Good morning.
- The actor looks bad, Henry Louis Gates Jr. worse
Those voluminous Sony emails that went public included one suggesting that the actor convinced Harvard’s Gates to bury Affleck’s own family connection to slave owners. PBS has now postponed the genealogy show, “Finding Your Roots,” for at least a season and insisted the Ivy League academic exhibit a bit more rigor via its imposition of another fact checker and a genealogist. (Mediaite) The actor previously apologized. (Variety) Gates apologized Wednesday. (The New York Times) He may still need a peer-reviewed summer refresher course on ethical research methodology.
- Layoffs at San Francisco Chronicle
A distinctly senior group of two copy editors, a copy desk chief (who is management) and an imaging technician (age 70) in the photo department will lose their positions, they were informed Wednesday. One of the copy editors was the union’s unit chairman, said Kathleen Anderson of the Pacific Workers Media Guild. “To say we feel strafed now is putting it mildly,” she told me late in the day. All are eligible for the contracted-mandated two weeks of severance per year of service (capped at 52 weeks).
- ‘Chocolate, a bottle of water and the paper, please. Oops, where’s the paper?’
Pittsburgh’s biggest health care network had a hissy fit and banned the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from three hospitals’ gift shops. It is chagrined with a very good paper’s reporting. The paper responds in an editorial (“Frankly, we wouldn’t cover UPMC in any other way”), which details its reporting and within a few hours elicited dozens of approving reader responses. Hospital executives can presumably pick up copies now at some nearby Walgreen’s. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
- Demise of mobile news app with cult following
Love can be cruel. Take Circa, please. “Although the company released a top-notch news delivery platform and attracted a core user base of prominent influencers, it struggled to make the jump to a mass audience and compete with mobile news products offered by old-guard organizations like the New York Times, CNN, and the BBC.” (Fast Company) It’s on “indefinite hiatus.”
- The rich have everything, even a New York Times beat
The newspaper announced it was moving its TV critic to a new endeavor covering the super wealthy and their impact on the world. This might seem an enterprise the world’s best daily has long done well, even if inadvertently and unconsciously at times. Editor Dean Baquet disclosed hopes for “an interdisciplinary look at the way the richest of the rich—the top 1 percent of the 1 percent—are influencing, indeed rewiring, the nation’s institutions, including universities, philanthropies, sports franchises and, of course, political parties and government.” Let’s throw in media and call it a day, uh, a beat. Actually, this could be fun. A lot more fun than covering the crooks in Albany. (New York Times Co.)
- A press virus, presidential campaign polls, is spreading
Here’s one reason not to take much of what you hear this early with even a minuscule degree of gravity: Donald Trump surfacing as No. 2 in a Fox News poll. (Fox News)
- China’s aversion to media (Cont.)
Goodness gracious, imagine this: China being vindictive toward a journalist’s family! A Radio Free Asia reporter says two of his brothers have been detained back home for allegedly “leaking state secrets.” He’s convinced it has to do with his Washington-based reporting. Another brother was sentenced to five years in prison on what are similarly dubious state security charges. (Committee to Protect Journalists).
- Here’s one ESPN forgot
Yes, Virginia won the College World Series last night against Vanderbilt. But Congress also topped the press, 1-0, in a charity softball game. Jill Agostino, an editor with the New York Times D.C. bureau, was typically stout on the mound until a big hit by Democratic Illinois congressman Cheri Bustos. Kathy Castor, a Democratic congressman from Florida, was her team’s MVP. It raised $195,000 for breast cancer. Nobody was apparently accused of using steroids or illegal wagers. Refreshing. (The New York Times)
- Amid the media revolution, some basic jobs counsel
What can seem the weekly drip, drip, drip of media layoffs, such as Wednesday’s at the San Francisco Chronicle, begs a question: What’s should you do if shown the door? You might want to keep this one. (Poynter). If you’re negotiating a buyout, understand the non-disparagement clauses. (Poynter)
- Front page of the day, curated by Kristen Hare
The (Columbia, South Carolina) State led with South Carolina Sen. Clementa Pinckney’s casket heading for the State House. Pinckney was one of nine victims in last week’s church shooting in Charleston. (Courtesy the Newseum)
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Ben is on vacation this week. He and job moves will return next week.
Corrections? Tips? Please email me: jwarren@poynter.org. Would you like to get this roundup emailed to you every morning? Sign up here.