“If Henry is killed…” Those are the first four words in ProPublica’s harrowing story about a teen locked up in a New Jersey detention center.
Few sources have more at risk than Henry in getting his story told — of a former MS-13 gang-banger who cracked in Long Island, writing a high school essay about the violent trap he was in, getting the help of a teacher and eventually authorities who promised him a spot in the witness protection program if he turned in fellow gang members.
He did. Then the U.S. reneged on its promise. ICE grabbed him and stuck him in a center with other, suspicious MS-13 members. Today, he is scheduled for a final hearing before an immigration judge, who will decide if he should be deported to his native El Salvador and face a threatened death sentence there.
We spoke with ProPublica immigration reporter Hannah Dreier and with Adriana Gallardo, who helped transform Dreier’s narrative into a separate, hard-hitting social story with Twitter cards, photos and Facebook videos of Henry’s texts. That full interview is here.
But first, welcome to the Poynter Morning Mediawire. Here are the stories that may affect your day:
Remembering MLK
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CHANGED BY MLK: This Memphis sanitation worker heard King in his final days. At 75, Cleophus Smith is still on the case. “I really had a lot of animosity. I came from the streets. I was a street thug, and Dr. King was the one who taught me, through his humility, his leadership. I said, ‘That’s the way I’d like to be.’” By Ora DeKornfeld, Emma Cott and Eric Maierson. (Hat tip: Connie Schultz.)
INSIDE: "Let Kathryn in!" said Coretta Scott King. For five days after the assassination, AP correspondent Kathryn Johnson was the only reporter in the King home, chauffeuring his grief-stricken dad, cooking breakfast — and being greeted by Jackie Kennedy, who thought she was the white maid.
STRONG, UNCOMPROMISING: The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson says King was seen as a radical by some, “a complicated figure” — and should be remembered that way. The challenge, he says in this Post video, is to be open to that complex legacy.
‘IT FEELS LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY’: Andrew Young, in a CNN interview with Jesse Jackson at the motel where King was shot. Young and Jackson both had accompanied King to the motel 50 years ago.
WE NEED OPTIMISM: That’s the message of King biographer Taylor Branch, referring to the confidence of a better future by fighters for civil rights. “There’s no greater miracle than that a people who had been denied anything but the whiplash of our professions of liberty nevertheless had the political genius and the indescribable courage to lift the rest of us toward the meaning of our own professed values,” Leonard Pitts Jr. quoted Branch as saying. (Hat tip: Rick Hirsch.)
Quick hits
TV NEWS IS GOOD — FOR NOW: A new report from the Knight Foundation shows that local TV news hasn’t yet been hit by the same forces as local newspapers, but a lot of challenges are coming. Poynter's Kristen Hare writes: "Seven hundred and three local newsrooms now produce news for 1,072 stations. TV’s making most of its money from advertising (about 55 percent of total revenue), political ad spending and retransmission fees."
NOW IT’S 87 MILLION: That’s the maximum number of Facebook users whose data on the social network was improperly harvested by the Trump campaign vendor Cambridge Analytica, Facebook said Wednesday. It said 71 million of them were Americans. Previous outside calculations had the figure at more than 50 million.
WHAT DID THE TRUMP PEOPLE KNOW?: The hijacked data included names, hometowns, work and educational histories, religious affiliations and Facebook “likes” of users. It’s unclear if or how extensive Cambridge Analytica used the data and a related personality test to optimize Trump’s campaign chances by playing to specific characteristics, such as self-confidence, anxiety or fear.
IT GETS WORSE: Mark Zuckerberg said most of its 2 billion users likely have had their public profiles scraped by outsiders without their explicit permission.
MAKE GOOGLE, NOT WAR: Thousands of Google employees, including dozens of senior engineers, have signed a letter protesting the company’s involvement in a Pentagon program that uses artificial intelligence to interpret video imagery. “We believe that Google should not be in the business of war,” says the letter, addressed to Sundar Pichai, the company’s chief executive.
WHY THEY CAN’T QUIT: Bloomberg says some Sinclair Broadcast Group contracts require the local TV employees to pay 40 percent of a year’s wages to the company if they leave before the end of the contract.
ONE QUIT: In Nebraska, a Sinclair producer said corporate-ordered promos prompted him to resign. "This is almost forcing local news anchors to lie to their viewers," Justin Simmons told CNN.
CARTOONISTS BLOSSOM: The Sinclair issue has been a bonanza for editorial cartoonists, writes Michael Cavna.
BUT NOT THIS ONE: Death threats have forced one of Colombia’s leading cartoonists off Twitter and other social media. The threats came after Julio Gonzalez, a.k.a. “Matador," depicted a conservative presidential candidate as a pig. “If they want to come for me, I do not have bodyguards or anything,” Gonzalez said in a farewell tweet. “I have a pencil and my brain, and the people who follow me, a big hug.” (Hat tip: Carol Hills.)
HOW TWITTER TURNED TOXIC: For years, the company’s zeal for free speech blinded it to safety concerns. And the trash talk and abuse increased after President Trump’s election, but so did traffic. Fast Company’s Austin Carr and Harry McCracken explore the “monster” Twitter created.
USA TODAY NAMES PUBLISHER: More than 20 years ago, Maribel Perez Wadsworth began at Gannett on the agriculture beat at the Rockford Register Star. This morning, she takes over as USA Today publisher, the company announced. Wadsworth, also president of the USA Today Network, will remain in charge of the network’s $1 billion consumer division. In February, Gannett named Nicole Carroll editor-in-chief of USA Today.
AWARDS SEASON: It’s a big year for NYT’s Maggie Haberman. She just won the White House Correspondents’ Association award for presidential coverage. Other award-winners: Josh Dawsey, now of the Washington Post, for his Politico story on Sean Spicer's resignation; Reuters for an 18-month investigation into Taser-related deaths; and CNN for breaking the story of presidential briefings of possible compromising information with Trump on Russia. (Hat tip: Ronnie Greene.)
WHAT IS REAL?: Margaret Sullivan examines a study showing a majority of people believe media report “fake news,” and she concludes: “When words can mean anything, and a truth-averse president has made himself the master of meaning, democracy is in peril.” Related: An Ohio State poll shows pro-Trump “fake news,” some of it from Russia, may have depressed HIllary Clinton’s votes enough to swing the 2016 presidential election.
MAINE IS HIS: Reade Brower, who made a fortune in direct marketing, owns six of Maine’s seven daily newspapers and a swath of its weeklies as well. Now he has gained a 50 percent share of Portland’s weekly newspaper, which had been founded to provide an alternative to the daily paper that is now its partner. Jake Bleiberg reports.
What we’re reading
THE NEWS WE NEED: In the world where platforms, or discovery centers, control audience, the problem for news providers and consumers “is not just paying for stories — it may include paying for these stories to reach the audiences who need them.” So says Ethan Zuckerman of MIT’s Center for Civic Media. That’s needed if the news cannot meet the battle for attention on these platforms, he writes.
THE PARKLAND YEARBOOK: At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, students are wrestling with how to tell the story of a “normal” year when it was so indelibly marked by a mass shooting. The balance is important. “This,” says yearbook co-editor Elizabeth Stout, ‘’has to be remembered for the rest of our lives.”
A memorial layout for the yearbook. (Screengrab)
HELL: Four prisoners have died in this warden’s private Mississippi prison, but he’s not penalized for that, the NYT’s Timothy Williams reports. He’s incentivized to stay within budget, even if outside experts say a lack of guards makes the facility unsafe.
BEYOND THE HEADLINES: The Post’s Martine Powers digs into the dog deaths on United Airlines and finds something new: Half the dogs who died on flights over three years came from breeds that other airlines would not accept. Those include short-nosed breeds susceptible to respiratory issues, such as bulldogs, boxers, pugs, Boston terriers, Pekingese, mastiffs, shih tzus. “For people who needed to travel with a boxer or a bulldog, United was often the only way their dog could travel by air,” Powers writes.
HOW IT’S COVERED: The NYT’s Matt Apuzzo has reported on five U.S. attorneys general. In this first-person piece, he says he looks for stories that surprise within the halls of the Justice Department.
JUST ONE MORE: A little boy. A turtle he found in a parking lot — and named Little Dude. A manuscript, about the strengthening turtle and the weakening boy, that sat in a drawer for 20 years. Now, that manuscript is published. The Boston Globe’s Billy Baker and “Goodbye Little Dude.” (Hat tip: Bill Mitchell.)
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Got a tip, a link, a suggestion? Please email me at dbeard@poynter.org.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Reade Brower's name.
