For those who care, here's a piece from LA City Beat casting a very jaundiced eye on New Times honcho Mike Lacey's plans for the newly acquired Village Voice, where the bodies are piling up like it's Baghdad.

4/28/2006 11:08:32 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

Howie Carr's got quite a yarn today about Whitey Bulger possibly being the owner of what is possibly an abandoned Picasso. And here's a sentence that just makes me laugh every time I read it.

Even though he’s never been known as an art fancier, Whitey is well-known as a pervert, and the painting depicts a Minotaur performing oral sex on a woman.

4/28/2006 10:58:22 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [6] |  

Read about why the splashy Duke rape case is a made-for-media blockbuster in "Blue (-Eyed) Devils?" -- this week's "Don't Quote Me" column in the Phoenix.

And here's an AP story reporting that the alleged victim in this case accused three men of rape a decade ago in a case that apparently went nowhere. This is going to be one of those drip, drip, drip trial-by-media events.

4/28/2006 10:43:26 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [1] |  

There's an eye-catching suggestion in yesterday's New York Sun story discussing possible ways of dealing with the New York Times Co's troubling performance on Wall Street. Here's a paragraph bound to get some attention around here:

The move has been described as a "wake-up call" to management. What is less clear is what even an insomniac management can do to turn things around. Suggestions from several people close to the situation, none of whom wished to be quoted for this article (the Grey Lady certainly inspires discretion), were to sell off various peripheral businesses. Assets mentioned for possible sale include the broadcasting stations, which might fetch close to $400 million, the company's 17% interest in the Boston Red Sox, or the Boston Globe - and buying in stock at today's deflated price.

You'd still be able to get pretty long odds on any sale of the Globe. In recent years, the Times Co. has dramatically increased its footprint in these here parts, buying 49 percent of the Metro Boston daily tabloid as well as the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Of course, there have been murmurs that the Taylor family would love to have the Globe back -- but who could pay for a property that fetched more than $1 billion in 1993?

One key to the credibility of this Sun article is whether these "people close to the situation" who are suggesting a possible Globe sale are simply kibbitzers or folks with a say in what happens at the Times Co. It'd be ironic if a year from now, Pat Purcell was still operating the Herald and the Globe had new owners.

4/28/2006 10:09:11 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [1] |  

More new blood on the troubled business side of the Boston Globe. The new hire, Samuel Martin, replaces Mary Jane Patrone who recently departed after 30 years at the paper. Here are the basics:

BOSTON, April 27, 2006 – Samuel P. Martin was named Chief Advertising Officer (CAO) of Boston Globe Media in an announcement made today by Mary Jacobus, president of the Boston Globe.  The appointment is effective June 1, 2006.

Mr. Martin is currently senior vice president of sales for the North Jersey Media Group (NJMG), where he is responsible for the advertising departments of The Record and The Herald News, as well as the classified telecenter for the dailies and 43 weekly newspapers.  His responsibilities also include the media group’s Internet division and several specialty publications.

While at the NJMG, Mr. Martin successfully implemented a series of innovative advertiser programs ranging from effective packaging to new services. He also introduced new sales metrics and new products such as the most recently launched title, EXIT, a weekly alternative publication geared for young adults.

Before his position at NJMG, Mr. Martin held a variety of advertising executive positions at newspapers in several metro markets.  He was the senior vice president of marketing at the Cincinnati Enquirer for several years, where he was responsible for the marketing and advertising departments of the Enquirer and The Cincinnati Post, as well as the sales efforts of Cincinnati.com. He was the advertising director at the News Journal in Wilmington, DE, and started his career at the Dayton Daily News.

 

4/27/2006 5:34:11 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

Here's a headline, taken from Jim Romenesko's web site, that I don't think anyone could have imagined a few years ago.

"Ridder: Singleton will be a very good steward of the Merc"

Yes as part of a complicated deal, William Dean Singleton is now an owner of some of the "orphan" papers left over from the big Knight-Ridder yard sale. And maybe he will be a benign and benevolent owner. But the fact that the words "good steward" and Singleton are in the same sentence these days is probably a reflection of both Singleton's evolution and the newspaper industry's devolution.

Not all that long ago, Singleton, whose holdings include the Berkshire Eagle, the Lowell Sun, the North Adams Transcript and the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise, was considered a bottom-line newspaper boss with an unfavorable reptuation. In recent years, he has dramatically rehabilitated that reputation, as this 2003 Columbia Journalism Review profile explains. Here are the nut graphs:

In constructing his empire, Singleton has included a very sharp knife among his tools, and he has used it. In 1975, after a brief, inglorious run, he closed The Fort Worth Press, the city's second daily, which inspired reporters to hurl beer cans at him. In 1981 he gutted the Trenton Times, prompting its editor to tell CJR, "The public has lost a watchdog and gained a bulletin board." In 1995 he shuttered the Houston Post, throwing well over a thousand people out of work and killing a publication that had served the community since 1885. Nor is Singleton known for graceful entrances. When he purchased The Berkshire Eagle in 1995, reporters were given a sheet of paper describing their job status and new salaries. "People were expected to read the paper and put their initials next to the words ‘accept' or ‘reject' on the spot," Stephen Simurda wrote in CJR. "There were virtually no negotiations. This was day one of the Singleton era."

Over the last two years, however, Singleton has undergone a remarkable rise within the industry. He was recently elected chairman of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), which represents the interests of newspaper owners; he was twice elected to the Associated Press Board of Directors; and in 2001 he received Editor & Publisher's "Publisher of the Year" award, largely on the strength of his work with The Denver Post. Singleton has even begun to speak out against newspaper austerity measures. "Newsroom cost cuts have gone far enough — perhaps too far," he said in a recent speech. "We damaged our franchises in many cases, while Wall Street cheered."

Who is the real Dean Singleton? Is he a mass murderer of newspapers, or is he a man whose hardheaded pragmatism has enabled him, in a difficult period for the industry, to preserve many more newspaper jobs than he has eliminated? "Dean wanted to be the most profitable newspaper publisher there ever was — until he realized that the measurement of a good newspaper publisher isn't his profitability but his journalism," says the longtime Singleton-watcher David M. Cole, editor and publisher of NewsInc., an industry newsletter. "So now all of a sudden Dean has gotten the journalism bug."

Part of Singleton's shinier image can be attributed to his own words and deeds. But part can also be attributed to the fact that the sheen is off some companies -- like the New York Times Co. or Knight Ridder -- that were once considered great or at least good newspaper stewards. In other words, the pack has come back to Singleton a bit.

Singleton's name still gets thrown around in speculation about potential buyers for Pat Purcell's Boston Herald/Community Newspaper Co. empire. And for the record, he was an interested party for the CNC chain when Purcell picked it up in 2001.

4/27/2006 11:05:43 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [1] |  

It was hard not to think "harmonic convergence" after a day in which Larry King aired an interview with 92-year-old W. Mark Felt (AKA "Deep Throat"), Fox Newsie Tony Snow replaced "Scramblin'" Scott McClellan as White House press secretary, and CIA employee Mary McCarthy -- fired for allegedly leaking information used in  Dana Priest's Pulitzer Prize winning reporting on secret terror prisons abroad -- claimed she didn't do it.

All three events help illustrate the contentious relationship between the media and the White House at a time when it seems like open warfare between this administration and the people who make a living trying to cover it.

1) King's show last night was more of a nostalgia bath than anything else, a Watergate "the gang's all here" session featuring Felt, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and Ben Bradlee. We should all be in Felt's shape at age 92, but his memory was clearly impaired and he gave so many two- and three-word answers that King really earned his keep. (For the record, Felt said he never uttered the famous phrase "follow the money" that came out of Hal Holbrook's mouth in "All the President's Men." ) Perhaps the most poignant moment came when the old man forcefully affirmed his place in history.

KING: Deep Throat will be forever embellished in our minds, and you are a now famous character of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

M. FELT: I'll accept it.

KING: You do not feel bad about it.

M. FELT: I don't feel bad about it.

KING: You changed the country.

M. FELT: Yes, I think we did a little.

KING: Are you proud of that?

M. FELT: I'm proud of it.

2) Relations between the media and the White House these days may not be quite as bad as they were when journalists made Richard Nixon's enemies list, when Vice President Spiro Agnew called the media "nattering nabobs of negativism" and when glowering press secretary Ron Ziegler was doing his damndest to intimidate reporters. But until now, the Bush White House has made little effort to disguise its palpable contempt for the media.

Bush's 17 press conferences in his first term were the fewest of any president in the television age and he has spoken -- with some pride -- about not reading newspapers. The administration paid some commentators -- most notably Armstrong Williams -- to tout White House policies and also created video news releases featuring pretend journalists narrating government produced reports. (The GAO found that they violated the law.)

In many ways, outgoing press secretary McClellan's increasingly contentious relationship with the White House press corps epitomized the ill-will between the White House and the people who report on it. Perhaps the appointment of Snow, who reportedly sought and won a real role in internal policy making, reflects an acknowledgement by the Bush White House that the press can't simply be treated like an enemy to either ignore or steamroll. Or maybe, with his job approval ratings at an all-time low, the president and his aides realize they need to make a few more friends in the media.

3) Finally, the firing of CIA employee McCarthy has to be viewed in the context of this administration's attempted crackdown on leaks that have led to Pulitzer Prize-winning  investigations by the Washington Post's Priest as well as by New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, who uncovered the warrantless wiretapping program. As New York Times executive editor Bill Keller put it in this piece by National Journal reporter Murray Waas, this campaign amounts to a Bush war against the press for daring to scrutinize the government:

In a response to questions for this article, Times Editor Bill Keller said in an e-mail that he believed the Bush White House is on a campaign to intimidate the press. "I'm not sure journalists fully appreciate the threat confronting us," Keller wrote. "The Times in the eavesdropping case, the Post for its CIA prison stories, and everyone else who has tried to look behind the war on terror."

Keller asserted that "there's sometimes a vindictive tone in the way [administration officials] talk about dragging reporters before grand juries and in the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors." He warned that journalists possibly are "suffering a bit of subpoena fatigue. Maybe some people are a little intimidated by the way the White House plays the soft-on-terror card. Whatever the reason, I worry that we're not as worried as we should be."

Even in his diminished state, the appearance of "Deep Throat" on TV last night seemed eerily well-timed. Maybe he will serve as a ghost from the past, sending a warning to those in the White House who believe the public has no business knowing their business.

4/26/2006 11:15:52 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [3] |  

The American Society of Newspaper Editors reports that the percentage of minorities in newspaper newsrooms inched up oh so slightly last year to just under 14 percent. But that still lags far beyond our national demographics and news industry targets. It's hard to call that progress.

My view is that part of the solution entails creating and developing real media literacy curricula in the nation's public school systems -- something that media companies themselves ought to be willing to invest in and support.

4/25/2006 4:57:55 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

Here are two distinctly different opinions on last week's shareholder uprising at the New York Times Co. annual meeting.

The first (below), which appeared on Jim Romenesko's site as a letter from BU professor Chris Daly, provides the passionate, journalism-oriented view of the Times Co. and says a pox on Morgan Stanley:

Concerning the recent stories about the threats by Morgan Stanley to try to change the stock ownership plan at the New York Times, under which the Sulzberger family, through its ownership of Class B stock, retains the power to appoint the majority of the company's board of directors, I have a suggestion: Keep your hands off the paper!

If you guys at Morgan Stanley think you know so much about running a newspaper, then go ahead and found a great metropolitan daily yourselves and run it for 150 years. I'll buy a subscription.

If you don't like owning non-voting stock, here's another suggestion: DON'T BUY IT. No one put a gun to your head to buy the stock in the first place. And no one misled you about your voting rights. If you don't like the stock's performance, here's a third suggestion: SELL.

The fact is, the Times is a national treasure, like Yosemite or the Navy band. It is not a normal corporation, and it should not be. If you think market-driven journalism is such a great thing, then buy shares in Gannett and subscribe to USA Today.

The NYTimes is not perfect (but, come to think of it, neither is Morgan Stanley). But the fact is that the highest and best use of the NYTimes as an institution is not to enrich outsider stockholders. The highest and best use of the NYTimes is to be strong and independent enough to engage in knock-down journalism that challenges powerful institutions. From its investigations into watered-down milk and the Tweed Ring in the 19th Century to the Pentagon Papers case, Abu Gharib, and the wireless wiretapping expose, the Times has stood up to bullies, frauds and scoundrels. That is not normal corporate behavior, and so much the better.

The fact that the Sulzberger family chooses to run the paper on principles that are not strictly economic is a virtue, not a flaw. The surest way I can think of to destroy it would be to run it like a normal business.


Now, here's the bottom-line business view of the Times Co. articulated in this NewYorkBusiness.com posting. In this case, there's regret that the Morgan Stanley rebellion didn't catch fire.

Stocks: New York Times tripped up by leadership

Even with the stock trading at a five-year low, The New York Times Co. looks like a bad bet, straining under weak revenue and shareholder unrest.

Last week, tense relations between the Times Co. and its stockholders reached a new low when clearly frustrated money managers at normally unflappable Morgan Stanley actually demanded that the founding Sulzberger family give up a two-class stock system that effectively allows it to control the company.

In a press release, Morgan charged that the company has ignored calls "to operate the business better and allocate capital more efficiently." Unlike other shareholder revolts, such as the one that forced Knight-Ridder to put itself on the block, the Morgan-led putsch quickly fizzled.

Too bad. Last week, the Times Co.'s shares managed to fight a rising tide in the market and sink another 2%, closing at $24.48. "There is no real sign of any short-term catalyst [to boost the stock]," says Edward Atorino, an analyst with The Benchmark Co.

Last year, the Times Co. posted revenue of $3.37 billion, a meager 2.1% ahead of 2004's results, and far too little to absorb a big 7.9% surge in expenses. This year, analysts forecast that the decline will continue.

Whether you're rooting for the newsroom or Wall Street, keep an eye peeled on the storm clouds gathering around Sulzberger. There is plenty of ripple effect to this, including persistent speculation that Boston Globe publisher Richard Gilman could be replaced in the not-too-distant future.

4/25/2006 3:01:50 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

On the off chance you're hanging around Copley Square tomorrow evening, the Cambridge Forum is hosting a discussion on "The Role of Journals of Opinion," at the Rabb Lecture Hall in the Boston Public Library with a panel including Victor Navasky, publisher  emeritus of the Nation, Robert Kuttner, founding co-editor of the American Prospect,and Jack Beatty, senior editor of the Atlantic Monthly. I'll be moderating the discussion, which will run from 6:30 till 8 pm. The event is free to the public.

4/25/2006 2:05:15 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [1] |  

Normally, I'd opt for any episode of The Andy Griffith Show on TVLand before I'd tune in to Larry King's blabfest on CNN. But tonight, he is interviewing W. Mark Felt, the nonagenarian who, after three decades, finally came out of the closet in last year's Vanity Fair expose as "Deep Throat."

This meeeting certainly has high curiosity value. The Vanity Fair piece makes it clear that Bob Woodward harbored some doubts about the mental acuity of his famous source. Here's a relevant passage describing efforts to get Woodward to cooperate with the release of Felt's identity:

Felt had come to an interim decision: he would "cooperate," but only with the assistance of Bob Woodward. Acceding to his wishes, Joan and I spoke to Woodward by phone on a half-dozen occasions over a period of months about whether to make a joint revelation, possibly in the form of a book or an article. Woodward would sometimes begin these conversations with a caveat, saying, more or less, "Just because I'm talking to you, I'm not admitting that he is who you think he is." Then he'd express his chief concerns, which were twofold, as I recall. First, was this something that Joan and I were pushing on Felt, or did he actually want to reveal himself of his own accord? (I interpreted this to mean: was he changing the long-standing agreement the men had kept for three decades?) Second, was Felt actually in a clear mental state? To make his own assessment, Woodward told Joan and me, he wanted to come out and sit down with her father again, not having seen him since their lunch.

"We went through a period where he did call a bit," Joan says of her discussions with Woodward. (Nick says he sometimes answered the phone and spoke with him, too.) "He's always been very gracious. We talked about doing a book with Dad, and I think he was considering. That was my understanding. He didn't say no at first.... Then he kept kind of putting me off on this book, saying, 'Joan, don't press me.' … For him the issue was competency: was Dad competent to release him from the agreement the two of them had made not to say anything until after Dad died?

Meanwhile, as the New York Observer has reported, there have been rumors about both King's job security at CNN and about the overall state of his health and command.

And here's a transcript from a recent show when King confused Newsweek's Michael Iskikoff for Time magazine's Michael Weisskopf. (Okay, the two names kind of sound alike. They both end in "cough.')

KING: How are you doing physically?
ISIKOFF: I'm doing fine.
KING: Well, you lost what...
ISIKOFF: Why do you ask?
KING: Because you were injured.
ISIKOFF: No, no, no. I'm sorry. You're thinking of my -- of Michael Weisskopf [of] Time magazine."

So if nothing else, it's worth watching tonight to see who's sharper -- the aging talkmaster or the ancient whistleblower.

4/25/2006 12:10:49 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

The New York Times is reporting that radio host, Fox News host, and columnist Tony Snow is close to becoming the new White House press secretary. I have nothing against him, although I find his voice a bit weird.

4/21/2006 11:53:47 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [3] |  

MY colleagues at the Phoenix are reporting that the Globe has poached the Herald's Sarah Rodman to replace departed pop culture/music writer Renee Graham (one of the paper's biggest losses in last year's wave of buyouts) and rock writer Steve Morse. (The commentary on the wisdom of that pick reflects the view of On the Download, not necessarily that of Media Log.)

Without a doubt, Morse was one of the nicest people I've met in this business. Having said that his recent rock critic memoirs that appeared in the Globe's Sunday magazine were too Morse-ian -- that is to say, too much sweetness and not enough light. Whatever the merits of the pick, the Globe's continuing ability to lure away Herald writers -- as in the case of Rodman and Brian Ballou -- must be particularly grating for the already stripped-down tabloid.

4/21/2006 10:17:47 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [5] |  

Two comments/caveats about Jack Coleman, who posted this blog item. First, he's a Cape Wind project partisan and second, he left the Cape Cod Times under less than amiable conditions.

Having said that, it's worth reading his harsh and impassioned critique of his old employer and its coverage of the sizzling wind power issue on the Cape.

4/20/2006 5:28:05 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [2] |  

Sitting in her cramped and crowded sixth floor office in the Wheatley Building on the UMass Boston campus, Ellen Hume explains the philosophy that drives her these days.

“There are a lot of people working on saving the Boston Globe. But I don’t see a lot of people out there working to save Sampan,” she says, referring to Boston’s bi-lingual Chinese community newspaper.

Hume herself is a big media product, a former Los Angeles Times staffer who also worked as a White House and political reporter for the Wall Street Journal in the 80’s. (During the 1988 presidential campaign, Hume was the subject of a famous display of anti-media animus when a pro-Dan Quayle crowd began jeering the press  -- and her specificially -- at an Indiana rally for the vice-presidential candidate.)

But today, the director of UMass Boston's two-year-old Center on Media and Society is focused on uniting, galvanizing and empowering some of the area’s smallest and most resource-strapped news outlets -- the ethnic press. 

Explaining that people of color make up about 40 percent of the campus population, Hume says, “I has looked at what all the think tanks were doing about the media. [And] when I looked at the landscape and looked at who my students are, it came to me -- ethnic media.”

Working with a handful of volunteers and with the help of a $10,000 planning grant from the Boston Foundation  the center has embarked on several projects.  (“We used up the $10,000 -- everybody’s been working on fumes,” admits Hume.)

The most basic program is the center’s ethnic media data base featuring information on roughly 100 outlets ranging from the Jamaica Plain-based Somali paper RAJO Newsletter to the Lowell-based Cambodia Today paper.

There’s also an effort underway to create a New England regional version of a Pulitzer Prize for ethnic media journalism and plans to try to create an internship program with several local universities that would place students inside ethnic outlets. A more ambitious venture would be the creation of an ethnic media wire service to generate regional community stories that could go national.

At a time of circulation and advertising weakness in the traditional media, ethnic news organizations -- particularly Spanish language ones -- are widely viewed to be rising powers with significant economic potential. That sense was buttressed by a major poll last year, conducted by Bendixen & Associates, that revealed that 45 percent of African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, Native-American and Arab-American adults preferred ethnic media to the mainstream press and that 51 million American adults were regular consumers of ethnic media.

But even with all that potential upside, getting the disparate elements of the local ethnic press to unify in order to maximinze their clout is no mean feat.

"We're basically trying to exhort these small business operators...to come together and form some kind of association or club," Hume says. "Their audience is interested, but the economics for a lot of these organizations is very, very shaky. They don't have reporters and they don't have training and they are trying to stay alive."

And at a time in her career when many established journalists are looking for a cushy landing spot with sweet hours, Hume is working tirelessly to help the ethnic press not only survive, but flourish.

4/20/2006 10:53:58 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [6] |  

Arianna Huffington's blog also contends that the shareholder mini-revolt at the New York Times Co's  annual meeting may be a big deal and portend real problems for chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

4/20/2006 10:01:23 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

Okay, here's the non sequitur of the day courtesy of a Boston Herald sidebar on the "perv suspect" story.

First, the first two graphs of the story:

David Anderson was brushed off by Jerry Springer’s tawdry TV show after trying to peddle himself as the victim of a transcontinental love triangle, two neighbors of the accused Quincy pervert said last night.

He also kept a thick scrapbook of sleazy cartoons from Hustler, Playboy and Penthouse magazines, the neighbors said.

Now, get ready for the third graph:


“He was a nice enough guy - just goes to show you never know your neighbors,” said Geraldine Stanley, who lives at Remington Court, a Quincy apartment house where Anderson has lived alone for three months, since his wife, Tao, left him for an Oregon man.

Huh????

4/19/2006 2:16:55 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [5] |  

Unfortunately, the Globe gave this story short shrift today. (Scroll down to the first item under "The Nation.")

But that was not the case in the Washington Post or New York Times itself, which treated a shareholder uprising at the Times Co. annual meeting as a significant sign of discontent with the company, its stock price, and quite likely -- the stewardship of chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

As a little refresher course, it's worth recalling Ken Auletta's much-discussed New Yorker piece about Sulzberger last December, including these excerpts that followed a section questioning Sulzberger's handling of the Judy Miller fiasco:

Twice in the last three years, the Times newsroom has suffered the equivalent of a nervous breakdown, and critics say that Sulzberger has managed the latest crisis as poorly as he did the episode involving the fabrications of the reporter Jayson Blair, which led, in 2003, to the firing of Howell Raines, the executive editor. These newsroom crises have come when the Times can least afford them—during a period of technological and economic uncertainty that has affected the entire industry. The Times’ stock price fell 33.2 per cent between December 31, 2004, and October 31, 2005—sixty per cent more than the industry average, according to Merrill Lynch newspaper analysts. The operating profit of the Times Company has also slipped in each of the past three years. Owing to the cost of fuel, newsprint, and employee benefits, expenditures are increasing by between four and five per cent a year and revenues by only about three per cent, a senior Times corporate executive says; this person is worried that “it’s just a matter of time until we start losing money.”

One often hears it said that Sulzberger lacks sufficient gravitas for a man in his position, which is perhaps another way of saying that he is still more a prince than a mature king. Sulzberger’s hair has begun to turn gray and to recede, and yet, like Tom Hanks in the movie “Big,” he seems to be only impersonating an older man. He is often known as Young Arthur, and, behind his back, people still call him Pinch, in contrast to his father, Punch. He tends to draw attention to himself with a loud cackle or an awkwardly offhand remark. He keeps in his office artifacts of his two hobbies—a wooden sculpture of a beloved motorcycle and sculptures of rock climbers.

That's what makes those withheld votes at the annual meeting a media/business story worth keeping an eye on.

4/19/2006 11:44:53 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [1] |  

Sayonara Scott. You were probably the worst White House press secretary since glowering Nixon attack dog Ron Ziegler.

In terms of style, though, you reminded us more of this figure from the late 60's and early 70's -- the guy on the left, Sgt. ("I  know nothing! I see nothing!") Schultz of   "Hogan's Heroes" fame.

4/19/2006 10:57:50 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

4/19/2006 10:08:53 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

It's a rare occurrence these days when the Globe and Herald agree on the lead page 1 story.

But here's today's Globe:

Kai Leigh Harriott (above), paralyzed in 2003, wept while speaking at the sentencing of Anthony Warren, who apologized and was embraced by her mother, Tonya David (right). (Pool Photos)

Paralyzed at 3 by a stray gunshot, Hub girl faces the man who fired it

And here's today's Herald:

Kai Leigh Harriott was paralyzed by a stray bullet in 2003. (Staff photo by David Goldman)

Local / Regional News Family finds forgiveness for con who shot girl

I doubt that either paper began yesterday thinking this would lead the news. But the girl's words made it so.

As a general rule, I tend to think that the most important stories are the ones that affect the most people. But not always.

And no one who's read the story or looked at the photo could argue with today's news judgment.

4/14/2006 10:19:59 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [2] |  

Who'd da thunk that some of Howard Stern's (caution: some material on this site seems to be of an adult nature) former fans would now be NPR junkies?  But that's what's part of what's happening, according to this Reuters piece.

It's not that Howard isn't doing well at Sirius Satellite Radio. It's just another reminder of the most basic truism in media, or any other industry for that matter -- even though some people tend to forget it.

No one is irreplaceable.

4/14/2006 10:07:06 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [3] |  

Okay, I'll preface this by admitting again I'm a Yankee fan. I grew up a Yankee fan in Northeastern Pennsylvania and have remained one despite being in Boston for over 30 years. (By my way of thinking, team loyalty ought to be set by puberty. If you grew up a Sox fan in Newton, went to college at NYU and ended up living and working on Long Island, would you be a Yankee fan today? I hope not.)

Anyway, with all the questions raised about a conflict at the Boston Globe because its corporate parent, The New York Times Co., has a 17 percent interest in the Red Sox, I think people are barking up the wrong tree. Maybe those questions should be asked of the New York Times, a newspaper that sure seems to shower the out-of-town Red Sox with considerably more affection than the men in pinstripes.

Back in January, New York magazine calculated that in the 2005-2006 offseason, the Times actually devoted more stories to the Sox than it did to either the hometown Yanks or Mets. Here's an excerpt:

What’s going on? Too many Harvard grads on 43rd Street? Or can the paper be reminding New Yorkers that it owns a minority stake in the Sox? Nothing of the sort, insists sports editor Tom Jolly, who says the count is skewed because of the movement of Red Sox free agents and the upheaval in their front office. “Anything [the Red Sox] do will be of great interest to Yankee fans.” Still, a search reveals that no other local paper comes close to this kind of parity.

Now take Exhibit B, the Great Gray Lady's coverage of the Red Sox and Yankees respective home openers on Tuesday. Guess what led the sports section? A big story about new Boston pitcher Josh Beckett featuring a huge photo of the pumped-and-jacked Sox hurler. Closer to home, Derek Jeter's 8th inning homer that led the Yanks to a dramatic come from behind win over Kansas City was relegated to the bottom of the page in a Harvey Araton piece that treated the exciting win like a Pyrrhic victory -- at best. Here's a killjoy sentence.

"this sellout-crowd-pleasing victory should come wrapped with a label that reads: Buyer Beware. Because the World Series winner is seldom a team that looks as unacquainted with crisp, mistake-free-baseball as the 21st-century Yankees have increasingly become."

Ah, nothing like having the team's post-season hopes dashed seven games into the new season. After a win!!!

But it gets worse for the Yankees when Murray Chass feels the need to celebrate the Yanks home opener with a column moaning because owner George Steinbrenner won't give him an interview. That didn't stop Chass, however, from:

1) digging up controversial Steinbrenner quotes that are nearly 30 years old.
2) suggesting  that at age 75, Steinbrenner is impaired in some way that he doesn't specify.
3) making it seem like there was something sinister and suspicious about the few words Steinbrenner did utter to reporters that day. Like saying he was "very pleased" with the game's outcome, that Jeter is a "super" player, and declaring that "every team [the Yankees play] is going to be tough." Wow, what inflammatory pronouncements. Call the commissioner's office.

Happy opening day, Yanks. (Just imagine if yesterday's Globe sports section had led with a big feature on "Captain Clutch" Derek Jeter, had complained that the Sox 5-3 win over Toronto exposed weaknesses that could doom the team's post-season prospects, and finished up with a Shaughnessy column mocking John Henry as an uncommunicative weirdo.)

I guess the Times thinks of itself as a national paper. But maybe that 17 percent piece of the action really has turned it into part of Red Sox Nation.

4/13/2006 11:17:18 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [14] |  

Sorrry I missed this earlier. But this Gawker item reinforces the obvious. The takeover of the Village Voice by the Arizona New Times Media guys (see "NYC's Alternative Crisis" in the 2/16/2006 Phoenix) is not going to be pretty. Not pretty at all.

4/13/2006 10:23:59 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

 In the interests of setting the record straight, BU professor Lou Ureneck, who heads the school's business journalism program, will officially succeed Bob Zelnick as chairman of the journalism department. Here's a bit of Ureneck's resume via the BU release:

Ureneck joined the BU faculty in 2003 after six years with the Philadelphia Inquirer where he served as deputy managing editor and assistant to the editor.  Earlier he spent 22 years at the Portland Press Herald where he rose through the ranks from reporter to vice president.  A 1972 University of New Hampshire graduate, he served in 1994-95 as editor-in-residence at Harvard University’s Neiman Foundation.

4/13/2006 10:12:48 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

A shakeup at Boston University where Journalism Department chair Bob Zelnick -- the former ABC News veteran -- is stepping down from that position on June 1 to become a Professor of National and International Affairs. According to his statement, Zelnick will be succeeded, at least on an interim basis, by Lou Ureneck. 

A couple of excerpts from the Zelnick statement today:

The new arrangement should give me more time to think, write,  put my face in front of cameras and generally to fight liberals wherever I find them, a task I try to perform with love.  I am already affiliated with the Hoover Institution and have recently joined a stable of blogger-columnists put together by the Guardian. I like most of the books I’ve written but I don’t love any of them.  I hope with more time, I’ll do some writing worthy of my own affection.  I also plan to give my successors the benefit of occasional advice based on experience, which means they will likely come to regard me as an incurable curmudgeon, if they don’t already.

 I think we are a good department now, and with the right two or three more hires we’ll be looking back at the field. One caveat: In case you hadn’t noticed, I am a dreadful administrator, incurably so.  My instincts tell me Lou will be a big improvement in that respect.

If I have changed any view it involves an appreciation for the value of across-the-board diversity.  I do think we learn from each other, both students and faculty. Unfortunately, while there are certain things a university administrator can do to make his or her campus look “more like America,” the ultimate battle must be won in the homes, in the elementary and secondary schools and in the streets of urban America.

The following paragraphs in the statement contain some interesting thoughts about the irreconcilable differences between journalism and mass communications careers -- and how BU should recognize that.

In the end, the chairman’s job has some influence and no power. I am left with the strong feeling that journalism is a special profession with its own skills, values and ethic and that the best of the country’s journalism programs are independent of Mass COM departments. The latter, while perhaps impressive in their own milieu, in the end seek to control public opinion while we journalists seek to inform public opinion. The difference is fundamental and critical. The two should be raised as adversaries.

Had I remained in the chairmanship position I would have begun urging that thought be given to divorcing Journalism from Mass COM. I hope my successors at least give the idea some thought.

4/11/2006 5:48:48 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [10] |  

Here's a study that didn't get enough attention. The Center for Media and Democracy last week released a survey that found that 77 television stations -- with a combined reach of more than half the country's population -- used Video News Releases (VNRs) without disclosing their origins, thus creating the impression that these commercial messages actually represent real reporting by journalists.

Here's the skinny from the release:

WASHINGTON The Center for Media Democracy and Free Press today exposed an epidemic of fake news infiltrating local television broadcasts across country. At a press conference in Washington with FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein, the groups called for a crackdown on stations that present corporate-sponsored videos as genuine news to an unsuspecting audience.

CMD, which unveiled the results of a 10-month investigation, found scores of local stations slipping commercial "video news releases," or VNRs, into their regular news programming. The new multimedia report released today includes footage of 36 separate VNRs and their broadcast as "news" by TV stations and networks nationwide, including those in the nation's biggest markets.

Investigators captured 77 television stations actively disguising sponsored content from companies including General Motors, Intel, Pfizer and Capital One to make it look like their own reporting. More than one-third of the time, stations aired fake news stories in their entirety as their own reporting.

Despite repeated claims from broadcasters that they do not air VNRs as news, the new report reveals just the tip of the iceberg. Instances of fake TV news documented by CMD likely represent less than 1 percent of VNRs distributed to local newsrooms since June 2005. Fraudulent news reports have likely been aired on hundreds of more local newscasts in the past year.

Approximately 80 percent of the stations snared in the investigation are owned by large conglomerates. The list of the worst offenders includes Clear Channel, News Corp./Fox Television, Viacom/CBS, Tribune Co. and Sinclair Broadcast Group - whose Oklahoma City affiliate was caught airing VNRs on six separate occasions.

It's worth noting that one Boston station, WHDH-TV (Channel 7), was caught airing one of these VNRs last Christmas season, a commercial that was dressed up to look like a consumer-oriented shopping story. Station spokeswoman Ginny Lund confirmed that Channel 7 mistakenly aired the VNR, and that the person responsible put the "story" on the air improperly without informing the news director.

"We have a very strict policy against this," she says.

Media polls have traditionally indicated that local news broadcasts  enjoy a high level of credibility with their audience. But this epidemic of bogus bought-and-paid-for news ought to scare the bejeezus out of everyone

4/11/2006 2:57:25 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [2] |  

Not much more I can add to this, other than to say that the Boston Herald saw fit to give 12 graphs today to a Frosted Flake with a glandular condition. Alert the Pulitzer judges.

4/11/2006 10:48:33 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [10] |  

Like many in my profession, I have a good deal of respect for the notoriously cranky investigative reporter Seymour Hersh -- and his national security reporting for the New Yorker. He's making headlines again with this piece perhaps setting the table for potential military action against Iran and featuring the eye-catching theses that the Bush administration is again hankering for regime change and at least contemplating the prospect of using tactical nuclear weapons.

It's fascinating and frightening stuff, written in Hersh's singular style -- lots of anonymous quotes from grizzled insiders and tough guys written in a straight-down-the-shaft linear style. But I found reading "The Iran Plans" to be more frustrating than enlightening. As he portrays an administration  -- already militarily and politically bogged down in Iraq -- using the same philosophy driven by the same people to think about repeating the same policy, two huge questions come to mind.

1) Is it really true that the situation in Iraq hasn't given this administration a little more reason to pause, to view the virtues of multi-lateralism more warmly, and to question its ability to control events and manage the spiralling fallout from a major military operation? Can that be possible?

2) How will the great mass of American people -- now giving Bush the lowest grades of his presidency and giving Capitol Hill Republicans the willies about the 2006 midterm elections -- react if and when key administration figures start making belligerent noises about attacking another Middle East country on the basis of fears about their ability to acquire WMD and use it against us?

Here, Hersh's piece comes up empty. And if the he can't finish the job, then New Yorker editor David Remnick should assign someone to do a companion piece looking at the political/philosophical questions raised by Hersh's reporting. Hersh can always raise the pulse rate and your blood pressure. But somebody needs to add some much-needed context.

4/10/2006 5:53:53 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [4] |  

This item in U.S. News & World Report's "Washington Whispers" column reports that one of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's winning battles has been her campaign to rid the State Department newsstands of skin mags. (Sorry, but all links are at least R-rated.)  She may have a tougher time, however, banishing the tamer and more popular lad mags. 

Apparently, no one is crying First Amendment foul on this one.

4/10/2006 3:33:59 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

One thing I've learned over the years is that there are an awful lot of awards in the television industry. And it gets hard to tell the truly important ones from the more routine ones. But on the assumption that this one is pretty big, here's a chance for Channel 5 to crow:

Boston — WCVB-TV Channel 5 has been honored as the Massachusetts/Rhode Island Associated Press Station of the Year. The award for best day-to-day coverage throughout the year was presented Saturday at the annual RTNDA/AP banquet. WCVB was recognized for overall excellence which included:  year-long coverage of the nearly half-million working uninsured in our state; investigating the CVS prescription errors; and "Only On Five", daily enterprise reports focused on consumer issues, health and government.  Channel 5’s spot news coverage of the Blizzard of 2005; the death of Pope John Paul II; the election of Pope Benedict; the massive NH Flooding; the Boston Marathon; and the follow-up on the death of a Massachusetts boy in the woods in New Hampshire contributed to the award-winning effort.

4/10/2006 3:05:23 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

When we last left the turnover-plagued New York Press  in February, four-fifths of the editorial staff had gone out in a blaze of prinicple after management had nixed its plans to publish the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. (See "NYC's Alternative Crisis" in the 2/16/06 Phoenix).

Now according to a release posted on the Association of Alternative Weeklies site, the paper has a new editor-in-chief. Here's the skinny:

New York Press president Peter Polimino has named Adario Strange as Editor-in-Chief of New York Press, New York's premier alternative newspaper. Strange brings over 15 years of publishing and entertainment business experience with him to the publication. Best known as the second Editor-in-Chief of the youth culture magazine The Source, Strange most recently helmed the pop-culture/technology magazine MacDirectory, and produced the documentary film "The NYU Suicides."

Can you really "helm" a magazine? Who made that word a verb?

4/10/2006 2:12:10 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

Memo to CNN president Jonathan Klein from Media Log:

No matter how tempting it might be in your pursuit of the heart-wrenching human interest story, do not repeat this morning's sorry and sordid attempt to interview a grieving six-year-old on your air, even under the generally gentle prodding of Soledad O'Brien.

This morning's tragedy travesty occurred when CNN tried to interview six-year-old Robert Turner, a Detroit kid whose mother tragically died after several of his 911 calls seeking help for her were treated as pranks.

And Jack Kevorkian lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, who already gets plenty of TV face time, deserves his share of scorn for shamelessly parading the little boy in front of the cameras. There are other ways to pressure a potential defendant to come up with a nice lucrative settlement offer short of this stunt.

Not only should a young child who just lost his mother not be subjected to a nationally televised effort to have him recount the horror, he was clearly unwilling and/or unable -- as is completely understandable -- to discuss what had happened. This was cruel and calculating exploitation of this poor child in the hopes that he would do or say something that would be able to give your network a clip it could play throughout the day.

The segment was nothing short of a disgrace.

P.S.-- I didn't have the misfortune of seeing the Sunday "Today" story that included the young boy, but the same goes for them.

4/10/2006 9:30:49 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [3] |  

Here's a view on the CJRDaily site asserting that Bush did quite well handling that highly critical questioner in North Carolina yesterday. If, as the writer states, the media overplayed the story, it may only be because they were stunned to see someone get the chance to give the oft-cocooned commander-in-chief a piece of his mind.

4/7/2006 4:53:03 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

Maggie Mulvihill, a 13-year Boston Herald veteran and long-time investigative reporter/editor, is leaving the tabloid for the world of local TV journalism. Starting on May 8, she becomes the investigative producer for Joe Bergantino's I-team at Channel 4. With Mulvihill's move coming on the heels of Business boss Cosmo Macero Jr's announced departure, the brain drain continues at One Herald Square.

4/7/2006 11:41:05 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [2] |  

And Bush thought Helen Thomas was a pain in the butt. Watch this citizen challenge Bush (click on video) at a public event in North Carolina yesterday.  (I saw him interviewed on CNN this morning and he's clearly become an instant media celebrity already.) Given the rules of the game that govern Bush's infrequent press conferences, I can't say I've seen anyone confront the president so bluntly in recent memory. Whatever else you think, it takes stones.

4/7/2006 9:30:42 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [3] |  

For those ready for the political season to begin, CBS 4 and Jon Keller have struck first in this year's TV debate wars: Here's the release:

CBS4 News will air the first debate between the state’s three democratic candidates for governor: Chris Gabrieli, Deval Patrick, and Tom Reilly.  This exclusive debate, moderated by CBS4 News Political Analyst Jon Keller, will air on CBS4 on Sunday, April 23 at 8:30-9AM

CBS4 News secured the participation of all three candidates earlier today, and the tape date of April 21 as well as the airdate of April 23 (8:30-9AM) was confirmed.

Chris Gabrieli, an investment banker as well as 2002 Lt. Governor nominee and 1998 Congressional candidate, commented: “Campaigns should be a battle of ideas, a battle of who’s got the right experience, the right capabilities, the best ideas to move this state ahead.  I think its great for voters, it gives them a chance to take a look at those candidates head to  head, answering the same questions and interacting with each other.”

Deval Patrick, former US Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, said: “I think it’s great.  For many many months now, we have been advocating the importance of debating the issues and talking to people substantively not just competing sound bites.  So I think this is a wonderful thing.”

“Tom Reilly, Attorney General and former Middlesex County District Attorney, stated: “I’m looking forward to it.  Now the field is set… it’s time for a debate.  I’m looking forward to debating my opponents about the future of Massachusetts, because that’s what this is all about. It’s pretty exciting."

4/7/2006 9:22:28 AM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [2] |  

In light of the recent steriod revelations by two reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle, isn't it time that sports journalism shed its old "toy department" label and start to take a harder look at the mega-billion dollar industry it covers?  Read "Muckrackers in the Outfield"  in this week's Boston Phoenix.

Speaking of sports muckracking, here's a little tale that didn't make it into that story for space reasons. Last Friday, both the Globe and the Herald reported on Red Sox manager Terry Francona's reaction to the 10-day suspension of reliever Julian Tavarez for punching Tamp Bay outfielder Joey Gathright. Only they had it differently.

The Globe piece by Chris Snow quoted Francona saying "That's a pretty stiff penalty."

The Herald piece by Tony Massarotti quoted Francona thusly: "'It seems like a lot,' continued the sarcastic Red Sox manager, who then exaggerated for effect. 'He should have done steroids. He'd get (only) five more (games) and we could replace him (on the roster). It's a little stiff.'"

So the Herald has Francona making what certainly appears to be a sarcastic crack about steroids right after the commissioner of baseball has announced an investigation into performance enhancing drugs and the Globe does not. What gives?

According to Herald managing editor Kevin Convey, the Red Sox asked the paper not to mention Francona's steroid remarks in its coverage, but the Herald refused.
"It struck me as kind of a throwback," he says. "In many ways it still is the 'toy department'...and the [Sox] want us to play ball with the team because they hand out so many bennies."

Globe sports editor Joe Sullivan also says the Sox asked the paper to avoid using the steroids quote, but adds that it had nothing to do with the paper's decision not to report it. Sullivan says the reason the quote did not appear is because Francona was incorrect in saying a Tavarez steroid suspension would have lasted  15  games. It is now, in fact, a 50-game suspension.

"We let [Francona] make his point," Sullivan says. "You're getting involved in areas where he's wrong...it doesn't make any sense...and Chris [Snow] has to explain why he's wrong. I think Chris did the right thing."

No reason not to accept the Globe's explanation on face value. But why not do what the Herald did which is include the quote and then point out what the correct steroid suspension policy is?

If the usually scripted Francona actually makes some kind of off-hand remark involving steroids, reporting it adds a little bit of insight about and flavor to the man -- whether his words were accurate or not.

Reporters wouldn't choose to leave out a telling George Bush quote if he misstated a fact about Iraqi casualties.

4/6/2006 1:09:06 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [3] |  

Did anybody watch the "Bonds on Bonds" reality show that debuted on ESPN last night? I tried half-heartedly for a few minutes, but had trouble swallowing the kinder, gentler Barry that I saw portrayed. But I'm soliciting reviews from anyone who might have actually paid attention.

4/5/2006 3:10:12 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [3] |  

Yesterday's awards from the American Society of Businesss Editors and Writers had some good news for the local dailies. The Boston Herald Business section was voted a winner in the overall excellence category for medium-sized papers and its reporting team also won in the breaking news category for its work on the Gillette sale.

At the Globe, Steve Bailey, always a force, was honored as best columnist at a giant-sized newspaper.

The Herald's Business section is one of the paper's success stories in my view. With a philosophy that's kind of akin to putting the puck on net in a hockey game, the section feels busy, active, and energetic -- and made a smart choice to be aggressive in its coverage of the media industry. (What else would you expect a media critic to say?)

Having said that, one of the paper's brand names, assistant managing editor for Business Cosmo Macero Jr., is leaving April 14 to go to work for O'Neill and Associates. There is a scramble, largely internal, to succeed him with financial editor Greg Gatlin and senior executive city editor Eric Convey believed to be among the leading candidates in that contest.

4/5/2006 2:50:04 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [0] |  

The Globe's Jeff Jacoby is right on the money today with his attack on the Jill Carroll rush-to-judgment crowd.

4/5/2006 12:31:01 PM by Mark Jurkowitz | Comments [14] |  

Congratulations to Bay Windows publisher Sue O'Connell who was just elected president of the National Gay Newspaper Guild. She's a friend and former colleague and a talented news exec.