Good morning.
- The illusion of pro-Trump polls
Nate Silver, a data-driven maestro, says the media is wildly errant on Donald Trump’s popularity. He breaks down Trump’s supposed support by about 25 percent of self-identifying Republicans, or the same number of Americans “who think the Apollo moon landings were faked.” He contends that many of those saying they like Trump still haven’t really made up their minds, given where we’re at in the early campaign process. This melds with the Trump polling suspicions and critiques of a fair number of folks, including journalists like The National Journal’s Ron Brownstein and academics like George Washington University John Sides, a contributor to “The Monkey Cage” blog. “For my money,” Silver concludes, this “adds up to Trump’s chances being higher than 0 but (considerably) less than 20 percent.” (FiveThirtyEight) Meanwhile, check out how kids at a New York data mining firm are combing high school yearbooks and local newspapers to find potential New Hampshire voters for John Kasich. (Bloomberg)
- Weather Watergate!
The video went viral: Phoenix 12 News weatherman James Quinones interviewed creators of an ice sculpture on live TV from the Phoenix Zoo. He then bumped the statue, seemingly accidentally, shattering the whole shebang in front of its builders. But he left something out: it was staged. This fact was outed, somewhat tongue in cheek (this was an ice sculpture, after all, not public corruption), by a columnist and reporter at the Arizona Republic. (The Arizona Republic) The zoo and TV station later fessed up, though the station did not initially do so for viewers.
- Our ‘outbreak of certainty’
One of the best and even more poignant pieces on the Paris attacks, and complexities media tend to miss, comes from Simon Kuper, a Paris based writer for The Financial Times. He unmasks the lack of nuance in so much of our thinking and public dialogue about Paris, the attacks, the aftermath and faux macho calls for action. He’s unbridled in derision of media of all ideological persuasion and their thrust to be definitive and unequivocal. “The outbreak of certainty is predictable. Politicians want to show instant leadership. (The last thing I wanted to hear after the bloodbath was Donald Trump’s take on our situation, but I got it anyway.) Pundits operate in a thriving ideas economy where the prizes are big speaking fees, TV contracts and book deals. The people with the clearest messages win. Think how many careers in media, politics and the security industry were made by Osama bin Laden. Now ISIS is doing the same.” (The Financial Times) One should listen, too, to the latest installment of NPR’s “On the Media,” a look at our reversion to post-9/11 rhetoric, even xenophobia. Just when we’d made so much apparently post-9/11 progress, we’ve regressed. (WNYC)
- Journalists face Vatican hearing
“Two journalists are facing their first hearing before a Vatican judge on Tuesday in a high-profile case that has raised questions about the church’s commitment to press freedom. At the centre of the case lie sensational allegations about former Vatican insiders, including a high-ranking monsignor from Spain, who are accused of giving two journalists troves of confidential documents, which they in turn used to write embarrassing exposés into alleged corruption and the mismanagement of tens of millions of euros of Vatican funds.” (The Guardian) Italy shares an extradition agreement with the Vatican so, in theory, the Vatican could seek government action after its criminal proceeding. But that’s apparently unlikely. So don’t necessarily expect this duo to wind up in Armani-dsigned yellow jumpsuits. But maybe there’s a Dick Wolf spinoff, Law and Order: Papal SVU (Special Vatican Unit).
- The media conned
The Paris tragedy inspired many examples of mainstream media being conned by social media baloney. “The most grotesque example is probably that of the transformation of a grinning selfie by Veerender Jubbal, a Canadian Sikh, into a photo of a possible ringleader of the attacks. The photo made it on the front page of La Razón in Spain, was carried in Italy by news wire agency ANSA and by Sky TG24. At the time of writing, a full nine days later, the manipulated photo is still on Sky TG24’s Twitter profile, which has nearly 2 million followers.” So what should one do to avoid being a chump? Here’s a primer. (Poynter)
- The Donald’s latest cheap shot
Yesterday brought this tweet: “.@AP has one of the worst reporters in the business — @JeffHorwitz wouldn’t know the truth if it hit him in the face.” (@realDonaldTrump) The reporter’s sin appears to be solid reporting on how directors of a condo complex in Panama City fired Trump as administrator of Central America’s biggest building. (The Associated Press) Meanwhile, representatives of five major TV news organizations discussed a variety of problems with covering the Trump campaign but came away “with no set plans” to push back on restrictions. (Adweek) Good. It’s much ado about precious little.
- A once-touted app may be back
Circa News was once a media heartthrob and investor darling. But the app, which assembled new stories into dinky chunks, went down the tubes. (WIRED) Now there’s a veiled hint it could be revived in some fashion by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of 164 TV stations in 79 markets. (NiemanLab)
- NBC parcels out equal time
Trump rivals cited FCC rules as they insisted on equal time after his “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig. “Time will be allocated on 18 NBC affiliate stations in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina using network commercial and promo time during primetime this coming Friday and Saturday. Network ad and promo time also will be offered during this weekend’s Saturday Night Live broadcast.” (Deadline) Darn, I so wanted George Pataki to get to host, didn’t you?
- Nickname for a Knick
The New York Daily News asked readers to come up with a nickname for a rookie flash, Latvian Kristaps Porzingis. He himself suggested something short and simple. And his personal preference, K.P., got 36 percent of 1,800 votes cast. Godzingis was second with 16 percent and Zingis Khan finished third with 10 percent. Hmmm. Godzingis isn’t bad at all. Whatever. (Daily News)
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Julie Cart will cover climate change for CALmatters. She is an environmental reporter at the Los Angeles Times. (@julie_cart) | Alex MacCallum will be assistant editor and senior vice president for video at The New York Times. Previously, she was an assistant editor there. (Poynter) | Joan Solsman is now business and technology editor at The Wrap. Previously, she was a a senior writer at CNET. (The Wrap) | Eric Marrapodi is now senior producer of “NBC Nightly News.” Previously, he was senior Washington producer at CNN. (FishbowlDC) | Job of the day: Poynter is looking for a Google News Lab Fellow. Get your resumes in! (Poynter) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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