... this Houston reporter (who, by the way, also receives the "MOST AWESOME TV REPORTER EVER!!" award). Language NSFW, or most television audiences.

This doesn't come as a shock, but it sure isn't fun to hear: This morning Reporters Without Borders released their Press Freedom Index, the leading survey measuring freedom of the press by country. As a result of 2011's well-documented targeting of journalists covering the Occupy movement, the US fell 27 places down the list (to put that in perspective, Bahrain fell by 29). Not that we, the land of the free, were doing so hot in the ratings last year, either. We were #20 then, and we're #47 now, just slightly better than Argentina and slightly worse than Taiwan. In the top 10 are countries like Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland, and the worst of the worst include Sudan, China, and Eritrea.

• Flagging freedoms.

We just received the following email from the media coordinator over at David Douglas school district in regards to the six-year-old girl who was swept away in the flooded Clackamas River and is presumed dead.

Please pass this along to relevant reporters and editors. The David Douglas School District has been informed that members of the news media are approaching the Snegur family home, and knocking on the door in hopes of speaking to someone. The family has gotten word to us and asked that the media please respect the families wishes. Please do not approach the family home. Thank you.

Dan McCue
Communications Director
David Douglas School District

Let me translate that for those members of the media that still don't get it: YOU ARE THE WORST. Fuck what your assignment editor told you, fuck what your idiot journalism teacher told you. If you think you're honoring the "public's right to know" by pestering these people in a moment of crisis and mourning, you know who you are—and YOU ARE THE WORST.

(Above translation translated: I am mad.)

The 1996 instructional guide for upstart reporters called The News Formula: A Concise Guide to News Writing and Reporting by Catherine C. Mitchell and Mark D. West is about how to be a real journalist, the sort we should all aspire to be:

Any display of bias, any interjection of the news writer's feelings or opinions into a news story, hurts the contract between a newspaper and its readers. When an author expresses any sort of opinion, no matter how mild or insignificant, it becomes extremely difficult to trust the fairness of the story.

No exceptions:

What, then, are reporters supposed to do when a public official tells a lie or gives our misleading facts? ... The newspaper should report the statement, without any hint of the reporter's feelings about truth or falsehood. If the statement libels someone, of course, the newspaper must be cautious, but in the vast majority of cases in which the reporter disagrees with something a source says, he or she should simply report the statement and let readers decide about its truth for themselves.

While those in warmer climes might be able to walk/drive/take public transit that isn't as frozen as your pipes are going to be at 3 am, and visit an old time "library" where they can creak open the rusty relic known as an "encyclopedia", we Snownarök-bound (thanks, Fruit Cup!) P-towners will need to find a Wikipedia alternative that does not involve leaving our indoor heating systems tomorrow. (As mentioned in GMN, your favorite argument settling, bar trivia cheating web site is blacking out its English language version for 24 hours to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, along with Reddit, Boing Boing, and others.)

The Washington Post, The Guardian, and NPR, among others, are collaborating on a one-day "band-aid" substitute on the Twitters. Instead of Wiki-ing it up the answers tomorrow, try asking your question with #altwiki for crowd sourced answers, including from staff of the participating media outlets. You'll probably be at least as well off as you were with ChaCha, and certainly in better shape than you were with AskJeeves.

Counterpoint:

Good... to... know. GET IT RIGHT, NEW YORK TIMES!!
via

Last spring, I very publicly called the Oregonian to stop FOODday delivery to my house.

I've kept quiet about FOODday since then because I was a bit sheepish to admit that, like a terrible rash, the FOODday returned. The paper stopped its delivery for a couple months but then the FOODday came creeping back. I've just been letting them pile up, every once in a while working up the ambition to throw out a giant pile of the papers.

According to people who've gone through the effort to join an anti-FOODday Facebook group, my experience is not unique. Apparently numerous people experience FOODday resurgence, where they ask the O to stop delivering its wasteful weekly sack of coupons and the delivery subsides, then returns.

Well, last week my friend Anna was in town from New York. After a long night, she got to my house before I did and then called, sounding a little freaked out.

"I think someone maybe vandalized your house," she said, nervously. "It's like someone has dumped a big pile of trash on your porch, like ads or something." You're right, friend. That's exactly what happened.

Last night, a community organizer in Wisconsin tries to ask FOX News anchor Bill O'Reilly a simple, factual question—and found himself at the business end of O'Reilly's umbrella. O'Reilly then tries to have him arrested.

This week, an Oregon Federal court ruled that bloggers or any type of new media journalists do not qualify for the same protection rights as journalists working for a more traditional news entity (ie: newspapers, radio, TV stations). This ruling developed from a Oregon defamation case involving an investigative blogger, Crystal Cox, who refused to share her source, believing that she was covered by the Shield Law.

Each state has it's own flavor of Shield Law, some including new media and blogs and others strictly protecting "traditional" news sources. The court's judge, Marco Hernandez, ruled that Oregon's Shield Law solely protects these traditional sources of media, and added that Cox lacked substantial journalism education and “any credential of proof of any affiliation with a recognized news entity.”

Curious, as that the Oregon's shield law itself states:

No person connected with, employed by or engaged in any medium of communication to the public shall be required by ... a judicial officer ... to disclose, by subpoena or otherwise ... [t]he source of any published or unpublished information obtained by the person in the course of gathering, receiving or processing information for any medium of communication to the public[.]

The whole blogger vs. journalist debate is a hot topic in journalism school seminars — let me tell you what. Personally, I could never come to a succinct end-all point to where the credibility starts and the subjectivity of a "citizen journalist" ends. It really seems to be a case-by-case situation, which isn't what the Oregon (or any) courts want to hear.

So! I talked with Oakland freelance journalist and witty cartoonist, Susie Cagle, about the issue. Cagle has been avidly reporting Occupy Oakland happenings for different publications and her own blog, only to be arrested last month at Occupy for not holding "legitimate" press credentials. Whatever that means.

"When I told my arresting officer that I was press, I was first told, "We'll take care of that in a minute." That next minute turned into 15 hours in two different jails," wrote Cagle in an article describing her experience.

MORE ON HER STORY AFTER THE JUMP

Continue reading »

So reads the headline of today's Dear Abby column. It is a doozy.

DEAR ABBY: I have been battling breast cancer and have been blessed to have a lot of support from family, friends and some awesome medical providers. My husband's best friend and his wife socialize with us quite often, and the friendship is important to him. I recently celebrated a birthday and these friends had us over for a belated birthday dinner. They bought me beautiful flowers and a gift. The card attached made a joke about my "aging breasts," which she found quite funny. Abby, I had a mastectomy, which she knew about! To make matters worse, my hair has just started to grow back from the chemo, so I decided to have some highlights put in, and she told me she didn't like my new hair.

The longer I work in news, the more I've solidified a secret passion: I love infographics. This one in particular - pieced together by GOOD, Column Five and the Pew Research Center - tackles news media in particular, specifically the public's take on its role.

• GOOD and Column Five

The results? Turns out Republicans are less trustworthy of ye olde news, seeing journalists as politically biased. Compared to 1985, 2011 news digesters' distrust in accurate reporting has nearly doubled along with the idea that news media has crippled democracy. Ouch.

Nonetheless, folks still trust local news organizations over the Obama administration, political candidates, Congress and the federal government as a whole.

Check out a zoomed-in version of the entire infrographic below here.

• GOOD adn Column FIve

In an interview with Sean Hannity to discuss his new book, Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?, Buchanan expanded on part of the book's premise, that America is "disintegrating" because "white America is an endangered species." Though he claimed that minorities aren't "bad for the country," the America of 2041 Buchanan sketched is one that is bankrupt economically, confounded by crime and lawlessness, and where English is a second language.

...naw, just kidding. Pat Buchanan is totally racist.

In the midst of a deteriorating advertising climate, The New York Times plans to eliminate up to 20 newsroom positions and seek additional savings in the business units, the company said Thursday. [...]

Over the summer The Times Company had anticipated a roughly four percent decrease in advertising revenue in the third quarter, in line with the second quarter. But Ms. Robinson said last month that the company now expected to report a roughly eight percent decline. Notably, online ad revenue is expected to drop about 2 to 3 percent, after rising 2.6 percent in the second quarter.

Occupy Portland starts today at noon, and rest assured Columbia Sportswear jacket-wearing reporters from all the local news stations are gonna be up in your grill (along with a few of us Mercury reporters, I bet) asking you one simple question: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?

The way you answer this question is pretty goddamn important (NO PRESSURE!) because rest assured all these "objective" reporters will be trying to paint you and the Occupy Portland movement into something the simplest dullard/viewer can digest. Don't give them the opportunity to portray you as a stink-foot, hippie no-nothing bent on taking down capitalism and tossing a garbage can through a Starbucks window. (Unless that's what you are, then go ahead.) Here are some tips on what to say to reporters and how to say it.

1) If you're wearing a funny hat, take it off. It doesn't matter how smart you are, you will never be taken seriously wearing a funny hat, and it's going to embarrass everyone else.

2) Speak in soundbites. TV stations will be more than delighted to edit down your brilliant, three minute treatise on how "Wall Street has financially gutted America," into one line taken completely out of context, thereby making you look like an idiot. Find the "nut" or basic theme of your position, and cut that down to one snappy, memorable sentence. Then shut up, because that's the sentence they'll use. If they want more, you can elaborate further—but trust me, keep it short. It's better television, and keeps their advertisers happier, if you look like an idiot.

3) Don't know what to say? Paraphrase. It's really hard for anybody to concisely explain what this "Occupy" thing is all about. So when in doubt, paraphrase from someone smarter. Here's a quick, smart one-paragraph description from Edward Murray from Huffington Post about why you are doing what you're doing. Paraphrase. Cannibalize. Memorize.

How many people lost tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in their 401(k) funds over the last three years? With the recent financial crash and stories of banks successfully executing illegal foreclosures, the average citizen should know by this point that the system is not going to protect you. Our current financial system must cannibalize a majority of its participants in order to continue its own unsustainable growth. This should terrify every taxpaying citizen who doesn't have the comfort of large investments that can be easily liquidated or a solid financial support system. The truth is that most Americans are one lay-off, one bank error, or one instance of corporate malfeasance from financial ruin.

4) Be calm, polite and firm. We know you're excited, but remember where "excitement" got Howard Dean? And don't argue! If the reporter is trying to manipulate or twist your words, WALK AWAY. Don't make his/her job of making you look like an idiot any easier.

5) And finally, SMILE! You're gonna be famous, perhaps even a YouTube sensation, and you can parlay this fame into a book deal, a reality show, and wealth beyond your wildest imaginings!! ... thereby turning you into the person you're protesting against. On second thought? Don't smile.

Your covers are always the best! Always! We try and do something cute with a cat or whatever once in a while, but you always win! Look at this: Shy, defenseless anteaters AND a terrorist comic book? I give up.