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Monday, July 6, 2020
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Newsonomics: There’s no Knight in shining armor coming to rescue McClatchyBut Alden Global Capital would be happy to lend a hand. Plus: When a standstill isn’t really a standstill. By Ken Doctor. |
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Coronavirus responses highlight how humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don't fit their worldview“It is Fauci's profession of amazement that amazes me. As well-versed as he is in the science of the coronavirus, he's overlooking the well-established science of ‘anti-science bias,’ or science denial.” By Adrian Bardon. |
What We’re Reading
Twitter / Kerry Flynn
More media companies added to the list of PPP loan recipients →
The Small Business Administration published information that showed Forbes Media ($5-$10 million), Fortune ($2-$5 million), Newsweek ($350,000-$1 million), Texas Tribune (more than $350,000), and dozens of other publications received funds from the federal program designed to allow small businesses keep their workers on their payrolls.
AP News
Seattle police subpoena photos and video of protests from local media →
The Seattle Times, KIRO 7, KING 5, KOMO 4 and KCPQ raised First Amendment concerns. The media outlets also argued that “granting the subpoena could foster a public impression that journalists are an investigative arm of law enforcement, which could lead to physical harassment when they cover protests.”
Talking Biz News / Chris Roush
Reuters plans to put many articles behind a paywall →
"The current plan, outlined to Reuters employees last month, envisions putting all articles coming from specific coverage areas—such as energy, sustainability and its opinion content Breaking Views—behind a paywall by next February.”
New York Times / Elizabeth A. Harris
Simon & Schuster names Dana Canedy, former New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Prizes administrator, as their new publisher →
Since 2017, Canedy, has been the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, overseeing a period when the awards acknowledged an increasingly diverse body of work, including the music of Kendrick Lamar and the pioneering Black journalist Ida B. Wells.
The New York Times / Ginia Bellafante
WNYC employees demanded diversity. They got another white boss. →
“Reporters and producers sought a person of color, someone who deeply understood New York and who had experience in public radio. So it was with great consternation that the staff greeted the news, delivered on June 11, when the rest of the world would hear it as well — and 45 minutes or so before they met their new boss on Zoom — that the editor in chief of WNYC was going to be a white woman who lived in California, grew up in Kansas and was not from the world of audio.”
The New York Times / Maria Cramer
The mug shot, a crime story staple, is dropped by some newsrooms and police →
“William Scott, the San Francisco police chief, announced on Wednesday that his department would no longer release mug shots of people who had been arrested unless there was an immediate public safety reason to do so. ‘This policy emerges from compelling research suggesting that the widespread publication of police booking photos in the news and on social media creates an illusory correlation for viewers that fosters racial bias and vastly overstates the propensity of Black and brown men to engage in criminal behavior,’ Chief Scott said in a statement.”
Medium / Mary Retta
This journalist helped eradicate medical debt for thousands in Memphis →
“I think what has been considered objective journalism has been journalism trained from the perspective of U.S.-born, cis, white males. And that's not objective, that's never been objective. Memphis is majority Black, it has been for a while. So, if you are going to frame the news from the perspective of Black people, it would center Black people, period, full stop. If you look at news coverage in Memphis and it doesn't center Black people, it's being produced for a minority of the potential audience.”
Twitter / Abhishek Nagaraj
Axios / Jonathan Swan
If you want to know what Trump’s going to say next, keep an eye on Tucker Carlson’s monologues →
During his speech at Mount Rushmore, Trump framed the president’s opposition to the Black Lives Matter protest movement using the same imagery Carlson has been laying out night after night on Fox.
Media Nation / Dan Kennedy
In staff memo, The Boston Globe announces a new beat covering racism in law enforcement, a staff-wide work audit for racial representation, and internal changes to promote diversity →
The changes include changing the summer internship program into a diversity internship and training program in which all participants will be students or recent graduates of color and working to amend the newsroom's ethics policy to allow for participation in Black Lives Matter rallies by staffers.
New York Times / Michael M. Grynbaum
Political conventions, typically made-for-TV media circuses, are shrinking in the face of coronavirus concerns →
“It is a rite of passage in any campaign reporter's career to cover the national conventions, four days of pageantry and coronation mixed with gossip, open bars, and even some genuine news (recall 2016, when Senator Ted Cruz, startlingly, declined to endorse Donald Trump in his prime-time address).”
The Guardian / Eleanor Ainge Roy
New Zealand’s biggest news group, Stuff, joins Facebook boycott as an “experiment” →
“The company was ‘trialling ceasing all activity on Facebook-owned networks’ as part of a global boycott to pressure the social media giant to take stronger action against hate speech on its platform.” Stuff had previously paused advertising on Facebook after the Christchurch mosque attacks because they “did not want to contribute financially to a platform that profits of publishing hate speech and violence.”