I'd like the panel to discuss the conflict of interest re: the New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Ethan Bronner. Bronner's son serves in the Israeli Defense Forces and readers alerted the New...
Archives for May 2009
Jay Severin to return on Tuesday
posted by Dan Kennedy on May 30, 2009
Jay Severin's suspension will end next week, and he will return to WTKK Radio (96.9 FM) on Tuesday. The following statement is from Heidi Raphael, spokeswoman for Greater Media, WTKK's parent corporation:
"We have had conversations with Jay Severin over the past several weeks about his hurtful, inappropriate remarks. He understands that we will not accept this type of commentary on our airwaves in the future. Based on this understanding, we have agreed to conclude Jay's suspension and he will return to the 96.9 FM WTKK airwaves on
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Pick your poison
posted by Jon Keller on May 30, 2009
Which is the more interesting story - the "Clark Rockefeller" kidnapping, or the trial of alleged Dracut hit-man Scott Foxworth, opening next week in Middlesex Superior Court?
Emily's "Beat the Press" panel discussed the media's handling of the "Rockefeller" trial, including the issue of whether or not the press should refer to Woody-Allen-without-competent-psychiatric-care by his most recent alias (what, was "Clark Kent" too obvious?), by his apparently-real name (Gerfelt Nutsforbrainser, or something close to that), or by some other name; I voted for simply calling him "Crock." And I was struck by the fact that several other panel members admitted they were bored by the case.
Me too. Strip away the Woody Allen on trial angle (now minimized by his decision to drop the horn rims) and the Rockefeller name (why not "Kennedy"? Your honor, the insanity defense rests!), and the possibility that Gerfelt may have left behind a few dead bodies along his merry way, and there really isn't much about at that's so interesting. (The insanity defense? The defense team should donate their fee to charity when - oh, sorry, if - this one ends in conviction.)
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Globe newsroom petition: Times-Guild deal will fail
posted on May 29, 2009
More than 100 Globe newsroom workers have signed a petition asking the New York Times Company to renegotiated a proposed contract with their union, the Newspaper Guild. Petition organizers want the Times to offer Globe employees the same 5 percent cut that unionized workers in New York got, and warn that the current proposed deal - a wage cut/furlough package that works out to roughly a 10 percent cut - is likely to be voted down by membership. The Times has warned that it will impose a 23 percent wage cut if the current proposal is rejected by Guild members on June 8.
Christian Gerhartsreiter or Clark Rockefeller?
posted on May 29, 2009
His attorney calls him Clark Rockefeller. The prosecution calls him Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. The judge calls him the defendant. How should the media refer to the accused kidnapper?
US jails Iraqi journalist for 9 months without charges
posted on May 29, 2009
The US accused Iran of violating due process for arresting and then convicting Roxana Saberi on vague allegations and secret evidence. After three months, US pressure helped free Saberi, who was given a hero's welcome this week by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, Iraqi journalist Ibrahim Jassam has been held by US military forces for nine months without any official charges or formal evidence disclosed and in spite of an Iraqi court's order that he be freed. Is there a double standard?
Former editor says New York Times blew Watergate scoop
posted on May 29, 2009
Former New York Times Washington editor Robert H. Phelps says he and reporter Robert F. Smith had the scoop on Watergate from a top FBI official, but the paper blew it. How did the New York Times miss the boat on the such an important political scandal?
Pennsylvania newspaper publishes classified ad calling for Obama assassination
posted by Ralph Ranalli on May 29, 2009
Over on the Media Nation blog, BTP panelist Dan Kennedy has the story of a Pennsylvania newspaper that inadvertently published an advertisement on Thursday calling for the assassination of President Obama. The ad says:
"May Obama follow in the footsteps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, & Kennedy!"
GateHouse announces pay cuts at Mass. newspapers
posted by Dan Kennedy on May 28, 2009
The Boston Globe isn't the only newspaper in Massachusetts fighting for its economic survival. Earlier today, GateHouse Media New England, which publishes more than 100 community newspapers in Eastern Massachusetts, announced a "temporary" pay cut.
According to an account by Jon Chesto in the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, a GateHouse paper, salaries will be reduced by an average of 7.75 percent, with the lowest-paid employees receiving a 7 percent cut and the highest-paid getting whacked by as much as 15 percent.
The goal is to save $2.5 million this year. The pay cuts would be reversed if and when the recession-battered advertising market recovers.
In addition, we learn from Chesto's story that GateHouse has reduced its full-time workforce in Massachusetts by about 10.5 percent since the beginning of the year, and currently employs about 1,100.
In a company-wide e-mail, a copy of which I obtained shortly after it was sent out, GateHouse Media New England president and chief executive Rick Daniels explains what's behind the pay reductions:
Why are we taking this step? Why now? It's really pretty simple: As much as we have done everything in our collective power to blunt the negative effects the economic crisis has had on advertising, virtually ALL major metropolitan markets have been hit by advertising declines that have soared to the mid-twenties to mid-thirties percent (compared to prior year months) since early January. These revenue declines have dramatically hit the cash flows of most publishers.
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Key Globe newsroom staffers say tentative Guild-NYT deal in danger of failing
posted by Ralph Ranalli on May 28, 2009
Some key Globe newsroom staffers are circulating a petition warning that the tentative deal reached earlier this month between the Newspaper Guild and the New York Times Company is in danger of failing and asking that the 10 percent wage cut be reduced to five percent.
The Globe reports that one of the sponsors of the petition is Beth Daley, a reporter and union delegate who has been one of the more outspoken newsroom employees about the paper's standoff with the Times, its corporate parent. Daley told fellow reporter Robert Gavin that the proposed contract is in "extraordinary danger" of being rejected.
With the Globe projected to post an $85 million operating loss this year, the Times has demanded that the paper's unions agree to $20 million in concessions (including $10 million from the Guild) or face a complete shutdown of the newspaper.
The tentative agreement reached earlier this month calls for a wage cut and a furlough that would equal about 10 percent of an employee's pay, plus other concessions on benefits, days off, and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees.
Could the New Yorker influence the Globe's fate?
posted by Adam Reilly on May 27, 2009
It's possible. Lawrence Wright's profile of Carlos Slim Helu tells us that star New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has unlimited travel expenses, and never really has to explain what he's going to write about before he hits the road.
It also quotes Friedman on the future of the news business, saying that, down the road, “It’s going to be us and the BBC and the Wall Street Journal and not a lot more.” Friedman also speaks of the Times partnering, down the road, with another right-thinking party--perhaps New York mayor and Bloomberg News founder Michael Bloomberg.
As Michael Roston notes, Friedman's comments are--how to put it--inelegant:
I hardly know where to begin, but this has to be one of the worst-timed statements in the history of public relations.
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