ProPublica, Frontline identify defense contract employee as Charlottesville, Berkeley enforcer
One recent morning, in the front yard of a modest home outside Los Angeles, A.C. Thompson confronted the man identified in videos as a white supremacist group member who beat demonstrators in Charlottesville and Berkeley.
“He looked utterly and completely unsurprised to see us. Unshocked,” says Thompson, a staff writer for ProPublica and correspondent for Frontline.
The story he and Ali Winston posted Thursday about Michael Miselis — a systems engineer at Northrop Grumman with a government security clearance — hit a nerve among readers. Thompson and Winston had tracked down supremacists before — their piece on a neo-Nazi Marine at Charlottesville led to the Marine’s court-martial — but Miselis represented a white-collar racist masquerading in corporate culture and in a doctorate program at UCLA.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and readers expressed disbelief that the violent Miselis could get a security clearance, could keep his Northrop job, has not been expelled from UCLA. In a series of tweets Thursday afternoon, Northrop said: "We do not tolerate hatred or illegal conduct and we condemn racist activities in any shape or form. We are taking immediate action to look into the very serious issues raised by these reports."
Thompson said the Miselis story, posted ahead of a Frontline documentary on Aug. 7, reflects how his team wants to report on the white power movement. “We want to cast the spotlight on the people who want to stay in the shadows, who are actually engaged in criminal activity.”
For more on how the ProPublica/Frontline reporters came to identify Miselis, check out my separate story from Thursday.
Quick hits
CATCHING THE PRESIDENT CHEATING: The New York Daily News found that Donald Trump was set to take a $48,834.62 tax break this month on his Trump Tower condo. One problem: The president claimed that New York — and not the White House — was his primary residence, even though the definition is the place where a person "actually resides and maintains a permanent and continuous physical presence.” Once the Daily News inquired, Trump lost the tax break.
HONORING THE LIVING: Journalists and press supporters took a moment of silence for the victims of the Annapolis newsroom attack on Thursday, but Capital Gazette editor Rick Hutzell is looking forward: “We will continue to honor our dead. But we also will remember those who remain,” he wrote. “They were journalists. And so are we.”
KOCH MONEY: The people who in the past sought to scuttle the Affordable Care Act, fight efforts to stop climate change, radically alter public education and discredit critical journalists are now writing checks to journalism organizations, Paul Farhi writes. Farhi begins by citing Charles Koch Foundation funding to an event at his own paper. He then examines Koch funding to ASNE, the Poynter Institute and the Newseum. Officials at the nonprofits say there was vigorous debate, ensuring no strings were attached, before accepting the money — and each said the Koch foundation has not tried to dictate to them.
NO THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE: AP's Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza are on to a real military mystery: The U.S Army, built by immigrants, is reneging on its promises to immigrant recruits. Once telling them they'd have a path to citizenship if they signed, the Army is now purging its ranks of dozens of these soldiers — and not telling them why.
NEW COMMUNICATIONS CHIEF: Driven from Fox News after a series of sexual misconduct cases under his watch, Bill Shine has a new job — President Trump’s deputy chief of staff for communications. Shine is Trump’s fifth communications chief in less than a year and a half.
PATHETIC OR SMART?: Now we can tell which publishers are paying Facebook for access to the FB audience that they helped build. But Digiday’s Max Willens shows how three publishers focus their FB purchases: The New York Times on subscriptions to the site and to its Crosswords vertical; BuzzFeed on sponsored content; Fox News for its mobile site as it seeks younger readers and viewers.
EXPLAINING WHAT WE DO: The Globe and Mail is beginning “mini-explainers” — expandable boxes in stories that tell readers why and when, for example, the news outlet uses anonymous sources. Is your outlet? By Spencer Turcotte, for the Canadian journalism project J-Source.
DELETED: The Independence Day tweet by Fox News anchor Brit Hume in which he said Democrats “sure don’t love” America. Here it is, via Mediaite:
THE STRONGMAN COMETH: The editor of one of Venezuela’s last independent news outlets is struggling to publish after a lieutenant of the nation’s leftist president is pressuring him to close, The Washington Post reports. “Our plan? Not much. To survive,” says Miguel Henrique Otero, owner of the 75-year-old El Nacional. Over the past 18 months, 54 radio and television stations have been shut down. This year alone, five news sites and six newspapers have been silenced, and 22 journalists have been detained.
COMINGS AND GOINGS: I'm late to this for the roundup, but Jane Elizabeth, a former Washington Post digital editor and co-author of Poynter’s weekly This Week in Fact-Checking, is joining the Raleigh News & Observer and the Durham Herald-Sun as managing editor, starting Aug. 6. Elizabeth has run the American Press Institute’s project to improve and expand accountability journalism, and she was a 2017 Knight Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard.
What we’re reading
YOU NEED A SCORECARD: The resignation of scandal-deluged EPA chief Scott Pruitt is just the latest departure from an exit-clogged Trump administration. Here’s a timeline, by The Washington Post’s Kevin Schaul, Reuben Fischer-Baum and Kevin Uhrmacher.
GOING AFTER NATURALIZED CITIZENS: The Trump administration plans to hire lawyers to go after some of the nearly 20 million naturalized American citizens, going back decades to find inconsistencies in citizenship applications, The Takeaway reports. These citizens represent a good chunk of small business, healthcare, innovation and tech sectors, fortifying the United States. The initiative, last used in the McCarthy period nearly seven decades ago, will create fear, immigration experts say. It’s also ripe for abuse.
BAD TEACHER: A mom, crestfallen at hearing her son describe being bullied by his kindergarten teacher, put an audio recorder in his backpack — and caught the teacher calling her 5 year old "a loser," the Miami Herald reports. Once the boy was transferred to another class, the mom says, "he went from having F's to having excellent grades." An investigation of the teacher is underway.
FOLLOWUP: Walmart pulled “Impeach Trump” T-shirts from its online marketplace after a threatened boycott by Trump supporters, Elizabeth Segran reported.
Just caught up with this
ELECTION DAY OFF: Patagonia’s CEO says she’s giving her employees Election Day off this November — and asked other companies to do the same, Fast Company reported. A 2014 study found 35 percent of eligible voters said that scheduling conflicts, either with work or school, kept them from the polls. Hollywood producer Gale Anne Hurd (“Terminator,” “The Abyss,” “The Walking Dead”) announced on Thursday that she would follow suit for her production company, giving them Election Day off to vote, and challenged other entertainment industry leaders to do the same. Editors: Are there businesses in your coverage areas that are doing this?
On Poynter.org
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Bonds formed among journalists in a newsroom often remain long after they leave. By Caitlin Kelly.
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WhatsApp scrutinized after attacks in India. By Daniel Funke, Jane Elizabeth and Alexios Matzanlis.
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Got a tip, a link, a suggestion? We’re trying to make this roundup better every day. Please email me at dbeard@poynter.org.
Thanks, Kristen Hare, for editing.
Have a great weekend. We’ll catch up Monday morning.
