Rapper buys news site to avenge bad press: Regina Gurung questions Chance The Rapper’s motives for buying the dormant Chicagoist.com, a local news website.
In song, he vowed to run the Chicago Sun-Times “out of business.”
“Now that he is ‘Chance The Media Mogul,’ we can only hope he doesn’t control the basics of journalism ethics,” writes Gurung.
Local news death spiral: Kyle Pope reports that job cuts at the New York Daily News signals need to avoid self-pity in journalism.
“This can’t be about us,” he writes. “It has to be about why the country should care if local news goes away, which is the trajectory we now find ourselves on. What are the effects on a democracy if local news is no longer in the picture?”
He adds: “If you’re in journalism and you can’t muster an answer to that question, you need to move on.”
Solidarity among reporters: Michael Grynbaum writes about “an unusual show of solidarity” at a White House press briefing when Jordan Fabian yields to Hallie Jackson.
It “seemed to signal a new approach by the White House press corps toward an administration that regularly uses briefings to deride, and divide, the news media.” Called a “classy move.”
Fired for attribution faults: Sydney Smith reports that the Washington Post dismisses reporter Marwa Eltagouri for attribution issues.
Eltagouri was not accused of plagiarism, Smith writes. She did not properly attribute information from at least a dozen news organizations, he said.
Newsletter secret saucer: Melina Delkic writes that the New York Times produces 55 newsletters that cover the day’s biggest news, commentary on social issues, cooking and more.
“Newsletters can be a way to streamline news coverage and separate what’s consequential from what’s trending,” she writes.
Defining civility: The Washington Post’s editorial board sees strong political feelings spilling over into the private sphere.
“We understand the strength of feelings, but we don’t think the spilling is a healthy development,” says the board. “Those who are insisting that we are in a special moment justifying incivility should think for a moment how many Americans might find their own special moment.”
Other views on civility and media appear in Commentary, Vice, Salon, the Washington Post, the New York Times and Vox.
Cutting relations with the president: Jay Rosen writes: “Journalists charged with covering him should suspend normal relations with the presidency of Donald Trump, which is the most significant threat to an informed public in the United States today.”
Send interns to White House briefings, he writes. Trump’s political style “incorporates a hate movement against journalists.”
Enemy of the people: Ken Thomas writes about the impact of President Trump’s attack on the U.S. media as “fake news.”
Thomas quotes Prof. Jay Rosen saying, “It’s the erosion of the common world of fact. If we can’t agree on what the facts are, if there are no facts because they are in endless dispute, there is no accountability.”
Students want diversity and inclusion over free speech.
Survey of college students finds support for free expression, but a willingness to restrict it in favor of inclusion.
Students see downsides of social media free expression because people can block views of others who disagree with them.
Media told to stay out of hostage situations: Michael Williams reports on a TV station’s Facebook contacts with gunman who kills four children and himself.
“The best practice is to report the situation from a distance,” says an ethics expert.
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 