Good morning.
- Justly canned or victim?
Rafe Esquith of Los Angeles is one of the nation’s most heralded teachers. In 2007, Jay Mathews, longtime education columnist for The Washington Post, called the fifth-grade teacher “America’s best classroom teacher.” But allegations of inappropriate comments and behavior resulted in Esquith, who pioneered teaching methods that also inspired best-selling books, being fired in October. On Tuesday the Los Angeles Times reported details of the school district’s underlying internal investigation that concluded he’d allegedly fondled children in the 1970s and inappropriately emailed students. (Los Angeles Times) The Washington Post followed with its own story about those same details. (The Washington Post) The teacher did not appeal the decision. But there’s been no independent corroboration of the claims, and he’s not yet confronted his accusers in a related wrongful termination lawsuit he’s filed. But, notably, Post columnist Mathews demurs about most of the coverage in both his comments to an education blog long written by Brooklyn-based Alexander Russo (Washington Monthly) and in his own Post column, where whe argues that, some good L.A. Times reporting aside, Esquith is a victim of a witch hunt. (The Washington Post)
Litigation is still to play out. Russo, the very good Brooklyn blogger, believes the L.A. Times fell short and should have requested the full file against Esquith or “re-reported the allegations for itself, rather than simply passing along the highlights of the partial record assembled and given over.” And if Mathews is right about a witch hunt, maybe we’ll replay that long-ago classic moment involving Ray Donovan, a Reagan-era Labor Secretary. Remember him? He stepped down in 1985 amid fraud and larceny charges related to a mob-tinged construction scheme. (The New York Times) After being pummeled in the press, he was acquitted at trial and declared, “Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?”
- Exodus at Yahoo continues
Kara Swisher of Re/code is all over what appears the ongoing self-immolation of Yahoo. It’s fumbling to get its act together on a long-term strategy and just reversed course on a plan to spin off its assets in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. Now she discloses the departure of the senior vice president of advertising products, “another indication that the wheels, as they say, continue to come off the bus at the Silicon Valley Internet giant, which is under the now rocky leadership of CEO Marissa Mayer.” (Re/code)
- A great editor-columnist exits, too
Bill Dwyre just took a Los Angeles Times buyout. He’d ended a 25-year run as sports editor in 2005 and was a columnist since. Imagine: When he took over the sports section, it had 130 people. That’s bigger than most newsrooms. During the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles he produced 24 special sections, many of them 44 pages. His travel budget was such, he “once dispatched a reporter to Paris just to get a quote from an athlete to fill out a story.” (Poynter) And when worried about overspending at the British Open, he called the then-editor of the paper, only to be told, “Listen, kid. I give you a budget and I expect you to spend every cent of it and more. Don’t bother me anymore.”
- Book section bites the dust
Like Sunday magazines, newspaper book sections have been a dying species for a long time. The Chicago Tribune had one of the dwindling standalone sections, which I once helped oversee, when it cut back and instead tried hawking a $99-a-year print product on books. That will now go bye-bye amid poor response and morph into a $29 a year digital-only section for new subscribers. The challenge will be the same: turning out quality on a shoestring budget, straining to be a must-read for a large enough group of sophisticated big city readers and having the nerve to see such a section as a higher-brow luxury you should afford regardless of the bottom line. (Rob Feder)
- Turkey’s tawdry free press record (cont.)
Three journalists from a daily got suspended prison sentences of 11 months and 20 days “for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a report.” The story included merely quoting people at a protest who calling the president a “thief” and a “killer.” (Today’s Zaman)
- Justice Scalia and Dusty Baker
Scalia raised eyebrows with comments about blacks and higher education during a Supreme Court oral argument on affirmative action. There were suggestions in many places that his comments were de facto racist. So, please, explain why so little media attention has greeted Dusty Baker, the new manager of the Washington Nationals, saying this about his team: ‘(I think) the No. 1 thing that’s missing…is speed. You know, with the need for minorities, you can help yourself. You’ve got a better chance of getting some speed with Latin and African-Americans. I’m not being racist. That’s just how it is.” (The Associated Press)
- Atlantic Media might sell Quartz
The Financial Times suggests the Washington-based publisher of The Atlantic is talking about a potential sale of its business news site to various parties and might also consider somebody investing in it. (The Financial Times)
- Not quite a hardship assignment
It’s about time for President Obama and family to head to his native Hawaii on their annual vacation. And that means some reporters get to go “cover” him there, which usually means sitting around in the sun, doing squat, being informed that he went to the beach, played golf and saw his old school buddies. Fox News Radio’s Jon Decker informed colleagues in the White House press corps that “the radio seat may be available” for the trek to and from Hawaii. This could be yours if you cover the White House and can get your bosses to pony up several grand for what can be, quite literally, pool duty in Hawaii.
- A new definition of ‘suck-up’
How about this for a tough lede from the Daily Mail? “Bombshell tonight! Nancy Grace is a softie who loves nothing more than snuggling up with her husband and eight-year-old twins Lucy and John David and reading Harry Potter books, editing out the scary parts.” But that’s a Bob Woodward opening compared to what follows in a soft-as-a-marshmallow profile of a “TV tigress” who’s a “pussycat” at home, with talk of homemade turkey sausage, cheddar cheese breakfast muffins, a mosaic Mexican toilet, secret doors, hiding places and a bright red tubular slide from the main floor to the basement playroom. Her husband’s just a great guy and their twins are “precious.” (Daily Mail) There are photos galore of their Georgia manse and everybody smiling. The on-air tough-as-nails Grace would presumably agree that if a lawyer gave a closing argument this light, he might be disbarred. Have a good and safe Trump-free weekend.
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Robert Costa is now a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He is a reporter for The Washington Post. (POLITICO) | Michelle Cottle is now a contributing editor at The Atlantic. Previously, she was a senior writer for National Journal. (@mcottle) | Doug Most is now director of strategic growth initiatives at The Boston Globe. Previously, he was deputy managing editor there. (Email) | Job of the day: BuzzFeed is looking for an editorial chief of staff. Get your resumes in! (Mediagazer) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
Corrections? Tips? Please email me: jwarren@poynter.org. Would you like to get this roundup emailed to you every morning? Sign up here.
