Category: Media
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William Safire, goofy grammarian
Of course, I’m not a big fan of Safire’s politics, but his language column in the NY Times Magazine on Sundays used to hold my interest for some portion of the 30 seconds it took me to flip past the stories to the crossword. And now, this, a weird take on the vocabulary of the…
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An interview with John McManus of Grade the News
As promised, loyal readers (both of you), I tracked down John McManus, director of Grade the News, to follow up on a report in the Palo Alto Weekly that the five-year-old media watchdog group was in danger of losing its funding, and thus, its life. Truth be told, McManus isn’t that hard to find. He…
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Save Grade the News
Palo Alto Weekly is reporting that Grade the News, currently headquartered in Dwight Bentel Hall in a room just outside the photo studio/student lounge, is out of cash, and about to be out on the street. The article in the Weekly says that the content analysis watchdog group needs $180,000 — its annual budget —…
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How to write about a lawsuit
Remember when I said I would stop linking to my own stories in the Daily? Er…um… I worked on this one for about two weeks. Lawsuit writing lesson*: He claimed to have charged, in the lawsuit, that the defendant allegedly made claims of allegations, according to the suit. The plaintiff charges that allegations were made…
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Profile writing is easy when your subject is a really nice guy
By the way, the story I wrote about Dan Goldston for yesterday’s Spartan Daily is the best thing I’ve written yet since I went back to school and started writing journalism in my classes. (Note to myself: this is one to send to Grandma.) But of course, writing a profile on someone is just WAY…
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US gold medalist uses his two minutes of fame to help Darfur
Heard this one on NPR, clock radio style, first thing this morning: Here’s the brief from npr.org… American speed skater Joey Cheek did something very unusual after winning the 500 meter race at the Winter Olympics. He announced he’s contributing his $25,000 gold medal award from the U.S. Olympic Committee to refugees from Darfur. And…
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Online college newspapers hooked up to social bookmarking sites
Forgive me if some of this is a little inside baseball, but I think this is pretty smart: The company that hosts the online edition of the Spartan Daily , along with 100+ other college newspapers, has added links to the bottom of each story to make it easier to post our articles to Digg,…
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Coming soon: the self-annotated New York Times
The New York Times bought Blogrunner, the company behind the Annotated New York Times. Bottom line? Expect to see the NYT linking to bloggers writing about its stories, pronto, a la WashingtonPost.com’s use of Technorati links. Good move on the part of the Times. Maybe someone over there has been listening to the Gillmor Gang.…
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Freedom of the press is not freedom from responsibility
The Danish Cartoon mess reminds me of why I wanted to go back to school in the first place. I usually explain it this way: Freedom of speech and freedom of the press do not, in any way shape or form, negate one’s freedom to be an asshole. I decided to go to graduate school…
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How to moderate online newspaper comments and forums while staying sane and not getting sued
Like Slashdot. Okay, so maybe I don’t read it anymore, and maybe I never read it much to begin with, but when I just logged in to see what the comments look like these days, I was offered a chance to fulfill my duty to “meta-moderate.” Nose around Slashdot a little bit, and you’ll find…