AAN News
How Did Newspapers Land in This Mess?new
New York Times (reg. req.) |
10-01-2006 7:01 pm |
Industry News
SF Weekly Reveals Cops Checked Reporters' Phone Records
The San Francisco Police Department has admitted that it secretly searched the phone records for calls made from the press room at the city's Hall of Justice, the local NBC affiliate reports. The snooping was first revealed in a Sept. 27 SF Weekly article by A.C. Thompson. "Dealing with a leak problem of its own in 2003, the police department used HP-style tactics, covertly examining the phone records -- reflecting 2,478 phone calls -- of journalists covering the department," Thompson wrote. "By doing so, the SFPD could quickly identify any anonymous tipsters or inside sources within the department who communicated with the reporters." The department spokesperson told SF Weekly that the investigation was legal because the department owned the phone lines that were involved.
09-28-2006 10:44 am |
Industry News
Post-Intelligencer Columnist Accuses The Stranger of Being 'PC Police'
"People who relish offensiveness to make a point are all for free speech -- so long as the speech doesn't offend them. This is a liberal hypocrisy," Robert L. Jamieson Jr. writes in his Seattle Post-Intelligencer column today. Jamieson is upset because a local nightclub canceled a show by reggae singer Buju Banton, whose lyrics contain references to killing homosexuals. (He was rescheduled at a different venue.) The outcry was "fueled in part by The Stranger, which loudly sounded the alarm on its blog after other city bloggers began a witch hunt," even though "the alternative weekly touts itself as a champion of free speech and a pusher of artistic envelopes," Jamieson argues. In a post on The Stranger's blog Tuesday, writer Eli Sanders responded to the paper's critics: "The Stranger is not the U.S. Supreme Court or the Seattle Police Department. We don’t interpret the Constitution and we don’t enforce its provisions. ... The First Amendment continues to exist despite Neumo’s cancelling of the Buju Banton show. Neumo’s still has the right to put on offensive shows if it wants to. We still have the right to put up blog posts about Buju Banton if we want to. And Buju Banton himself, if he really still believes in the urgency of an artistic message that includes glorifying anti-gay violence, can stand on the street in front of Neumo’s (or in any other public space) and shout that message as loud as he wants."
09-28-2006 7:31 am |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, The Stranger
Utne Reader Returns to Rootsnew
Mediaweek |
09-28-2006 6:41 am |
Industry News
Oklahoma Gazette Writer Wins Military Reporting Award
Oklahoma Gazette staff writer Ben Fenwick tied for first place in the Domestic Coverage (newspapers with a circulation less than 100,000) category of the Military Reporters and Editors 2006 Awards Contest, the paper announced today. Fenwick was recognized for two stories on the National Guard's role in the evacuation of New Orleans.
09-27-2006 1:55 pm |
Industry News
A Year After Art Teele's Suicide, Jim DeFede Is Thriving
In the Sept. 28 issue of Miami New Times, Chuck Strouse reports on the current activities of Jim DeFede, a former columnist at the paper: He now has a daily radio show during morning rush hour, makes regular appearances on a local news program, and writes a column for LRM magazine. DeFede, who famously was fired from the Miami Herald in 2005 for recording a conversation with former city official Art Teele, says he may not "want to be waking up at 4:00 a.m. in ten years," but he is happy to have three jobs for now. "That way I can be fired from one and still be covered," he says.
09-27-2006 1:09 pm |
Industry News
SF Weekly Writer Exposes CIA 'Torture Taxi' in New Book
"When you talk about secrecy and indefinite detention, the problem is bigger than most people realize," SF Weekly Staff Writer A.C. Thompson tells In These Times magazine. Thompson has co-authored a new book, Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights, with Trevor Paglen, an expert on clandestine military installations. The pair also discussed the book on the Sept. 15 Democracy Now! program, where Thompson told interviewer Amy Goodman, "I've written about police abuse in America for many years and about people being abused in American prisons. But the sort of similarity of the stories we heard from prisoners [in CIA facilities], the intensity of them, it kind of took us aback a little bit, and it was pretty gripping."
09-27-2006 6:56 am |
Industry News
Seattle Weekly Founder Seeking Funding for Online News Site
David Brewster, co-founder of Seattle Weekly, hopes to launch an online news site focused on the city that would include member-written stories, The Seattle Times reports. He believes that "local journalism is suffering" from a reduced number of traditional media outlets, but he has had trouble financing his new project because of a glut of online ventures. "There are a lot of people crowding into something that doesn't have enough dollars to support anything yet," he says. "It's like everybody trying to get into the same apartment building."
09-27-2006 6:34 am |
Industry News
New Times Broward-Palm Beach's Exclusive Incest Scoop
Thursday's issue of New Times Broward-Palm Beach contains an exclusive story about millionaire Bruce McMahan's sexual relationship with his adult daughter, which culminated in a secret wedding at Westminster Abbey in 2004. Their split eventually spawned five lawsuits in five different states. In addition to an investigative report by staff writer Kelly Cramer, the paper's Web site BrowardPalmBeach.com features court documents -- which were sealed after the newspaper obtained them -- and video of the daughter's deposition.
(FULL STORY)
New Times Broward-Palm Beach Press Release |
09-26-2006 1:20 pm |
Press Releases
Port Folio Weekly Has a Big Idea
Port Folio Weekly announced a "Big Idea" essay contest in their Independence Day issue, an idea inspired by Gen. Wesley Clark's speech at the 2006 AAN Convention. "Clark noted that today ... there are few if any big ideas around which the country can rally," Tom Robotham says in his Sept. 26 Editor's Note. "What we need in these dire times, it seems to me, are motivating ideas that appeal to our inherent expansiveness -- our collective and foundational belief in intellectual enlightenment, social justice and tolerance of diversity." This week's issue contains the top three submissions as well as an interview with the winner, Missy Cotter Smasal, who proposed "a Foreign Language Corps, to be sponsored by the federal government in a manner similar to university ROTC programs throughout the country. "
09-26-2006 11:51 am |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Port Folio Weekly
Dallas Observer City Columnists, Past and Present, Face Off
The Dallas Observer blog "Unfair Park" has hosted a feisty debate between Jim Schutze and Laura Miller over the past few days. Schutze, the weekly's city columnist, wrote a cover story for the Aug. 31 issue criticizing Dallas' plan to build new bridges. Mayor Laura Miller, who wrote the city column for the Observer in her days before holding office, sent a letter to the weekly disputing Schutze's economic analysis, which the paper then posted on its blog. "The Dallas City Council took a mediocre project and made it great -- all in the bright light of day -- and I resent, as a former reporter for this newspaper, Schutze's gross distortion of the facts," Miller wrote. Schutze's response, posted a few hours later, briefly covers Miller's assertions before saying that he hopes to publish a better analysis in the Observer: "Blogs are O.K., but blogs have their limitations too; they are not the place for a comprehensive review of this very complex story," he says. "I look forward to working with the mayor and her staff on a search for these very important answers. Notice that I did not accuse the mayor of 'gross distortion.'"
09-26-2006 8:53 am |
Industry News
Robert Christgau Joins NPR, Solicits Other Employers On Air
Robert Christgau, the music critic who was dismissed from his longtime job at The Village Voice last month, will soon assume a regular gig on National Public Radio. Bob Boilen, the host of NPR's "All Songs Considered" program, made the announcement while introducing Christgau as part of a roundtable previewing fall CDs on the Sept. 21 show. Immediately after being introduced, Christgau blurted, "I need a job. I got one, I need more."
09-26-2006 7:04 am |
Industry News
Tags: Editorial, Robert Christgau
Dallas Observer's 'Bible Girl' Responds To Criticsnew
Dallas Observer |
09-26-2006 9:08 am |
Industry News
Washington City Paper Dismisses Writer for 'Lapse in Critical Integrity'new
Theaterboy |
09-25-2006 9:05 am |
Industry News
Santa Fe Reporter Editor's 'Sentimental' Goodbye to Writernew
Julia Goldberg's Blog |
09-25-2006 4:03 pm |
Industry News
