Friday, April 20, 2018

It's Pulitzer Day: Is May 1968 About to Happen Again, or Be Surpassed?

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.
Omar N. Bradley 


‘Dear Mark, this is why I hate you.’ An open letter to Zuckerberg Wired



 Virtual escape bitcoin heist mastermind escape from Iceland prison


Public servants should be free to comment on social media under fake names-aat/

 

Jan Palach in Praha - IN THE SIXTIES, STUDENT ACTIVISTS KNEW WHAT “VIOLENCE” MEANT: And they weren’t shy about threatening it. On this day in 1969, a gang of rifle-toting Cornell students marched out of the building that they had been occupying for days. The country was shocked by the incident and mesmerized by the photographs documenting it. Donald Alexander Downs tells the story of that harrowing day (and the spineless university leadership that led up to it) in Cornell ’69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University.Did Orwell really did shoot an elephant in Burma? Did Sontag accurately represent a get-together? The vagaries of memory pose a special threat for writers...  WOW to Remembering


Trump lawyers urge high court to bolster his power to fire executive officials - David Savage – LA Times: “The Supreme Court is set to hear a seemingly minor case later this month on the status of administrative judges at the Securities and Exchange Commission, an issue that normally might only draw the interest of those accused of stock fraud. But the dispute turns on the president’s power to hire and fire officials throughout the government. And it comes just as the White House is saying President Trump believes he has the power to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Don't Let an Algorithm Determine if You're Worth Hiring or Not


Power to the party: Why political reforms can be bad for democracy Yahoo "I just don’t even know where to begin …”

It's Pulitzer Day
 

Here at Poynter, today is our Super Bowl, the day when journalism nerds nationwide flock to our site in anticipation of the 3 p.m. (eastern) awarding of the Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and the arts. New Pulitzer administrator Dana Canedy says this year's winners will show the strength of American journalism during increased physical attacks, business challenges and a barrage of presidential criticism.

Here's how we've got you covered so far. (Believe me, we'll have plenty more throughout the day.)

A Pulitzer Day reader:
·        Canedy: The next Pulitzer winners will showcase ‘the strength of the American press, even in the most trying of times’
·        A year ago, Art Cullen won a Pulitzer Prize. But enemies in the Iowa legislature have blocked a resolution commending him for journalism’s highest prize.
·        How Coretta Scott King created the opportunity for the first African American man to win a Pulitzer
Pulitzer trivia:
·        Pull-it-sir or pew-lit-sir?
 

RTDNA: More journalists are in local TV news than in local newspapers, survey says

For the first time in more than 20 years of research, the Radio Television Digital News Association/Hofstra University Survey found the total population of TV newsrooms has surpassed that of newspapers. In the study, out Monday, the average local TV newsroom employment remains just below its all-time high — and nearly 90 percent of news directors expect their staffing to increase or remain the same in the coming year.
Of the newsrooms that were hiring last year, nearly 20 percent of the newly created positions were digital-focused: web, social media or other digital media positions. That’s the highest proportion of new jobs.
The average size of a TV newsroom has been bigger than the average paper’s newsroom for several years, but this was a first in the study for overall numbers of TV news personnel over newspapers. The study hired news consultant Ken Doctor for the newspaper figures, since the American Society of Newspaper Editors stopped counting newspaper jobs in 2016.

Quick hits 

COMEY: “A whole lot of me was thinking, ‘Oh my God!’” That’s James Comey, to George Stephanopoulos, when asked if he wondered that his moves helped make Donald Trump president. The hour-long interview Sunday night covered the material in his new book. “I never thought these words would come out of my mouth,’’ but “it’s possible” the grossest parts of the Steele dossier could have happened, he told Stephanopoulos.
SHORTY AWARDS: White House correspondent April D. Ryan, who received death threats last week after asking a Trump spokesperson a question, was named “journalist of the year” Sunday evening in New York by the Shorty Awards, which generally focuses on social media. An award, posthumously, was given to Erica Garner for best activism, for her efforts to keep attention on the New York police killing of her dad, Eric Garner. The Daily Show also took a prize for its skit on the “The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library” and HQ Trivia host Scott Rogowsky won for best live-stream. We also liked a finalist in education from Southern New Hampshire University, which featured a 94-year-old who just graduated. “She’s currently on her masters,” SNHU’s Libby May told me.
WHAT WILL CHANGE AT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES?: Well, other than the location, which new owner Patrick Soon-Shiong says will be moved from its downtown art deco headquarters to El Segundo, near the airport. Soon-Shiong says he’s looking for a big name as editor, and has approached Dean Baquet of the New York Times and Marty Baron of the Washington Post. Both formerly worked at the LAT.
CIVIL’S NEWEST CONTRIBUTION: The cryptocurrency-based journalism marketplace Civil and Jeff Jarvis’s News Integrity Initiative are helping fund a grant-maker to 10-15 European “emerging media organizations with proven user loyalty.” Here’s more.
BOUGHT: Veteran journalist Katherine A. Rowlands has acquired the regional news service Bay City News Inc. for an undisclosed sum, Marketwatch reported. It provides news feeds to about 100 radio stations, TV newsrooms and newspapers around the San Francisco Bay Area. “I believe that residents in this area and beyond are distressed by what they see as a growing gap in coverage and want to be able to do something about it,’’ she said.
SPIKED: The publisher of the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo., spiked this editorial about the hedge-fund managers who are squeezing the paper. But the editorial page editor, Dave Kreiger, went out and published it elsewhere. The move was applauded by the editor of the hedge fund’s papers in the Bay Area. The same company owns the Denver Post, which published editorials and columns last weekend asking the company to care about journalism — or sell to someone who does.
THE LAST GENERATION: Half of the population of the U.S. Marshall Islands is under 18. Rising seas may make the islands uninhabitable in their lifetimes. This joint project by FRONTLINE and the GroundTruth Project tells that story — in their voices.