NYT will take pot questions at 4:20 today

Good morning. Here are 10 or so media stories.

1. BuzzFeed fired Benny Johnson for plagiarism: “After carefully reviewing more than 500 of Benny’s posts, we have found 41 instances of sentences or phrases copied word for word from other sites,” BuzzFeed EIC Ben Smith wrote Friday night. (BuzzFeed) | Smith’s memo to staffers. (@brianstelter) | Johnson’s lifts offend “not only readers but Web journos everywhere who fiddle to no end with their copy to guarantee originality, who link neurotically to eliminate any suggestion of misappropriation, who close and reopen and close and reopen their posts before publishing to re-inspect this little thing or that little thing, and who finally hit ‘publish’ with a plume of palm sweat.” (The Washington Post) | The 34 sources from which Johnson lifted. (Gawker) | BuzzFeed stands by a January piece in which Johnson quoted anonymous intelligence sources who said they’d like to kill Edward Snowden. (Pando)
2. Legalize pot, NYT editorial board urges: “Repeal Prohibition, Again” (NYT) | The NYT will continue to drug-test employees: “‘Our corporate policy on this issue reflects current law,’ the spokeswoman said.” (HuffPost) | Judy Woodruff: “When I think of grass I think of something to walk on, pot as something to put a plant in.” (Mediaite) | Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal will take questions on Facebook at 4:20 p.m. Monday (NYT Facebook)
3. Sarah Palin launches subscription-based online channel: “The conservative pol’s online network is modeled on TheBlaze, the online-video network and website that ex-Fox News host Glenn Beck launched in 2011.” (Variety) | “no half-term package?” (‏@SteveFriess) | Palin calls The Washington Post’s leadership “wusses” (Sarah Palin Facebook)
4. The National Enquirer wants to win again: Joe Pompeo writes about the newspaper’s struggle to claw back from financial and editorial struggles. “Anyone who has information and wants to get paid, call me,” Editor-in-Chief Dylan Howard tells Pompeo. “My checkbook is open.” (Capital)
5. Michel Martin writes about childcare: Women of color “often face additional pressures that white women are far less likely to encounter” when balancing work and family, the NPR host writes. “One reason I am so disappointed about the cancellation of Tell Me More, which will have its last broadcast Aug. 1, is that the show has allowed me to prioritize these discussions on my own terms.” (National Journal)
6. News, but with ambient sound: Tools to lighten your text-heavy articles. (journalism.co.uk)
7. Reddit wants to improve its advertising business: “‘Reddit is a 1998 product, trying to have a 1998 business model,’ said Gina Bianchini, chief executive of Mightybell, a social networking start-up.” (NYT)
8. Tweet of the weekend: “BREAKING: Col Allen out, J. Jonah Jameson in at New York Post.” (@harrysiegel)
9. Here’s today’s world news, edited by Kristen Hare: Media regulators say the BBC’s Jeremy Clarkson “deliberately used a pejorative racial term to refer to an Asian man on BBC2’s Top Gear, causing offense without justification and breaching broadcasting rules,” Jason Deans reported for The Guardian. The incident took place in March during an episode of “Top Gear.” | In a Sunday editorial, The New York Times said censorship and pressures on the press have returned to India. | Here’s the front page from Apple Daily – Taiwan edition, in Taipei, Taiwan. (Beware the shopping cart.) Front page courtesy Newseum.

   

10. Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin: Joe Flint will be a media reporter at The Wall Street Journal. He’s currently a media reporter for the Los Angeles Times. (@JBflint) | Danielle Knox will be an anchor and reporter at WSVN in Miami. Formerly, she hosted a show on Lifetime. (TVSpy) | Tammy Cohen and Lori Cohn have both been named executive beauty directors at Self. Formerly, they were both executive beauty directors at Lucky. (FishbowlNY) | Job of the day: The Kokomo Tribune is hiring a sports reporter. Get your résumés in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.

Suggestions? Criticisms? Would like me to send you this roundup each morning? Please email me: abeaujon@poynter.org.