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.
Finding news deserts by ZIP code: Michelle Ferrier writes about the Media Deserts Project.
It’s a “research effort that is trying to map the ways in which many of America’s rural communities are indeed impoverished by the lack of fresh, daily local news and information,” she writes, and find media audiences.
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.
Ten newsroom security tips: Daniel Funke reports the Capital Gazette shooting prompts safety measures.
“It’s not cheap or feasible for all newsrooms to incorporate things like bulletproof glass, armed guards and safe rooms in their offices,” he writes. “But with a small investment, outlets can make big changes to their security protocol — which could come in handy during potential attacks.”
Doors that lock, updated visitor policies, cameras, panic buttons and shooting drills included.
Fortifying newsrooms: Kyle Pope writes that the five killed at the Capital Gazette forces us “to rethink the threat to journalism in Trump’s America.”
“It is heartbreaking, but necessary, to recognize that the openness that defines local news likely carries too high a risk; local newsrooms, at least for now, may have no choice but to fortify themselves.”
In the war against the press local journalists may be “most at risk.”
Shooting journalists: Sabrina Tavernise, Amy Harmon and Maya Salam report that mass shooting found a new target at the Capital Gazette, killing five.
“For a country that has grown numb to mass shootings, this was a new front,” they wrote. It is “a rare attack on a news organization, one of the oldest in America….”
Reporters covering the circus can’t sleep with elephants: David Von Drehle faults editors in the affair between New York Times reporter Eli Watkins and a federal security aide.
“One after another, as Watkins rocketed up the career ladder, her supervisors failed to dig deeply enough to weigh the damage that could be done to the credibility of all media should her pillow talk be made public. Now that the laundry is aired and the damage is done, some of these same editors are minimizing the impact on media credibility.”
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.”
Affair rocks Washington media: New York Times staff writers take a close look at the three-year affair between a NYT reporter and a security aide source, now part of a federal investigation and seizure of records.
“Avoiding conflicts of interest is a basic tenet of journalism, and intimate involvement with a source is verboten,” they write. But the central point is the seizure of a reporter’s records, says a Times statement.
Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists 