By:
March 16, 2018

It started with a plea for help on Twitter.

Over the next six days, in a series of 34 tweets, writer and artist Candace Jean Andersen used the reach of Twitter to find out the identity of the woman in the photo. Fascinated after discovering the tweets, we wove our way through her thread and began to see some really interesting writing techniques.

So we decided to annotate some of them in this story. (You can also read the entire thread here or read the Twitter Moment it created.)

Along the way, we learned to appreciate helpful researchers from the Smithsonian Institute, gain new respect for women biologists and cheer Andersen’s persistence in solving the mystery and giving this woman a name.

And what a name she was.

Now let’s take a journey through some of the other items that caught our attention as we head into the St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Sláinte!

Quick hits

A MAJOR CORRECTION: ProPublica has published a lengthy correction in which it said it erred when it reported in 2017 that Gina Haspel was in charge of a secret prison in Thailand during the infamous interrogation of an al-Qaida suspect. Haspel has been nominated by President Donald Trump to be the new CIA director.

EXTORTION AT ESPN: The Hollywood Reporter has finally uncovered the reason behind John Skipper’s sudden departure as the president of ESPN back in December. With persistent questioning, ESPN historian and journalist James Edward Miller was able to get Skipper to open up to that fateful day when he realized a long-kept secret was in danger of being exposed because of his carelessness.

LAYOFFS AT CHICAGO TRIBUNE: It’s shrouded in secrecy, but apparently the news broke that layoffs are coming at the Tronc-owned newspaper. “It marked the second round of layoffs in five months under publisher and editor-in-chief Bruce Dold,” reports Chicago media chronicler Robert Feder.

STRANGE STAGE FELLOWS: A Financial Times event billed as a networking opportunity for C-suite executives is raising eyebrows over its lineup of interview subjects. New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet and CNN president Jeff Zucker are scheduled for interviews. And so is Steve Bannon. But Baquet told Splinter’s David Uberti that he’s okay with that.  “It sort of feels sort of ‘unjournalistic,’ if that is a word, to refuse to participate in a forum because Bannon or someone else will be in the same event,” Baquet wrote in an email to Splinter.

Amazon
In this Tuesday, May 30, 2017, file photo, the Amazon logo is displayed at the Nasdaq MarketSite, in New York's Times Square. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FEAR OF BEING ‘AMAZONED:’ “It’s the third-most-valuable company on Earth, with smaller annual profits than Southwest Airlines Co., which as of this writing ranks 426th. … It was born in cyberspace, but it occupies warehouses, grocery stores, and other physical real estate equivalent to 90 Empire State Buildings, with a little left over.” Those are just some of the eye-popping facts in a report from Bloomberg that paints a sinister portrait of Jeff Bezos’ empire and its ability to snuff out competitors.

POSTAL RATE HIKE: The Postal Regulatory Commission is proposing a 40 percent rate hike, and that has raised alarm bells for the magazine industry. Linda Thomas Brooks,  president and CEO of The Association of Magazine Media, wrote in an opinion column for The Hill: “A rate increase of such magnitude would likely destabilize national mail operations and could even force local newspapers, charities, catalogues and magazines out of business entirely.”

RADIO ON THE ROPES: iHeartMedia filed for bankruptcy Thursday, reports CNN. The company operates 850 stations across the country. Rival company Cumulus, operator of 445 stations, filed a few months ago. Both are trying to restructure massive debt.

AP DIGITAL TEAM NAMED: Jaime Holguin is the new director of original programming, Ted Anthony becomes director of digital innovation and Darrell Allen is the new deputy director of digital design and tools. Read more from the announcement.

HIRED: Sludge, a news site exposing the hidden influence of lobbyists and special interests, has added four journalists to its team. Josefa Velasquez, formerly of POLITICO and the New York Law Journal, will lead coverage around the 2018 midterm elections, with a focus on statehouse lobbying. Jay Cassano, formerly of the International Business Times and Fast Company, will focus on government secrecy — specifically, how federal agencies are circumventing conventional ethics. Alex Kotch, a contributor to the Young Turks, will follow dark money and how nonprofits are being used for political advocacy. Roseann Cima, a Knight Fellow, will enhance Sludge's campaign contribution analyses, especially around tracking LLC contributions  back to owners. Sludge is one of the first newsrooms on the Civil platform.

PARKLAND SURVEILLANCE VIDEO: The Broward Sheriff’s Office released the footage from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting after the South Florida Sun-Sentinel,  Miami Herald and CNN filed a suit seeking it. The roughly 27-minute clip shows former deputy Scot Peterson standing outside the school after the shooting started. “The video speaks for itself,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that accompanied the release of the video.

NEWSLETTERS: The Lenfest Institute published a deep dive into The Seattle Times' newsletter strategy. The lessons? "Put reader needs first when you’re designing a newsletter and also don’t be afraid to kill something that isn’t working."

OBITUARY: Michael Gelter, a Washington Post foreign correspondent who later served as its ombudsman, has died at 82. He also led the Paris-based International Herald Tribune. The cause was bile duct cancer.

What we’re reading

RELAUNCHING YOUR BRAIN: A new startup called Nectome says it can preserve your brain, but there’s a catch: You have to be euthanized for it to work. The idea is for your brain and body to be frozen like a glass statue for hundreds or even thousands of years, until the day comes that they can scan your brain and turn it into a computer simulation. Crazy? Not really:  “… you should pay attention to Nectome,” notes the MIT Technology Review. “The company has won a large federal grant and is collaborating with Edward Boyden, a top neuroscientist at MIT, and its technique just claimed an $80,000 science prize for preserving a pig’s brain so well that every synapse inside it could be seen with an electron microscope.”

TR-TR-TR-TRASH TALKING: We leave you with this as you settle in for March Madness this weekend:

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