Posts tagged Journalists
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Capturing bits & pieces on media, politics, culture & daily life
The talent first. That is the reason Michael’s death was news to so many people who didn’t know him personally, the reason his stories hit a nerve almost without fail.
Michael’s journalistic roots were in the 1970s, in gonzo writers like Hunter S. Thompson who flung their bodies at the story, and often got hurt. He had been badly hurt once: His fiancée was killed in Baghdad in January of 2007, when he was a Newsweek reporter there, and her death was still utterly raw to him when he published his first book, I Lost My Love In Baghdad.
And then the other part: He knew how to tell it. He knew that there are certain truths that nobody has an interest in speaking, ones that will make both your subjects and their enemies uncomfortable. They’re stories that don’t get told because nobody in power has much of an interest in telling them — the story, for instance, of how a president is getting rolled by his generals.
In a way, Michael was born too late: He wrote with the sort of commitment of the generation of reporters shaped by the government’s lies about Vietnam, not by the triumphalism of the 1990s or the reflexive patriotism of the years after 9/11. He was surer than most of us that power is, presumptively, not to be trusted. Writers of his courage and talent are so rare, and he was taken way too soon. There are few like him. We will miss him terribly.
Journalist Haynes Johnson Dies At 81
Sad news for my alma mater, UMD Merrill College, and the journalism world:
“Haynes Johnson, a distinguished Washington Post journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for civil rights coverage in the 1960s and later sought to pierce the mysteries of the politics and gamesmanship of the capital, died May 24 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. He was 81.
After retiring from The Post in 1994, Mr. Johnson had an endowed Knight Foundation chair in journalism at the University of Maryland, where he was a popular professor. He attended Monday’s commencement ceremony in College Park. Next month, he was scheduled to be inducted into the Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists hall of fame.”
— Haynes Johnson, Washington Post journalist and author, dies at 81
That is the job of a journalist, to upset your morning.
(Source: The New York Times, via fotojournalismus)
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Richard Ben Cramer died Jan. 7 at the age of 62.
Writing for Esquire, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and two newspapers, Cramer excelled at the finely drawn profile, from baseball stars to Irish revolutionaries to American politicians. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his coverage of the Middle East. His 1992 book, “What It Takes: The Way to the White House,” which told the story of six men who ran for president in 1988, became a gold standard for political journalism.
With his passing, Gwen Ifill talks to Time magazine’s Joe Klein and the Washington Post’s Chris Cilliza on Cramer’s legacy.
Number of jailed journalists sets global record
Imprisonment of journalists worldwide reached a record high in 2012, driven in part by the widespread use of charges of terrorism and other anti-state offenses against critical reporters and editors, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, CPJ identified 232 individuals behind bars on December 1, an increase of 53 over its 2011 tally.
(Source: azspot)
Some of the 648 Journalists murdered since 1992
Beats Covered by Victims *
5% Business
29% Corruption
20% Crime
9% Culture
15% Human Rights
45% Politics
2% Sports
23% War
(* May add up to more than 100 percent because more than one category applies in some cases.)
For more, on these heroic women and men, see Committee to Protect Journalists’ website.
(via npr)
A woman journalist describes a vicious sexual assault by hundreds of Egyptian men outside Tahrir Square. We can no longer turn a blind eye to this shameful, vile, inhuman aspect of the revolution. We must not.
(Source: inothernews)
Indeed, the great irony of 60 Minutes was a question of truth in packaging. That is 60 Minutes, which prided itself on ruthless truth telling, exposing cant and fraud, was, in itself, something of a charade. The fact is that, although the viewers tuned in to watch the on-going exploits of Mike, Morley, Harry, Leslie etc. etc., most of the intrepid reporting, writing, and even many of the most probing questions posed in the interviews, were not the handiwork of the stars, but much more the effort of some thirty or more very talented—producers —and associate producers—who researched and reported the stories that the stars presented —as their own exploits—each Sunday night. I was willing to go along with that system because it allowed me to help shape what was the most powerful news show on television. I was also willing to reign in my ego because Mike Wallace brought so much to the team himself: a sharp, penetrating mind, an uncanny ability to seize the essence of a story, to sense an opening in a tense interview, then thrust with a rapier-like question for the journalistic kill.
(via azspot)
BREAKING: Longtime CBS broadcast icon Mike Wallace has died at age 93. Here's the intro from his network's obit:
For half a century, he took on corrupt politicians, scam artists and bureaucratic bumblers. His visits were preceded by the four dreaded words: Mike Wallace is here.
Wallace took to heart the old reporter’s pledge to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. He characterized himself as “nosy and insistent.”
So insistent, there were very few 20th century icons who didn’t submit to a Mike Wallace interview. He lectured Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, on corruption. He lectured Yassir Arafat on violence.
He asked the Ayatollah Khoumeini if he were crazy.
He traveled with Martin Luther King (whom Wallace called his hero). He grappled with Louis Farrakhan.
And he interviewed Malcolm X shortly before his assassination.
He was no stranger to the White House, interviewing his friends the Reagans … John F. Kennedy … Lyndon Johnson … Jimmy Carter. Even Eleanor Roosevelt.
Plus all those remarkable characters: Leonard Bernstein, Johnny Carson, Luciano Pavarotti, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Salvador Dali, Barbra Streisand. His take-no-prisoners style became so famous he even spoofed it with comedian Jack Benny.
Wallace’s death was announced on “CBS Sunday Morning.” The “60 Minutes” icon, who hosted the show for four decades, had been ill for several years.
4 Types of Journalists
The Storyteller: Connecting people to each other and to issues that matter in their lives.
Strengths: Storytellers render dull material vivid, making broccoli taste like s’mores. In the hands of this journalist, even a mundane City Council meeting becomes a font of whimsy and intrigue.
Potential pitfalls: Reality has a way of defying classical narrative conventions. As Tyler Cowen has argued eloquently, our zeal for stories can blind us to underlying empirical trends that are ultimately more important. We tend to turn political races, for example, into grand dramatic clashes between near-mythic characters with tragic, indelible flaws.
The Newshound: Exposing facts that are hidden or unknown.
Strengths: Newshounds possess a relentless curiosity and drive that helps them constantly uncover new facts. Most investigative journalists probably lean in this direction.
Potential pitfalls: News has a tendency of crowding out context. We give outsized focus to novel information at the expense of known facts that might help us legitimately understand an issue better. At its worst, this tendency pushes us to gobble an everlasting stream of trivia without ever attending to the truly significant dynamics of a story.
The Systems Analyst: Understanding the world and explaining it clearly.
Strengths: Systems Analysts have a gift for sniffing out root causes, key trends and important patterns that underpin a story. They prize themselves on cultivating genuine expertise, knowledge of a subject that lasts far beyond a news cycle.
Potential pitfalls: It can be difficult to write about systemic patterns in ways that are accessible to general audiences. Systems Analysts constantly have to be vigilant about not convening a conversation solely for wonks and insiders.
The Provocateur: Revealing the many complex facets of the world.
Strengths: Provocateurs surface distinctive ideas and angles, disrupting the natural tendency of media types to exhibit herd behavior. They spur us to think in new ways about a topic or to identify emerging trends or patterns that are worth keeping an eye on.
Potential pitfalls: Originality ≠ insight. The desire for a fresh take can push a journalist into being pointlessly contrarian or spotting trends that don’t exist. Provocateurs have to be careful not to make too much out of outliers and exceptions.
4 types of journalists: How they tick and what we can learn from them
Christopher Hitchens on journalism, media… and how earth was populated.
Click to embiggen.
(Source: futurejournalismproject, via mdt)
In his last regularly scheduled appearance on “60 Minutes,” Andy Rooney says, “I’ve done a lot of complaining here, but of all the things I’ve complained about, I can’t complain about my life. All this time, I’ve been paid to say what’s on my mind on television. You don’t get any luckier in life than that.”
Rooney, the longtime “60 Minutes” commentator, died Friday at age 92.
Visualization of Twitter Town Hall topics
Press focuses on conflict/politics while citizens focus on jobs/issues. Shocked!
The disparity in questions about congress reinforces the notion that, despite being of enormous national import, congressional (dis)functionality isn’t on too many minds outside of the Beltway. The disparity in questions about jobs reinforces the notion that reporters aren’t always tapped into the issues most pressing for the general populace. The almost complete lack of questions about education is just depressing.
(via shortformblog)
Journalists Memorial. Google, YouTube and Newseum have teamed up to put together this YouTube channel commemorating and documenting the work of journalists who have lost their lives this past year while reporting the news. It’s a digital memorial based on the actual one at the Newseum in Washington D.C.
In the Google Public Policy blog announcement, Steve Groves writes:
Their stories are incredible: heading into a street battle with no weapon other than your camera; talking about politics over the radio, only to be beaten to death with iron bars by a group of thugs on the way to work. The risks and sacrifices that many have made in order to provide us with accurate information is remarkable.
The channel has a crowdsourcing element: if you have a relevant video that profiles or represents the work of journalists who have lost their lives, you can submit it for consideration.
(via nickturse)
Almost Dawn in Libya: Chris & Tim, Heading Home.
We’re numb here as the clock nears 4:30 a.m., and we’re not quite sure what to do. The deaths of Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington on Tripoli Street still seem unreal. Bryan just walked off from the little space we’ve been huddled in, working. He’ll sleep soon, I hope. The work kept us busy…
