Good morning.
- The 9-year-old crack reporter
The NFL has its famous Punt, Pass and Kick contest for kids nationwide. Golf now has a Drive, Chip & Putt Championship, with the finals the other day at Augusta National Golf Club, site of this week’s Tiger-less Masters tournament. Now, we must hereby insist upon a Cut, Paste & Blog Contest for young journalism wannabes, especially given word of a nine-year-old reporter who “breaks crime news, post videos, fires back at critics.” (The Washington Post)Hilde Kate Lysiak got the tip on a murder in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, and began laboring for her website. “She hustled over with her pen and camera, as any good reporter would, and soon she posted something short online, beating all her competitors. Then, working the neighbors and the cops, she nailed down her scoop with a full-length story and this headline: ‘EXCLUSIVE: MURDER ON NINTH STREET!'” She’s gotten some grief but rebutted the nastiness, posted some video and, on Monday, returned to third grade.
My proposed Cut, Paste & Blog Contest would be held at The Huffington Post, co-sponsored by The Poynter Institute and livestreamed by VICE, Gawker and Nickelodeon. Winner gets autographed copies of Arianna Huffington’s by then-new book, “Tranquility: How to Multi-Task and Self-Promote on Five Continents and Find True Peace of Mind.” And both an unpaid summer internship at an imperiled local newspaper of your choice and an exclusive 6:05 a.m. phone interview with Donald Trump. A six-part reality series (“Digital Dandy”), produced by Kevin Spacey and hosted by Anderson Cooper, would run later on CNN.
- Math and the map
Well, the drama didn’t quite match the NCAA championship game the night before, as Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders won the Wisconsin primary. But the media obsession with Donald Trump predictably made his poor performance the story. There were very similar analyses on cable TV and in print of his unlikely prospects for winning enough delegates to wrap up matters before the GOP convention (with the competition nearly catching up with CNN’s John King, the “magic wall” vote-crunching master). “We’ve never been here before,” said Ben Ginsberg, a GOP elections expert for MSNBC who was canny in wading into the absolute weeds of the party’s convention rules (or non-rules) for delegate voting.There was, too, damning exit polling underscored by CNN’s Jake Tapper and MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, among others. It showed 38 percent of Wisconsin Republicans scared of a Trump presidency and only 14 percent of Democrats excited at the notion a Clinton presidency. All that’s notable.
On this night, Trump had no reason for solace. But he had Bill O’Reilly of Fox News. The host defended the candidate in a theatrical exchange with Tavis Smiley, who reiterated his perfect-for-cable notion of Trump as “racial arsonist.” Oh, please, countered O’Reilly. He’s known him “longer than the rest of the country” and “never seen him doing anything racial.” In Trump, he trusts.
- Gawker asks for new Hogan trial
“If the trial between Gawker and Hulk Hogan wasn’t crazy enough for you” — everybody now nod your heads in agreement — “hold onto your seat. We may be getting a sequel.” (Law Newz) The Gawker media side is predictably asking for a retrial or, at least, sharp decrease in those $140 million in damages a jury awarded. - Tweeting the NFL
Sign of the times: “Twitter Inc. obtained the rights to stream 10 of the National Football League’s Thursday night games, a bid to move from the periphery to the center of live events by leveraging the most popular U.S. sport.” (The Wall Street Journal) It will pay $10 million for global rights and beat out Verizon, Facebook and Amazon, despite offering less money. It’s surely a boost for Twitter amid Wall Street chagrin over its performance and instability in the corporate ranks. - Panama Papers claim their first victim
The giant investigative effort on offshore tax evasion largely focused on Vladimir Putin and chums, but it also nailed the prime minister of Iceland. “The Panama files, printed in newspapers around the world, showed that the 41-year-old premier and his wife had investments placed in the British Virgin Islands, which included debt in Iceland’s three failed banks. The leaked documents therefore also raise questions about Gunnlaugsson’s role in overseeing negotiations with the banks’ creditors. Ironically, the offshore investments were held while Iceland enforced capital controls.” (Bloomberg) - Where media goes wrong on climate change
The VICE headline strays from the coy: “A Psychologist Explains Why People Don’t Give a Shit About Climate Change.” (VICE) Per Espen Stoknes, a psychologist and economist, concedes the science is clear and troublesome, meaning we should be very worried. But journalism is ineffective in convincing people about the problem. “Studies have shown that over 80 percent of newspaper articles on climate change reports have used the catastrophe framing,” he says. “Also, many journalists have extensively quoted active deniers to give ‘both’ sides a voice, a practice which creates a ‘false balance.'” It’s why “global warming is the biggest story that has never been told.” But he discerns a shift of sort in the media writing about “the people making the change happen; focusing on opportunities, solutions, and true green growth.” Wearing his psychologist’s hat, he knows “that the best mix to create engagement and creativity is a [ratio] of one to three in negative to positive stories.” - Rape accuser must testify
“A Virginia judge has ruled that the woman at the center of Rolling Stone’s discredited story about an alleged frat house gang rape must testify as part of a lawsuit against the magazine.” (CNN Money) The woman identified publicly only as “Jackie” will be deposed by lawyers for the magazine and a University of Virginia administrator suing the publication and the writer of 2014’s “A Rape On Campus.” - Wall Street Journal is for Sanders!!!
Ah, not really. But union locals which are part of the larger Communications Workers of America include those representing editorial employees at the Journal, The New York Times and other papers. And CWA has cast its lot, and contributions, with Sanders. The issue of unions endorsing candidates whom not all members might like isn’t new. In this case Bernie Lunzer, who heads a CWA branch that specifically represents media employees (The Newspaper Guild), notes that in an internal vote on the matter he “publicly abstained on behalf of our members who would feel there was a conflict of interest.” (POLITICO) - Newspapers are disappearing (and not in a good way)
You would figure most college students aren’t interested enough in the news to steal a newspaper, much less buy a copy. But, “a string of…thefts took place across the country in March, as hundreds of copies of student publications at universities in Florida, Massachusetts and Oregon were stolen.” (SPLC) At the Boca Raton campus of Florida Atlantic University, the theft involved an issue reporting on a sexual assault that allegedly occurred at an annual “all you can drink” party near campus. The front-page article warned students of an ongoing investigation into an alleged gang rape and how the event — called the “South Florida Spill” — may be tied to Greek life on campus. - ‘Mostly right’
“Do you remember Jim Warren?” Rush Limbaugh asked his rather large audience. “Yes, you do. He was on the McLaughlin Group. Chicago Tribune, had the bowl haircut, except it went down to his shoulders. Remember that guy?” Yeah, yeah, the hair was fairly long, albeit long ago. Anyway, I’d been talking on C-SPAN about the media echo chamber and rise of conservative media, with Limbaugh himself playing a big part in that rise, and he concluded that I got it “mostly right.” Is that like being “partly pregnant?” Whatever. He did go on (and on) about those musings of mine and the rise of that branch of media. He got it mostly right. (Limbaugh) - Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Jim Neff is now assistant managing editor for investigations at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Previously, he was investigations editor of the Seattle Times. (Email) | Milton Coleman is now the Edith Kinney Gaylord Visiting Professor at Arizona State University. He is the ombudsman for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (Arizona State University) | Lynette Clemetson will be the director of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships and Livingston Awards at the University of Michigan. Previously, she was senior director of strategy and content initiatives at NPR. (University of Michigan) | Job of the day: U.S. News and World Report is looking for an online editor. Get your resumes in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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