Today's WORD on Journalism

Ought-oh correx

2012-01-27T08:47:00.008-07:00

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Speling Counts

“Relying on spell check and its sibling autocorrect, my fiction students have staged countless scenes of family quarrel in the dinning room. Ignoring how a college student can have failed to learn the spelling of ‘dining,’ let’s consider: the dinning room, where families din at one another every evening. Or there’s the scene with the boyfriend who keeps starring at his new girlfriend, amazed by his luck. I love that—I see his eyes full of stars, blinking off and on like supernovas, much more interesting than simply staring.”

—Lucy Ferris, writer-in-residence, Trinity College (Connecticut) and contributor to the Lingua Franca blog, 2011

* The Spell Check Mug Poem:
I have a spelling checker.
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks for my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it.,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it’s weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

• Editorial Comment: Spelling schmelling. Its the idears that count.

• Belly Laugh: Did you miss yesterday’s extraordinary WORDs from legendary journalistic curmudgeon H.L. Mencken? Click here.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .
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• River Heights passes noise-nuisance law to deal with barking dogs, by Sean O’Sullivan
• Hyde Park makes changes to roads, residential setback requirements, by Shannon Neilsen
• No injuries in Wednesday fire at Utah State’s LDS Institute building, by Tmera Bradley
• Sundance 2012: Redford’s New Frontier all about film innovations, by Ben Hansen
• 250 brave icy Hyrum waters to take ‘Polar Plunge’ for Special Olympics, by Kristi Ottley
• Flooded basements, closed roads still the story in Cache Valley, by Jemina Herrero

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Remember the farmers’ market? Those were the days.

Belly Laugh

2012-01-26T07:02:00.005-07:00

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Observations from the Circus

“Here . . . more than anywhere else that I know of or have heard of, the daily panorama of human existence, of private and communal folly—the unending procession of governmental extortions and chicaneries, of commercial brigandages and throat-slittings, of theological buffooneries, of aesthetic ribaldries, of legal swindles and harlotries, of miscellaneous rogueries, villainies, imbecilities, grotesqueries, and extravagances—is so inordinately gross and preposterous, so perfectly brought up to the highest conceivable amperage, so steadily enriched with an almost fabulous daring and originality, that only the man who was born with a petrified diaphragm can fail to laugh himself to sleep every night, and to awake every morning with all the eager, unflagging expectation of a Sunday-school superintendent touring the Paris peep-shows.”

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist, social critic and author, from “On Being an American.” Prejudices, Third Series (1922)
(Thanks to alert WORDster Karl Petruso)

• Editorial Comment: Newt Gingrich? Seriously? Laugh to keep from crying.

• Back to Basics: Did you miss yesterday’s WORDs from Australian journalism prof Eric Loo on techno hype? Click here.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .
News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• No injuries in Wednesday fire at Utah State’s LDS Institute building, by Tmera Bradley
• Sundance 2012: Redford’s New Frontier all about film innovations, by Ben Hansen
• 250 brave icy Hyrum waters to take ‘Polar Plunge’ for Special Olympics, by Kristi Ottley
• Flooded basements, closed roads still the story in Cache Valley, by Jemina Herrero
• North Logan boundary change may affect corn maze, by Steve Kent
• Guv gives Aggies political pep talk, vows more support for colleges, by Allie Jeppson

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

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Remember the farmers’ market?

Back to Basics

2012-01-25T06:40:00.006-07:00

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Blog This

“Is journalism education being too carried away by exuberant interest for the latest digital device, its varied applications for breaking news in real-time, and emphasis on digital media production skills? Are journalism schools in fact graduating web technologists, news bloggers, news site designers, desktop publishers and videographers instead of street-smart conscientious journalists? Is the emphasis on training students how to produce and package multimedia products compromising the imperatives of educating students to be more reflective, investigative, ethical and community-oriented story tellers? To what extent have journalism curricula being diluted to adapt to the new student demographics - students who are reading less but more attuned to animated visuals, Facebook, Twitter and hypertexts? How have journalism teaching methodologies and contents changed when students—being digital natives—are unthinkingly relying on the internet for ‘news’ and ‘information’?” . . .

“Are we losing sight of the fundamental function of journalism education? Which is to educate students to become journalists of conscience and integrity, to be responsive and passionate about exposing the disparities, poor governance, political patronage and the many layers of injustices and corruption in their respective communities. This is a prosaic observation, clichéd even. My point is good journalism should not be confused with multimedia delivery, website design, podcasting, blogging and packaging stories.”

—Eric Loo, journalism professor, University of Wollongong (Australia), “Editorial: Back to basics in journalism education amid the techno hype,” Asia Pacific Media Educator 20, 2010.

• Editorial Comment: But the passionate Tweet gets read, and the multimedia storytelling gets heard. I'll read the five-part investigation tomorrow.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

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• Sundance 2012 opens with powerful Aussie film, Wish You Were Here, by Ben Hansen
• 250 brave icy Hyrum waters to take ‘Polar Plunge’ for Special Olympics, by Kristi Ottley
• Flooded basements, closed roads still the story in Cache Valley, by Jemina Herrero
• LaPlante: Doing ‘missionary journalism,’ from classroom to war zone, by Kristen Munson
• North Logan boundary change may affect corn maze, by Steve Kent
• Guv gives Aggies political pep talk, vows more support for colleges, by Allie Jeppson

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

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Dr. Seuss weeds.

Mighta Woulda Shoulda Coulda

2012-01-24T06:57:00.006-07:00

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Conditional Tense

Election news: Mitt Romney would have liked to have done better in the South Carolina primary.

“The timid grammarian,
unable to approach the object
of his unspoken proposition,
is destined to dwell forever
alone in the woulds.”

—Andrew Merton, journalist and poet,
“Subjunctive,” from Evidence that We Are Descended from Chairs (2011)

• Editorial Comment: Romney has a little trouble with his verb tense—and he’s a little tight in the shoulders, too.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Sundance 2012 opens with powerful Aussie film, Wish You Were Here, by Ben Hansen
• 250 brave icy Hyrum waters to take ‘Polar Plunge’ for Special Olympics, by Kristi Ottley
• Flooded basements, closed roads still the story in Cache Valley, by Jemina Herrero
• LaPlante: Doing ‘missionary journalism,’ from classroom to war zone, by Kristen Munson
• North Logan boundary change may affect corn maze, by Steve Kent
• Guv gives Aggies political pep talk, vows more support for colleges, by Allie Jeppson

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

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Dr. Seuss weeds.

Bread Dough

2012-01-23T07:31:00.006-07:00

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Fair Warning: Kids Are Sponges

“Based on my own experience, I believe the brain is as soft and malleable as bread dough when we’re young. I am grateful for every class trip to the symphony I went on and curse any night I was allowed to watch The Brady Bunch, because all of it stuck. Conversely, I am now capable of forgetting entire novels that I’ve read, and I’ve been influenced not at all by books I passionately love and would kill to be influenced by. Think about this before you let your child have a Game Boy.”

—Ann Patchett, novelist, The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life (2011)

• Editorial Comment: Explains a lot: I grew up on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In.

• Heart & Soul: Did you miss yesterday’s WORDs from Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black, about the importance of free expression? Click here.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• 250 brave icy Hyrum waters to take ‘Polar Plunge’ for Special Olympics, by Kristi Ottley
• Flooded basements, closed roads still the story in Cache Valley, by Jemina Herrero
• LaPlante: Doing ‘missionary journalism,’ from classroom to war zone, by Kristen Munson
• North Logan boundary change may affect corn maze, by Steve Kent
• Guv gives Aggies political pep talk, vows more support for colleges, by Allie Jeppson

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

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Cukes at Farmers’ Market.

Heart & Soul

2012-01-20T07:20:00.011-07:00

Public Health

“Freedom to speak and write about public questions is as important to the life of our government as is the heart to the human body. In fact, this privilege is the heart of our government. If that heart be weakened, the result is debilitation; if it be stilled, the result is death.”

—Hugo L. Black (1886-1971), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1942

• Editorial Comment: Get me the national defibrillator, stat!

Image: The U.S. Supreme Court on October 23, 1967: (front row, left to right)
John Marshall Harlan, Hugo Black, Earl Warren, William O. Douglas, and William J. Brennan Jr.;
(back row, left to right) Abe Fortas, Potter Stewart, Byron R. White, and Thurgood Marshall.
Bettmann/Corbis.

• Tweet of the night from @317lindquist: “Spent all day printing out Wikipedia. If anyone needs it, you can take turns signing it out...” (ref: Yesterday’s WORD, “Stoppa SOPA.” Thanks to tweeting WORDster Bruce Adomeit)

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• Life after the Church: Former Mormons reflect on their decision, by Heidi Hansen

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

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A misty morning dawns over Cache Valley, Northern Utah.

Stoppa SOPA

2012-01-19T05:39:00.004-07:00

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Congress learned Wednesday what the Arab Spring showed governments across the Middle East and Northern Africa last year—the power of social media, which may have stopped SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Internet Property Act) dead.

Internet Flexes Political Muscles

“Wikipedia, the world’s free online encyclopedia, went dark on Wednesday and other Internet players including Google put black censorship bars on portions of their websites in protest of pending U.S. legislation designed to curb online piracy. . . Internet companies aim to get U.S. lawmakers to back off of bills designed to shut down access to overseas websites that traffic in stolen content or counterfeit goods.

“Internet players argue the bills would undermine innovation and free speech rights and compromise the functioning of the Internet. ‘Something this big—which looks to be the largest and most prolific online protest ever in the short history of the Internet—that's bound to get the attention of lawmakers across the board,’ said Jeffrey Silva, an analyst at Medley Global Advisors.” (Reuters)

CBS: “Yesterday’s Internet-wide protest may not have killed Congress’s anti-piracy efforts completely, but a lot of legislators (including some co-sponsors) suddenly can’t run away from the bills fast enough. According to Ars Technica’s count, 18 Senators, mostly Republican, have withdrawn their support for the Protect IP Act in the last 24 hours, including seven former co-sponsors.” (CBS)

BBC: “‘More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge,” Wikipedia posted. You said no. You shut down Congress’s switchboards. You melted their servers. “From all around the world your messages dominated social media and the news. Millions of people have spoken in defence of a free and open Internet.’

“Elsewhere, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg deemed the occasion worthy enough to post his first tweet in almost three years.

“‘Tell your congressmen you want them to be pro-Internet,’ he wrote, linking to a longer statement on Facebook.

“He continued: ‘We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet’s development.

“‘Facebook opposes Sopa and Pipa, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the Internet.’” (BBC)

• Editorial Comment: Don’t mess with my Wikipedia!

• Related: Useful video explaining proposed laws.

• Share the WORD: Today’s WORD on SOPA. Click here.

• Fact-Check: Did you miss yesterday’s WORDs from New York Times public editor Arthur Brisbane? Click here.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• 18-year-old USU sophomore killed in Idaho crash on I-84
• Life after the Church: Former Mormons reflect on their decision, by Heidi Hansen

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A tropical-looking December sunset over the U.S. Coast Guard station on the Samoa spit near the entrance to Humboldt Bay, Eureka, California.
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Fact-check?

2012-01-18T06:23:00.004-07:00

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All the News That Fits

“Arthur Brisbane, the public editor of the New York Times, went to his readers with a question (1/12/12): ‘I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge ‘facts’ that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.’

“Brisbane (who, as public editor, speaks only for himself, not the Times) referred to two recent stories: the claim that Clarence Thomas had ‘misunderstood’ a financial reporting form when he left out key information, and Mitt Romney’s assertion that President Obama gives speeches ‘apologising’ for America. Brisbane asked whether news reporters should have the freedom to investigate and respond to those comments.

“The reaction from readers was swift, voluminous, negative and incredulous.

“‘Is this a joke? THIS IS YOUR JOB.’

“‘If the purpose of the NYT is to be an inoffensive container for ad copy, then by all means continue to do nothing more than paraphrase those press releases.’

“‘I hope you can help me, Mr. Brisbane, because I’m an editor, currently unemployed: is fecklessness now a job requirement?’”

—Clay Shirky, media author and columnist, “New York Times Public Editor Asks Whether Paper Should Fact-Check Politicians; Gets Resounding ‘Yes!’” AlterNet.com, Jan. 15, 2011

Editorial Comment: Motto: “All the News that Doesn’t Offend”? Well, as publishing mogul Lord Thompson observed, news copy is useful in a newspaper because it prevents advertisements from bumping up against one another.

Overeating

2012-01-17T07:08:00.005-07:00

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Time (Mis)management?

“This is the first year that I think my productivity has dropped because [of my media consumption]. I’m looking at the coming year and thinking, what am I going to give up? Am I going to give up following the NFL? Am I going to give up listening to music and going out and seeing it? Am I going to give up riding my bike? Or am I going to cut back on some of these digital habits I have that are eating me alive and some of these . . . endless panels about the future of journalism? The future of journalism is wearing badges and talking on panels, as far as I can tell.”

—David Carr, media columnist, The New York Times, “David Carr: The News Diet of a Media Omnivore,” on “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, WHYY, National Public Radio, Oct. 27, 2011
Image: Carr (left) with Times Media Editor Bruce Headlam, from 2011 documentary PAGE ONE.
Related Carr WORD.

• Editorial Comment: Lessee, what to do, what to do? Facebook or shower? Tweet or eat? Skype or read a book? Link or think?

• Related: “Page One: Inside the New York Times,” a documentary on the angst and travails of America’s greatest newspaper, featuring the media reporting staff, including David Carr. Reviewer Michael Kinsley calls the film “a mess,” but I recommend it.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• 18-year-old USU sophomore killed in Idaho crash on I-84
• Life after the Church: Former Mormons reflect on their decision, by Heidi Hansen

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

• PeezPix cards & prints
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Coast Guard motor lifeboat Humboldt Bay comes to the WORD’s rescue in the Pacific over Christmas break. Click on the image for the harrowing tale.

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MLK (1929-1968)

2012-01-16T07:18:00.006-07:00

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Misquoted Inspiration

WASHINGTON, D.C.—“Dozens of students from an elementary school in Washington took turns Friday reciting [the Rev. Martin Luther] King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.

“‘We are humbled to be here today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the enduring legacy of his vision for a nation united by respect, integrity and justice,’ said Watkins Elementary School assistant principal Suriya Douglas Williams. ‘Our fifth-graders have studied and prepared diligently to share Dr. King’s message with you, a message which still resonates today, nearly five decades after he first delivered it.’” (CNN)

But King is misquoted on his new 30-foot “Stone of Hope” memorial on the National Mall, by Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin.

“There’s a quote carved into the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall: ‘I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness,’” NPR’s Scott Simon said.

“Except, as poet Maya Angelou pointed out this week, it’s not a quote. It’s a concentrated paraphrase that takes a word here and there from a speech that begins with Dr. King saying that he didn't wanted to be lauded, but . . . ‘If you want to say that I was a drum major,’ he began, ‘say that I was a drum major for justice ...’

“Ms. Angelou, a consultant to the memorial, said the words as chiseled, ‘makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit. . . . The ‘if’ clause that is left out is salient. Leaving it out changes the meaning completely.’

“The memorial’s chief architect told NPR that the quote was ‘a paraphrase of the original statement based on design constraints.’ Meaning, I suppose, ‘Hey, there’s only so much room on the wall.’” (Scott Simon, National Public Radio, Sept. 3, 2011)

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week gave the Park Service 30 days to fix the misquotation, saying that in his experience, things a more likely to get done when there’s a deadline.

More (complete) quotes from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), who would have been 83 yesterday:

• “Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids criticism of the government when the nation is at war.... Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.”

• “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

• “Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verbs agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

• “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”

• “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”

• “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

• Editorial Comment: How would the world be different today without the assassinations of the 1960s? What would Martin, John and Bobby have done?

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• 18-year-old USU sophomore killed in Idaho crash on I-84
• Life after the Church: Former Mormons reflect on their decision, by Heidi Hansen

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

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Coast Guard cutter Humboldt Bay comes to the WORD’s rescue in the Pacific over Christmas break. Click on the image for the harrowing tale.
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Press Censorship

2012-01-13T06:54:00.004-07:00

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Shoot the Messenger

“[T]he beginning of 2012 finds much of Latin America suffering the worst wave of press censorship since the rightist military dictatorships of the 1970s. Like never before in recent history, elected presidents who already control their congresses and judicial systems are trying to silence independent media. If they succeed, as they seem to be doing, they will have a de facto license to steal — both money and elections — without any effective legislative or media scrutiny. . . .”

“At the Washington-based 34-country Organization of American States, several countries led by Ecuador approved a proposal Dec. 13 that in effect could kill or severely weaken the OAS Office of the Special Rapporteur of Freedom of Expression, which often denounces member countries’ abuses against freedom of the press. The proposal is scheduled to be submitted to a vote on Jan. 25.

“Commenting on these and other recent measures against independent media, the Inter-American Press Association said in a year-end statement that 2011 has been ‘one of the most challenging and tragic ones’ for press freedoms in the region. Self-censorship is becoming an increasingly normal practice, it said.”

—Andres Oppenheimer, Latin American correspondent,
“Press censorship on the rise in Latin America,” The Miami Herald, Jan. 8, 2012
(Thanks to alert WORDster Dan Kubiske)

• Editorial Comment: Old habits die hard.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

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Coast Guard cutter Humboldt Bay comes to the WORD’s rescue in the Pacific over Christmas break. Click on the image for the harrowing tale.
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Nuts

2012-01-12T05:29:00.005-07:00

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Betcha can’t watch just one

“I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.”

—Orson Welles (1915-1985) filmmaker

• Editorial Comment: I got rid of my TV, but I still eat peanuts. So there.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Life after the Church: Former Mormons reflect on their decision, by Heidi Hansen
• ‘Layaway angels’ alight at Logan Kmart, pay off accounts, by April Ashland
• Firearms instructor encourages people to consider carrying guns, by Kristi Ottley
• ArtsBridge: Building confidence and creativity, one year at a time, by Allee Evensen

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Impact

2012-01-11T06:40:00.004-07:00

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Newspaper Endorsements

“I’d like to thank the [Manchester] Union Leader . . . for not endorsing me!”

—Ron Paul, libertarian Texas congressman and GOP presidential candidate,
who finished second in yesterday’s New Hampshire primary with 22.4% of the vote.
The conservative Manchester Union Leader, New Hampshire’s largest newspaper, endorsed Newt Gingrich, who finished fourth with 9.4%.

• Editorial Comment: News Note: Candidates beg newspapers to ignore them....

• Related: NPR report on Ron Paul’s candidacy

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Life after the Church: Former Mormons reflect on their decision, by Heidi Hansen
• ‘Layaway angels’ alight at Logan Kmart, pay off accounts, by April Ashland
• Firearms instructor encourages people to consider carrying guns, by Kristi Ottley
• ArtsBridge: Building confidence and creativity, one year at a time, by Allee Evensen

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

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Uncertainty Principles

2012-01-10T07:05:00.006-07:00

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WORDs for a NH Primary Day

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt. ”

—Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British philosopher

• Editorial Comment: I’m not so sure about the Republican candidates.

News Note: The nine registered voters in Dixville Notch, NH, (which Spiro T. Agnew called “Knoxville Ditch”) cast the first primary election votes in the nation shortly after midnight: Huntsman, 2; Romney, 2; Gingrich, 1; Paul, 1; Obama, 3. Dixville Notch has correctly picked the GOP nominee in past primaries.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Life after the Church: Former Mormons reflect on their decision, by Heidi Hansen
• ‘Layaway angels’ alight at Logan Kmart, pay off accounts, by April Ashland
• Firearms instructor encourages people to consider carrying guns, by Kristi Ottley
• ArtsBridge: Building confidence and creativity, one year at a time, by Allee Evensen

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

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The First WORD of 2012

2012-01-09T06:29:00.006-07:00

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NOTE: The WORD has returned to greet a new year, rejuvenated and drooling somewhat less after a couple of weeks at the sanitarium, St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose. Brace yourself!

Damn Crows

“Part of the deal of working at The New York Times is that your readers, a portion of whom are church ladies and copy ninnies and fact freaks, they wait like crows on a wire for you to make the slightest error and then descend, caw, caw, caw-ing, every time you screw up. It still is something that wakes me up at night.”

—David Carr, media columnist, The New York Times, “David Carr: The News Diet of a Media Omnivore,” on “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, WHYY, National Public Radio, Oct. 27, 2011
Image: Still of David Carr in the Times newsroom from “Page One” documentary (2011)

• Editorial Comment: Hmphh. Critics. And sometimes they drop, er, editorial comments on your windshield....

• Related: “Page One: Inside the New York Times,” a documentary on the angst and travails of America’s greatest newspaper, featuring the media reporting staff, including David Carr. Reviewer Michael Kinsley calls the film “a mess,” but I recommend it.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Life after the Church: Former Mormons reflect on their decision, by Heidi Hansen
• ‘Layaway angels’ alight at Logan Kmart, pay off accounts, by April Ashland
• Firearms instructor encourages people to consider carrying guns, by Kristi Ottley
• ArtsBridge: Building confidence and creativity, one year at a time, by Allee Evensen

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

• PeezPix cards & prints
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Disclaimer:
• • •
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent weekdays during the school year to 1,800 or so misguided volunteer subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@usu.edu. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. WORD archives, commentary and reader discussion at http://tedsword.blogspot.com (Disclaimer: I just quote 'em, I don't necessarily endorse 'em. All, in theory, contain at least a kernel of truth.)
• • •
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah
To receive Today's Word on Journalism, or to flame the WORDman, email ted.pease@usu.edu
“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." --Tom Stoppard
• • •
CALLING ALL UTAH STATE U. JCOM ALUMS: Where are you? We're updating our alumni list. Please check in with Perfesser Ted.
• • •

A Final WORD for 2011

2011-12-15T08:07:00.004-07:00

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The WORDster writes: Buried by life and the end of the semester, we’re sending the WORD off to the sanitarium at St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Overwritten a bit early this year for a little holiday break. Rumination and reflection are needed. With that (or this), I thank you all once again for your patience and restraint. If you’re still reading this, you are a better man than I, Gunga Din! Have a lovely December break. Take a dog for a walk. Hug someone you love. And then do it again. God bless us, every one.

Dr. Ted
Perfesser of Interesting Stuff

Enough, already!

“Words! Words! Words! I'm so sick of words!

I get words all day through;

First from him, now from you!

Is that all you blighters can do?

Don't talk of stars burning above;

If you're in love, Show me!

Tell me no dreams filled with desire.

If you're on fire, Show me!

Here we are together in the middle of the night!

Don't talk of spring! Just hold me tight!

Anyone who's ever been in love’ll tell you that

This is no time for a chat!

Haven’t your lips longed for my touch?

Don’t say how much, Show me! Show me!

Don't talk of love lasting through time.

Make me no undying vow. Show me now!

Sing me no song! Read me no rhyme!

Don't waste my time, Show me!”

—“My Fair Lady,” Lerner & Lowe, 1964

(Thanks to alert—and fatigued—WORDster Tony Seton)

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

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Disclaimers:
• • •
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent weekdays during the school year to 1,800 or so misguided volunteer subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@usu.edu. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. WORD archives, commentary and reader discussion at http://tedsword.blogspot.com (Disclaimer: I just quote 'em, I don't necessarily endorse 'em. All, in theory, contain at least a kernel of truth.)
• • •
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah
To receive Today's Word on Journalism, or to flame the WORDman, email ted.pease@usu.edu
"Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." --Tom Stoppard
• • •
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• • •

Shovel-full

2011-12-14T08:10:00.003-07:00

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A WORD for Final Exam Week

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.”

—W.C. Fields (1880-1946), comedian-philosopher-savant

• Editorial Comment. No comment.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Veterinary science no longer a ‘man’s world’ – women now a majority, by Rachel Kenley
• Bad winter air seeps back into Cache Valley, causes asthma and illness, by Lindsay Nemelka
• Home brew: Art of making wine and beer on the rise in Utah kitchens, by Rouchelle Brockman
• ‘Fix it’ ticket for headlight turns into arrest for failure to appear in court, by Nick Bolinder

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Disclaimers:
• • •
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent weekdays during the school year to 1,800 or so misguided volunteer subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@usu.edu. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. WORD archives, commentary and reader discussion at http://tedsword.blogspot.com (Disclaimer: I just quote 'em, I don't necessarily endorse 'em. All, in theory, contain at least a kernel of truth.)
• • •
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah
To receive Today's Word on Journalism, or to flame the WORDman, email ted.pease@usu.edu
"Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." --Tom Stoppard
• • •
CALLING ALL UTAH STATE U. JCOM ALUMS: Where are you? We're updating our alumni list. Please check in with Perfesser Ted.
• • •

Papa sez

2011-12-13T07:23:00.004-07:00

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Advice from Papa Hemingway

“[W]rite when there is something that you know; and not before; and not too damned much after.”

—Ernest Hemingway

(1899-1961) writer

(Thanks to alert WORDster Ryan Jensen)

• Editorial Comment: That sure would reduce the amount of noise in the system.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Veterinary science no longer a ‘man’s world’ – women now a majority, by Rachel Kenley
• Bell choir startles stressed students with ringing flash-mob concert, by Heidi Hansen
• Weber County man pleads guilty to stealing from USU dorm, by Allee Evensen
• ‘Fix it’ ticket for headlight turns into arrest for failure to appear in court, by Nick Bolinder

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Disclaimers:
• • •
TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM is a free “service” sent weekdays during the school year to 1,800 or so misguided volunteer subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@usu.edu. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. WORD archives, commentary and reader discussion at http://tedsword.blogspot.com (Disclaimer: I just quote 'em, I don't necessarily endorse 'em. All, in theory, contain at least a kernel of truth.)
• • •
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff
Utah State University, Logan, Utah
To receive Today's Word on Journalism, or to flame the WORDman, email ted.pease@usu.edu
"Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little." --Tom Stoppard
• • •
CALLING ALL UTAH STATE U. JCOM ALUMS: Where are you? We're updating our alumni list. Please check in with Perfesser Ted.
• • •

High Hopes

2011-12-12T07:15:00.004-07:00

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What a Dreamer

“I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and mature than most of the broadcast industry’s planners believe.”

—Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), journalist, Radio and Television News Directors’ Convention, 1958 URL

(Thanks to alert WORDster Ann T. Berry)

• Editorial Comment: Mr. Murrow, meet Mr. Murdoch.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Veterinary science no longer a ‘man’s world’ – women now a majority, by Rachel Kenley
• Bell choir startles stressed students with ringing flash-mob concert, by Heidi Hansen
• Drug Court helps addicts help themselves, one step at a time, by Rachel Kenley
• Smithfield City Council signs on for canal rebuilding project, by Nick Bolinder

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Backpack Journalism

2011-12-09T07:09:00.003-07:00

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Golden Age

Terry Gross: “Do you feel like, as a reporter who covers the business of media, that you are reporting on the dismemberment of your own profession?”

David Carr: “No, I think we are entering a golden age of journalism. I do think there has been horrible frictional costs, but I think when we look back at what has happened, I look at my backpack that is sitting here, and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom that I walked into 30 to 40 years ago. It’s connected to the cloud, I can make digital recordings of everything that I do, I can check in real time if someone is telling me the truth, I have a still camera that takes video that I can upload quickly and seamlessly.

“I think that the ability to sit at your desk and check everything against history and narrative, it’s part of how newspapers ended up becoming . . . daily magazines. All the analytics are baked in because the reporters are able to check stuff as they go.”

—David Carr, New York Times media writer,
with “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross, National Public Radio,
October 27, 2011 URL
(Thanks to alert WORDster Jim Foust)
Image: Idaho’s first newspaper, The Golden Age, Lewiston, Idaho, 1862-1865

• Editorial Comment: If a backpack falls in the newsroom, does anyone pay attention?

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Bell choir startles stressed students with ringing flash-mob concert, by Heidi Hansen
• Drug Court helps addicts help themselves, one step at a time, by Rachel Kenley
• Customers queue up in the cold, wait for hours for free food at Cafe Rio, by April Ashland

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Telepaths Wanted

2011-12-08T07:22:00.004-07:00

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Interpreting the Horserace

“As the political reporting heats up, I am reminded once again of how many journalists are totally ignorant of the basic background on what most seem to consider the big story: public opinion polls. I said ignorant, not stupid. They don’t understand the nature of social science research methods, and as a result, they mistakenly believe that with a large enough sample, the polls reveal popular thoughts with the accuracy of teams of telepaths. . . . [S]ince so many reporters are users of social science data, why doesn’t journalism education commonly require courses in social science research methods?”

— Herbert Jack Rotfield, business professor,
Auburn University, 2011
(Thanks to alert WORDster Mark Larson)

• Editorial Comment: Telepaths—great idea. (For the record, our students must take both stats and research methods for exactly this reason.)

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Bell choir startles stressed students with ringing flash-mob concert, by Heidi Hansen
• Cesspools still exist in Logan; council says they can be legal, by Mitch Figgat
• You’d better watch out — for prowlers, not Santa, by Lindsay Nemelka

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Professional Responsibility

2011-12-07T07:03:00.005-07:00

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Step Up or Get Out of the Way

“It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be a critic of the society in which he lives. It is easy enough, and always profitable, to rail away at national enemies beyond the sea, at foreign powers beyond our borders who question the prevailing order. But the moral duty of the free writer is to begin his work at home; to be a critic of his own community, his own country, his own culture. If the writer is unwilling to fill this part, then the writer should abandon pretense and find another line of work: become a shoe repairman, a brain surgeon, a janitor, a cowboy, a nuclear physicist, a bus driver.”

—Edward Abbey (1927-1989), author, iconoclast, environmentalist, the “Thoreau of the West,” said Larry McMurtry
(Thanks to alert WORDster Christine Arrington)

• Editorial Comment: As the Girl Scouts say, “Leave your campsite better than you found it.” (Thanks to Bev Kees. RIP.)

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Bell choir startles stressed students with ringing flash-mob concert, by Heidi Hansen
• Interview with Guns N’ Roses’ Dizzy Reed as band tours U.S., by Ben Hansen
• Locker room search leads to arrest of Logan High student, by Allee Evensen

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Craning for Understanding

2011-12-06T07:00:00.003-07:00

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The Newspaper

“A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices
Which, bawled by boys from mile to mile,
Where every one is kindly and unfairly tried
By a squalor of honest men.
A newspaper is a market
Where wisdom sells its freedom
And melons are crowned by the crowd.
A newspaper is a game
Where his error scores the player victory
While another’s skill wins death.
A newspaper is a symbol;
It is feckless life’s chronicle,
A collection of loud tales
Concentrating eternal stupidities,
That in remote ages lived unhaltered,
Roaming through a fenceless world.”

—Stephen Crane (1871-1900), novelist, poet and journalist,
from War is Kind and Other Lines (1988)
(Thanks to alert WORDster Andrew Merton)

• Editorial Comment: “Eternal stupidities” is about right.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

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• Permit for proposed Richmond ski resort still on hold with Cache P&Z, by Mandy Morgan
• New campus eatery’s 1st week so good, it’s already looking to expand, by Katrina Warburton
• Love That Cookie! wins approval from Wellsville Planning & Zoning, by Mandy Morgan

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The ‘Public Interest’

2011-12-05T06:54:00.005-07:00

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Just Say No

“Journalists in Britain have traditionally justified shady practices by arguing that they are in ‘the public interest.’ Asked by an inquiry lawyer how he would define that, [former News of the World deputy features editor Paul] McMullan said that the public interest is what the public is interested in.

“‘I think the public is clever enough to decide the ethics of what it wants in its own newspapers,’ he said. Referring to articles about Charlotte Church, a singer who told the inquiry this week of her distress at her family’s treatment by the tabloids, he said, ‘If they don’t like what you have written about Charlotte Church’s father having a three-in-a-bed with cocaine, then they won’t read it.’”

—Sarah Lyall, reporter, The New York Times,
“British Inquiry Is Told Hacking Is Worthy Tool,” Nov. 29, 2011

Note: Rupert Murdoch’s 168-year-old tabloid News of the World folded this fall
amid a hacking scandal. These comments by a former editor
at a British government inquiry last week on journalism ethics.

• Editorial Comment: Explains a lot about both the press and society.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

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• Permit for proposed Richmond ski resort still on hold with Cache P&Z, by Mandy Morgan
• New campus eatery’s 1st week so good, it’s already looking to expand, by Katrina Warburton
• Wellsville’s Christmas decorations are hand-made and ‘down to earth,’ by Allie Jeppson

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Pimp

2011-12-02T07:47:00.004-07:00

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Big Brother

“An editor should have a pimp for a brother so he’ll have someone to look up to.”

—Gene Fowler (1890-1960), reporter, editor, screenwriter
and author, 1927

• Editorial Comment: . . . someone close to give you the bird.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Plea in abeyance lets woman avoid jail for minor in possession charge, by Lindsay Nemelka & D. Whitney Smith
• Keep up with news to stay afloat in journalism’s sea changes, by Allie Jeppson
• JCOM’s Communicators Guild hosts students, alumni in first event, by Max Parker Dahl

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• PeezPix & MORE! at TONIGHT’s 9th annual Cache Valley Winter Gift Market, Dec. 2-3.

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He said what?

2011-12-01T06:36:00.004-07:00

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Smashing Good Fun

“After Paul McMullan, a former deputy features editor at Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World tabloid, had finished his jaw-droppingly brazen remarks at a judicial inquiry on Tuesday, it was hard to think of any dubious news-gathering technique he had not confessed to, short of pistol-whipping sources for information….”

“‘I absolutely loved giving chase to celebrities,’ he said. ‘How many jobs can you have car chases in? Before Diana died, it was such good fun.’”

—Sarah Lyall, reporter, The New York Times,
“British Inquiry Is Told Hacking Is Worthy Tool,” Nov. 29, 2011

See also . . .
• The Guardian: “Paul McMullan lays bare newspaper dark arts at Leveson inquiry: Former News of the World man defends brutal Sunday tabloid world,” Nov. 29, 2011.

• The New Yorker: “Is Privacy Evil?” Dec. 1, 2011

• Editorial Comment: Amoral dirtbags.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

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Period

2011-11-30T07:03:00.004-07:00

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More on Punctuation

“There is not much to be said about the period, except that most writers don’t reach it soon enough.”

—Edith Wharton (1862-1937),
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (The Age of Innocence, 1920) and short story writer.
(And, apparently, overindulgent dog owner...)

• Editorial Comment: Sometimes I don’t make it that far.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

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• More than 100 artisans launch gift-giving season at Novemberfest, by Kristi Ottley
• Logan car burglaries almost double over 2010, police say, by Rouchelle Brockman
• TONIGHT: New student Communicators Guild invites JCOM alumni back to campus, by Rhett Wilkinson

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• PeezPix & MORE! at 8th annual Cache Valley Winter Gift Market, Dec. 2-3.

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Sanitized

2011-11-29T06:53:00.003-07:00

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Protecting U.S. Sensibilities?

“Each week, TIME Magazine designs covers for four markets: the U.S., Europe, Asia and the South Pacific. Often, America's cover is quite, well – different. This week offers a stark example. Witness:

“Yes, what you see is TIME devoting its cover in international markets to a critical moment in Egypt's revolution – perhaps the most important global story this week – while offering Americans the chance to contemplate their collective navels (with a rather banal topic and supposition, to boot). . . . ”

“Viewing these covers, a question must be asked: do these moments of marketing (through a choice in covers) reveal more about Americans, or about the state of American journalism?

“I fear the answer.”

—David Harris Kershon, The Kos Group,
“STUNNING: Comparing U.S. & World Covers for TIME Magazine,”
Nov. 25, 2011
Note: more examples at Kos.

• Editorial Comment: I can hear the marketing guys now—Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil—and their boss, O. Strich.

This seems to be a disturbingly standard practice. In the past, CNNinternational has often aired video that is much more graphic than the sanitized (or missing) version seen in the U.S. Al Jazeera and other non-Western news organizations frame events very differently than U.S. media do—one returned Iraq veteran told me shortly after he got back that troops routinely watched Al Jazeera more closely for their news than U.S. sources. Who’s protecting us, from what? And why?

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• More than 100 artisans launch gift-giving season at Novemberfest, by Kristi Ottley
• Logan car burglaries almost double over 2010, police say, by Rouchelle Brockman
• Wednesday: New student Communicators Guild invites JCOM alumni back to campus, by Rhett Wilkinson

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• PeezPix & MORE! at 8th annual Cache Valley Winter Gift Market, Dec. 2-3.

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Tom Wicker, RIP

2011-11-28T06:20:00.004-07:00

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They don’t make many like Tom Wicker, 1926-2011

MONTPELIER, Vt. - On Nov. 22, 1963, Tom Wicker was in the first press bus following John F. Kennedy’s motorcade when the president was assassinated. Wicker, The New York Times’ White House correspondent, would later write in a memoir that the day was a turning point for the country: ‘The shots ringing out in Dealey Plaza marked the beginning of the end of innocence.’

“At that moment, however, all he knew was that he was covering one of the biggest stories in history. ‘I would write two pages, run down the stairs, across the waiting room, grab a phone and dictate,’ Wicker later wrote. ‘Dictating each take, I would throw in items I hadn’t written, sometimes whole paragraphs.’” . . .

“Gay Talese, author of the major history of The New York Times, wrote of Wicker’s coverage: ‘It was a remarkable achievement in reporting and writing, in collecting facts out of confusion, in reconstructing the most deranged day in his life, the despair and bitterness and disbelief, and then getting on a telephone to New York and dictating the story in a voice that only rarely cracked with emotion.’” (AP obit here) . . .

“The searing images of that day — the rifleman’s shots cracking across Dealey Plaza, the wounded president lurching forward in the open limousine, the blur of speed to Parkland Memorial Hospital and the nation’s anguish as the doctors gave way to the priests and a new era — were dictated by Mr. Wicker from a phone booth in stark, detailed prose drawn from notes scribbled on a White House itinerary sheet. It filled two front-page columns and the entire second page, and vaulted the writer to journalistic prominence overnight. . . .”

“Mr. Wicker had many detractors. He was attacked by conservatives and liberals, by politicians high and low, by business interests, labor leaders and others, and for a time his activism — crossing the line from observer to participant in news events — put him in disfavor with many mainstream journalists.”

—Robert D. McFadden, in Wicker’s New York Times obit, Nov. 25, 2011

• New York Times slideshow.

• Editorial Comment: A pretty good legacy for a journalist—on the front lines of huge events, reporting to the world, and attacked by critics on all sides, including journalists. Tom Wicker, an intrepid career with neither fear nor favor. Thank you.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• More than 100 artisans launch gift-giving season at Novemberfest, by Kristi Ottley
• Logan car burglaries almost double over 2010, police say, by Rouchelle Brockman
• Wednesday: New student Communicators Guild invites JCOM alumni back to campus, by Rhett Wilkinson

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• PeezPix & MORE! at 8th annual Cache Valley Winter Gift Market, Dec. 2-3.

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Hit the Couch!

2011-11-23T06:23:00.004-07:00

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The WORD is taking the rest of this Annual Week of Overindulgence off to remember what and whom to thank. And to practice for the Annual Black Friday Burping Cotillion. Enjoy.

TV Therapy

“Seeing a murder on television can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.”

—Alfred Hitchock (1899-1980), filmmaker

• Editorial Comment: Sure. TV always makes me want to kill someone. Mostly my TV.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• News Flash: USU mathematician named best prof in Utah in 2011
• Logan car burglaries almost double over 2010, police say, by Rouchelle Brockman
• New student Communicators Guild invites JCOM alumni back to campus, by Rhett Wilkinson

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• PeezPix & MORE! at 8th annual Cache Valley Winter Gift Market, Dec. 2-3.

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Glam Me

2011-11-22T06:05:00.008-07:00

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The Glamour of Grammar

“The word grammar has taken a bit of a nosedive since the days when some tipsy scholar north of Hadrian’s Wall mixed up his r’s with his l’s.

“Today grammar connotes everything unglamourous: absentminded professors; fussy schoolteachers; British grammazons with binding names like Lynne Truss; nagging perfectionists; pedantic correctionists; high school [or university] students asleep at their desks, stalactites of drool hanging from their lips. Long lost from grammar are associations with power, magic, enchantment and mystical energy.”

—Roy Peter Clark, writer and word-lover, in his The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English (2010)

• Editorial Comment: Conjugate, you trolls!

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• News Flash: USU mathematician named best prof in Utah in 2011
• Logan car burglaries almost double over 2010, police say, by Rouchelle Brockman
• New student Communicators Guild invites JCOM alumni back to campus, by Rhett Wilkinson

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‘Advocacy’

2011-11-21T06:20:00.003-07:00

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The Gonzo Hammer

“There are a lot of ways to practice the art of journalism, and one of them is to use your art like a hammer to destroy the right people — who are almost always your enemies, for one reason or another, and who usually deserve to be crippled, because they are wrong. This is a dangerous notion, and very few professional journalists will endorse it — calling it ‘vengeful’ and ‘primitive’ and ‘perverse’ regardless of how often they might do the same thing themselves. ‘That kind of stuff is opinion,’ they say, ‘and the reader is cheated if it’s not labeled as opinion.’

“Well, maybe so. Maybe Tom Paine cheated his readers and Mark Twain was a devious fraud with no morals at all who used journalism for his own foul ends. And maybe H.L. Mencken should have been locked up for trying to pass off his opinions on gullible readers and normal ‘objective journalism.’ . . .

In my case, using what politely might be called ‘advocacy journalism,’ I’ve used reporting as a weapon to affect political situations that bear down on my environment.”

—Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005), journalistic and counterculture icon,
Better than Sex (1994)
Image: Thompson with 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern/Annie Leibowitz, Rolling Stone

• Editorial Comment: That’s more like guerilla journalism, Dr. T.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• News Flash: USU mathematician named best prof in Utah in 2011
• Logan car burglaries almost double over 2010, police say, by Rouchelle Brockman
• New student Communicators Guild invites JCOM alumni back to campus, by Rhett Wilkinson

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• PeezPix & MORE! at 8th annual Cache Valley Winter Gift Market, Dec. 2-3.

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Future of News

2011-11-18T07:18:00.007-07:00

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Is this any way to run an airline?

Point: “‘This model that you’re pursuing I think is broken. I don’t even think it’s a model you can justify,’ said House Majority Whip Greg Hughes, R-Draper.”

Counterpoint: “Deseret News President and CEO Clark Gilbert told lawmakers that his newspaper doesn’t cover politics as traditional news media do, but instead covers it only as it relates to the newspaper’s six new areas of focus: families, education, faith, care for the poor, financial responsibility and values in the media.

“‘What should the Deseret News be good at? Cynical, negative, skeptical journalism, or journalism that focuses on helping people improve their lives?’ Gilbert said.”

Final word: “Hughes said an analogy of what the Deseret News is doing is, ‘If you have an airline that flies to St. George, and you decided not to fly but have buses. You’re still going to have transportation, but you are not an airline.’”

—Lee Davidson, reporter, The Salt Lake Tribune (and former Deseret News staffer), covering a free breakfast hosted by Deseret Connect for Utah legislators.
“Some Utah legislators don’t like Deseret News’ citizen journalism:
During breakfast with news boss, some express their mistrust,”

Nov. 17, 2011
(Thanks to alert WORDster Randy Simmons)
Cartoon by Pat Bagley/Salt Lake Tribune

Related: After confessing to feeding news stories to DNews under pseudonym,
West Valley City mayor resigns his job at PR firm to preserve “transparency.” See also, Wednesday’s WORD.

• Editorial Comment: Hi. I'm Dee Connect. Fly me.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• News Flash: USU mathematician named best prof in Utah in 2011
• Reflections of a Metal God—an interview with Ian Hill of Judas Priest, by Ben Hansen
• City council votes to spend $300,000 on new fire truck for Wellsville, by Allie Jeppson
• Paradise council decides – reluctantly – to join flood insurance program, by D. Whitney Smith

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Doomed by Technology?

2011-11-17T06:14:00.004-07:00

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What’s Killing Newspapers?

“Our parent corporation, McClatchy Newspapers, has watched its stock fall like the rest of Wall Street—only sooner and further. We’ve had to make unprecedented cutbacks—including, for the first time, and then the second, in the company's history—layoffs. Or, as one typically cynical McClatchy reporter calls ’em, ‘cake days.’

“Even here at the Sun-Star, we lost people. The newsroom, my responsibility, is down to seeds and stems in terms of numbers of reporters, photographers, copy editors and sports writers.”

—Mike Tharp, executive editor, Merced (Calif.) Sun-Star, 2008 URL
Note: As of this morning, the Sun-Star was still alive, thank you very much.

• Editorial Comment: “Seeds and stems”? They do inhale in California, don’t they?

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Richmond votes to regulate future sexually oriented businesses, by Rouchelle Brockman
• Reflections of a Metal God—an interview with Ian Hill of Judas Priest, by Ben Hansen
• Logan High theater students ready for comic fairytale ‘Mattress,’ by Kristi Lambert

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Citizen Journalism—Not

2011-11-16T07:27:00.005-07:00

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Who wrote that?

“The Deseret News isn’t the only newsroom to embark on a citizen-journalism model to make up for smaller reporting staffs. The benefits are obvious: The content is cheap. But the costs can be enormous.

“Giving people a pipeline to your news pages and your website — labeling it as ‘news’ and treating it just like the stories produced by your reporters — is an invitation for abuse. People have vested interests in getting information out. Usually it is not evil; it’s human nature. You want to give a plug to your brother-in-law’s new business, to your child’s school, to your own enterprise.” . . .

“If Mike Winder wants to become a reporter, he should go back to college and take journalism classes. In Journalism 101, he will learn that what he did was a disservice to newspaper readers and the citizens of his city.”

—Terry Orme, managing editor, The Salt Lake Tribune,
“Editor column: West Valley City mayor harmed his city, Deseret News readers,” Nov. 12, 2011
Image: Salt Lake Tribune

Background: West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder, frustrated by thin news coverage of his city, started submitting news stories to area newspapers under a pseudonym, “Richard Burwash.” Since the story broke, The Deseret News and other media are reexamining policies on “citizen journalism.” Winder resigned yesterday from his job as a PR executive, but continues as mayor. In August, The Deseret News laid off 43% of its newsroom staff.

• Resource: Code of Ethics, Public Relations Society of America.

• Editorial Comment: Mike: We’re registering students for next semester now.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

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They Said, We Said

2011-11-15T07:02:00.006-07:00

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Truthtelling

“We must remember that in time of war what is said on the enemy’s side of the front is always propaganda, and what is said on our side of the front is truth and righteousness, the cause of humanity and a crusade for peace.”

—Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), journalist, political commentator and author of the term “Cold War.”
Image: Wisconsin public employee union protestors. Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor

• Editorial Comment: Our truth is truer than your truth.

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

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Woof!

2011-11-14T07:04:00.004-07:00

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Watchdogs of the Press

“The truth is that most American newspaper people are really more interested in dramatic spot news, the splashy story, than in anything else. They want to be in on the big blowout, no matter how silly, and would rather write about what happened than whether it made any sense. . . .

“We are fascinated by events, but not by the things that cause events. We will send 500 correspondents to Vietnam after the war breaks out and fill the front pages with their reports, meanwhile ignoring the rest of the world, but we will not send one or two reporters there when the danger of war is developing.”

—James B. Reston (1909-1995), Pulitzer Prize-winning author,
New York Times editor and columnist, from The Artillery of the Press, 1966

• Editorial Comment: Woof! Woof! Woofwoofwoof!

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .
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• Democrats a better fit for LDS Utahns, state party leader tells students, by Heidi Hansen
• Review: On last world tour, Judas Priest waves goodbye to Utah, by Cathy Morgan
• Engineers outline transportation master plan for Nibley, by Mandy Morgan
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War, hunh! What is it good for?

2011-11-11T07:27:00.005-07:00

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The Veterans Day Edition: Shared Responsibility

“How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalism and believe those lies when they see them in print.”

—Karl Klaus (1874-1936), Austrian journalist, critic and writer

“Naturally the common people don’t want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. . . . Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

—Gen. Hermann Goering (1893-1946), Nazi commander, 1946

“[The typical] ‘justification’ tactics by proponents of military intervention . . . brought us the entirely false reports, in 1990, that Iraqi soldiers were killing babies in Kuwait City by switching off hospital incubators—brought to us by Washington PR firm Hill and Knowlton. [British journalist] Maggie O’Kane recounted her meeting with nurses at the hospital who were utterly mystified by these stories. The source turned out to be the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to Washington, who was presented to the U.S. Congress as a nurse but, in fact, had not been to Kuwait in years. As O’Kane says: ‘There's always a dead babies story.’ The effect is to demonise the enemy and create a sense of urgency which admits no time for diplomacy.’

—The Peace Journalist Option, findings of the Conflict and Peace Journalism summer school,
Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire, UK, August 1997

“Media coverage is integral to shaping the course of events in war & peace. With technology bringing more rapid and intense coverage, the connection becomes increasingly clear.”

—The Peace Journalist Option, findings of the Conflict and Peace Journalism summer school,
Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire, UK, August 1997

“[W]e have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged—or failed to emerge. . . Editors at several levels who should have been challenging reporters and pressing for more skepticism were perhaps too intent on rushing scoops into the paper.”

—New York Times editorial acknowledging
newspaper’s role in supporting Iraq war, May 26, 2004

Image: Famed WWII front-line reporter Ernie Pyle shares a smoke with a U.S. Marine. (U.S. Defense Department)

• Editorial Comment: Like it or not, remember that we’re all in this together.

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Essential Equipment

2011-11-10T07:28:00.004-07:00

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Good Advice Too Seldom Followed

“The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.”

—Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991),
Novel Prize-winning author

• Editorial Comment: Most writers need more wastebaskets.

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Journalism of Yesteryear

2011-11-09T07:31:00.005-07:00

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“[T]here’s a real thrill in seeing your own byline over a story when it’s in print, and there’s always the feeling that you’ll try to make the next story just a little better.”

“The editorial writer must be able to write on many subjects. But instead of merely reporting news, he analyzes it and explains its meaning, often expressing his personal opinions. He must reason accurately and fairly, and write in an interesting manner. To understand and interpret problems of the day, he must read and study continually, in addition to having a great amount of knowledge and experience.”

—Encyclopedia Britannica Films,

“Your Life Work” series, 1940s

See Maria Popova post here, and on YouTube, Journalism (1940). (Thanks to alert WORDster Barry Kort)

• Editorial Comment: Isn’t that adorable?

MORE INTERESTING STUFF . . . .

• ‘Mingi’ Babies: Friend and colleague Matthew LaPlante, with amazing photos by Rick Egan, tells the heart-wrenching story of tribal infanticide in Ethiopia, in Is the tide turning against the killing of 'cursed' infants in Ethiopia? on CNN.com. Amazing stuff.

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• River Heights residents want animal control to take more responsibility, by Shanna Peterson & Lindsay Nemelka
• Firefighter Academy students use First Dam Run as training opp, by Kristi Ottley
• Temple Grandin: ‘I saw an opportunity to be a practical reformer,’ by Rachel Kenley

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Scribbler

2011-11-08T07:37:00.005-07:00

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Early Bloomer

“I was always going to be a writer. I’ve known this for as long as I’ve known anything. It was an accepted fact in my family by the time I had entered the first grade, which makes no sense, as I was late to either read or write. In fact, I was a terrible student when I was young. I’ve always believed the reason I was passed from grade to grade was that I could put together some raw version of a story or a poem, even if all the words were misspelled and half of them were written backwards. Like a cave child scratching pictures on the wall of bison and fire and dancing, I showed an early knack for content. Only writing kept me from being swept into the dust heap of third grade, and for this reason I not only loved writing but felt a strong sense of loyalty to it. I may have been shaky about tying my shoes and telling time, but I was sure about my career, and I consider this certainty the greatest gift of my life.”

—Ann Patchett, writer and author
of a new online memoir, The Getaway Car, 2011

• Editorial Comment: Ooog to wife: “Bad baby drawing on living room again. Feed to mastodon!”

• ‘Mingi’ Babies: Friend and colleague Matthew LaPlante, with amazing photos by Rick Egan, tells the heart-wrenching story of tribal infanticide in Ethiopia, in Is the tide turning against the killing of 'cursed' infants in Ethiopia? on CNN.com. Amazing stuff.

• Reading List: Columbia Journalism Review has published reading suggestions from selected journalists/Jprofs. Can’t say as I agree (or even have heard of!) all of these, but interesting. Better get caught up.

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• River Heights residents want animal control to take more responsibility, by Shanna Peterson & Lindsay Nemelka
• Logan City Council hopefuls talk growth, pollution, downtown issues, by Heidi Hansen & Cathy Morgan
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In a Com(m)a

2011-11-07T07:19:00.004-07:00

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Punctuation: Take a Breath, Already!

“I have always liked commas, but I seem to be in a shrinking minority. The comma is in retreat, though it is not yet extinct. . . .

“If all this involved only grammar, I might let it lie. But the comma’s sad fate is, I think, a metaphor for something larger: how we deal with the frantic, can’t-wait-a-minute nature of modern life. The comma is, after all, a small sign that flashes PAUSE. It tells the reader to slow down, think a bit, and then move on. We don’t have time for that. No pauses allowed. In this sense, the comma’s fading popularity is also social commentary.”

—Robert J. Samuelson, columnist,
“Farewell, Comma, He Said,”
The Washington Post, 2007.

• Editorial Comment: Let’s not even talk about my colons.

• Related Favorite: The Oxford comma.

• Reading List: Columbia Journalism Review has published reading suggestions from selected journalists/Jprofs. Can’t say as I agree (or even have heard of!) all of these, but interesting. Better get caught up.

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• At Casey’s Barber Shop it’s a beard trim and a haircut, 12 bucks, by Nick Bolinder
• Logan City Council hopefuls talk growth, pollution, downtown issues, by Heidi Hansen & Cathy Morgan
• Utah Bioneers: We all play important roles in sustaining the Earth, by Allie Jeppson

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Odious Speech

2011-11-04T08:19:00.003-06:00

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Drawing the Line

“Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and—as it did here—inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker. As a Nation we have chosen a different course—to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”

—Chief Justice John G. Roberts, U.S. Supreme Court, Snyder v. Phelps (2011), a case involving the reprehensible speech of the Westboro Baptist Church, a group that pickets near the funerals of slain soldiers.

(See David L. Hudson, “Chief Justice Roberts and the First Amendment,” The Freedom Forum, April 22, 2011)

• Editorial Comment: It’s a tricky line between protected odious hate speech and crying fire in a crowded theater. (But, of course, there’s always this, attributed to Voltaire: “I disagree with your words, but I will defend to the death your right to say them.”)

• Reading List: Columbia Journalism Review has published reading suggestions from selected journalists/Jprofs. Can’t say as I agree (or even have heard of!) all of these, but interesting. Better get caught up.

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• USU-Eastern 11.8% enrollment drop ‘sobering’; numbers rise statewide

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Body Slam

2011-11-03T06:53:00.007-06:00

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Posturing Pundits

“I’ve grown out of the habit of following ‘professional entertainers’ in the form of professional wrestling —there are more important things like politics and foreign policy and fiscal responsibility to fill my evenings.

“Now when I want to see something overtly biased, I turn on Bill O’Reilly and watch him pile-drive his guests and their views about government spending. When I’m sufficiently conservative, I’ll switch to Rachel Maddow and work out my liberal angst. . . .”

“Pundits reinforce all of the negative aspects of human interaction within a developed society: ignorance, argumentation, miscommunication, tenacious idiocy.”

—Max Parker Dahl, Utah State journalism student,
in McCarthey Family Foundation essay competition
on whether pundits arethe ultimate independent journalists.
“Opinion: Pundits are like TV wrestling—entertainment, not reality,”
(11/1/11)

• Editorial Comment: Body-slam Stephen Colbert.

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• USU essayists tackle Chris Matthews, pundits to win statewide contest
• USU-Eastern 11.8% enrollment drop ‘sobering’; numbers rise statewide
• The Antics offer zany Halloween improv to enthusiastic theater crowd, by Rachel Kenley

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Arianna Bag Lady?

2011-11-02T07:35:00.006-06:00

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Recycling

“All these bloggers and all these online institutions that live off the resource of the major newspapers and networks are basically taking [their] profitability away from them.

“I once saw a guy in upper Georgetown walking round collecting bottles and I said, ‘Well that’s what they do on the Huffington Post. They basically collect something that somebody already made, and they sell it.’

“But they didn’t make it. They didn’t make that bottle. Somebody paid for it.”

—Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,”
was in Salt Lake City over the weekend (10/29/11).
Hear interview on KCPW
• See story on Matthews’ Utah appearance, and student discussion of punditry.

• Editorial Comment: Recycled news: 2¢ at the Redemption Center.

• Feeling Old? Blast from the Past: John Lennon released “Imagine” on this day in 1971.

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• Weekly News Roundup
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• The Antics offer zany Halloween improv to enthusiastic theater crowd, by Rachel Kenley
• Gang of ghouls, fairies collects 2.3 tons of food for Price food bank, by Austin Ashcraft

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All Together Now

2011-11-01T07:26:00.007-06:00

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Sing Along

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life; they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again.

“It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”

—Anne Lamott, writer

• Editorial Comment: When I sing at the storm, the other guys on the boat pelt me with fish-heads and try to throw me overboard.

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• Weekly News Roundup
• Teams Frankie, Legit and the Butternut Bouncers? Not rock bands — they’re pumpkin launchers, by D. Whitney Smith
• Police report: Accused LHS thieves ‘did it for the rush’; trio suspended for Grizzlies’ championship game , by Kristi Lambert
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Measured Speech

2011-10-31T07:10:00.006-06:00

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Watcheth Your Wordes

“When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.”

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), . . . maybe . . . alleged playwright, Richard II (~1595)

• Editorial Comment: But if they’re not your words, the sky’s the limit!.
See “Was Shakespeare a Fraud?” CBS, Oct. 29, 2011

• Scary: Today’s is Dan Rather’s birthday. He’s 80 years old!

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Weekly News Roundup
• Teams Frankie, Legit and the Butternut Bouncers? Not rock bands — they’re pumpkin launchers, by D. Whitney Smith
• Police report: Accused LHS thieves ‘did it for the rush’; trio suspended for Grizzlies’ championship game , by Kristi Lambert
• Councilman explains why NR students should care about government, by Heidi Hansen

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Not-So-Free Speech

2011-10-28T08:45:00.003-06:00

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Buy a Burglar

Q: “How do you feel about the Citizens United decision, which allows corporations to spend as much as they want on campaign advertising?”

A: “I feel strongly that the court made a serious mistake in finding that money is the equivalent of protected speech. If followed out to its logical conclusion, that would have provided First Amendment protection to the Watergate burglars. They were financed with campaign contributions.”

—John Paul Stevens, former U.S. Supreme Court justice, in Belinda Luscombe, “10 Questions,” Time, Oct. 31, 2011

• Editorial Comment: In 2012: we deserve the best leadership money can buy.

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• For Army ROTC commander, leadership = service, integrity & humor, by Heidi Hansen

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Potent Stuff

2011-10-27T07:40:00.005-06:00

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Magic Concoctions

“Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”

—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), Massaschusetts novelist

• Editorial Comment: Remember Luke, use the Force for good.

...and Old Nate sure knew his hats!

Visit our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café
• Opinion: Degrees to everywhere—USU students refute lawmaker’s gibe, by Ted Pease & Dan Smith
• Shaking up the valley: Cache County signs on for April earthquake drill, by Allee Evensen
• For Army ROTC commander, leadership = service, integrity & humor, by Heidi Hansen

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