Deadlines

“When it comes to credibility, speed kills.”

 —Margaret Sullivan, media reporter, “The existential dread of journalists watching the Sarah Palin trial,” The Washington Post, Feb. 11, 2022. Image: Sarah Palin at federal court in Manhattan for her defamation suit against The New York Times. John Minchillo/Associated Press

 

• Editorial Comment: Every journalist needs that on a t-shirt.

• Note: Both the judge and the jury in the Palin v. NYTimes libel case found in favor of the Times yesterday, setting up a potential Supreme Court showdown over the actual malice standard and Times v. Sullivan (1964).

PeezPIX

Froggy

 

February's Senior News — Finding Friendship — is out!    

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”—Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

Words in Flux

 

“Words, word meanings, word senses, and how people react to words are constantly in flux. And whenever we set pen to paper and use words, in spite of how hard we try to be clear, unambiguous and precise, we run the hazard of being misunderstood. 

“There is no way to predict how the reader might react to a particular word, or set of words, because their world view, and experiences, are different from ours.”

—Thomas J. Hinnebusch, professor emeritus of linguistics and African languages at UCLA, in Kelly McBride's “Public Editor” column, NPR, Feb. 10, 2022. 

• Editorial Comment: What d’ya mean by that crack, buster?

PeezPIX 

Dudleya

 

This February, Senior News is Finding Friendship.    

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”—Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

‘Legitimate Political Discourse’

Remember when “political discourse” meant talking and writing about public issues (or, at worst, partisan sniping)? Now, according to the Republican National Committee, it means mobs storming the U.S. Capitol Building.

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell described the attack as a “violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, after a legitimately-certified election, from one administration to the next.”

—Josh Dawsey & Felicia Sonmez, reporters, “‘Legitimate political discourse’: Three words about Jan. 6 spark rift among Republicans,” The Washington Post, Feb. 8, 2022.

 

• Editorial Comment: So, to the RNC, a “neighborly spat” would feature hand grenades.

PeezPIX

Hockamock Head, Swans Island, Maine, 2000

 

February's Senior News — Finding Friendship — is out!    

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”—Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

The Ratings Peril

“But why is American democracy in peril? Some portion of the blame — not a tiny portion — belongs to the network executive who couldn’t resist the ‘ratings machine.’”

 —Margaret Sullivan, media columnist, “Jeff Zucker’s legacy is defined by his promotion of Donald Trump,” The Washington Post, Feb. 3, 2022.

• Editorial Comment: Zucked up.

 

PeezPIX

Alpine Hound, 2008

 

 

February's Senior News — Finding Friendship — is out!    

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”—Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

 

 

 

 

 

 

News Explained

“We try to release the potency of facts. We distill information down into its clearest form and offer that in a way that places the fewest obstacles between the audience and the fact.”

—Ros Atkins, BCC’s “news explainer in chief” and host of “Outside Source,” “The Art of the Viral News Explainer,” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Jan. 26, 2022. Atkins's BBC “explainers” of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's COVID party problems went viral.

• Editorial Comment: The Brits are always a step ahead of us Yanks.

 

PeezPIX

Dusk, 2002

 

 

February's Senior News — Finding Friendship — is out!    

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”—Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism

Hacked Off!

NEWS: Chinese hackers break into News Corp, including Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, and corporate holdings in the U.S. and U.K.

“We are greatly concerned by the recent hacking of News Corp and its publications, which compromise journalists’ ability to protect their unreported source material. We urge Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the origins of this hack so that it can lend credence to its denials that is behind years of cyberattacks on media outlets.” —Katherine Jacobsen, U.S. and Canada program coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists

“We are committed to protecting our journalists and sources. We will not be deterred from our purpose — to provide uniquely trusted journalism and analysis.” —Almar Latour, chief executive, Dow Jones, and publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., said that China was firmly opposed to cyberattacks “in all forms.” 

“CPJ condemns cyberattack on News Corp media publications,” Feb. 7, 2022.

• Editorial Comment: Correction: That statement from the Chinese Embassy should read: “firmly opposed to getting caught in cyberattacks ‘in all forms.’”

 

PeezPIX

Water lily, 2003

 

 

February's Senior News — Finding Friendship — is out!    

FREE! TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM This free “service” is sent to rafts of subscribers worldwide more or less every weekday morning during WORD season. If you have recovered from whatever illness led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: Don’t shoot the messenger. I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em.)

 

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.”—Tom Stoppard

_____________
Edward C. Pease, Ph.D.
Professor & Department Head Emeritus
Department of Journalism & Communication
Utah State University
Today's WORD on Journalism