Good morning.
- Redford film, he says, is ‘surreal.’ Reviews sure aren’t
It was 11 years ago that a controversial “60 Minutes II” story on then-President George W. Bush’s Air National Guard service prompted three producers to quit, the key producer to be dismissed, the famous anchor to retire and the show to be killed. Now Rather discusses with yours truly having the fabled actor play him. There’s also his own ongoing defense of his reporting and his debatable distinguishing between questions about the validity of the key documents he relied upon and what he deems the essential truth of the story. (Poynter) His take is not shared by bosses back then nor those in charge these days. They are spurning ads for the flick, “Truth,” which opened Friday. (Variety) That’s no surprise, even if it may unwittingly give the film more attention. Now if CBS only took such high moral ground with ads for other films that it might deem, or know to be, total crap.
As for early reviews, they’re pretty bad, even if The New York Times finds it “a gripping, beautifully executed journalistic thriller.” (The New York Times) Another says, “It’s not a real drama. It’s an argument for the defense. It skips who, what, when, where and why and goes straight to whine.” (NJ.com) Another lauds Redford (as Rather) and Cate Blanchett (chief producer Mary Mapes) but says it’s in conflict with itself. (Los Angeles Times) There’s the view that it “can’t quite erase the journalistic sins of its designated martyrs” and that we should borrow Stephen Colbert’s notion of “truthiness” in assessing it. (The Daily Beast) Perhaps the shortest, and harshest, overview comes from The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane, whose two-paragraph dismissal says it “comes awfully close to mush.” (The New Yorker)
- Hugh Hefner has ‘lost his mind’
Larry Flynt, the founder and boss of Hustler magazine, says Hefner is 99 (no, it’s 89) and “has lost his mind” in agreeing to ditch nude photos. “How can you take the most important feature in your magazine and drop it?” declared this legendary moral arbiter, who is a mere tyke at 72, on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” (CNN) His falls somewhat short of an acute psychiatric analysis of Hefner. Meanwhile, Gloria Steinem tells The Guardian, “For Playboy to stop publishing nude photos of women (of course, it never published nude photos of men) is like the NRA saying that it’s no longer pushing handguns because machine guns and assault rifles are so easily available.” (The Guardian)
- Things are so bad for pay TV that…
Analysts are “calling it good news” that it only lost about 300,000 American customers during the last quarter. Predictions on subscribers who ditched cable, phone and satellite providers such as Comcast and Dish range between 280,000 and 360,000, according to a new estimate assembled by Bloomberg. The industry set an ignominious record by losing 600,000 customers in the second quarter. (Bloomberg)
- How one union is pitching digital workers
Amanda Holpuch, 24, has been a reporter at Guardian US for three years, writing a lot about same-sex marriage, and is a face of a new sort of unionism. “We are the future of journalism,” she says. She’s featured in a new organizing video, revealed here, that’s the handiwork of The NewsGuild-CWA, which is one of two unions having recent success in organizing digital media workers. (NewsGuild). “From stories I have heard from people who were online reporters 10 years ago, when it was just starting, they were not getting paid real well and they weren’t afforded the same benefits as print reporters… We are legitimate employees, this is a legitimate industry and we need to set that standard now.”
- Satirical minds think alike
The new issue of The New Yorker includes this snippet from editor David Remnick on last week’s Democratic debate: “Bernie Sanders, the seventy-four-year-old junior senator from Vermont and unapologetic democratic socialist, spoke in a voice that suggested Larry David, on ‘Seinfeld,’ imitating George Steinbrenner.” (The New Yorker) And guess who played Sanders on “Saturday Night Live” last week? Yup. Larry David. He was dead-solid perfect. Unless, of course, that was Bernie Sanders impersonating Larry David. One really couldn’t tell. (YouTube)
- Making a point with a blank page
If you think your small town paper is increasingly thin, imagine if it dissipated into nothingness. Two Ohio dailies ran unconventional, minimalist ads to underscore what their community’s life might be without their coverage, namely a blank page. These ads ran in The (St. Marys, Ohio) Evening Leader and The Wapakoneta Daily News. The ads merely comprised the papers’ logos and this: “This is the kind of local coverage you can expect if you don’t have a local newspaper.” (Ohio Newspaper Association)
- The Drone Papers
The Intercept, whose editors include Edward Snowden ally Glenn Greenwald, partnered with Huffington Post to disclose its recent handiwork, namely previously secret documents on the Obama administration’s anti-terrorist assassination program in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. (Poynter) This is obviously driven by a desire for a larger audience. “By Friday morning, The New York Times was linking out to The Intercept’s stories in its stream of must-reads on NYT Now, and the story was followed by Fortune, Mother Jones and Foreign Policy.”
- Dying alone in New York City
Most people die with the knowledge and intimate involvement of friends and family. “A much tinier number die alone in unwatched struggles. No one collects their bodies. No one mourns the conclusion of a life. They are just a name added to the death tables.” (The New York Times) But the paper’s inherently compelling tale of one such death also included a smart link to the past wonderful writing of the reporter, N. R. Kleinfield. It was a smart use of archives. (The New York Times) Ditto The Daily Beast, which is re-running a 1978 New York Daily News column by Jimmy Breslin on the Israeli-Palestinian mess that remains all too germane. (The Daily Beast)
- Post-papal peace comes to Philly
“Camera operators and broadcast technicians who went on strike two days before Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia last month have reached an agreement with NBC10 and Telemundo62, ratifying a new four-year contract.” (Philly.com)
- Did you hear the one about Martin O’Malley jump-starting his campaign?
He’ll appear on “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” Monday night. Advice: Don’t try to out-funny the funny man. It happened all the time with politicians and Jon Stewart, it will surely happen again with Noah. Come to think of it, “Saturday Night Live” noted that the two shows inspired by O’Malley’s Baltimore tenure were “Homicide” and “The Wire.” Now there’s a legacy!
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Lou Ferrara is now chief content officer of Bankrate.com. Previously, he was managing editor and vice president at The Associated Press. (Poynter) | Eleni Giokos is now a business correspondent at CNN International. Previously, she worked at Bloomberg TV Africa. (TalkingBizNews) | Misti Turnbull is now news director at WSB in Atlanta. Previously, she was managing editor there. James Warner is now manager of coverage and content at KIRO in Seattle. Previously, he was news director at WCSC in South Carolina. (Rick Gevers) | Job of the day: amNewYork is seeking an editor in chief. Get your resumes in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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