KENS | Denver Post | San Antonio Express-News | Houston Chronicle
Murdered sports journalist Jessica Ghawi was remembered at a service in San Antonio Saturday. Eulogists mentioned her determination, her zest for life and her propensity to fall down.

San Antonio sports anchor Larry Ramirez said an "invisible banana peel" followed her through life, as exemplified by the now-famous YouTube video of Ghawi, who reported under the name Jessica Redfield, slipping repeatedly on a hockey rink's ice as she interviewed a San Antonio Rampage player. The video was shown at the service.

Denver Post reporter Adrian Dater fills in a little bit about Ghawi's life in Denver, where she moved to further her reporting career. She'd been laid off by a sushi restaurant a few days before she was shot during a showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in a horrific act of mass murder. "Ghawi was figuratively knocked down plenty during her year of living in Denver," Dater writes. "But the tenaciously ambitious, self-described 'red-headed spitfire from Texas' was a fighter, and nothing was going to keep her from pursuing big dreams." (more...)

KMGH-TV | ABC News | Denver Post

KMGH-TV, the ABC affiliate in Denver, has taken the unusual step of publishing a story to contradict an ABC News report about accused theater shooter James Holmes.

ABC News' Russell Goldman and Dan Harris reported, "Accused movie theater gunman James Holmes is spitting at jail officers so frequently that at one point he was made to wear a face guard, sources told ABC News."

KMGH's John Ferrugia reported in response, "According to knowledgeable sources, reports that Holmes was spitting at guards in jail are 'simply false.' "

The New York Daily News appears to have been the first to report that Holmes had been spitting at guards, publishing a story on Saturday. KMGH reported on Monday, however, that Holmes was "eerily detached" in jail and his behavior hadn't changed since he had been arrested.

ABC News published its story on Tuesday, which spurred KMGH to come back to the issue again on Wednesday. That story cited a Monday evening broadcast:

The story claiming Holmes was in a protective headgear was reported Tuesday night, despite a report by Ferrugia on Monday that, “contrary to what some media organizations have reported, our sources say in the past 48-hours Holmes has been calm and docile in jail, just like he was in court. There have been no outbursts at all as he is in isolation.”

ABC News ended up apologizing on Friday after investigative reporter Brian Ross speculated on the air that the shooter may have connections to the tea party, based on the fact that someone with the same name had posted something to a tea party website. It was a different man. (more...)

Yahoo News | San Antonio Express-News
A fund set up by the family of murdered sports journalist Jessica Ghawi hit its fundraising goal less than a day after it was announced Tuesday. The family hoped to raise $20,000; as I write this, the fund is at $30,155. Ghawi worked under the name Jessica Redfield and covered hockey as well as other sports. The fund "will be seed money for the scholarship to help send another upcoming young sports talent to study journalism," the announcement reads.

Family members told the San Antonio Express-News' Ana Ley they believed $10,000 was donated by the Los Angeles Kings. The funders page acknowledges an undisclosed gift amount from "AEG Sports (LA Kings/LA Galaxy)" as well as contributions from BroncosForums.com and Ghawi's brother Jordan.

KSAT-TV in San Antonio, where Ghawi lived before she moved to the Denver area to further her sports career, has named her an honorary member of its sports department. In making the announcement, KSAT sports reporter Larry Ramirez became choked up talking about Ghawi.

A memorial service for Ghawi is planned for Saturday in San Antonio. Her boyfriend Jay Meloff told CBS the pair spoke just before she was killed. "I was kinda falling asleep, and she told me to sleep well, and that was five minutes before it all happened," he told Jeff Glor. "And so that was the last thing she ever said."

Previously: Sports journalist Jessica Ghawi dies in Colorado theater shooting | Public tributes reflect sports journalist Jessica Ghawi’s very public life || Also: Wall Street Journal editor apologizes for "ill-considered tweet" about shooting victims (Jim Romenesko)

Journal-isms | The Buttry Diary
In the 13 years since the massacres at Colorado’s Columbine High School and last week’s tragedy in Aurora, Colo., The Denver Post has lost dozens of newsroom staffers, Editor Greg Moore told readers of Richard Prince's Journal-isms.

“I was not here for Columbine, but the other day we were looking at those Columbine papers and marveling at the talent that is no longer here,” Moore said. “My guess is the staff was around 240 or so in 1999. Today we have about 170.”

The Post is also covering one of the biggest breaking news stories in the country without copy editors. The paper announced in May that it was eliminating its copy desk, spreading that responsibility to reporters and editors throughout the newsroom. Moore said:

I believe we have been up to the challenge of handling this huge story. We have had some issues responding to the normal crises of grammatical copy and typos but nothing super embarrassing. I have never seen us more meticulous, something we have to be with the staff losses we have incurred. People have incredible capacity to rise to the challenge and we are. Everyone is using every skill they have to make our newspapers and our website the best they can be. And they are succeeding.

(more...)

To understand why Reuters Deputy Social Media Editor Matthew Keys has earned such a wide Twitter audience, scan through the last 72 hours or so of his tweets. He's been an invaluable process-journalism firehose about Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes, digging up photos of the alleged shooter's car, stories about investigations into his background and his spurned application to a Colorado shooting range.

Presumably out of the same duty to transparency, Keys tweeted the name of an "associate" of Holmes who police had been looking for:

Exclusive: The person of interest being sought in the Aurora shooting is Yeom Pyo Lee - yfrog.com/oeh51np

— Matthew Keys (@ProducerMatthew) July 22, 2012

(more...)

Welcome to national journalism, Morgan.

I’m among those who admire your instincts, initiative and energy and I’m reminded of how important and exciting being part of news coverage felt at your age — something that hasn’t faded much, actually, at … Read more