Best wishes to my old friend Robin Young and to Jeremy Hobson, whose revamped, two-hour “Here & Now” program debuted on Monday. Based at public radio station WBUR (90.9 FM), the program is national in scope, and is intended as a partial replacement for “Talk of the Nation,” which departed the airwaves last week.
Both “Here & Now” and “Boston Public Radio,” on rival WGBH (89.7 FM), are broadcast from noon to 2 p.m., setting up an intriguing dynamic: a nationally focused news magazine on ’BUR alongside local news and talk, hosted by Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, on ’GBH.
I hope and expect that both programs will succeed. (Disclosure: I’m a paid contributor to WGBH.)
The new issue of the Columbia Journalism Review includes a favorable review of “The Wired City” by Michael Meyer. Here is my favorite section:
“The Wired City” doesn’t have anything resembling a central thesis. (This isn’t a flaw. Way too many “future of journalism” books and reports waste their time trying to argue grand, overarching theses that almost always fall apart on closer analysis.)
One of my goals in writing the book was to return to the sort of in-depth, close-up reporting that drew me to journalism in the first place. Yes, I do some opinionating in the book, but mainly I try to let the story tell itself. I appreciate Meyer’s recognizing that and seeing it as a virtue rather than a shortcoming.
Meyer is critical of my argument that nonprofit news sites like the New Haven Independent tend to be better funded and capable of more ambitious journalism than for-profit sites — at least in these early years of the post-newspaper era.
Though I agree with Meyer that I could have done a better job of quantifying that observation, I nevertheless believe I was describing a situation that’s real. For-profits like The Batavian and CT News Junkie are doing better all the time — better than they were when I was researching the book.
But it’s still a hard slog. Given the low value the marketplace has assigned to online advertising, that’s likely to continue.
There are a couple of problems with David Carr’s column in The New York Times on Glenn Greenwald and the line between journalism and activism.
First, Greenwald isn’t really a close call. He is an opinionated liberal columnist and blogger who works for a large, well-regarded news organization, The Guardian. The key: he’s independent. No advocacy group is paying his salary. If we must draw lines, Greenwald is well on the journalistic side of the divide.
What I really want to see more discussion of, though, is Carr’s assertion that “when it comes to divulging national secrets, the law grants journalists special protections that are afforded to no one else.” What is Carr talking about?
As I explained recently, the Espionage Act, under which Edward Snowden has been charged in the National Security Agency leaks, makes no distinction between leaking classified information and publishing classified information.
The question of whether to prosecute news organizations came up after the Pentagon Papers and again after the revelation of the Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping program. U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., has called for journalists to be prosecuted over the Snowden leaks.
Yes, there are limited protections for journalists trying to shield their sources in 49 states. But I don’t think that’s what Carr was referring to. In any case, there are no shield protections at the federal level.
So help me out here. What do you think Carr has in mind?
Edward Jay Epstein has written an innuendo-laden column for The Wall Street Journal in which he strongly insinuates that filmmaker Laura Poitras and/or journalist/blogger/lawyer Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian criminally assisted Edward Snowden in leaking National Security Agency documents.
Epstein’s toxic brew of archly worded questions leads to the inescapable conclusion that he believes the two journalists ought to be investigated and possibly charged under the World War I-era Espionage Act.
The First Amendment and press freedom questions that haunt the Espionage Act are particularly important right now. Changes in media and technology have put the tools of journalism and media making in the hands of more and more people, challenging old assumptions about who is a journalist and how journalism is done. Increasingly, independent journalists, nonprofit news outlets and citizens are playing critical roles in newsgathering and reporting on the most important issues of our time.
I don’t think Stearns gives sufficient weight to the idea that merely publishing leaked documents is, in fact, a violation of the law, and that investigative journalism depends on the hopeful notion that the government won’t use its authority. Otherwise, though, it’s a useful guide to the issues at stake.
More: Greenwald responds to the Epstein column in this Storify involving (mainly) Jeff Jarvis and Michael Wolff.
My Northeastern colleagues Jack Levin and Bill Lancaster are hoping to make a documentary about hate crimes against people with disabilities. Called “Stop Invisible Hate,” the film is about “the troubling social abuse and violence inflicted on millions of people with physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities.”
Jack and Bill are using Indiegogo, a Kickstarter-like crowdfunding platform, to raise money in order to fund “Stop Invisible Hate.” I hope you’ll look at the video above and then click here to make a donation.
Anonymous commenter reacts to new GateHouse policy
Friday update: MetroWest Daily News columnist Julia Spitz offers her take.
Yet another major news organization is fighting back against the scourge of anonymous, hateful comments. GateHouse Media, a national chain that owns about 100 newspapers in Eastern Massachusetts, is now requiring readers to use their real names and log in via Facebook or LinkedIn. The new rules kick in today.
For some time, we’ve received complaints that the anonymous commenting system we’ve hosted on our online stories does little to enhance the conversation within our community. The criticism has been that some of the comments are hateful and sometimes, downright objectionable. We heard you and we agree.
Most of GateHouse’s Massachusetts papers are community weeklies, but there are also a few medium-size dailies — most prominently The Patriot Ledger, The Enterprise of Brockton, The MetroWest Daily News of Framingham and The Milford Daily News.
The new policy pertains to all of GateHouse’s properties, which include more than 300 daily and weekly papers, according to a tweet from Nicole Simmons, regional digital editor for GateHouse Media New England.
In discussing the new policy on Facebook this week, I’ve seen praise for the decision to banish anonymity and criticism for relying on third-party services such as Facebook and LinkedIn. My sense is that the new policy is a step in the right direction, and how well it works will depend on the willingness of local editors to engage with their audience.
Bill Marx has written a favorable review of “The Wired City” for The Arts Fuse, a Boston-based online arts magazine that he founded in 2007. Our paths crossed at The Boston Phoenix in the 1990s, and I know that Bill is a tough audience.
Bill also offers a worthwhile criticism — that the hyperlocal sites I write about should do more arts coverage, and that I should have held them to task. He’s right. At one time the New Haven Independent’s lack of in-depth arts coverage was on my radar, but I failed to follow up. But let me offer two points.
First, the Independent’s arts coverage is quite a bit more extensive today than it was when I was doing my research, with much of it funded by beat-specific grant money.
Second, though this doesn’t quite get at Marx’s critique, both the Independent and The Batavian, the two sites I cover in the most detail, emphasize excellent photography. That visual appeal is part of what has made them a success.
Many thanks to Emily Rooney for giving me a chance to talk about “The Wired City” on “Greater Boston” Monday evening. You can watch it above or on the “Greater Boston” website.
I’m scheduled to talk about “The Wired City” on “Greater Boston” (WGBH-TV, Channel 2) with Emily Rooney today at 7 p.m., though I’m told I may get bumped for breaking news. I’ll update this if necessary.
Tomorrow at 1 p.m. I’ll be a guest on “Boston Public Radio” with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan (WGBH Radio, 89.7 FM) to talk about “The Wired City” and to unveil a collaboration I’ve been working on with ’GBH. Exciting stuff! Hope you can tune in.
Earlier this year I listened to a remarkable investigative series by my WGBH colleague Phillip Martin called “Human Trafficking: From Boston to Bangkok.” Martin tracked the modern slave trade literally from Boston to Southeast Asia, interviewing victims as well as people working to end this horror.
I didn’t blog about it at the time, but I should have. And now I have another opportunity, because on Tuesday Martin received the Gold Award from the UN Department of Public Information. The series also was recognized as a Gold Radio Winner for Best Investigative Report.
If you haven’t heard the eight-part series, you should. I had to do some fiddling so that I could get it onto my iPhone, but it was well worth it. Martin told a harrowing story, and did what good investigative reporting is supposed to do — take an abstract problem and put human faces to it.
The press release from WGBH follows.
BOSTON, Mass. (June 20, 2013) — WGBH Radio earned two prestigious awards at the 2013 New York Festivals International Radio Programs and Promos Awards for the “Underground Trade” series. The eight-part investigative series on human trafficking, reported by WGBH senior reporter Phillip W.D. Martin, aired on 89.7 WGBH, Boston Public Radio, earlier this year. The series was selected by a special jury as the 2013 United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI) Gold Medalist. The series also was recognized as a Gold Radio Winner for Best Investigative Report for the same series. WGBH executive editor Ted Canova edited the series. WGBH senior engineer Antonio Oliart engineered the reports.
Martin was in New York on Tuesday evening for the awards ceremony.
“We are all very proud of Phillip. His energy, creativity and curiosity put him in the top ranks of his profession. We are all happy to have him reporting for WGBH and are proud to be associated with his work,” WGBH Radio general manager Phil Redo said. “I am very pleased that the New York Festivals and the UNDPI have recognized WGBH’s journalism. I congratulate Phillip and the entire WGBH News team for their continued commitment to telling the comprehensive, local stories that only local public radio can tell.”
The “Underground Trade” investigation and report was done in collaboration with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and the Ford Foundation. During his investigation and reporting, Martin traveled in the U.S. and across Asia to explore the modern slave trade of human trafficking. After the original broadcast on WGBH Radio, Martin’s report was shared nationally on The Huffington Post.
Phillip Martin joined the WGBH News team in 2010. He is a Senior Fellow with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism and a 2012 International Center for Journalists Ford Foundation Fellow. He has received a number of journalism honors, including the 2012 PASS Award, the 2012 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Ongoing Coverage (team award), the Margret and Hans Rey WGBH producer award, the 2011 Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting, the 2010 Asian American Journalists Award for National Radio Reporting, the 2008 Ruben Salazar Award and the 2005 MABJ Radio Documentary Award. He is an adjunct professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School of Public Policy.
