Good morning.
- Wait Wait…Don’t tell me!
The stories about concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall were written for NPR Music and WQXR, a terrific public radio classical station, by a WQXR online editor. (Poynter) They were modest but obvious lifts, appeared on a consistent basis, were caught by another editor and are now disclosed fully by NPR. (NPR) There were phrases like “robust, soulful performances,” “pushed to the edge of a precipice,” “brooding and dramatic masterpieces,” and “bold gestures of collective mourning.” Other lifts were not modest: “But don’t underestimate the St. John. Its very compactness gives it a power of its own.” The online editor accepted blame for what he called “unintentional lapses.” Sorry. Look at them in their totality and they appear far more deliberate than unintentional. In an Internet age, this surely goes on all the time. It’s easier to cheat and, occasionally, easier to catch.
- Reporter scores a stunning lunch
Malcolm Moore of the Financial Times this morning disclosed his Zurich lunch with Sepp Blatter, disgraced and potent former head of FIFA, the soccer powerhouse, who is now under criminal investigation. After “we clink glasses of a Swiss sauvignon blanc,” heretofore low profile Blatter claims there were initially de facto secret deals to give the 2018 and 2022 World Cup to Russia and the U.S., respectively, but that the stunning decision to give hot-as-blazes Qatar the 2022 event resulted from an even more secret deal cut by the French to sell 24 fighter jets to Qatar for $7 billion. In return France would lobby for Qatar over the U.S. in 2022. Blatter says then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy was a ringleader, according to both a story and video from reporter Moore. What doesn’t quite wash is Blatter claiming he himself was surprised when he pulled Qatar’s name out of the envelope to announce the result of the secret ballot. (Financial Times) Whatever. His bosses should toast Moore with another sauvignon blanc.
- An obvious conflict at The New York Times
The paper’s style magazine ran an article, “The Transformers,” written by a somewhat rare species — a billionaire freelancer — Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen. It included a section about the chief executive of Airbnb. Arrillaga-Andreessen is a rare species in part since she’s married to Marc Andreessen, a billionaire tech legend who led a $112 million investment in Airbnb at a critical moment in its young history. The magazine editor, Deborah Needleman, disagrees that those circumstances should have precluded Arrillaga-Andreessen from doing the piece but says the investment should have been noted. She says, too, that she would have “thought twice” about the Airbnb mention. Alas, this probably didn’t need a second thought. Margaret Sullivan, the public editor, is right in saying that this was the wrong person to write the (pretty puffy) piece. (The New York Times)
- Rachel Maddow to go solo
She’ll moderate a Democratic presidential forum in South Carolina next week. It’s not technically a debate and will be marked by separate conversations with each candidate. But it follows the somewhat untidy CNBC-run Republican debate Wednesday and inadvertently suggests why the networks should mull single-moderator formats. Get a smart person like Maddow and let her run the show rather than continue to operate the debates as ego-massaging, equal opportunity events for a politically correct, sprawling group of network stars.
- Ben Carson’s quest for softballs
Chagrined by what he deems “gotcha” questions, Carson said he’ll now ask other GOP candidates about changing the format for future debates. (The Wall Street Journal) Carson has been handled genteelly up to now since nobody gave him a chance in hell. The scrutiny will now increase and will probably speed his morphing from flavor of the month into historical footnote. “What it’s turned into is a ‘gotcha’ opportunity to cast candidates in a negative light,” he said yesterday. I suggest his getting on Air Trump and flying to Moscow for Vladimir Putin’s next meeting with the press to see an example of what he thinks he’s missing. Doc, ours is a democracy.
- Is the right to record the cops absolute?
Reporters may increasingly wonder. The apparent answer: not totally. “This is a good time again to review the issue—because just last week, a federal court ruled that a police chief violated a man’s First Amendment rights by threatening to arrest him if he recorded the chief after a city council meeting.” (CJR) Still, it’s not an absolute right, as explained here. For example, a cop could declare an accident or crime scene shut for safety reasons and thereby restrict any recordings.
- The past as prologue
There must be four or five Washington media operations where Stephen Smith hasn’t worked but I can’t quite recall them at the moment. He’s been an editorial boss at National Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, TIME and The Washington Examiner. Now he’ll return to a restructured National Journal, where he was editor from 1995-1998, to oversee its morphing into a leaner, subscription-only operation as part of moves by Atlantic Media boss David Bradley. This could be tricky. (POLITICO) There’s not a limitless number of intelligent folks in Washington. The market for hawking intelligent intelligence is finite. At the same time, really good intelligent intelligence can be hard to find, and the relative minority of citizens who value it may be willing to pay dearly for it. Bradley’s got a good track record in luring talent. But is it wishful thinking that can he maintain the high quality and monetize it as he reduces his body count and relies on a different business model?
- How dare Jeb not show on CNN!
CNN “New Day” co-host Alisyn Camerota was pointedly chagrined that Bush didn’t hop out of bed after his dismal debate performance and explain his dismal debate performance to CNN. After all, she noted to a Bush spokesman who surfaced instead on her show, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio and Mike Huckabee were coming on. She implied that a morning-after CNN autopsy following a dismal debate performance was as de rigueur, as the French would say, as checking out the Eiffel Tower while in Paris. (Poynter) Apparently not.
- A (partial) defense of CNBC
The New Yorker’s Amy Davidson concedes the Republican debate moderators “utterly failed to control a group of candidates whose level of detachment from facts and vitriol seemed to surprise them when it shouldn’t have.” (The New Yorker) But could they have controlled a bunch of folks intent on calling them liars “and who, by the end, were simply ignoring both questions and time limits”? Hey, they can find (partial) solace in the Onion decreeing them winners: “Somehow able to get under the skin of notoriously calm, reasonable group of GOP candidates.” (Onion)
- Dog-sniffing dispute smells fishy
An Oregon journalist is filing suit against the Baker City police, alleging harassment and trying to get him canned from a post-newspaper job at a nonprofit. Why? He had criticized the police drug enforcement dog unit for patrolling a high school girls basketball game. The ACLU is representing him in a case where he alleges a series of unwarranted traffic stops and the cops monkeying with a police “fact file” on him by grossly inflating the number of contacts he’d had with them. (Oregonlive.com) Well, stay away from police dogs at girls basketball games tomorrow night and do have a happy Halloween.
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Georgine Anton will be executive vice president and general manager at Meredith Xcelerated Marketing. Previously, she was executive vice president and chief client officer there. (Email) | John Simons is now enterprise editor at International Business Times. Previously, he was Business Editor there. (TalkingBizNews) | Stephen Smith is now editor in chief at National Journal. Previously, he was editor of The Washington Examiner. (POLITICO) | Ben Pershing will be managing editor at National Journal. Previously, he was editor of National Journal Daily. (Email) | Job of the day: WBEZ is looking for a weekend producer. Get your resumes in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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