“Good lord, if people had asked tough questions … let me be blunt, David — if people had asked the right questions about Vietnam, my good friend wouldn’t be dead. So I feel pretty strongly about this stuff.
But that doesn’t mean, even then, that you have to crucify people; let’s get the information out. Ultimately, I think it becomes self-defeating if people are convinced you’re out there to score points. They’re going to dismiss the information you do want covered because, well, he’s loaded the dice, and more likely to dismiss what you have found out. So then you end up with these two camps yelling at each other.”
Newspaperdom, December 26, 1895.
Same as it ever was? Same as it ever was.
It’s hard to think of many other journalists who have slogged through such a thankless beat for so long. It’s hard, too, to think of many other beats that are more important to give such tireless coverage.
Advertisement, Newspaperdom, March, 1894.
Makers of Linotype: The Film announced yesterday that they’re in the final stages of editing in preparation for their world premiere on February 3, 2012 in New York City.
The film is all about the most revolutionary innovation in mass communication technology that you’ve never heard of. We here at practical obscurity* have been excited about this film since May! Here’s hoping for a Twin Cities screening!
The tune for “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” comes from a song Felix Mendelssohn wrote in 1840 to honor Johann Gutenberg and the bicentennial of the invention of the printing press.
Thanks to my big sister Erin for tossing this little knowledge nugget my way after church this morning.
An alternative take on last week’s scandal, from MinnPost web editor Corey Anderson.
Print headlines - hilarious! (Hat tip: Practical Obscurity)
That’s what I’m talkin’ about…
If you haven’t been following the scandal involving State Senator Amy Koch, this headline might make you think Minnesotans take holiday neckwear very, very seriously.
(Bonus points for the unfortunate juxtaposition of the headline below the Koch story.)
In the pre-Web days, someone like Ms. Cox might have been one more obsessive in the lobby of a newspaper, waiting to show a reporter a stack of documents that proved the biggest story never told. The Web has allowed Ms. Cox to cut out the middleman; various blogs give voice to her every theory, and search algorithms give her work prominence.
BUT! It’s a bit more complicated than most of the media are reporting (as usual). If you look for the words “even if” in the opinion (scroll down), you’ll see why Cox would be on the hook for the $2.5. million regardless of whether she was considered a journalist.
The Oregon shield law at issue doesn’t apply to civil defamation cases, so not even The Oregonian would be protected by it.
Broadly speaking though, it’s a good example of why, as NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen tweets, “courts should protect acts of journalism, not kinds of people.”
