A barracuda that writers need:
Dear NWU Member:
We need your help with a publisher who is refusing to pay his writers for their work.
Archive for the ‘Journalism’ Category
Why I Love the National Writers Union
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011Guardian.Co.UK: News of the World Is Closing
Thursday, July 7th, 2011The News of the World is to close, James Murdoch has announced. It follows a series of revelations that the paper illegally hacked into phones, and amid calls for Rebekah Brooks to resign. The News International chief executive is said to retain the support of Rupert Murdoch.
Live Coverage here.
Anyone wondering what’s happening at the New York Post?
The Dark Side of the News Coverage of the Casey Anthony Trial
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011The Ethics Committee of the Society of Professional Journalism Decries Checkbook Journalism – Again – With News Coverage of Casey Anthony
No Surprise Here!
Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Duke University Spectacle, Yes [Tawana Brawley, No]
Monday, July 4th, 2011That’s the assessment of WNYC’s Jami Floyd, whose opinion should not be ignored:
Take the Duke Lacrosse case, in which the district attorney of Durham County, NC, Mike Nifong, failed every measure of prosecutorial conduct and judgment. He tried his case in the media for nearly a year, failed to turn over exculpatory evidence to the defense and court even when he had it, and he was ultimately disbarred, fined and sentenced to a symbolic one day in jail.
In the DSK case, Vance is to be credited for his due diligence and coming to terms early on with the impossibility of proceeding with a accuser lacking credibility. At the same time, he and his investigators had to know what they were up against – a fully financed defense, with its own top-notch investigators that would no doubt uncover the same damning information about the accuser.
Read full article here.
Tawana Brawley Redux? A Knee-Jerk Response
Friday, July 1st, 2011New York Times headline: Strauss-Kahn Accuser’s Call Alarmed Prosecutors
Twenty-eight hours after a housekeeper at the Sofitel New York said she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, she spoke by phone to a boyfriend in an immigration jail in Arizona. Investigators with the Manhattan district attorney’s office learned the call had been recorded and had it translated from a “unique dialect of Fulani,” a language from the woman’s native country, Guinea, according to a well-placed law enforcement official.
When the conversation was translated — a job completed only this Wednesday — investigators were alarmed: “She says words to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing,’ ” the official said.
This news feeding frenzy reminds this writer of the Tawana Brawley paroxysm of news, fact, hysteria, race, class. bullshit and more. This is a knee jerk response to breaking news. Something less knee-jerk is in the offing.
Maybe.
An Ethical Dilemma & Mom & Dad
Friday, July 1st, 2011Nope.
Date: Tue Jun 28 10:52:39 EDT 2011
From: [Spring MEDP292 Student]@aol.com
Subject: Campus MovieFest Article
To: “Greggory W Morris” <gmorris@hunter.cuny.edu>
Hello Professor,A girl I interviewed, named [Anonymous], for her participation in a movie at Campus MovieFest, said that she needs her name removed from the article posted on HunterWORD[sic]. Her reason is that she kissed a girl in the video and her parents searched her name, found the video, and have her on lock down threatening to make her drop out of school. She needs to cut all ties with the video and article so her parents will let her stay in school. Though she agreed to the publishing of the article, she believes her reputation and education are at stake and would like to be removed from the article. Please get back to me as to whether this can be done.
Thank you,
[Anonymous]
Media292
Section 002
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
“Seeking Writers for The Envoy” – The Never Ending Lament
Friday, July 1st, 2011This intended spring 2011 post, below, is just seeing the light of day.
From: “Ming Fearon, Chui-Hung Wong”
To; Hunter-L@HUNTER.LISTSERV.CUNY.EDUDear Hunter students + staff:
I’m trying to get the word out about The Envoy, Hunter College’s print newspaper.
The complete lament of the Envoy Editor-in-Chief rests at the end of this post. In between this sentence and that lament is a succinct accounting of student journalism at the College and undergraduate journalism in D:F/M, both waddling in a bad states of affairs.
Student journalism and subsequently D:F/M undergraduate journalism were hijacked many years ago, dumped in a septic tank of woe, essentially for students serious about journalism as a career or interest. It didn’t have to be that way.
J-Ethics
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011From the J-listserv of the National Writers Union of which this writer is a member:
Dear NWU Journalism list members (hoping you’re still out there!),
I recently published an article with a music magazine–a profile of an up-and-coming artist. Unfortunately, two factual errors turned up in the published piece. One was a misunderstanding between the editor and me; the other was an honest oversight on my part. It was (understandably) embarrassing to me. I later received an email from the artist, who said (rightly) that I had never run the final draft by her before submission. If I had, the errors would have been caught. The reason I didn’t run it by the artist was mostly due to my own ego: I was trying to stay “objective,” to play the role of a “professional” journalist. The piece, however, was not so much a review as a profile, so my opinion played only a small part. Nonetheless, I wish now I had run the piece by the artist.
My question is, what are the ethics or proper conduct in consulting the artist? It seemed to me the artist and I, after hours of interviewing, had formed a nice relationship. Then by my “professional” behavior, I built a wall between us. Should I have just forgotten the damn “etiquette” and shown the artist the draft? It would have prevented the problems.
I will appreciate all good input.
His name is not important. But he was concerned about issues that are universal. This writer’s response:
March Madness: Ignorance Isn’t Bliss
Sunday, April 3rd, 2011“You’re anal,” concluded a student in one of my writing classes after I told her I wasn’t accepting her late class assignment. It’s clear in the class guidelines that first drafts of story assignments must be turned in on time or the grade for the assignment is F. But she seemed to believe, for reasons I didn’t understand, that I would overlook her serious omission. Well, said a student in another news writing class, we feel that the class is disorganized. We show up we and we never know what to expect.
These were the most notable comments in the face-to-face meetings I scheduled with my student writers in March. This semester, like the others, many didn’t read the syllabus nor the assignment guidelines and many came to class unprepared. Some can’t or won’t follow simple directions.
They, like many before them, Do the DUH a lot.
New York Times Headline: For Years, the Tabloid’s Sting Kept British Politicians in Line
Saturday, July 9th, 2011[Missing NYT Sub-Headline: Murdoch-ian Journalism Made Milquetoast of a lot of New York City Politicians]
July 9, 2011
By SARAH LYALL
Read full story here.
Tags:corporate tabloid journalism, Murdoch, New York Post, tabloid journalism
Posted in Journalism, News/Commentary/Opinion | Comments Closed