August 14, 2014

mediawiremorningGood morning. Here are 10 media stories. Maybe it’s not really 10. Let’s not dwell on specifics.

  1. Reporters arrested, assaulted in Ferguson: Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery and Huffington Post reporter Ryan J. Reilly were arrested Wednesday night while covering the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. (Poynter) | They were working in a McDonald’s when police ordered them to leave. Both started documenting the transaction on their phones. Lowery said one cop slammed him into a soda fountain after his bag slipped off his shoulder and he ducked down to get it; Reilly said a cop pushed him into a plate-glass window and “sarcastically apologized.” (HuffPost) | In his account of his arrest, Lowery writes that he told an arresting officer “This story’s going to get out there. It’s going to be on the front page of The Washington Post tomorrow.” The cop, Lowery reports, replied, “Yeah, well, you’re going to be in my jail cell tonight.” (WP) | Today’s Washington Post front page | Today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch front page | HuffPost splash: “BAGHDAD USA” | Front pages, as always, courtesy the Newseum.
  2. Other reporters say they were injured while on the job for this story: MSNBC reporter Trymaine Lee was tear-gassed while covering protests Wednesday. (@trymainelee) | Al Jazeera journalists got tear-gassed, too. (Vox) | The St. Louis American says cops pointed weapons at two of its reporters. (@StLouisAmerican) | NYT freelancer Whitney Curtis was reportedly hit by a rubber bullet Monday. (@PDPJ) | Antonio French, the St. Louis alderman who has provided citizen coverage of the protests through social media, was also arrested. (HuffPost) | You’ll hear people complaining today that “the media” is focusing too much on injuriries sustained by its own, or that Lowery and Reilly, as Dana Loesch trolled, “hijacked the light onto themselves.” | Such criticisms are easily dealt with. Elise Foley: “I love the accusations that @ryanjreilly and @WesleyLowery got themselves arrested to get attention BY SITTING IN A McDONALD’S.” (@elisefoley) | But as Lowery told the Post’s Mark Berman last night (in a story that has been, unfortunately, updated to exclude the quote), most people in Ferguson who “don’t have as many Twitter followers as I have” can’t call Jeff Bezos when they get arrested. (I’m paraphrasing because this fantastic quote is gone. Here’s my best account of it from last night.) (WP) | Or as Huffington Post reporter Jason Cherkis tweeted: “Makes you wonder what #Ferguson police do when they think no one is watching.” (@jasoncherkis)
  3. Meanwhile, Nate Silver remembered that time he ate a burrito in jail: Thanks for the update. (Gawker)
  4. Sally Quinn remembers Lauren Bacall: Through the lens of the time Bacall and Ben Bradlee disappeared into the dunes in Amagansett. “It was no consolation when Betty came over to me as we were leaving and confided in me that Ben was the only man who had ever reminded her of Bogey.” (WP)
  5. How to build a non-diverse newsroom: “The biggest factor that leads to a homogenous newsroom is an over-reliance of personal recommendations,” Judd Legum says. (BuzzFeed)
  6. Tough times at The Tennessean: “In off-the-record conversations — staffers would only talk anonymously for fear of jeopardizing their chances to get a job in the new newsroom — Tennessean personnel described the climate at 1100 Broadway as ‘horrific’ and ‘morose.'” (Nashville Scene)
  7. An update on Joseph Hosey: James Risen’s bid to get the DOJ off his back is getting lots of deserved attention, but Hosey, a Patch editor who obtained police reports on a grisly murder in Joliet, Ill., still faces jail and fines for refusing to name a source. (CJR) | From last year: A quick overview of the Hosey case. (Poynter)
  8. Plagiarism punished: Dylan Byers: “Vice Media has dismissed i-D writer Jack Borkett after he posted an item about Lauren Bacall that lifted the title and portions of text from a New York Magazine article.” (Politico)
  9. The Ann Arbor Chronicle brought in about $100,000 a year: “That was enough to pay the Chronicle’s expenses and to allow [Publisher Mary] Morgan and [Editor Dave] Askins to make a living, but if they wanted to bring on additional full-time help to ease their workload, Askins estimated that existing revenue would need to increase by four times to fund a full-time staff of five.” (Nieman)
  10. Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin: Fiona McCann, Byron Beck, Cornelius Swart and Shelby Sebens have joined GoLocalPDX, a Portland news website that will launch later this month. McCann will be a senior editor at the site; she was an editor at Storyful. Beck will be the site’s features editor. He has written for a variety of publications in the Portland area, including The Oregonian and Willamette Week. Swart will be the site’s director of content. He was the founder and publisher of the Portland Sentinel. Sebens will be lead investigative journalist for GoLocalPDX. Formerly, she was a correspondent for Reuters. (GoLocalPDX) | Michele Promaulayko will be editor-in-chief of Yahoo Health. Previously, she was editor-in-chief of Women’s Health. Katie Brown will be editor-in-chief of Yahoo DIY Crafts Magazine. She was the host of “Katie Brown Workshop” on Create TV. Sarah Cristobal will be editor of Yahoo Style. Previously, she was the editor of V Magazine. She will be joined by Nick Axelrod, former editorial director of Into the Gloss and Andrea Oliveri, a celebrity bookings director. Both will be contributing editors. Bifen Xu will be special projects director for the site, focusing on photography. Formerly, she was a producer at W Magazine. (Yahoo) | Job of the day: The National Journal is looking for a reporter. Get your résumés in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.

Suggestions? Criticisms? Would like me to send you this roundup each morning? Please email me: abeaujon@poynter.org.

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Andrew Beaujon reported on the media for Poynter from 2012 to 2015. He was previously arts editor at TBD.com and managing editor of Washington City…
Andrew Beaujon

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