Category: News & Publishing

News & Publishing, Politics & Public Policy

A Tale of Two Presidential Campaigns

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Way, way back in grad school, I studied rhetoric—the art of using words to persuade. Ever since I’ve been fascinated by politics and oration, which brings me to our Presidential race: Trump/Vance v. Harris/Walz.

There are clear policy differences between the two parties. We can vote on those according to our values and priorities. But what’s notably distinctive is the tone of the campaigns. 

One paints a picture of a dystopian America, a nation alone on the world stage, alliances be damned. Not just America First, but America Only. It’s a campaign based on grievances—personal grievances of the man at the top of the ticket, who spends his rallies disparaging people who don’t bend the knee in fealty or espouse his loosely held principles. It is a campaign that not only doesn’t extend a handshake to all Americans, it disparages them in cruel, incredible terms. It is a campaign that portrays too many Americans as “others,” to be feared, hated, prosecuted, persecuted, or worse. A campaign that describes the nation’s cities—our multicultural centers of commerce, technology and art—as hellscapes, and a campaign that reimagines the future of America in the regressive Project 2025. It’s a campaign replete with speeches pining for a dialing back to 2016, a dialing back on policy, on “settled” law, on rights, on innovation, on societal progress and intellectualism. It looks at humanity and showcases the worst of it. It is a campaign about retribution (Trump’s words). It is relentlessly angry. 

From Donald J. Trump’s Truth Social account, August 6, 2024
Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance is starting to mimic the culture-wars rhetoric of his running mate. Despite the thorough debunking of this claim days ago, this post still appears on Vance’s X.com page as of August 6, 2024.

By comparison, the other campaign strikes a tone that’s hopeful, aspirational, empathetic. You’ll find no “losers and suckers” admonishments in the deep cuts. It’s a campaign with a Presidential hopeful who is attacked—like so many women—for being accomplished and yet unapologetically happy. They call her “giggles” and “crazy” and “cackling” when she expresses joy.

Now, she has a running mate, who seems happy, too—not pollyannish about what ails our nation, but excited for the prospect of their proposed solutions to heal them.

Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz expresses empathy for Minnesota’s families who are struggling to make ends meet — offering solutions not bluster.

And unlike the falsely masculine rhetoric coming from the other campaign, this VP doesn’t hide his softness, his compassion. He laughs, and not at others’ expense. Hours old, this campaign already feels lighter, forward-focused.

So many Americans are politically exhausted and parched. They’re looking for the water source in that dystopian desert. And if you think a message of hope, aspiration and joy doesn’t sell in the nasty news cycle-obsessed world of modern-day politics, I give you eight years of President Barack Obama as evidence people find it refreshing, resounding and winning. 

In the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris’s pick for a running mate, Governor Tim Walz, the Obamas weighed in on what Walz brings to the ticket, including “his ability to talk like a human being and treat everyone with decency and respect.”
Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama take their final flight on Marine One, as they fly over Washington, D.C. following the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. Photo: G.A. Peck
News & Publishing, photography, Politics & Public Policy, TV, Radio, Audio

Watch “Print It Black” on Hulu

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In the week that followed the horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, I was one of thousands of calls into the local newspaper, the Uvalde Leader-News. I was working on a story for E&P—part of the magazine’s “Reporting On” series—about journalists who have the daunting task of reporting mass shootings. 

On a few occasions that week, a member of the newsroom there would answer—audibly exhausted and grief-stricken, yet polite and professional—and take down my message for the owner-publisher Craig Garnett. I, of course, wanted to speak with him about my assignment, to learn in those still-raw moments what it takes for a newsroom to cover a story of this magnitude and tragedy. But so much more importantly, I wanted to express my sorrow, to let him and his entire newsroom know that we shared in their grief. After all, a member of our news community had been personally and profoundly impacted by this crime. ULN’s Crime Reporter Kimberly Mata-Rubio’s 10-year-old daughter, Lexi, was among the victims.

Despite an enormous weight on his shoulders, Garnett called me back a few days later, and generously, thoughtfully spoke about what his newsroom was going through. Through tears that seemed never-ending, I wrote the story. 

I’ve thought about that local paper—Garnett and the small, tight-knit staff—the Rubio family, and the community of Uvalde every day since.

I had the great honor to reconnect with Garnett last week, to talk about the ABC News documentary, “Print It Black,” now streaming on Hulu. It’s a difficult-to-watch yet important film that I implore everyone to see—a complex, nuanced and honest look at mass shootings in America, about life in a small town, about racism, poverty and classicism, and about a local newsroom rising to an occasion for which it never could prepare.

#Uvalde #LocalNews #RobbElementary #UvaldeLeaderNews #ABCNews #documentary

https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/from-tragedy-to-screen-uvalde-leader-newss-journey-in-print-it-black,251254?newsletter=251259&vgo_ee=3LlnuTuG1f3N7xJAyEmHXrirvfwhAS4xrL7muUNUPGNXAKv5mtfn%3AcQ3Q25RViKPhAkQOSD05hsgssV1JK4Tz
News & Publishing, Politics & Public Policy, TV, Radio, Audio

Producing a step-by-step FOIA guide

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As FOIA director at @washingtonpost, Nate Jones is a government records specialist — expertise he gladly shares with other journalists and the public

#newsmedia #FOIA #illustration #journalism

https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/producing-a-step-by-step-guide-to-foia,250976

News & Publishing, Politics & Public Policy

Two of ProPublica’s Editors Talk About the Past, Present and Future for the Nonprofit News Leader

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It’s hard for me to believe that nearly 20 years have passed since ProPublica first came on the news media scene. I immediately followed their work, because I believed in their mission and the void they were filling. Yet, I worried that the then-fledgling news outlet and the nonprofit model wouldn’t pan out. 

Thankfully, they flourished. 

We wanted to write about ProPublica now, in a year when its journalists earned a 7th Pulitzer Prize (added to a considerably long list of other awards) and has become an unquestionable leader in the industry — not just for the impactful journalism their newsroom produces, but for the way in which they’re enabling other newsrooms around the country to excel in their own accountability work through partnerships. 

I spoke with two of the editors who’ve been there since the beginning — about what it was like to stake their careers on the new nonprofit; how the newsroom has evolved; and what keeps them motivated all these years in. At the link, hear from Charles Ornstein, ProPublica’s managing editor, local, and Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg. 

https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/ethical-exposs-and-pulitzer-prizes-propublicas-impactful-journey-in-investigative-journalism,250361

News & Publishing, TV, Radio, Audio

TV and Radio Broadcasters Launch Hyperlocal Digital and Streaming News Services

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I’ve long appreciated the concept of hyperlocal news. What better way to make communities and neighborhoods feel seen and heard than to cover the news expressly for them and about them? We’ve seen news outlets like Block Club Chicago and Trib Total Media have rousing success taking a street-level neighborhood approach to news. 

I was pleasantly surprised when E&P’s Robin Blinder and Mike Blinder returned from Borrell Miami this spring with a new story in hand about hyperlocal news—TV and radio broadcasters leveraging their brands and trustful audiences to launch hyperlocal digital sites and streaming services. So, I followed up with Gordon Borrell to get his take on why hyperlocal news was seeing a renaissance of sorts and followed up with three media executives in the throes of starting up new hyperlocal media properties. Here are their stories: 

#communitynews #hyperlocalnews #TV #Radio #Streaming #digitalmedia

https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/from-news-deserts-to-digital-havens-the-rise-of-hyperlocal-journalism,250359

News & Publishing, Politics & Public Policy, Printing and Imaging

Talking newspapers with Kelsey Russell

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This ranks as one of the most fun and fascinating conversations I’ve had this year about the power of the printed newspaper and media literacy.

Meet TikTok’s “Print Princess,” Kelsey Russell, who leverages the platform to introduce her audience to news of the day; how to be critical about what they read; and how print can give us a break from screen time, as well as help us more meaningfully consider and retain information.

https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/meet-the-print-princess-tiktok-personality-kelsey-russell-uses-social-media-to-spark-critical,250283

News & Publishing, Politics & Public Policy

The New York Times assembles a trust team

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Among our news community, we frequently talk about “trust in news” and how it has eroded to dangerous levels. I’d suggest there are myriad reasons for that, including some that date back centuries. The press has always been a convenient punching bag. When people don’t like what they read, they naturally want to discount the information. 

Some of the phenomenon is patently new, as we’ve seen with the increase in “lawfare” suits designed to chill journalists and shutter news organizations outright. There’s also the toxic political rhetoric, even shouted from the highest offices in the land, expressly to make people doubt watchdog and accountability reporting. 

Now, we’re contending with Artificial Intelligence (AI), too, which is training people to doubt what they read and view.

Some of it is well-deserved. The press doesn’t always get the story right, especially in the rush to report first. Quality journalists among the American media are contrite when it happens, acknowledging their mistakes and offering corrections or retractions. Far too many outlets masquerading as trusted sources of news peddle misinformation and never acknowledge their failures to report accurately. That’s harmful, industry-wide.

I’d suggest the public also has a cynical view of how news is gathered and produced when they hear about strategic misdeeds, such as tabloid-style “catch and kill” stories — for example, when an adult film actress’ story about an affair with a politician never sees the light of day because the publisher and the porn star are paid to suppress it. It’s easy for the public to conflate that kind of “news” with what earnest, professional journalists produce day-in, day-out. 

Indeed, there are many reasons — deserved and not — for the lack of trust in news today, but the important thing is that we’re thinking about it as an existential threat and doing our best to counter it. That’s why I’m bullish on The New York Times decision to convene a “trust team” that’s keenly focused on this issue. 

At the link, read about my conversation with Edmund Lee, editor of The Times’ trust team and one of the ways they’ve built more transparency and familiarity into the display of news.

#newsmedia #journalism #TheNewYorkTimes

https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/greater-transparency-garners-trust-in-news,249933?newsletter=250022&vgo_ee=MID6ch3E1kgN2osWmPLpl5Z40X%2F9BHtWJoghp8byQDPod%2FG7TuDV%3ASquNGI9hIBh9JM3rx0zAhA9JLH4Q%2Be7Y
News & Publishing, Politics & Public Policy

Behind the scenes of Pulitzer-awarded reporting

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Ever wonder what it takes to produce Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism? I spoke with reporters and editors at three newsrooms that were awarded Pulitzers earlier this month. They spoke about the inspiration behind their award-winning series; the labors and resources the projects required; the dilemmas they faced during the news gathering; and ultimately, the impact. 

 

Read the “stories behind the stories” at the link.  Congratulations to all of this year’s Pulitzer winners. https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/pulitzer-story,249969

News & Publishing, Politics & Public Policy

On Noonan, philosophy, protesters and newsroom representation

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I was talking to some Boomer-generation family members not long ago, who’d expressed frustration about the state of the world — not about big things, like war or the state of democracy, but about small, comparatively insignificant things. They complained about how nothing interested them on TV anymore, about the popularity of Taylor Swift, and how print menus had been replaced by QR codes. These grievances seemed petty to me, so I found myself imparting wisdom I gained far too late in life: “Not everything is made for you,” I told them.

It dawned on me that if you see things in the world in two categories — things you like = good; things you don’t like = bad — you’ll live your life in a state of perpetual frustration or agitation. It’s a far more pleasant existence to think, just because I don’t like something — just because it wasn’t produced with me as an audience or consumer in mind — doesn’t make something bad, unworthy, corrosive or a danger to society. Other people may like it, and they have a right to enjoy it and to exist, and it need not have any impact on you at all. 

This same philosophy can — and should — be applied to people and lifestyles, too.

I thought about this as I read reporter Peggy Noonan’s account of attempting to interview protesters on Columbia University’s campus. She wrote about how they didn’t want to talk to her. “Friends, please come say hello and tell me what you think,” she implored them.

Frankly, if that’s how she approached the students, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised that they opted not to speak with her. “Friends …” does make it sound a bit disingenuous, like someone trying to draft you into a religious sect.  

Journalist Peter Baker of The New York Times boosted Noonan’s remarks on X/Twitter, implying the students wouldn’t speak to her because they weren’t capable of articulating their reason for protesting. 

That’s an assumption journalists are trained not to make. Also, it’s likely not true. Just look how poised, thoughtful and resolved this student was when speaking to Fox News: https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1786088434806792573

Last week, when I spoke with several editors of school newspapers on campuses around the country, they all talked about students’ reluctance to speak to the press. 

You can read the article, “When war abroad comes to campus” for FREE here: https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/when-war-abroad-comes-to-campus-student-newspapers-meet-the-moment-with-on-the-ground-coverage-of,249586

The editors explained to me that the student protesters — in fact their entire generation — is media savvy but also distrustful of the press. They worry of their remarks being misunderstood or intentionally misconstrued. They’ve grown up in an era in which “fake news” is a familiar concept and social media can make one inarticulate remark take on a life of its own. 

Anish Vasudevan, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Orange at Syracuse University, explained how student protesters on campus have designated “media-trained” spokespersons expressly for these reasons. 

As I spoke with these student journalists, it also confirmed how much newsroom “representation” matters today, especially among young people. They’re more inclined to feel seen, heard and understood when they’re talking to reporters who have some shared perspective, whether that’s ethnicity, gender, geography, race, language, education, a common campus, age or generation.

In many cases, student reporters were able to land the most meaningful interviews with their fellow students, because representation matters. It helps repair some of the deteriorated trust in news media when we see ourselves represented among the storytellers. 

Maybe this story — this moment in history — isn’t for journalists like Noonan or Baker to chronicle. And that’s ok. 

Not everything is made for you. 

News & Publishing

Artificial Intelligence is stealthily altering how news is made and how the public finds information

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) shows a lot of productivity promise for news publishers, but in its early iterations, AI is also proving to be perilous. E&P has been covering AI developments frequently, and this month we look at how Generative AI is changing the way people search for and retrieve information from AI-enabled search engines.

For the user, a query to an AI-enabled search engine may provide a thorough responses that satisfies their question. The risk remains that those response summaries may be flawed with fallacies, depending on how the AI engine was trained. 

The other concern for news publishers is how users behave based on the search response. They may be satisfied with the result and sated, and resist scrolling down for additional search results and links to other sources, including news articles. That should trouble any news media business that relies on a healthy influx of web traffic and has for years invested in improving SEO performance. 

We invited no less than 30 publishers about how they’re preparing for AI-search disruption. Some spoke on background; others opted not to comment at all, citing an uncertainty about what to do. There’s no shame in that. AI is new and developing at lightning speed, and we’re all just trying to figure out where this path is leading. But a few publishers are ahead of the curve and implementing new ways to nurture more direct relationships with readers/viewers/listeners, thereby relying less on search traffic. We tell two of their stories at the link: 

https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/artificial-intelligence-is-stealthily-altering-how-news-is-made-and-how-the-public-finds,249473