Media – Page 2 – Media Nation

Why did Tulsi Gabbard resign? You can’t tell from the media’s dueling anonymous sources.

*Tulsi Gabbard. Photo (cc) 2022 by Gage Skidmore.*

I’m not one to break out the smelling salts when news outlets rely on anonymous sources. Important investigative stories are often based on unnamed insiders, as was the case with The Atlantic’s recent exposé of FBI Director Kash Patel’s drinking and erratic behavior. Reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick interviewed more than two dozen sources and sought comment from both the FBI and the White House.

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But I thought some of the sourcing around Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s announcement that she would resign was just plain shoddy. Let’s start with Jonathan Landay and Erin Banco of Reuters, who wrote on Friday: “A source familiar with the matter said that Gabbard had been forced out by the White House.”

Thus on the basis of one anonymous source did Reuters assert that Gabbard was lying when she claimed she was leaving in order to take care of her husband, who, she said, has been diagnosed with bone cancer.

Interestingly, The New York Times account, by Dustin Volz and Julian E. Barnes, directly contradicts Reuters, saying: “Mr. Trump did not force Ms. Gabbard to resign on Friday, according to people familiar with the matter, but her standing and influence within the White House had continued to erode in recent months.”

Now, I don’t know how many sources are covered by “people,” but it’s more than one.

Finally, there’s this Associated Press report, by Meg Kinnard, Will Weissert and David Klepper: “There had been rumblings that Gabbard would split with Trump after the president’s decision to strike Iran, which caused some division within his administration.”

Rumblings? OK. Actually, maybe we can let that go, since we’ve all seen reports in recent months that Gabbard wasn’t on board with the Iran war. Still, the passive-tense construction doesn’t give any indication of where these “rumblings” have been coming from. The White House? The Pentagon? Who knows?

Decisions over when it’s acceptable to rely entirely on anonymous sources are always fuzzy, but the real reason that Gabbard is leaving isn’t important enough to try to report it on the basis of light sourcing in real time. A story based on multiple sources reporting on what really happened would be welcome — and there was no need to try to break that story in the immediate aftermath of her resignation.

Brian McGrory announces some big changes at the top of The Boston Globe’s masthead

Five months after returning as editor of The Boston Globe, Brian McGrory has announced changes that will reshape the top of the masthead.

Cristina Silva, currently the managing editor for local news, will become managing editor for operations and standards, “focused on the future of this newsroom rather than daily journalism.” She’ll be replaced by Cynthia Needham, currently deputy managing editor for innovation and strategy, who McGrory called “an uncommonly strong editor with a fresh eye for what makes a great story.”

Finally, Jason Tuohey, a longtime Globe digital editor who’s currently editor-in-chief at the Encyclopedia Britannica, will return to the paper as managing editor for digital strategy. Tuohey is also an audience engagement consultant with Boston University’s local-news program. McGrory wrote that Tuohey “is coming back to a newsroom that is brimming with digital leaders who are among the best in the industry.”

McGrory’s full memo, sent to the staff earlier this afternoon and forwarded to me by a trusted source, follows.

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‘Beat the Press’ takes on that explosive Nicholas Kristof column. Plus, Spencer Pratt, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

On the latest edition of “Beat the Press with Emily Rooney,” we examine the fallout over an explosive New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof alleging that Israeli prison guards sexually assaulted Palestinian prisoners. Was his sourcing shaky, as critics claim? Although the Times issued a statement supporting Kristof, why hasn’t the news side followed up?

We also take a look at former reality star Spencer Pratt’s gadfly campaign to become mayor of Los Angeles — fueled by an over-the-top AI-generated ad and by a distinct lack of interest by the news media about who Pratt is and whether he’s qualified.

Plus: Two Florida police officers sue the production company behind “The Rip,” a movie starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck based on a true story. In the film, the officers help themselves to part of a $21 million jackpot they discovered inside a suspected drug dealer’s home — something they were not accused of doing in real life.

And stick around for our panel’s Rants and Raves. With Emilyl our host, Scott Van Voorhis of Contrarian Boston; Jon Keller of WBZ-TV, and me. Our producer extraordinaire is Tonia Magras of Hull Bay Productions.

Pulitzer notes: A message to Trump and Bezos; Julie K. Brown’s overdue win; and honors for Jill Lepore

Portrait of Jeff Bezos (cc) 2017 by thierry ehrmann.

By honoring The Washington Post with its most prestigious award, the Pulitzer Prize Board appeared intent on sending a message to two people: Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos.

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On Monday, the Post received the Public Service Award for its reporting on the chaos unleashed by Elon Musk and his DOGE assault on the federal government. One of the lead reporters in that effort was Hannah Natanson, the target of an extraordinary raid by the FBI last January.

Continue reading “Pulitzer notes: A message to Trump and Bezos; Julie K. Brown’s overdue win; and honors for Jill Lepore”

Amid a worldwide surge of authoritarianism, the U.S. falls again in press-freedom rankings

Every semester, I introduce my media ethics students to the World Press Freedom Index, an annual compilation by Reporters Without Borders that tracks 180 countries.

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The United States does not do well, and the just-released 2026 update is no exception. We are now 64th, coming in just behind Botswana and just ahead of Panama. As RSF (the French acronym for Reporters Without Borders) puts it, “After a century of gradual expansion of press rights in the United States, the country is experiencing a significant and prolonged decline in press freedom, with Donald Trump’s return to the presidency greatly exacerbating the situation.”

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The Saturday-night shooting at the WHCA dinner underscores the declining relevance of print

I hear from so many people that they can’t live without their print newspaper and morning coffee that I’m often tempted to remind them it’s technically possible to drink coffee while reading the news on your iPad.

The declining relevance of print is top of mind this morning as The New York Times failed to get the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting into its dead-tree edition. Lest you think this is a Boston delivery problem, it’s also not in the replica edition. Needless to say, it’s all over the Times homepage, and it probably found its way into the late city editions as well.

The (deservedly) much-maligned Washington Post managed to go big with the shooting in its print edition. You might say that’s a function of being the hometown paper, but it’s really not. It’s a function of press times.

The Boston Globe leads its print edition with the shooting, alongside the firing of Red Sox manager Alex Cora.

No excuses for the Los Angeles Times, which is three hours behind the East Coast, meaning that the incident took place around 5 p.m. Pacific time.

Of course, even those papers whose editors managed to yell “Stop the presses!” and get the story into print have much more up-to-date news about the shooting in their digital editions today.

We get the print edition of the Sunday Times because, whenever we try to cancel in order to save money, we’re offered a special deal. Digital advertising isn’t worth much, but print ads are still fairly lucrative, especially in the Times and especially on Sunday. But when there’s a big, late-breaking story, digital is the place to be.

The Washington Star is back, and so is its long-running rivalry with The Washington Post

*Maybe not quite so final after all. Photo via eBay.*

Forty-five years after The Washington Star closed its doors, its long-running rivalry with The Washington Post is lurching back to life. NOTUS, a fledgling digital publication, is rebranding itself as The Star in June and is expanding in an attempt to take advantage of recent deep cuts at the Post, especially in local news and sports.

Katie Robertson reports in The New York Times that The Star plans to expand its newsroom from about 45 to 95 staff members by the end of the year. That’s still well short of the 400 to 500 that the Post employs, but The Star should presumably be able to carve out a niche by focusing on areas where the Post is weak. (Robertson’s story makes no mention of whether there will be a print edition. My guess is no.)

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A ‘NewsHour’ exchange highlights the endless debate over Biden’s and Trump’s mental acuity

Like Hillary and Bernie in 2016, or Grady Little’s decision to send Pedro Martinez back out for the eighth, the media’s coverage of Joe Biden’s decline in 2024 is going to be litigated forever.

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The latest example came Friday night on the “PBS NewsHour,” when Geoff Bennett asked Jonathan Capehart why coverage of Donald Trump’s mental state hasn’t matched similar coverage of Biden’s decline two years ago. Here’s how it went down:

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On the new ‘Beat the Press,’ we look at war coverage, fetish non-coverage and CNN’s GenZ ploy

*Click on image to watch the show at Contrarian Boston.*

On the latest edition of “Beat the Press with Emily Rooney,” we examine criticism from the left and the right of how the war in Iran is being covered by the media.

Plus: Why the mainstream media have shied away from showing fetish photos of Bryon Noem, husband of Kristi Noem; how CNN is trying to reach a younger audience with a show featuring online influencers; and our panel’s Rants and Raves.

With Emily, Contrarian Boston publisher Scott Van Voorhis, Lylah Alphonse of The Boston Globe, and me, with production by Tonia Magras of Hull Bay Production.