This is the Poynter Institute’s daily newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, click here.
June 18, 2019
Good Tuesday morning. The New York Times might have a policy for responding to President Donald Trump’s tweets about the paper, but they aren’t commenting on that strategy. Plus, a Dallas Morning News photographer got some harrowing shots Monday.
All the response that’s fit to tweet
As I mentioned in Monday’s newsletter, President Donald Trump is upping his attacks on the media. Catchphrases such as “enemy of the people” and “fake news” are being replaced with another word: “treason.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter writes that Trump first used the word treason in regards to the media in September in response to the memorable New York Times op-ed from an unnamed senior official who wrote about chaos in the White House. Since then, Trump has repeated the word on Twitter and in interviews. The latest was Sunday when he again went after the Times.
But on later that day, the Times responded to Trump on Twitter, tweeting that it was “dangerous” to accuse the press of treason. It then defended the story Trump complained about. That wasn’t the first occasion the Times responded to the president’s attacks by tweeting a defense of its reporting.
So I reached out to the Times on Monday to ask about fighting back against the president’s attacks. Why has the paper started doing so? What’s the threshold for when it does fight back? Who makes the call to respond to the president? How does this whole Twitter exchange with Trump work?
The Times, via its communications department, declined comment.
You can guess why it doesn’t want to talk about it. The Times doesn’t want to escalate a public spat with Trump, especially because it’s actually quite rare for a news outlet to respond to any subject of a story on Twitter, let alone the president of the United States.
That’s why the Times also has to be careful when and how it reacts to the president’s attacks on Twitter, or else it could turn into a constant back-and-forth that makes the Times appear overly defensive and thin-skinned. It’s a street fight that the Times cannot win.
Yet, clearly, there are instances when the Times feels it must respond to Trump questioning the paper’s credibility or reporting. There’s nothing wrong with showing your work and backing up your reporting, especially when you are being called fake or inaccurate.
The Times obviously has formulated a plan on how to respond to the president. That plan likely won’t do anything to deter Trump from continuing his assault, but that strategy is not aimed at the president.
It’s for the rest of us.
The closest of calls
A photographer’s instincts kicked in when he saw a gunman who might have killed him.
Dallas Morning News photographer Tom Fox was on a routine assignment in downtown Dallas on Monday when he saw the unthinkable: a man wearing a mask and combat gear, holding an assault rifle.
Standing just a dozen feet away, and well within range of being shot, Fox picked up his camera and started snapping photos. The photo, along with the story in the Dallas Morning News, shows just how close Fox was as the shooter, identified as 22-year-old Brian Isaack Clyde, opened fire outside a federal courthouse. In fact, in the main photo, it appears Clyde is looking right at Fox.
Moments later, Clyde was shot dead by police. No one else was injured. But a video of the incident shows just how close Fox was to Clyde.
Fox told the DMN, “I just kept thinking, ‘He’s going to look at me around that corner and he’s going to shoot.’”
As he stood behind a column on the side of the building, Fox prayed, “Please don’t pass me. Please don’t pass me. Please don’t pass me.”
Yet Fox never stopped working.
“Your journalistic instincts just kick in,” he said. “You use the camera almost as a shield. I also felt a journalistic duty to do all that.”
Good news for people who love bad news
A new study suggests that people don’t like the news because it makes them feel bad — not because they don’t trust it.
Shutterstock.
People don’t always avoid news because they don’t trust it. They often avoid it because it makes them feel lousy.
Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton has a strong piece breaking down a Digital News Report on why people sometimes avoid the news. The biggest takeaway is that people find news way too negative. Benton asks if news consumption might very well leave readers “stressed, anxious, depressed, afraid, disempowered, and exhausted?”
One comment perfectly sums it up:
“I quit news 10 years ago because I felt frustrated with all the bad things happening around me and realized that I couldn’t do anything about it except feel helpless. Prior to that, I used to avidly read newspapers, at least one hour a day.”
Benton asks an especially astute question: “Is it possible we (the media, that is) have been overestimating the role of trust in why more people aren’t reading, watching, or listening to our stories?”
Benton writes, “I worry that we’re missing the larger group that just doesn’t like the meal we’ve been serving. The ones who find the news we produce disempowering, stress-inducing, and, frankly, not worth the time and effort. What’s the news product that fixes that problem?”
NBC News gets inside a migrant shelter
It’s the first time that an American journalism entity has been allowed this kind of access.
For the first time in its 100-year history, Save The Children is reacting to a humanitarian crisis inside the United States. NBC News’ Cynthia McFadden will have exclusive access to these efforts as actress Jennifer Garner leads a group to Deming, New Mexico — a tiny border community that has been inundated with migrants seeking asylum. McFadden’s reports will air tonight on the “NBC Nightly News” and Wednesday morning on the “Today” show.
This is will be the first time news cameras have been allowed inside a migrant shelter of any kind. According to NBC News, U.S. Customs and Border Protection began dropping migrants off at the local McDonald’s in Deming on May 10. Since then, Deming has processed more than 6,500 individuals, most of them women and children.
Sports Illustrated changes hands again
Just last month, Authentic Brands Group bought Sports Illustrated from Meredith Corp. for $110 million. Now ABG is licensing SI’s print and digital publishing rights to a small startup called The Maven. The New York Post reported The Maven has prepaid $45 million to ABG against future royalties under a 10-year licensing agreement with yearly minimum royalty payments.
The Maven was founded by Ross Levinsohn and Jim Heckman. Levinsohn, a former Tronc executive, will run Sports Illustrated. Last year, NPR’s David Folkenflik wrote a detailed profile of the two, which included some unsavory bits involving what Deadspin’s Laura Wagner referred to as a “frat-boy approach to business.” (Warning: Both stories include R-rated language.)
What this means for Sports Illustrated is unknown, seeing as how The Maven is a startup with no track record. But it was clear Meredith had no interest in SI, so perhaps this isn’t the worst news for one of America’s legendary sports publications.
Hot type
A list of great journalism and intriguing media.
- Looking for a podcast? Kim Goldman, sister of murder victim Ron Goldman, is revisiting the O.J. Simpson trial in a new 10-part pod called “Confronting: O.J. Simpson,” as she sits down with prosecutors, investigators and jurors who found Simpson not guilty.
- Los Angeles Times’ executive editor Norman Pearlstine weighs in on the abortion issue in this essay about his college girlfriend’s abortion, which nearly killed her.
- In this incredibly heartbreaking story by the Indy Star’s Dana Hunsinger Benbow, a mother recalls the morning she woke up to find two of her sons dead of an overdose.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
Upcoming Poynter training:
- Table Stakes: Poynter’s Local News Innovation Program. Deadline: June 24.
- HIV in 2019: Stories Beyond a Medical Lens (webinar). July 11 at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
Want to get this briefing in your inbox? Sign up here.
