Media Nation

There’s still much to learn about the terrorist plot revealed yesterday, and I’m not going to flatter myself into thinking I have anything intelligent or useful to add at this point.

Like anyone else, I’m grateful that the British authorities were able to nip this in the bud, although it will be interesting to learn how serious the threat really was. Sorry to sound cynical, but we’ve all learned that we can’t take these things at face value.

Republican and conservative attempts to take political advantage of this (here’s an example) are as predictable as they are loathsome.

But I guess, more than anything, I’m wondering about radical Islamists within Britain’s Muslim population, and how much of a comparison can be drawn to the United States. Where is all this going to lead? Probably to some pretty nasty places.

I’m astounded that Nick Lemann would slash the budget for CJRDaily while attempting to prop up the print edition of the Columbia Journalism Review.

Lemann has gotten cuffed around by many in blogworld for his recent New Yorker article on citizen journalism. I didn’t think he deserved it — it was a smart and nuanced piece.

But this latest move is just dumb. Jay Rosen tells the New York Times that, instead, Lemann should dump the print edition. Rosen is being predictable, of course. But he’s also right.

Update: Lemann explains his reasoning in a letter to Romenesko.

It’s hard to know what to make of this. Army Sgt. Brian Fountaine, who lost his legs in Iraq, went on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” last night and claimed the Globe had falsely portrayed him as having turned against the war.

The Herald, naturally, was all over it — but seemed to conclude that the Globe story, by Brian MacQuarrie, was accurate.

Fountaine has been big in the Herald of late because of his publicly expressed desire to become a firefighter, despite his serious injuries. Mayor Tom Menino has said the city will try to accommodate him.

Just to complicate matters, the Weekly Dig’s blog recently whacked the Herald for portraying Fountaine as a supporter of the war while failing to acknowledge MacQuarrie’s story.

A transcript of Fountaine’s appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor” (available only via LexisNexis) shows that though Fountaine thinks he had been treated unfairly by the Globe, veteran media-watcher Marvin Kalb — who’s on Fox’s payroll — believes the Globe story was accurate. Here’s an excerpt from Kalb:

I had the pleasure of talking with Sgt. Fountaine and his mother before we went on air. And my understanding, from what they told me, was they objected to the photograph that was used and to the headline but he told me that all of the quotes are accurate. It is simply the way in which the story is presented.

Every story is the result of a reporter’s instinct. The reporter who wrote this story did it his way. I would have done it my way.

So what do we make of this? Fountaine comes across as a brave young man who paid a terrible price for his military service, and who is still sorting it all out. He was probably shocked to see that the Globe played his story on page one, and then began to have second thoughts.

Credit the Herald and reporter Jessica Heslam for not turning this into another exercise in knee-jerk Globe-bashing.

O’Reilly, of course, deserves no credit. Here’s what he’s got promoting the second hour of his radio show yesterday: “The Boston Globe is at it again, turning a pro-war disabled veteran into a critic of the Iraq war. How did it happen? And more importantly, why did it happen?” Please.

I didn’t have a horse in the Ned Lamont-Joe Lieberman race, so what I’ve got to say doesn’t really have anything to do with those two particular politicians. But one thing that has struck me about the partisan outrage over Lieberman’s decision to run as an independent is how out of touch — or maybe scared — his enemies really are.

This post on the Daily Kos, headlined “Partisanship is a virtue,” is typical.

In fact, I think we all know that the public despises political parties and finds independent candidates refreshing (even if they rarely get elected). For Lieberman to be able to say he’s running not to serve any party but, rather, the people of Connecticut could prove to be quite effective.

Maybe it won’t work. Maybe Connecticut voters are too angry about Lieberman’s failure to distance himself sufficiently from President Bush. Maybe his overweening sense of moral superiority has finally caught up to him.

But to criticize him for running as an independent is to fail to understand why Americans hate politics.

Yesterday the Salem News published an enterprising story on Andrew Mandell, a.k.a. “Mr. Diabetes,” whose endless walk was taking him through the North Shore. The News’ Alan Burke reported that 74 percent of the money that Mandell raises for his Defeat Diabetes Foundation is spent on Mandell’s $90,000-plus compensation package and for further fundraising.

Margo Casey, an official with the North Shore United Way, called that percentage “extreme,” and told Burke: “That’s very, very high in terms of fundraising costs.”

Today the Globe runs a nice little feature on Mandell, with no mention of his fundraising practices.

Here is the zero-star Charity Navigator rating to which Burke refers. Mandell’s Web site says that he recently succeeded in getting the Massachusetts Senate to honor him. He’s also selling “Special Diabetes Commemorative Ornaments” with this come-on: “A large portion of the proceeds go directly to Defeat Diabetes Foundation.” Well, yes. But isn’t that the problem?

I’m with Peter Gelzinis, who writes in the Herald that he’d like to think he wouldn’t have fallen for the John Keaveney memo — but who knows?

Gelzinis’ column reacts to a Herald story that Keaveney, already suspected of having fabricated a memo about the safety of the Big Dig tunnels, may have lied about having served in the Irish military and having attended the University of Galway.

In retrospect, it’s easy to think the Globe never should have gone with the Keaveney story. And, as I’ve said before, the paper certainly should have given Big Dig contractor Modern Continental more time to respond to Keaveney’s blockbuster. That alone might have saved the Globe considerable embarrassment. But Gelzinis is honest enough to admit that it’s not quite so simple:

I am so glad, so very, very glad, that I never found a memo waiting in my Herald mail slot — a week after Milena Del Valle was crushed by a 3-ton ceiling tile.

A smoldering, smoking gun of a memo with blockbuster lines like:

“Should any innocent State Worker or member of the Public be seriously injured or even worse killed as a result, I feel that this would be something that would reflect Mentally and Emotionally upon me, and all who are trying to construct a quality project.”

Boy, oh boy!

All hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. Still, I’d like to think that if I’d opened the envelope and read a line like that, under a Modern Continental letterhead, my first reaction would be what it always is: “This is just too damn good to be true.”

Maybe Gelzinis would have paused. And maybe he wouldn’t have. I think a lot of honest journalists are wondering the same thing.

Meanwhile, the Globe reports that Keaveney’s decision to hire criminal-defense lawyer Robert Peabody is a sign that he, well, needs a criminal-defenese lawyer.

Bloglines continues to run well behind NetNewsWire Lite in refreshing its content. Which is too bad, because otherwise I like it better. Among other things, it feeds you more information about each blog and who’s written what.

Bill W. says I should upgrade to the paid version of NetNewsWire because it comes with a subscription to something called NewsGator. But will that really lead to RSS nirvana? As I said, I like the Bloglines interface better. If it weren’t for that, I think I’d be happy with NNW Lite.

One other thing: I’ve noticed that if I update a Media Nation item, Bloglines will reflect that, and NNW Lite won’t. Not so hot.

Former Globe and Herald columnist David Farrell, a legendary figure in local newspaper circles, has died at the age of 80. (Globe obit here; Herald obit here.)

Farrell epitomized the old-fashioned newspaperman as powerbroker. He surely would have been as well-known as fellow Globe staffers such as Marty Nolan, Robert Healy and the late David Nyhan if he had not left the paper more than two decades ago amid a scandal that seems quaint when measured by what has befallen the business in the intervening years.

Farrell’s son John, a filmmaker, author and local blogger of some note, has posted a nice tribute to his father.

The last I heard, the elder Farrell was writing a history/memoir of the Boston newspaper scene. I hope John Farrell can find a way to bring that project to completion. It’s bound to be a terrific read.

I found yesterday’s citizen journalism conference too amorphous to blog. But if you’re interested in what went on, you’ll find some good resources here, including blog posts, photos and notes typed in live by Doc Searls.

I wouldn’t want to try a day’s worth of real-time typing, as Searls did, so this isn’t a complaint — it’s a correction. If you take a look at this discussion of the legal war against bloggers, you’ll see that I supposedly said, “How much is unique to bloggers? And how much is part of the generalized crackdown on all media? Does being in the media have less protection than it did a week ago?”

In fact, I said, “Does being in the media have less protection than it did a generation ago?”

From Wonkette:

Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple: his inflated self-importance, use of his paper to settle petty scores, and hilarious two-day-long editorship of the Village Voice (didn’t get along with Christgau or something) must now take a backseat to the hilarious antics of his dogshit-flinging wife.

Sadly, the item kind of goes downhill from there. And for all I know, this is grotesquely unfair to both Wemples. But what a lede!