October 23, 2014

mediawiremorningGood morning. Here are 10 media stories.

  1. Will Sun-Times reporter’s resignation shake Illinois governor’s race? Sun-Times Springfield bureau chief Dave McKinney quit publicly yesterday, saying the paper suspended him after Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner — a former investor in the Sun-Times’ parent company — tried to get a story squashed because he’s married to a Democratic consultant. (Dave McKinney’s blog) | Sun-Times EIC Jim Kirk responds: “I call the shots. While I’ve been here, our ownership and management have never quashed a story and they have always respected the journalistic integrity of this paper.” (Poynter) | To make this story even more gothic, the Sun-Times endorsed Rauner last Friday, breaking a policy it set in early 2012. | “But, at a minimum, the ongoing story certainly will give the [campaign of Rauner’s Democratic opponent, Gov. Pat Quinn] an enormous platform to charge that Mr. Rauner is against not just poor people but freedom of the press,” Greg Hinz writes. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
  2. OK, it’s time to pay attention to Gamergate: The online movement, which opposes…something “has declared another victory after software maker Adobe implicitly condemned a recent series of tweets from Gawker writer Sam Biddle that made fun of the Gamergate movement.” (Re/code) | Gawker Editor-in-Chief Max Read writes: “I’ve been told that we’ve lost thousands of dollars already, and could potentially lose thousands more, if not millions.” Read says he feels like “went to sleep in the regular world and woke up in an insane new one where ‘bullying’ is something that it’s possible to be seriously and sincerely ‘for.'” Nevertheless, brands like Intel and Adobe have proven themselves “willing to distance themselves from independent publishers over the spurious claims of a limited but dedicated group of misogynists and trolls.” (Gawker) | “Adobe walks into Gamergate, staggers around confusedly” (Boing Boing)
  3. A little bit more on Ben Bradlee: He struggled with issues of race and sex in the newsroom. (Maynard Institute) | Rachel Jones remembers how Bradlee pushed her to take a Washington Post internship and basically willed her into employment as a journalist. “We have GOT to make an effort to include voices besides our own in this goddamned newspaper,” she remembers him saying. (LinkedIn) | “If there was one happy facet of the [Janet] Cooke affair, it was that the mistake of one young reporter cleared the way for the success of another,” Jon Campbell writes: The Village Voice got its first Pulitzer after the Post returned Cooke’s prize, for Teresa Carpenter‘s story about Dorothy Stratten, “Death of a Playmate.” (The Village Voice) | Bradlee’s tenure at the Post should be viewed in relation to his slimly acknowledged competition with Jim Bellows at the Washington Star. “Bellows might have gotten a bigger send off when he died at the age of 86 in 2009 had Bradlee had preceded him in death,” Jack Shafer writes. “But, no, Bradlee was the last giant standing, and according to the rules of the game, he who dies last gets the biggest funeral pyre. Bellows would understand completely.” (Reuters) | Media myths creep into Bradlee obits. (Media Myth Alert)
  4. Anderson Cooper swats reporter who asked for selfie with him: Vandon Gene requested a photo with the CNN anchor at the site where a Canadian soldier was killed yesterday. (The Blaze) | “I can’t believe any station employs you, and if you want to be a journalist, learn how to behave when covering a story.” (@andersoncooper)
  5. NYT may have lots of takers for buyouts: Guild rep Grant Glickson tells Keith J. Kelly “There were over 300 requests,” by members to look at the company’s severance packages. (NYP) | The company is looking to shed 100 jobs. (Poynter) | “‘Some people who were undecided about leaving, or just curious, didn’t want to request the paperwork because they worried (correctly or not) that it would put targets on their backs,’ Times higher education reporter Richard Pérez-Peña, a Guild vice chair, wrote Thursday in a post on Facebook. ‘To protect those people, some of my colleagues suggested that EVERYONE should ask for it. Suddenly, the number soared, but most of those people have no intention of leaving.'” (Capital)
  6. Why did Politico Magazine let a BP PR exec write a story about pollution in the Gulf? Geoff Morrell‘s story, “No, BP Didn’t Ruin the Gulf,” is “Free native advertising,” Erik Wemple writes. (WP) | “As of Wednesday afternoon, Morrell’s piece is now filed to the ‘Opinion’ section of Politico Magazine. The story was earlier filed to ‘Environment’ and not clearly marked as an Opinion piece.” (Newsweek)
  7. Roman Mars’ advice for indie radio producers: “The most fundamental thing is own your work.” (Capital)
  8. A road trip in North Korea: Eric Talmadge took a monitored trip through the Hermit Kingdom: “At the best hotels in cities such as Hamhung, Samjiyon and Chongjin, the places where we stayed as our journey proceeded through the hinterlands, the rooms, replete with doilies and cushy velvet-covered chairs, were clean, the decor retro Soviet and the food plentiful. But the vintage TVs, when they worked, offered only one channel.” (AP)
  9. Front page of the day, curated by Kristen Hare: “Attacked,” on the front of the Globe and Mail. (More Canadian front pages here.)

    globeandmail-10232014  

  10. Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin: Rachel Zarrell is now news editor at BuzzFeed News. Previously, she was a weekend editor there. (‏@rachelzarrell) | Ben Calhoun is now director of content and programming at WBEZ in Chicago. Previously, he was a producer for “This American Life.” (Robert Feder) | Ada Guerin is now creative director at The Wrap. Previously, she was design director and associate art director at The Hollywood Reporter. (The Wrap) | Jose Zamora is now on the board of directors of the Online News Association. He is director of strategic communications at Univision Network. (ONA) | Carla Zanoni will be global audience development director at The Wall Street Journal. Previously, she was director of social media and engagement at DNAinfo.com. (Carla Zanoni) | Tara Adiseshan is now a Knight-Mozilla fellow at The New York Times and The Washington Post. Previously, she worked on search design at Autodesk and conducted research focused on harvesting rainwater in India. Juan Elosua is now a Knight-Mozilla fellow at La Nacion. He is a telecommunications engineer and data journalist. Livia Labate is now a Knight-Mozilla fellow at NPR. Previously, she led Marriott’s digital standards and practices group. Linda Sandvik is now a Knight-Mozilla fellow at The Guardian. Previously, she worked in local government. Julia Smith is now a Knight-Mozilla fellow at the Center for Investigative Reporting. Previously, she was a designer and developer on news sites and mobile applications. Francis Tseng is now a Knight-Mozilla fellow at The New York Times and The Washington Post He currently teaches at the New School’s Design + Journalism program. (dansinker.com) | Jon Garinn is now medical editor of the radiology administration department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Previously, he was managing editor of CURE Magazine. (email) | Job of the day: Politico is looking for a lobbying 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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