteered for duty

If anything vindicates the Post's ultimate decision, it's the Times's eagerness to get involved.

8/30/2005 6:09:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Journalists on the scene in New Orleans -- where things now seem to be deteriorating badly -- are doing their best under incredibly adverse conditions.
Here's a dispatch from the Times-Picayune blog, indicating that the newspaper building was being evacuated today. And it's worth checking out this blog for regular updates.

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"Water continues to rise around our building, as it is throughout the region. We want to evaucate our employees and families while we are still able to safely leave our building.

Our plan is to head across the Mississippi River on the Pontchartrain Expressway to the west bank of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. From there, we'll try to head to Houma.

Our plan, obviously, is to resume providing news to our readers ASAP. Please refer back to this site for continuing information as soon as we are able to provide it."

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And here's a frightening account from CNN's intrepid David Mattingly in a conversation with anchor Kyra Phillips this afternoon.

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PHILLIPS: OK. Now I'm being told we have David Mattingly on the
phone. He's in downtown New Orleans. He might be able to pick up where
we left off with Jeanne Meserve. Jeanne Meserve talking about the
looting, talking about seeing smoke, some type of fire and basically
some issues concerning all those thousands of people inside the
Superdome, individuals that took refuge there after the hurricane hit
New Orleans.

It's getting hot in there. The toilets are overflowing. There is
obviously not enough help to tend to those people that are inside the
Superdome, even hearing of a man that has jumped to his death inside
that Superdome now.

You are starting to really get a feel for the emotional toll that
the aftermath is taking on these individuals affected by Hurricane
Katrina.

David Mattingly, tell me exactly where you are in New Orleans.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, we're on an on ramp,
normally what would be an on ramp to I-10 East to New Orleans, in the
Franklin Avenue area, if any of you are familiar with New Orleans.

What we have witnessed -- this ramp has been turned into a boat
launch, the Fish and Wildlife Service people for the state of Louisiana
have been launching their boats from here, going block by block, still
looking for people that have been trapped in their homes.

As you can see by the crowd of people behind me, there are still
plenty of people in their homes needing rescues. In fact, there was a
time when we could stand here on the overpass. Just when we got here,
we could still hear people calling for help. We went out with one state
employee, state contractor who had been out all last night. He said
that at times they found themselves unprepared to break into these homes
because people were trapped in their attics. They needed to cut their
way out.

He described one house where they actually used a boat anchor to
bang a hole through the plywood to rescue the people that were in that
house.

As far as today, what we are seeing, the boats that are coming in,
they're carrying people. You're seeing a lot of elderly people, a lot
of people who are sick. I spoke to one woman who needs dialysis
treatment very soon. I spoke to one woman. She is 88 years old. She
has high blood pressure. She is laying on a piece of wood that she was
laying on in the water while her husband stayed there in the floodwaters
with her. She's still laying on that piece of wood. That has become a
cot for her. She has a pillow under her head. We were able to give her
one bottle of water, which is all we had. But that's the only treatment
that she's received so far.

There are other people here, they are coming off the boats in
wheelchairs. They were sitting in water that was very nearly up to
their heads in some cases, rescued today.

So they were in that water all night long. And we were still
seeing, if you can believe this, which just -- I was absolutely
dumbfounded when I saw it -- there are still people in the upper floors
of some of these house, one man even sitting on his roof, that are
refusing rescue because they actually have seen the water go down a few
inches since this morning.

So they're looking at that as a sign of hope, but they're not
realizing there may not be another boat coming their way after the
water's gone, after any hope of rescue is gone. They just may still be
stuck in the upper floor or on the roof of their house.

Again, I hate to sound so dire, but there are some elderly people
here that are in need of medical attention. And once they come off the
boats, they're being placed on this on ramp to sit in the shade. It is
blazing hot out here. And there is very little shade.

So they're all sitting under the overpass. We've been -- some of
them have been waiting for quite a while for some sort of vehicle to
come and take them back to wherever shelter might be and that is
becoming a huge issue of where can we possibly take these people -- Kyra

8/30/2005 4:58:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

In the modern media universe, there may be no single word as overused as "synergy." Basically, synergy means -- "we can economically justify the size of our big media conglomerate by promising that we'll find new delivery platforms, clever cross-marketing opportunities and economies of scale."

In its increasingly intensifying efforts to try and spread the Globe brand to that elusive younger demographic that just won't read newspapers, (see the recent Sidekick experiment), the Boston Globe and its parent, the New York Times Co. are rolling out "Boston Uncovered," a hipster city guide for students being delivered to 50 local campuses.

In a synergy tripleheader, "Boston Uncovered" is a joint project of The Boston Globe, the Metro Boston free tabloid (which the Times Co. bought a stake in earlier this year in another attempt to attract people who don't read traditional newspapers), and Boston.com. According to the press release, the magazine is regularly updated online and will appear as a weekly section in the Metro.

The press release contends that "Boston Uncovered responds to a niche that has not been adequately filled by any other publication" -- a pretty heady claim given what I see in the newspaper and magazine boxes all over our city streets. But the Globe certainly has discovered the college crowd. And all hail synergy.

8/29/2005 6:51:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Properly, the Boston Herald followed up Friday's shocking page 1 photo of a heroin user killing himself in the Public Garden with more details on Saturday. Predictably, the story of the deceased -- 42-year-old John Gagliardi Jr. -- isn't pretty. A prison record and a history of violence, a brother who also died of an overdose, and a father convicted of pot trafficking.

The photographer who took the stunning photos, John Wilcox, wrote a short story Saturday acknowledging that some readers were angry at him, but also reporting that Gagliardi's father thanked him for being there to record his son's last moments. Wilcox's story and controversial photo.

The Herald photographer, who seemed genuinely relieved to hear that, did absolutely nothing wrong. He was just doing his job, and doing it very well. My quibble was with the Herald editors who put the photo of the death scene on page 1 on Friday without the context and the details the paper provided on Saturday.

8/29/2005 6:13:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Editor & Publisher is publishing blogs and dispatches from the newspapers feeling the brunt of Katrina's wrath today. Buildings collapsing, looting, people clinging to trees and sitting on roofs. Sounds like sci-fi. storm blogs

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No one is more cynical about the exploitation of bad weather on television news than yours truly. Breathless predictions of massive blizzards that end up discharging 6 inches of snow or of terrible storms that don't live up to their reputations are a natural outgrowth of a) weather's handy role as a conversation starter around the dinner table or water cooler b) the nation's decreasing tolerance for risk and growing proclivity to panic and c) last but not least, the obvious TV marketing strategy of "if we scare the hell out of you about bad weather, you'll keep watching us."

Having said that, watching the cable news networks -- starting Sunday evening as the size and destructive potential of Katrina became known -- was a very scary experience. And by the time I hit the pillow last night, I was obsessed about the storm and the possible obliteration of New Orleans -- America's second greatest party city after Las Vegas.

Here's a sampling of what you heard and saw if you were watching last night.
1) A Fox News Channel staffer repeating predictions that "New Orleans will be destroyed beyond recognition " and that there could be 50,000 dead.
2) Wrenching scenes of thousands of people who didn't have the ways and means to leave town -- some elderly, some children, some poor -- cramming into the city's Superdome, ("the shelter of last resort") and conjuring up images of the hapless victims in some Irwin Allen disaster movie.
3) MSNBC's Chris Matthews, talking to NBC anchor Brian Williams who was in New Orleans, and describing what that city was facing as a "bibilical threat...A whole city under water and toxic waste."
4) Marty Bahamonde, an otherwise calm, cool and collected FEMA spokesman, telling the Fox News Channel's Geraldo Rivera that Katrina is "the worst case scenario...the absolute worst thing we could have imagined."
5) CNN reporter David Mattingly, transmitting by video phone and standing in a completely deserted French Quarter, holding up today's haunting headline -- one with echoes of 9/11 -- in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "GROUND ZERO" front page

It may be days before we learn Katrina's final toll in money, lives, homes, and misery. And we can hope for the best. But for once, I didn't feel conned watching the feverish TV news run-up to the storm's arrival. I felt frightened.

8/29/2005 5:12:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

I could be wrong. But when you get a press release late on a Friday afternoon in the summer, that's usually a pretty sure sign that it isn't bearing particularly glad tidings.

So here's the nut graph in what just came across the transom about Boston's most enduring and beloved TV news diva -- less airtime for Natalie Jacobson.

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WCVB-TV Channel 5 today announced a contract extension for Natalie Jacobson. Jacobson's new pact enhances her role at the station by providing new platforms to utilize her exceptional journalistic skills. She will continue to solo anchor the top rated NewsCenter 5 at 6, cover breaking stories and events, host town meetings and focus on contributions to Natalie, her page on the station's award-winning website, thebostonchannel.com.

"WCVB has been part of the fabric of New England and greater Boston in particular from its inception," said Jacobson. "After many years behind the anchor desk, the reporter in me is restless. I look forward to meeting the challenges of covering our changing society." To accommodate her additional responsibilities, Jacobson will no longer co-anchor NewsCenter 5 at 5. She added, "I'm enthusiastic about broadening the Natalie page on thebostonchannel.com in addition to anchoring the 6PM newscast."

WCVB Executive Vice President and General Manager Bill Fine said of Jacobson, "Natalie has long been dedicated to the community we serve as well as NewsCenter 5. As the preeminent anchor and reporter in New England, she's the right person to take on a leadership role of delivering news to our viewers in the way they want to receive it."

Jacobson's new duties are effective Monday, August 29.
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So the headline is that Natalie will no longer be co-anchoring the 5 o'clock newscast with Anthony Everett. Her place will be taken, at least in the short term, by Liz Brunner. Asked who decided it was time for Natalie and the 5 o'clock broadcast to part company, a station spokeswoman suggested it was agreed to by mutual consent.

8/26/2005 5:28:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

The issue of media accountability is a lot like the weather. Everybody complains about it, but nobody really does anything. One notable exception is the Minnesota News Council. Minnesota News Council

It's quite possible that you've never heard of the Minnesota News Council (MNC), an organization that toils in relative obscurity, even within the media world. But the 35-year-old council functions as an important outlet for people who feel they have been treated unfairly by the press -- an intermediate step between the angry letter to the editor and and the expensive and desperate libel suit.

An unresolved complaint about a media outlet can be brought before the council, which conducts a public hearing before a panel of a dozen journalists and a dozen citizens. At the end of the hearing, the panel votes on the merits of the case and the results are widely publicized. To date, the council, a non-profit, has rendered a verdict on about 135 cases, with the rulings coming down almost evenly for and against the plaintiffs.

(According to MNC's executive director Gary Gilson, there was actually a national news council that expired in the early 80's, largely because The New York Times and Washington Post wouldn't participate. Could you imagine how much fun that would be today, with say, C-SPAN airing live coverage of the Dick Cheney v. Maureen Dowd case? Okay, I'm fantasizing.)

Now, back to reality. In an attempt to spread a good idea, the MNC and the Washington News Council in Seattle Washington News Council are offering $75,000 in grant money to fund two non-profits willing to start their own state news councils.

Here are excerpts from the release:

NATIONAL COMPETITION TO HELP LAUNCH TWO NEW STATE NEWS COUNCILS

Two state news councils announced today they will award $75,000 start-up grants to two nonprofit groups interested in launching new state news councils.

The Minnesota News Council, based in Minneapolis, and the Washington News Council, based in Seattle, will oversee a national competition for the grants.

The start-up funds were made possible by a grant of $250,000 to the Minnesota and Washington councils by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami.

News councils are independent, nonprofit organizations that investigate complaints against news organizations and issue evidence-based rulings about their accuracy and fairness. They provide public forums where citizens and journalists can discuss media performance and ethics.

Application forms for the national competition are available at www.news-council.org, and www.wanewscouncil.org. Applicants must demonstrate the ability to raise additional funds, including a significant portion from media organizations, to support operations for at least three years. The application deadline is Feb. 15, 2006. Winners will be announced by May 2006.

"News councils that actually take the time to investigate a complaint before reaching a conclusion are a welcome relief from today's horde of self-appointed media critics offering froth without fact," said Eric Newton, director of journalism initiatives at Knight Foundation. "In an era of increased scrutiny of media practices, news councils provide a time-tested way to encourage fair coverage and public participation."

Worldwide, dozens of countries have press councils, including England, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Canada. In the United States, state news councils were started in Minnesota and Hawaii in 1970 and Washington in 1998.

Minnesota and Washington will award the start-up grants to groups that submit the most detailed and viable proposals. Applicants are strongly encouraged to form partnerships with print, broadcast and online media outlets, or with academic, civic and other organizations.

Grant applicants may be coalitions of citizen groups, media outlets, journalism schools, civic activists or business associations. They should be nonpartisan, diverse and representative of their states and communities. They must have or be seeking 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from the federal Internal Revenue Service.

The Minnesota and Washington councils invite news organizations to address complaints against them in open forums, in the belief that this both helps journalists explain how they are acting in the public interest and helps them learn how to improve their service to readers, viewers or listeners.

Of the 1,650 grievances filed with the Minnesota News Council since its creation, 136 have been discussed at hearings. About half of the time, the Minnesota council has agreed with the journalists, half the time with the public. Of 20 complaints filed with the Washington News Council, only three have led to hearings. Two complaints were upheld, while others were dismissed as unwarranted or were resolved with the council's help.


CONTACTS: Gary Gilson gary@news-council.org (612.341.9357)
John Hamer jhamer@wanewscouncil.org (206.262-9793)

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According to Washington News Council executive director John Hamer, serious interest in establishing a council has been expressed in a number of states -- including Florida, Kentucky and Oklahoma -- and by a number of folks from schools such as the University of Arizona, University of Missouri and University of Southern California.

Any takers in Massachusetts?

8/26/2005 3:56:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

My first thought is that the Herald's stunning page 1 photo today of an unidentified heroin user in the process of killing himself in the Public Garden probably shrunk the tragic story of the cabbie apparently killed over a $7 fare from a full front-page splash to a half-page tease. Death in the Garden
(The Globe also played the cabbie death on page 1, which devalues the story for the Herald, which is trying hard, understandably, to be the anti-Globe.)

My second thought is that's too bad. To me, the tale of the Haitian cabbie studying to be a clergyman killed over a pittance is one of those grinding, aching, and infuriating stories about life in the big city that begs for the full tabloid treatment. The tale and picture of the dead junkie, which the Herald captured because its photographer, amazingly, just happened to be at the Public Garden at the time, is something else: A freaky and freakish occurrance that has no real value other than shock and no real context other than death. (I'm not saying the story and photo didn't belong in the paper, just not on page 1.)

Now I know Herald defenders will claim the story is about the scourge of drug use, even in one of our city's most precious green spaces. And the paper included a short sidebar with a quickie stat about growing drug abuse deaths beween 2002 and 2003. Fine, if heroin is really a serious problem that we should be worried and care about -- then let's see more.


My real complaint is that the heroin story doesn't work on page 1 because there's no emotional connection between the readers and the tale -- a key element of the most effective tabloid journalism. It's an unidentified man dying at his own hand in front of our eyes in a fashion that leaves us in the role of dispassionate and disapproving voyeurs.

I understand what the new streamlined Herald with its "enterprise story" mantra is doing. It makes sense and it's starting to work. After a rocky patch of inconsistency -- and sometimes incoherence -- the Herald's new model and page 1 strategy is taking shape. And anyone who loves journalism in this town is rooting for it to work.

I just think that today -- regardless of what the Globe did -- the O.D. belonged inside the paper and the cabbie deserved every ounce of the Herald's passionate page-one populism.

8/26/2005 10:35:00 AM by MJ | Comments [1] |  

According to this story by Jay Fitzgerald in today's Boston Herald read this, Atlantic Monthly owner David Bradley is having a hard time getting any current staffers to sign on to the magazine's move from the Athens of America to Washington. Maybe it'll be renamed the Chesapeake Monthly.

8/25/2005 2:09:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Maybe if we all ran to our windows and yelled "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore," Network the cable newsies would stop their morbid, ratings-driven fixation with the case of disappeared teen Natalee Holloway.

A backlash actually does seem to be forming. First Bob Costas, Larry King's CNN fill-in, declines to do a segment on Holloway. And now, after St. Petersburg Times reporter David Adams writes a terrific piece on the sickening media circus in Aruba St. Pete Times, he gives an interview with CJRDaily in which he says that story generated the biggest email response he's ever gotten:

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"I've had emails from all over the country, and from different parts of the world, and the great majority of them, I would say 80 percent, have been extremely positive. People saying that they're sick to death with the TV coverage of this story. They sympathize enormously with the Holloway family, and it just makes them even sadder, the way in which it's been turned into a cable TV soap drama."
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No doubt, there's a silent majority out there for ending the Holloway craziness. The problem is it only takes an obsessive minority to provide enough eyeballs to fuel coverage in the fragmented world of cable viewership.

8/25/2005 1:41:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

In my role as media critic, I only intersected a few times with former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines, and those experiences weren't particularly satisfying or enlightening. (One of them was memorable however. To the best of my recollection, Raines is the only person I've interviewed who responded to a question by saying "no comment" and then insisting that the "no comment" was off the record.)

Contrast that locked-down fortress mentality with last week's letter that Raines's successor -- Bill Keller -- wrote to his own newspaper Keller's letter responding to a July 31 New York Times Book Review essay by Richard A. Posner. Posner's screed

In his fairly lengthy letter, Keller certainly wasn't kind to Posner's flawed critique, calling "his review of the latest crop of press-bashing books...mostly a regurgitation, as tendentious and cynical as the worst of the books he consumed."

But regardless of what Keller said, the most important thing is that he said it -- and once again displayed his willingness to join the fray and his affection for the media scrum. Those qualities explain why his two-year-old regime has helped to demystify and humanize the powerful and too-arrogant institution that was The New York Times.

On Keller's first official day as executive editor (July 30, 2003) -- as he took over a newsroom traumatized by the Jayson Blair scandal and bitterly divided under Raines's stewardship -- the Times culture changed. Keller endorsed recommendations from the paper's Siegal Committee that included, among other things, the appointment of an ombudsman -- a self-policing and reader outreach mechanism that the Times had long and stubbornly resisted. full Siegal Committee report for you gluttons for punishment


But more than any committee report or recalibration of the paper's culture and practices, it is Keller's willingness to talk -- to critics, inquisitors, and by extension the public -- that is the signature of the new Times boss, at least to the external world.


He is, for one thing, a good interview with a penchant for surprisingly straight, even colorful, talk. Interviewed by The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz last month about the appointment of former Timesman Dean Baquet as editor of the Los Angeles Times, Keller said he hoped Baquet would fight "fair" in trying to poach journalists from Keller's paper.

"He has this habit of telling recruits there's something in the New York water that makes your penis fall off," Keller declared, in a puckish turn of phrase. Keller and Kurtz

Last month, a rather enjoyable email exchange between Keller and Los Angeles Times op-ed page editor Nick Goldberg showed up on the wildly popular media web site run by Jim Romenesko. Email exchange. Keller's response to a Goldberg request that incarcerated Times reporter Judy Miller respond to a Michael Kinsley column challenging a reporter's right to protect a source was pretty acidic.

"Sadly, Judy is not on a fellowship at some writers' colony," he wrote. "She is in JAIL." Hey, Keller certainly wasn't any crankier than the typical Romenesko letter writer -- and in many ways, he was a better read.


Media Log is by no means the first place to propound this theory. Six months ago, Jack Shafer wrote a fine piece on Slate.com lauding Keller's willingness to talk to reporters, debate critics, and speak with laudable candor. Hell 'n' Keller


Shafer called him "the most accessible executive editor in the newspaper's history" and applauded him "for taking his lumps in public and for returning them in professional fashion." He even went so far as to call this new openness "adorable."


Even with his quasi-movie star looks, adorable might be a stretch for Keller. He is, after all, a staunch defender of his institution who doesn't suffer fools very gladly and who wields a pretty pointy pen. But by regularly and eagerly adding his voice to the cacophonous chorus of media debate and chatter, he turns out to be -- in the good sense of the term -- one of the boys.

And it's been a while since you could say that about the top man at the Times.

8/24/2005 11:40:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

In the interests of following the strange saga, here's today's story Gainesville Sun about the two interim co-editors hired by the New York Times Co. to run the Gainesville Guardian, the Times's new black-oriented weekly. (Although, the company now seems to be taking some pains not to characterize it as a paper targeted for the minority community.)


This comes on the heels of yesterday's news that Charlotte Roy, the woman initially chosen to the edit the Guardian, was suddenly out of a job on the eve of the paper's debut. Both co-editors have ties to the Sun, which is the Times-owned daily paper in Gainesville. And the mystery of Roy's abrupt departure deepens.

8/24/2005 10:49:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

In this week's Boston Phoenix, the "Don't Quote Me" column -- headlined "Black and white" -- described the controversy engendered by The New York Times Co.'s decision to unveil the Gainesville Guardian, a free paper targeted to Gainesville Florida's black community. In some quarters, there was criticism and skepticism about whether a big powerful mainstream media company was best suited to publish a black-oriented paper.

One of the Guardian's key assets -- and an important connection to the minority community -- was supposed to be Charlotte Roy, a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists who was hired as its editor. Now according to columnist Richard Prince, who has followed the Guardian story very closely, Roy is mysteriously out as editor one day before the paper's debut. Prince's column.

Prince's column suggests Roy and the Times brass may have been at odds over how to characterize the paper, given the sensitivity of its mission. In any event, her departure is a serious embarassment for the company.

*************************************************************************************

Media Log Addendum: Prince, who has been updating his column on Roy's departure all day, now quotes her as saying: "I just was called down and told that it wasn't a good fit. I'm job hunting. I want to find a good job. This was my dream job. I produced a wonderful product. The paper is excellent. Everybody I've been working with has said it is a remarkable job. I'm very proud."

In the course of reporting "Black and white," the New York Times Co. provided me with the names of some Gainesville residents who were supportive of the Guardian. I interviewed two of them. Reverend Kevin Thorpe said he had met with Roy and admitted he would have "been a little more leery...if someone outside the African-American community was editing the paper."

The other source, Larry McDaniel, who heads up a minority leadership training program, said "Charlotte Roy has impeccable credentials. She's done a good job of getting into the community."

I wonder how they feel now?

8/23/2005 10:58:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

It wasn't the only reason given for his departure, but it sounds like Jim Mullin's conscience is bothering him. The editor of the Miami New Times announced he is leaving that job about a month after his paper published a series of allegations -- some of them lurid and salacious -- about Arthur Teele, the former Miami Commissioner who killed himself on July 27 just as the story broke. Mullin resigns


The New Times came in for intense public criticism and received letters blaming it for Teele's death and calling the wrath of God down on the paper. On Aug. 4, in a column headlined "In the Aftermath," Mullin made an attempt to explain the paper's thinking and to talk about his own state of mind. "To date no one knows if Teele read the article before ending his life," he wrote. "At the least, it's likely he'd heard about it. Did it contribute to his fateful decision? Only Art Teele knows the answer to that question and he took it with him to his grave. I am left to wonder and to worry, and will do so for years to come."

Today's news suggests that the column didn't exactly provide Mullin with closure on the issue.

8/23/2005 10:30:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

I'm not the world's biggest fan of sportscaster/talkmaster Bob Costas, who for my money is a little too well-dressed, too silky smooth, and far too self-satisfied. (His saving grace is his devotion to Mickey Mantle Number 7 who was also my childhood idol.)

But now that Larry King's backup host on CNN refused to do a show on missing teenager Natalee Holloway Costas opts out, he's earned some serious respect. The story of the blonde teen who went missing in Aruba nearly three months ago is fuelling the often nonsensical cable news prime time universe and generating disturbing but deserved criticism that the media obsess about pretty young white women who vanish, but seem far less interested when the victim is poor, a minority or not particularly telegenic. Damsels in Distress


Here's a trivia question: What was the biggest ongoing story in America, one again driven by the cable news networks, when the terrorists attacked on 9/11? (Answer: Did Gary Condit kill Chandra Levy?) Chung grills Condit

Last night, while surfing the cable news offerings I came across the Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and CNN Headline News's Nancy Grace (she scares me) all flogging the sad but largely stagnant Holloway story. Obviously, it must be good for ratings, but the relentless focus on this case sure looks and smells like the ghoulish exploitation of a tragedy -- that happened to occur to a pretty blonde white girl. Whatever his reasons, good for Costas,

8/22/2005 5:18:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mom who had transformed the area near George Bush's vacation retreat into a major antiwar protest site has left camp -- perhaps temporarily -- to be with her sick mother. Sheehan leaves

But even before her departure, the story -- as all longrunning sagas eventually do -- had begun to evolve from being about her to being about the media's coverage of her. Was it excessive? Were people getting tired of it? Were the media being exploited? See Jon Friedman's take


Here's a theory as to why Sheehan became such a media phenomenon, aside from the fact that she's a compelling human interest story and that Bush greatly prolonged what could have been a one-day story by choosing not to meet with her. In this country, the mainstream media are fundamentally followers, not leaders. That translates into a reluctance to get out in front on big public policy issues and a willingness instead to wait until some official, organized debate erupts. When it comes to the war in Iraq and other Bush policies, journalists are much more comfortable when they can shove their pens and microphones in front of some opposition pol attacking the White House and its occupant.

Given the innate complexities of the situation in Iraq and the general failure of the Democrats to find a coherent voice on anything, you really don't have that argument taking place in the political establishment. So Cindy Sheehan, with her message of protest and personal loss, became a powerful vehicle for growing grassroots discomfort with the war and a surrogate for a largely non-existent political debate. The media flocked to Texas because she's provided the missing voice they've been looking for. (See "Home on the Range" by Barry Crimmins in this week's Phoenix.)

8/19/2005 10:27:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

For the first time in its 13-year history, Spare Change News -- the biweekly that covers homelessness and poverty and is distributed by homeless people -- printed a "special edition" today to refute Boston Herald stories suggesting that a man known as "The Stomper" may have been connected to the recent death of homeless man Steven Neiber. Herald Tuesday story And Herald Wednesday story

The Spare Changes News story, headlined "Herald Spreads False Panic Among Homeless People" cites a witness who identifies someone other than "The Stomper" as the person who assaulted Nieber shortly before his death.

This is the hot-off-the-presses Spare Change News story:

HERALD SPREADS FALSE PANIC AMONG HOMELESS PEOPLE
Dennis Connolly didn't kill Steven Neiber, witnesses tell SCN
By Paul Rice
Spare Change News

BOSTON. A man named Larry Oliver assaulted Steven Neiber on the morning of the day he died, according to a witness to the crime who shared her story exclusively with Spare Change News. This revelation contradicts a recent Boston Herald report that used circumstantial evidence to tie Dennis Connolly, a notorious homeless thug known as "The Stomper" to the death.

Neiber, a 40-year-old homeless person, was found unconscious on the corner of Milk and Arch Streets in Downtown Crossing on August 13. According to witnesses who slept near Neiber, he had several bruises and cuts to his face. In the days following the murder, the Herald ran multiple stories linking Connolly, who had just been released from jail, to Neiber's death and alleging that homeless people were "living in fear" of Connolly.

At least one homeless person was going to distribute fliers with Connolly's photo to warn homeless people to stay away from him. A reporter also saw an older lady going to different homeless people in the Downtown Crossing area, showing them a picture of Connolly from the Herald and warning them to be careful.

However, according to Susan Jones, a close friend of Steven Neiber, the Herald could not have been further off.

"I was with Stevie from 3:30 a.m. [Saturday morning] 'till about 6 a.m.," she told Spare Change News. "He got in a fight and got punched out over a four-year-old beef. Dennis Connolly didn't have nothing to do with this."

Jones went on to describe an altercation, which apparently took place on the Boston Common, between Neiber and a man named Larry Oliver, who is also known as "Milano Larry" or "Light-Skinned Larry." The fight began after Oliver started yelling at Neiber about an incident from four years ago that apparently involved Neiber smashing Oliver's car window with a brick.

"Larry got up and punched [Neiber] right here and here [gesturing to her left eye and temple] approximately eight times," Jones said. "I asked Larry to stop. He stopped. Stevie got up and smacked Larry in the face. I pushed them apart, and Larry started to hit him in the face again. After someone else pulled Larry off, Stevie walked off normally, he didn't look like he was dazed or nothing."

Multiple sources familiar with the incident corroborated Jones account of the incident.

That evening Neiber was pronounced dead at the New England Medical Center. The autopsy on the victim was nearing completion as of press time, pending toxicology reports. As for Oliver, Jones said she knew of his fate.

"Larry got his ass kicked last night, for Stevie," she said. "[Larry] won't be around here no more. A lot of people saw to that. Stevie got a lot of friends here."

Still, Connolly has a checkered background. He has been charged with murder in the past but never convicted. In addition, he was convicted of assault and battery in the September 2004 beating death of Kenneth Kane, another homeless person, but the Boston Municipal Court judge presiding over the case sentenced him to time served, nine months. Connolly was freed from prison in late July.

Connolly is also no stranger to publicity. In November of 2004, the Boston Globe reported Connolly had been charged with the murder of Owen Azzaro, another homeless person. The first time he was publicly referred to as "The Stomper" was in an April 2 Globe article that also happened to refer to Neiber as a witness to Kane's murder.

Using interviews conducted with anonymous homeless outreach workers, as well as a description of Connolly's history of violence, the Herald painted a thick red line connecting the death of Neiber to Connolly. Although the Herald did not identify the "Stomper" as Connolly at first, the following day the newspaper printed Connolly's name and mugshot on the front page, next to a headline that read: "BEWARE THE STOMPER." The trap appeared to have swung shut on Connolly.

"[Connolly is] violent when he drinks," John, another friend of Neiber's who knew him and Connolly, told Spare Change News. "He has blackouts, and he's got rage. But he's not the type of person who would just go around and beat up on people. They let him off for time served in Ken[neth] Kane's beating; now they wanna punish him for a crime he didn't do. They should punish him for what he did do."

A police source said that he knows who Connolly is but hasn't heard anything connecting him to the Neiber case. Still, police are on the lookout for him. "If we see him we'll conduct a field interrogation and observation, but he's not currently wanted for anything," the source said.

In response to the media frenzy, Boston Emergency Shelter acting director Jim Greene said, "Throwing around the names of people who are potential victims puts them at further risk. People should regard the vulnerability of homeless people."

When asked about the Herald's treatment of Connolly, Jones, the witness to Neiber's murder, said: "It's a lie. It's all one big lie."


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According to Samuel Scott, the Spare Change News editor and the paper's only full-time employee, today's story was reported by Paul Rice, an intern who "did old-fashioned shoe leather reporting...We felt like the Herald article was spreading panic among the homeless people in Boston. In general it's a newsworthy story."

Herald managing editor Kevin Convey counters, however, that "the lead that they [Spare Change News] are trumpeting is a lead that we pursued days ago and we concluded it was a dead end based on what cops and homeless advocates were telling us."

8/18/2005 4:33:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Not that you probably needed more evidence, but here's some number crunching from the Nielson Montior-Plus and the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project indicating that the much anticipated multi-million dollar TV ads wars over George Bush's Supreme Court nominee just haven't materialized. The real message of the survey: it'll be a cakewalk for Judge Roberts.


SUPREME COURT POLITICAL ADS
VIRTUALLY ABSENT FROM TELEVISION

MADISON, WI, August 18, 2005. Despite light, brief ad campaigns by two interest groups concerned with President Bush's nomination of Judge John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court, political television advertisements have been virtually absent from broadcast and cable television, indicating a less intense fight over the nomination than many expected, experts say. These are the findings of a new report from the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project that analyzed data provided by Nielsen Monitor-Plus. The report analyzes political television advertising in all 210 markets across the nation.

"This is another sign that this nomination is not going to be much of a fight," said Professor Ken Goldstein, director of the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project. "Are we going to see interest groups get involved and activists use lofty rhetoric that will make headlines? Sure. But with Senators home during the August recess with virtually no ads targeting even the most vulnerable incumbents, all indications are that this Supreme Court nomination process is not going to be the paid media battle that activists on both sides have been preparing for and promising for years."

On Wednesday, July 20th, the day after President Bush nominated Judge Roberts to the Supreme Court, Progress for America, Inc., a conservative 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization that was highly active in the 2004 presidential race airing ads supportive of President Bush, launched an ad supporting Bush's nominee. PFA aired the ad, "Brilliant," 186 times on cable television networks. The group ran the spot nine times on local television in the Washington, DC market. PFA ran the ad 138 times in 138 other local markets, once per market, which would allow the group to claim a national campaign spanning more than half of the nation's markets, while spending the least amount of money possible. These 138 markets represent 80.7% of TV Households.

On Wednesday, August 10th, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the liberal 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization, began running its controversial ad, "Speaking Out," opposing the Roberts nomination. The NARAL spot ran a total of 200 times, 3 spots on cable networks, and 197 spots, ostensibly aimed at the Senators from Maine and Rhode Island, in the markets in Bangor, Portland/Auburn, and Presque Isle, Maine as well as the Providence, Rhode Island/New Bedford, Massachusetts market. Under intense pressure from liberals and conservatives from both political parties, NARAL pulled the ad.

The second PFA spot, "How Low," placed by the organization's 527 arm Progress for America Voter Fund, was a response to the NARAL ad and began airing on August 11th, and ran 32 times on cable television networks and once in the Laredo, Texas market. The ads continued to air briefly after NARAL pulled their ad.

"There is currently no targeted TV paid advertising effort to influence Senators on the Supreme Court fight," Prof. Goldstein said. "It's like an election campaign. Candidates and parties can talk all they want about a state or seat being in play, but if they are not airing advertisements, the race is not competitive."

8/18/2005 2:31:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

New Boston Globe ombusmen Richard Chacon raised a good issue in his Aug. 7 column when he said the paper should be more rigorous in vetting the statements and sources used in opinion columns, applying the same standards it would employ on the news pages. Below are excerpts from that column:

"Shouldn't opinion columns be held to the same strict standards for sourcing and attribution that are applied to stories in the news sections? Absolutely...
Like most newspapers, the Globe op-ed page offers a mixture of opinion pieces. Some essays are written by staff columnists, journalists who are supposed to be well versed in proper sourcing and attribution. Other pieces are written by nonstaff contributors....or free-lance writers who are knowledgeable in a particular field.
All op-ed columns go through rigorous editing for accuracy, style, and length before going into print, according to Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's op-ed co-editor, who also cites the page's low error rate. There is also a trust that the writer wouldn't want to undercut a piece by making errors, she added.
It's not just about the editing. Op-ed writers whether staff or free-lance should refrain from broad statements presented as facts unless they can back them up with solid evidence."
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Now, a poster to the Media Log comments section raises an equally salient question about the letters page. Specifically, this individual was concerned and about an Aug. 16 letter to the editor in the Globe written by State Senator Marian Walsh. Walsh

Walsh was responding to a previous op-ed column and letter to the editor opposing a bill she has sponsored to require churches to file financial statements with the attorney general's office. Walsh took issue with the critics' assertions that churches are tax exempt because they are religious institutions, not charities. Her letter countered that "religious organizations are considered a public charity for federal tax law purposes under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code."

The poster was upset that the reader "is left to decide who is right...A better process would be for the media outlet to review the facts itself, then run a statement directly following the published letter."

Good point. On matters of opinion or even perspective, letter writers and op-ed contributors should be able to have an unmediated say. But when it boils down to a dispute over facts, why not have the paper itself, when humanly possible, sort out reality from fiction -- or even explain the nuances if the truth lies somewhere in between?

8/18/2005 11:32:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Given the recent exits of Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather and the death of Peter Jennings, one would think that some network news poobah would take this opportunity to redefine and re-vamp the aging nightly newscast format that is steadily losing market share. How many working people are home at 6:30 each evening anyway?


It looks like NBC, with Brian Williams at the helm, and ABC, which has not named a Jennings successor, are planning on sticking with the status quo. We're not sure what's up at CBS, where veteran Bob Schieffer has temporarily replaced Rather but has announced his intention to retire in the near future. My guess is that the network is just spitballing ideas right now, but here's today's New York Times piece on possible plans for a different CBS Evening News. What's up at CBS

Nobody's asking or paying me to come up with a solution, but I'd ditch the early evening newscast and opt to counterprogram in prime time with a half-hour show anchored by a strong personality that would focus on the most important story of the day.

8/18/2005 11:04:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Starting next week, the New York Times Co. will unveil a free weekly newspaper targeted at the black community in Gainesville Florida. In the "Don't Quote Me" column -- "Black and White" -- in today's Phoenix, learn why this experiment in ethnic publishing by a major media company is raising hackles and thorny racial issues.

8/18/2005 10:53:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

There is boiling blood and word of a possible walkout at the Village Voice in the light of a management decision to cut writers' payments at the frequently fractious alternative weekly. Voice Here's an update in the New York Post:



VOICE STAFF THREATEN WALKOUT

By SAM GUSTIN

Enraged staffers at the Village Voice are threatening to walk out if the fabled alternative weekly makes good on its pledge to slash the rates it pays its writers, according to sources inside the paper.

Last week Voice Editor in Chief Don Forst announced that many payments would be cut by 20 to 45 percent. In response, longtime Voice writer Robert Christgau sent a letter to Voice staffers in which he declared: "We at the Voice are not taking this lying down."

"As someone who's devoted his life to quality journalism, I'm outraged, disgusted, and sick at heart," Christgau wrote.

Staffers have yet to receive written confirmation of the new rates, but fury at management has already begun to boil over.

"They've managed to make everyone who writes for the Voice very angry," said one staffer who insisted on anonymity, citing a "retaliatory" atmosphere at the paper. "It seems like every day there is a closed-door meeting."

The staffer said the paper claims to be responding to budget pressures, but many are skeptical of that. The staffer said that written confirmation of the new rates is expected "early this week," and union action could immediately follow. The strife comes amid swirling rumors that the Voice is in merger talks with New Times, which publishes alternative weeklies across the country. The new rates would put the Voice more in line with the rates New Times pays its writers, the staffer said.

Maida Rosenstein, president of Local 2110 of the U.A.W, which represents Voice writers, said that she is still scrutinizing the rate cuts, but she didn't like the look of them.

"This is very upsetting us," Rosenstein said. "We need to investigate the details very carefully, because they may be violating our contract."

Rosenstein said she was particularly disturbed because the union had just finished negotiating a new contract with Voice management.

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And here's aforementioned letter Christgau sent to his colleagues that was reprinted on Jim Romenesko's Poynter site. Christgau letter


As the Post piece notes, this internal drama comes against a continuing backdrop of rumors and gossip about a possible merger betwen the Voice and the New Times chain that would dramatically shake up the world of alternative journalism and raise disturbing questions about media consolidation in that corner of the newspaper industry. Check out rumor

Here's a fuller, albeit earlier take on the subject. San Francisco Bay Guardian

8/17/2005 5:13:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

If people really consumed the kind of news they tell pollsters they want, The Christian Science Monitor would be in much better shape than it is today. Monitor The Monitor is thoughtful and smart with a clear sense of mission and a notable disdain for sensationalism. Unfortunately, all those things also make it an anachronism in today's frantic and frothy news environment. And not surprisingly, the paper has struggled big time with circulation (it is currently down to about 59,000) and revenue problems that have spawned real concerns about its future.


In 2004, the Monitor convened a Blue Ribbon Committee to develop some new business strategies and it came up with suggestions ranging from partnering with other organizations to charging for online content. Then in May of this year, in a development that seemed to catch many people by surprise, the paper abruptly appointed Richard C. Bergenheim, a former member of the Christian Science Board of Directors, to replace Paul Van Slambrouck as editor. Bergenheim (The Monitor also took the occasion to announce that it was reducing the newsroom staff by 10 or 15 positions.)

All of these factors have led to increasing buzz that the Monitor might be preparing for a new life as an online product only. Alex Beam's Globe column

For the record, in an editor's note written in May, Bergenheim characterized the fact that the paper has less than 60,000 subscribers but more than 1.8 million visitors to the web site each month as "probably the most significant development in the history of the Monitor." But he added: "This does not translate, as some fear, into ceasing to print our paper."


Those sentiments would seem to be borne out by the fact that this Friday, the dead tree version of the Monitor will unveil a redesign that will include:
a) a new look for the headline type
b) several prominent page 1 teasers that will highlight stories inside the paper
c) a new six-page Friday Weekend section that will focus on pop culture, TV, sports, entertainment news, movies etc.

A Monitor spokeswoman said the new look is intented to make the paper more "accessible" and "visually appealing." And the Weekend section certainly seems like a concession to more contemporary tastes. This may not solve the systemic distribution and deadline problems that have plagued the Monitor, but it constitutes some investment in the print product.

And as Bergenheim himself has said, a little prayer wouldn't hurt either.

8/17/2005 1:08:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

There can be little doubt that on television, the most important time of day for news and information is early morning. That's one reason why there's so much speculation that ABC's Charlie Gibson is more valuable to the network on "Good Morning America" than as a potential 6:30 p.m. successor to the late Peter Jennings. USA Today story on anchor succession strategies

Having said that, the networks' morning "news" shows are such a frustrating mishmash of headlines, info-tainment and corporate synergy that I long ago gave up watching "Today" in favor of CNN's "American Morning." (That program is certainly not perfect. But the recent changes in which former Boston TV newsman Miles O'Brien replaced Bill Hemmer and the wisecracking Jack Cafferty was moved to the afternoon show with Wolf Blitzer have sobered things up a bit).

This morning, eager for any new developments in the dramatic Israeli deadline-day evacuation of Gaza, I was forced over to the Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" because my Comcast cable was on the fritz and allowing me to view only a handful of channels. Fox & Friends

When I turned to the "Fair & Balanced" nework, I struck paydirt with a riveting live report from inside the home of a family of settlers in the process of being evicted. While Israeli soldiers listened impassively, this group of distraught settlers mourned, cried, argued, held hands and chanted prayers. (Whatever your position on the Gaza pullout, it was intense human drama that -- for the moment -- superseded politics and took viewers deep inside a big geopolitical story.)

So what does "Fox & Friends" cut to a few minutes after that poignant coverage? A ridiculous segment in which an aging Mr. T, essentially dressed in an American flag, stood outside Fox's New York studio giggling and handing out free socks to a swelling street crowd. (Mr. T seems to have lost considerable muscle mass and some gray matter as well in recent years.) Review Mr. T's illustrious career here

It was the silliest kind of fluffy morning show huckersterism imaginable. And coming on the heels of the incredible scene in Gaza, it may explain why this nation's attention span for global news that does not directly involve dead Americans seems to be at an all-time low.

8/17/2005 10:34:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Boston Globe editor Marty Baron today put the kibosh on speculation that he could be headed to the Los Angeles Times to become a managing editor under that paper's editor and his good friend, Dean Baquet.

And Boston Herald editorial director Ken Chandler, while not quite so definitive, downplayed any suggestion he might return to his old stomping grounds at the New York Post.

The Baron rumor appeared in LA Observed, the Web site featuring the reporting of Kevin Roderick whose resume includes twenty years at the Times. LA Observed

Earlier in his career, Baron worked at the L.A. Times in a variety of roles ranging from business editor to editor of the Orange County edition. And he is very friendly with Baquet, a former colleague from The New York Times. In fact, Baron and Baquet were frequently mentioned in media speculation as possible successors to New York Times executive editor Howell Raines, who resigned in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal.


Baquet instead succeeded John Carroll, who resigned as newsroom boss at the L.A. Times in July. Carroll resigns


Regardless of the relative merits of the two papers, it seems a little far-fetched that Baron would leave the top job in Boston for a lesser position in Los Angeles. When asked to respond to the L.A. rumor, Baron flatly told Media Log that "I'm not interested, which is not a reflection of the paper, which I dearly love" nor on Baquet who he calls "a terrific friend."

"I have a great job and have no intention of looking for another job," Baron added.


Chandler, a longtime Rupert Murdoch employee, was editor of the Post from 1993-1999 and publisher from 1999-2002, before he was essentially given his walking papers by Lachlan Murdoch. But now that Rupert has succeeded his son as publisher of the Post, there's been some speculation that Chandler, who returned to the Herald in 2003, could be reunited with his old boss in the Big Apple. Rupert returns

Asked if he had any plans to rekindle his Post career, Chandler told Media Log, "Not that I'm aware of." While not quite an unequivocal "no," Chandler then added: "I'm committed to the Herald and there's still a lot to be done here."

8/16/2005 4:15:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

It was so easy to figure even I predicted it. But the Post has pulled out of the Pentagon's Sept. 11 "Freedom Walk." (See previous Media Log entry "The Washington Post Steps In It.") Read all about it from the horse's mouth. Washington Post

The only problem with doing the right thing belatedly is that everybody knows you screwed up in the first place. What were they thinking?

8/16/2005 9:16:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

I think most of us in the media ethics business would be shocked if we knew all of the "community-oriented" events and "good" causes that the business and public relations side of various news outlets get involved in. And The Washington Post's decision to co-sponsor a Sept. 11 memorial walk organized the Pentagon -- one that would appear to have the potential to become a politicized event -- is a major no-no.(Since when doesn't Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon take advantage of an opportunity to hammer home the administration's "message," particularly with the president's numbers heading for the toilet on his handling of the Iraq situation?)

Internal Post opposition to this idea seems to have all the momentum of a snowball rolling downhill in the Alps. In an online chat today, the paper's media critic Howard Kurtz said "I wish The Washington Post were not co-sponsoring this event. It is an operation by the Pentagon -- a place that we devote substantial resources to covering -- and therefore subject to all kinds of interpretations. It is not the same, in my view, as the corporate side of The Post handing out awards to the best teachers or other kinds of nonpartisan civic activities." Kurtz chat


Now, officials of the Post's Newspaper Guild at the Post, which represents more than 1400 employees, are formally asking the paper to withdraw from the event.Editor&Publisher story

An earlier Editor & Publisher story on the subject noted that Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie, Jr. declined to comment on the sponsorship of the event, other than to say, "it does not affect our coverage." But it's hard to believe that Downie, who has publicly stated that he does not even vote in order to stay objective in his stewardship of the paper, is not among those who thinks this is a serious mistake and potential embarassment for the paper.

A prediction: The Post cuts its losses and pulls out of this event in the next 48 hours.

8/15/2005 6:11:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Media Log, being an inveterate TV junkie, is straying a bit off the beaten path to report these glad tidings from Washington Post TV writer Lisa de Moraes. The "Sopranos" will be returning to HBO not only for a sixth season in 2006 but for an unofficial seventh season in 2007. Washington Post

Of course, the Jersey mobsters are the only ones with the chutzpah -- or cojones if you prefer -- to keep loyal viewers waiting through such a long hiatus. In the meantime, HBO's new Sunday night offerings, Entourage (a boisterous small screen buddy flick) Entourage and The Comeback The Comeback, (a twitchy Hollywood tale that proves Lisa Kudrow really can act) have become addictive.

Even so, who isn't ready for a fresh dose of Tony and Carm, Uncle June and Johnny Sack? (I've almost watched as many "Sopranos" reruns as "Law & Order" oldies.) Now, we'll get more than we bargained for.

8/12/2005 12:18:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Trying to quantify the breadth and depth of the blogosphere seems to me a little bit like trying to count the stars in a clear night sky in Montana. But The New Politics Institute, a liberal think tank NPI has just released a report titled: "Emergence of the Progressive Blogosphere" A New Force in American Politics." Report


The good news for the left, according to the report, is that the poliitcal dynamic of the blogosphere is tilting its way. Two years ago, the report stated, "the conservative blogosphere was between two and three times as large as the progressive blogosphere," But in the past two years, the 98 most trafficked liberal blogs had more than 15 million page views per week compared to less than 10 million for the top 150 conservative blogs. "In less than two years, the progressive blogosphere has grown from less than as big as the conservative blogsophere, to nearly double its size," the report crows.

Still, a few pargraphs later, it acknowledged that while the left enjoys an edge of 24 to 16 among the 40 most trafficked blogs, the right dominates the next 210 by a margin of 133 to 77, meaning that "it could be argued that conservatives are taking a decisive lead in the sort of targeted blogging that will provide them with real tangible benefits in the 2005-2006 elections and beyond."

That, of course, was the news seized on by the conservative Washington Times, which did a story on the NPI survey with the very selective headline: "Liberals lag conservaties in political blog presence."

I guess somebody's gotta try and empirically track the politics on the blogosphere, but here's hoping the new medium doesn't become so overtly politicized that it's just more partisan cannon fodder for our crude and cacophonous political discourse. But that's probably too much to ask.

8/12/2005 9:47:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Earlier today, Media Log referenced an enlightening piece on Salon.com about columnist,pundit and Valerie Plame outer Bob Novak written by Sidney Blumenthal. Salon

Now, CJR Daily has posted an item pointing out similarities in Blumenthal's story and a December 2004 Novak profile in the Washington Monthly written by Amy Sullivan. The watchdog website also contacted both Blumenthal and Sullivan for comment. Take a look. CJR

8/11/2005 5:00:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

WHDH-TV (Channel 7) announced today that 10-year station veteran and local girl Linda Miele has been named news director, succeeding Ed Kosowski, who left last months for parts unknown, although the rumor mill has him going to CNBC. Excerpts of the press release are included below. Check out the impressive academic resume.


BOSTON, MA August 11, 2005 -- Linda Miele has been named News Director at WHDH-TV according to station Vice President and General Manager Mike Carson. Her appointment is effective immediately.

Linda, who grew up in Newton, began her career as an intern at 7NEWS and never left! She officially joined 7NEWS as Associate Producer in 1994. She diligently worked her way up the ranks being promoted to Assistant News Director in 2004.

Linda graduated from M.I.T. before receiving her Masters in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University. She met her husband, Bob, in the 7NEWS newsroom. They live north of Boston with their two children.

8/11/2005 3:25:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Here's the way to look at the news that former FCC chairman Michael (son of Colin) Powell FCC -- who preached the mantra of free markets and money when it came to regulating media ownership -- is joining a big equity operation with media-related holdings. This piece is written by Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital Democracy CDD whose upcoming book "Digital Destiny" reviews Powell's FCC career. For the record, Chester is one of my favorite media watchdogs and a colorful and combative consumer advocate in an unfriendly world of big media monopolies. (He is also famous for giving great quote.)

"Today's announcement that Michael K. Powell has become a "Senior Advisor" at Providence Equity Partners is evidence once again that the "revolving door" between the FCC and the very industries it oversees should be slammed shut. Powell joins his fellow former chairs Richard Wiley, Mark Fowler, Dennis Patrick, Reed Hundt, and William Kennard who went from the FCC to work in the media and telecommunications industries. With lucrative industry employment ahead of them, FCC chair's (and most Commissioners) have a built-in conflict of interest. They simply can't take the independent positions necessary to fulfill their responsibilities to the public-and to the public interest. One of Powell's new duties, according to Providence, is to "advise the firm onŠregulatory issues in the media" industries.

Powell's `golden parachute' into the "preeminent private equity firm in the global media, communications, and information industries" comes as no real surprise. Throughout his tenure, Powell was an avid believer in the mystical forces of the commercial marketplace. He would spend more of his time quoting economist Joseph Schumpeter (who developed the theory of "creative destruction") than taking an honest hard look at the public interest consequences of media business trends. During his watch at the FCC, he relied on market forces as his primary touchstone, supporting further consolidation in the broadcast, cable, and telephone industries. Powell ignored growing public concern about media consolidation, including its negative impact on journalism and content diversity.

But the public paid dearly for Powell's term at the FCC. Aside from setting the stage for more media mergers and broadband consolidation, his uncritical faith in the market blinded him to major problems with some of the largest companies under his purview, such as with Adelphia, WorldCom and Enron (recall its fiber optic subsidiary).

In the "free market" economy of Washington DC and Wall Street, being a political `quick change' artist and quickly going to work for an industry one once oversaw is considered a mark of success. But the practice does a disservice to the public, including workers, investors and competitors. Michael Powell helped spark one of the largest public protests against the FCC. Perhaps his example of a former public official cashing-in will inspire much needed reforms. Chairs and Commissioners should pledge that they will work in the nonprofit sector for a reasonable period after the serve in office. Otherwise, there will always be the concern that-like Michael K. Powell-his so-called high-minded pro-big Media philosophy was simply part of his resume for a highly-paid post-Chairman's gig

8/11/2005 1:05:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

At one time, nuclear scientist and espionage suspect Wen Ho Lee was considered a threat to US national security. In this week's "Don't Quote Me," learn how his lawsuit against the government has turned into a serious threat to freedom of the press.

8/11/2005 11:28:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Whole forests are being chopped down to satisfy the punditocracy's need to comment on columnist/commentator Robert Novak's role in revealing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Novak did little to dampen interest by staging a hissy fit and walking off a CNN set last week, in what many observers saw as a contrived and premeditated effort to avoid being questioned about his role in the Plame scandal. Novak takes a powder. (For his efforts, CNN has suspended him.)

Today on Salon.com, former Clinton advisor and liberal lightning rod Sidney Blumenthal has a fascinating take on the rise -- and possible fall -- of Novak. Blumenthal describes Novak not only as a Beltway institution, but more importantly as "a media celebrity." To understand what that means in Washington, Blumenthal shrewdly explains how "the advent of cable television altered the character of the Washington press corps." Blumental in Salon

Despite -- or maybe because of -- his ink-stained wretch background, cranky personality and less than matinee idol looks, Novak became a pioneer in the "shouting head" talk TV genre that is a staple on the cable news universe and the curse of American political discourse. From "The McLaughlin Group" to "Crossfire" to "The Capital Gang" no one was a more ubiquitous presence in the small screen political foodfights than the snarling, spitting, sarcastic Novak. In some ways, he played and relished the role of another TV mainstay, the classic professional wrestling villain or "heel." Rowdy Roddy Piper

His life as a television star brought Novak money, fame and infinitely more power in the incestuous Beltway culture. It would be ironic if his intemperate CNN walkoff, a case of Novak playing his TV persona to the hilt, ended up -- as Blumenthal suggests -- hastening his professional demise.

8/11/2005 10:18:00 AM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Anybody interested in the life and times of Abe Hirschfeld, who the New York Times described as "a millionaire" and "an eccentric," has probably already read his obit today. During his brief and anarchic 1993 stint as owner of the New York Post, his staff expressed its displeasure by, among other things, publishing a page 1 illustration of the paper's founder, Alexander Hamilton, shedding a tear at the prospect of Hirschfeld's stewardship. Assuming this isn't a gag or a phony, here's the image from Hirschfeld's web site. Hamilton crying

8/10/2005 6:13:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

For a decade, from the mid-90's until last year, the Boston Herald newsroom was run by editor Andrew Costello, a respected newsman, and a quiet unassuming guy with no appetite for the spolight. Along with managing editor Andrew Gully (who soon followed him out the door), Costello operated a pretty sober and serious tabloid that competed mightly and often successfully with the Globe on the local news and sports battlefields.

Then in Feb. 2004, Costello was suddenly cut loose, replaced by editorial director Ken Chandler. According to accounts at the time, it was a tearful scene as a stream of stunned reporters trudged into Costello's office to bid him goodbye. The Herald never gave an official reason for his departure. But the handwriting had been on the wall ever since Chandler -- a former New York Post editor and publisher -- returned to the Herald in 2003 with a mandate to take the paper in a flashier, splashier, fleshier direction. Once he arrived, it was clear the Costello era was coming to an end.

Costello got a goodbye package from the Herald and he remained loyal to his former employer after his sudden ouster. When last seen on the public stage earlier this year, he was testifying impressively at Judge Ernest Murphy's libel trial against the Herald, telling the jury that the paper operated under a set of thoughtful and careful practices and standards. (The jury ended up giving Murphy $2.1 million anyway.) The Murphy libel trial


Anyway, next month Costello begins a new life and a new career as an academic when he becomes an assistant professor of journalism in the Communications Department of Stonehill College. Stonehill. In doing so, he joins a recent Boston media exodus to academia that includes former Phoenix media writer Dan Kennedy (Northeastern) and former "Greater Boston" executive producer John Carroll (Boston University.)


"I'm really, really interested in doing this," says Costello. "I really believe in the [journalism] profession. I think it's important for people who have had a lot of experience to talk directly with younger people. It's a new world. What the constants are are good writing and reporting."


Here's wishing him luck.

8/10/2005 3:00:00 PM by MJ | Comments [0] |  

Media Log briefly mentioned this tragic/bizarre incident last week, but the story just won't go away. On July 27 Arthur Teele, a former Miami Commissioner under indictment, killed himself in the lobby of The Miami Herald shortly after speaking to Herald columnist Jim DeFede and just as a weekly paper, the Miami New Times, was publishing a salacious story about his penchant for sex, drugs, and corruption under the inflammatory headline "Tales of Teele: Sleaze Stories." Sleaze stories


Naturally, there was plenty of handwringing and an outpouring of public sentiment -- some of it even calling the wrath of God down upon the paper -- in response to the New Times's story that some blamed for T