Archive for the &;death-of-journalism&; Category

Reporter Self-Censored TigerWoods Story

May 4, 2010

Reporters these days are often accused of being &;stenographers&;.  It&;s a dying art but a good analogy; here it means just taking down verbatim what a source and his handlers have to say. Actual &;reporting&; (the kind of stuff the Enquirer did with John Edwards) doesn&;t come into the picture.  The big fear is loss of access&;getting kicked out of the White House press room, the campaign bus, the locker room, the gravy train. People Magazine reporter Steve Helling is a case (or coward) in point.  As the Daily News quotes him, &;Over the years, I had heard rumors of Tiger&;s partying &; drunken nights at the clubs, dirty dancing with other women, phone numbers slipped to pretty blonds &; but I didn&;t follow up on the tips,&; the, er, reporter admits&;Helling didn&;t want to be cut off from the golden golfer.  &;Negative coverage of Tiger &; or even positive coverage that wasn&;t approved and micromanaged &; would often result in swift, permanent excommunication from the Tiger Woods camp,&; he writes. &;It was in everyone&;s best interest to sweep the rumors under the rug.&; But don&;t feel too bad for Helling&;he got to cash in with a new book on Tiger and his skanks.   Just another example of why they call it &;content&; and page view bait now, instead of news.

Tags:death-of-journalism, John-Edwards, National-Enquirer, People-Magazine, Tiger-Woods Posted in death-of-journalism, death-of-magazines, tabloid-journalism, Uncategorized | 1 Comment &;

New Media Publishersas Scum

April 29, 2010

The publisher-writer relationship has always been loaded with antagonism.  Publishers think writers are greedy, flaky, unable to understand assignments (or deadlines) and above all, lazy.  Writers think publishers are exploitative.  As my father-in-law (a publisher of what were called &;pennysavers&;) used to say, &;Writers are a dime a dozen.&;  Or as the publisher of a marijuana publication put it, &;You&;re just a writer.&; Unfortunately, in the world of the Internet and new media, the rapacious nature of publishers is more true now than ever.  Now even once-respected news organizations are SYSTEMATICALLY devaluing the worth of a writer&;s work.  &;More major media companies are looking for ways to find cheap content&;Thomson Reuters, Cox Newspapers and Hachette Filipacchi have run articles supplied by Associated Content, one of several companies, such as Demand Media and AOL&;s SEED, that mines reporting from masses of freelancers for as little as $5 a story,&; notes AdAge.  Five dollars a story!  As a writer I&;ve been paid a dollar a word, sometimes more.  Even at 50 cents a word, writers weren&;t getting rich.  I used to say that if you wrote two 500 word stories a week, at 50 cents a word, at the end of the year you&;d have made $26,000.  These shameful &;partnerships&; in devaluing the contribution of the writer (content creator) can be blamed on exploitative new media &;publishers&; like Associated Content&;s Patrick Keane.  And indeed, note this loathesome comment, &;The evolution of the content cycle has cheapened,&; said Associated&;s CEO Keane. But just as much blame attaches to editors who should (and do) know better, as in Reuters publishing Associated stories on the economy or  &;USA Today&;s recent deal with Demand Media, which is using its network of freelancers to supply pieces for a new Travel Tips section on USA Today&;s website.&; Particularly craven is Keith McAllister, global online editor for Thomson Reuters. &;This was not a business decision, but entirely an editorial one,&; said McAllister. &;We want to fill out the online offering as much as possible. We&;re building Thomson Reuters to be a content candy store.&;  He should have said &;We&;re building Thomson Reuters on the backs of less-than-minimum-wage-paid-freelancers to be a content candy story.&; The AdAge &;trend&; story notes, &;Associated Content boasts more than 350,000 freelance contributors who have supplied more than 2 million articles. Associated pays its contributors anywhere from $5 to $30 per article, sometimes upfront &; and in some cases pays a performance fee of up to $2 for every 1,000 impressions the story generates within Associated Content&;s site. ..anywhere from $75 to $120 per article. Full-time staffers or even traditional freelancers working directly with publishers cost considerably more.&; Yes, perhaps even a living wage. 

Patrick Keane 

Tags:AdAge, AOL-SEED, Associated-Content, exploitation-of-writers, freelancers-devalued Posted in death-of-journalism, death-of-magazines, death-of-newspapers, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment &;

Newsweek isPathetic

February 24, 2010

Newsweek can&;t bring itself to call Joseph Stack, the murderer who crashed his plane into a government office in Austin, Texas and killed a decorated veteran, a terrorist.  Their internal debate is here.   Managing Editor Kathy Jones: &;Here is my handy guide:

 

Lone wolfish American attacker who sees gov&;t as threat to personal freedom: bomber, tax protester, survivalist, separatist Group of Americans bombing/kidnapping to protest U.S. policies on war/poverty/personal freedom/ &; radical left-wing movement, right-wing separatists All foreign groups or foreign individuals bombing/shooting to protest American gov&;t: terrorists.&;

As Glenn Greenwald puts it, &;So according to Newsweek&;s Managing Editor, only a foreigner who &;protests the American government&; can be a Terrorist.  Americans cannot be. &; If you indiscriminantly murder (or attempt to murder) innocent people you don&;t know in the service of your ideology, you are a terrorist.  This includes Timothy McVeigh and partners in crime, Major Hasan, Theodore Kaczynski, and the scumbag who shot two people to death at LAX in 2002 that the FBI still refuses to call terrorism.  And Joseph Stack.

Tags:Newsweek, Newsweek-pathetic, terrorism, terrorism-in-the-U.S. Posted in death-of-journalism, death-of-magazines, Newsweek | Leave a Comment &;

CBS News Bloodbath: A ModestProposal

February 3, 2010

CBS News staffers are freaked out that at least 90 positions will be eliminated in the latest budget ax-fest, including shutting the Moscow bureau and reducing Tel Aviv to one producer.  They say it&;s not just fears about their own jobs; “One news executive said, ‘We were covering the news with one arm tied behind our back. Now we’re going to do it with two arms tied behind our back.’ ” Modest proposal:  They could put back 75 news people earning $150,000 plus $50,000 in benefits (sounds good to me at this point!) for the $15 million they pay Katie Couric for a year. Will it happen?  Naaaah. UPDATE: (8:15PM Eastern Time) Maybe it will happen.  Drudge says the CBS natives are revolting&;

Tags:CBS-NEWS, journalism-cutbacks, Katie-Couric Posted in CBS, CBS-NEWS, death-of-journalism | Leave a Comment &;