The Mississippi judge who ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial from its website has reversed herself. But this is hardly a victory for freedom of the press.
Judge Crystal Wise Martin rescinded her temporary restraining order after the owner of The Clarksdale Press Register and the board of commissioners in that city agreed to settle a dispute that had resulted in a libel suit being filed. The commissioners agreed to drop the suit while Wyatt Emmerich, president of Emmerich Newspapers, said the paper will publish a less incendiary version of the editorial, according to Michael Levenson of The New York Times (gift link).
That does not change the reality that Judge Martin leaped in to help city officials by censoring the newspaper, even though the First Amendment protects libelous materials from being subjected to prior restraint. Libel can, of course, be punished after the fact through a civil suit, although government agencies cannot sue for libel.
The editorial, headlined “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust,” took city officials to task “for not sending the newspaper notice about a meeting the City Council held regarding a proposed tax on alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.”
Robert Mueller. Photo (cc) 2012 by the White House.
On this last day of 2024, I’m taking a look back before we plunge ahead into the new year. Media Nation’s 10 most viewed posts for the year range from my takedown of an intellectually dishonest critique of NPR, to CBS News’ reprimand of an on-air host for being too confrontational with a guest, to news that The Boston Globe is seeking to acquire Boston magazine. So let’s get right to it.
1. Fish in a barrel: Berliner’s case against NPR is based on false and out-of-context facts (April 11). Uri Berliner, a top editor at NPR, created a stir when he accused his employer of liberal bias in a long essay for The Free Press. The problem was that his examples didn’t hold up to scrutiny. To name just one: Berliner wrote that NPR failed to confess its sins after special counsel Robert Mueller found “no credible evidence” that Donald Trump had colluded with Russia, which isn’t even remotely what Mueller reported. There was a lot more disingenuousness where that came from. Berliner ended up resigning his post at NPR and going to work for — yes, The Free Press.
2. Less news, more happy talk: Why CBS News’ reprimand of Tony Dokoupil is so ridiculous (Oct. 8). Journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates popped up on the CBS morning newscast to promote latest book, “The Message,” and faced an unexpectedly tough grilling over his anti-Israeli views from co-host Tony Dokoupil. Among other things, Dokoupil told Coates that his book woudn’t be out of place “in the backpack of an extremist.” Coates gave as good as he got, and he probably sold a few more books than he otherwise would have. Nevertheless, CBS News management called Dokoupil on the carpet — probably because his attempt to commit journalism contradicted the light banter that defines the morning-news format.
3. A riveting Boston Globe story about a medical disaster with ties to the local news crisis (Jan. 29). A Globe report about the death of a new mother at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital had something in common with the same forces that have hollowed out much of the local-news business. The mother’s death may have been caused by the hospital’s lacking a basic piece of equipment that had been repossessed because its corporate owner, Steward Health Care, wasn’t paying its bills. Steward, in turn, had been pillaged by a private-equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management, which is the same outfit that helped the notorious newsroom-gutting hedge fund Alden Global Capital acquire Tribune Publishing’s nine major-market daily newspapers in 2021.
Map of Plymouth, Mass., in 1882. Via the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.
Mark Caro of the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School has taken a deep dive into the media ecosystem of Eastern Massachusetts — the wreckage left behind by Gannett’s closing and merging many of its weekly papers, and the rise of independent startups, many of them digital nonprofits.
As Caro observes, the Gannett weeklies and websites that still exist are “ghost newspapers,” containing little in the way of local content.
What’s happening in New England is being echoed across the country as the local news crisis deepens. While the nation’s ever-widening news deserts have drawn much attention, the ghost papers represent another dire threat to a well-informed citizenry. Many areas don’t meet the definition of a news desert, but residents have been left with newspapers so hollowed out that they’re bereft of original local news reporting.
I was especially interested to see that Caro interviewed K. Prescott Low, whose family sold off The Patriot Ledger of Quincy and its affiliated papers in 1998 only to see their legacy torn apart in less than a generation. The Ledger was once regarded as being among the best medium-size dailies in the U.S.; today it limps along with a skeleton staff and no newsroom.
As Low tells it, he thought he had found a trustworthy buyer, but his former papers soon ended up in the hands of GateHouse Media, a cost-cutting chain that in 2019 merged with Gannett. “Conceptually it was a good idea,” Low told Caro. “Practically it didn’t work out because of the subsequent purchase by GateHouse and what has happened across the media.”
Caro and I talked about the lack of news coverage in Medford, where I live, after Gannett merged the Medford Transcript and Somerville Journal. He also interviewed my “What Works” partner, Ellen Clegg, about Brookline.News, the digital nonprofit she helped launch after Gannett closed its Brookline Tab.
As I told Caro, there are reasons to be optimistic, but affluent suburban communities are doing better at meeting their own news needs than are urban areas, and there’s a certain random quality to all of it. “You can have a community that has something really good,” I told him, “and right next door is a community that has nothing.”
Caro has written a good and important article, and I hope you’ll take a look.
WBUR cancels ‘Radio Boston’
There was some sad news on the local public radio front earlier today. WBUR is ending “Radio Boston,” a locally oriented program that airs on weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon and is repeated from 3 to 4 p.m.
It is WBUR’s only local news show and follows cuts at both of Boston’s major public broadcasters this years, as well as downsizing across the country. Earlier this year GBH News canceled three local television shows, “Greater Boston,” “Talking Politics” and “Basic Black.” That last program will return next month, possibly as a digital offering.
GBH Radio continues to offer four hours of local programming each weekday — “Boston Public Radio,” a talk and interview show hosted by Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and “The Culture Show” from 2 to 3 p.m.
The end of “Radio Boston” won’t result in any layoffs, according to the station, as the folks who worked on that show will be reassigned to pumping up the local segments on NPR’s two national drive-time programs, “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.”
Alden’s tin cup
Alden Global Capital, the hedge-fund newspaper owner that has decimated community journalism from Lowell, Massachusetts, to Denver to San Jose, is trying something new: asking readers to give them money in order to offset some of the newsroom cuts they’ve made.
An alert Media Nation reader passed along an appeal sent to readers of Alden’s South Florida Sun Sentinel, asking for tax-deductible gifts to the nonprofit Florida Press Foundation‘s Community News Fund. The foundation appears to be legit, but it’s hard to imagine why they would agree to help prop up a paper that’s been slashed by its hedge-fund owner.
“Alden Capital is surrounded by small independents that continue to eat into their circulation area,” my informant says. “Key Biscayne Independent, the Bulldog Reporter, Florida Phoenix, Coastal Star … are just a few of the ‘independents’ started by former journalists to fill the news desert. Everyone competes for donations. So when a Wall Street PE [private equity] firm solicits for limited resources, they are actually starving their competition. I think this is sad and something that may be a harbinger of what’s to come under the new transactional administration.”
If you see any other examples of rattling the tin cup at papers owned by corporate chains, please let me know.
Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel, the co-hosts of “Morning Edition” on GBH Radio (89.7 FM), are transitioning to new roles, with Alston taking over a revived “Basic Black” and Siegel becoming transportation reporter for GBH News and a correspondent for “The World.” Both Alston and Siegel will be taking on other projects as well. Reporter Mark Herz will serve as interim anchor.
The return of “Basic Black” in early 2025 means that GBH is moving back into local public-affairs video programming after canceling that show as well as “Greater Boston” and “Talking Politics” earlier this year.
The changes also represent the biggest moves so far from Dan Lothian, who became editor-in-chief of GBH News and “The World” after GBH News general manager Pam Johnston left earlier this year. Johnston is now president and CEO of Rhode Island’s merged public television and radio operations.
The full announcement from GBH is below:
GBH News today announced a slate of new and expanded programs that reinforce its commitment to covering stories that matter across Massachusetts, from hyperlocal conversations informed by community stakeholders to regional reporting across the Commonwealth.
Paris Alston will transition from co-hosting “Morning Edition” to hosting a reimagined “Basic Black,” GBH’s longstanding television program that centers topical issues that matter to communities of color. The program will premiere under a new name in early 2025.
Alston also will expand her focus statewide on a program that she hosts called “A Walk Down the Block,” an original, multiplatform series that won the Regional Edward R. Murrow Award this year in the Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion category. The series has covered topics ranging from how big events for Boston’s Black communities resonated in Roxbury’s Nubian Square; LGBTQ+ Pride past and present in the Sound End; reimagining the Charles River Esplanade for better accessibility; and Boston’s busing crisis history through a citywide tour. Through collaborations with community organizations and leaders, Alston aims to get to the heart of underreported issues and use “A Walk Down the Block” as a connector for citizens to the changemakers in their neighborhoods. New episodes of “A Walk Down the Block” will air across GBH News platforms, including GBH 89.7, gbhnews.org, the GBH News YouTube channel, and social media.
“Morning Edition” co-host Jeremy Siegel is taking on several new roles, including hosting a new one-hour radio program and podcast that will take listeners all across Massachusetts to hear stories about what makes the Bay State unique. He will seek out perspectives that reflect both the challenges that face residents in rural and urban centers, and shine a spotlight on the dynamic growth, creativity, and entrepreneurship that often flies under the radar in a fast-paced news cycle. The show, which begins production in 2025, will air across all “Connecting the Commonwealth” partner stations: New England Public Media (NEPM) in Springfield; GBH, and CAI, the Cape and Islands NPR.
He also will be the transportation correspondent for both GBH News and “The World,” public radio’s longest-running daily global news program produced by GBH and PRX. Siegel will report on transit issues in Greater Boston, and travel abroad with The World to explore what drives the biggest, most efficient, and unique transportation systems globally, from railways, to shipping, cars, bicycles, and beyond. Listeners will hear Siegel’s local transportation reporting regularly on GBH News’ “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.” His first international reporting for “The World” will start with a trip to Tokyo later this year.
“Paris and Jeremy are both accomplished storytellers, and we hope listeners will join us as we explore new topics and geographies together,” said Dan Lothian, Editor in Chief of GBH News and The World.
On Oct. 28, GBH News reporter Mark Herz will step in as interim host for GBH News’ Morning Edition. The show will air weekdays at a new time, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET, on GBH 89.7 and stream at gbhnews.org.
American hostage Ann Swift shortly after her release in January 1981. Public domain photo by the Department of Defense.
The October Surprise. These days the phrase is often used to describe fears that a political campaign will drop some sort of bombshell in the final weeks before Election Day.
Then-FBI Director James Comey’s reopening of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails in 2016 would certainly qualify, though there was no evidence that the Trump campaign was behind it — nor, for that matter, any evidence of wrongdoing by Clinton.
So, too, would the Hunter Biden laptop story of 2020, though the Trumpers who were behind it were hampered by the inconvenient fact that they’d targeted the wrong Biden.
But I don’t think anyone used the phrase October Surprise until 1980, when it was used to describe something that Ronald Reagan and his associates feared would happen but ultimately did not: the release of more than 50 American hostages who had been held by Iran for many months. If President Jimmy Carter brought them home just before the election, it could have given him the boost he needed to win a second term. Continue reading “The October Surprise, 44 years on; plus, extremism at home, and more on sponsored content”
GBH News, the local news division of public media powerhouse GBH, has unveiled a new, four-person equity and justice reporting network. Here’s the press release.
GBH News has launched its new Equity and Justice reporting unit, a team of journalists dedicated to reporting on equity and opportunity gaps in Greater Boston and beyond. GBH News Executive Editor Lee Hill will oversee the unit, which will be led by newly appointed Equity and Justice unit senior editor Paul Singer. Also joining the Equity and Justice unit are newly hired reporter Trajan Warren, senior digital producer Meghan Smith and community producer Magdiela Matta.
Based at the GBH newsroom in Brighton, the Equity and Justice unit has begun developing multiplatform regional and national stories that aim to explore and expose injustice at all levels of society. Key to the effort is a continued and expanded commitment to community events, engaging directly with audiences and elevating community voices.
“GBH News has built a remarkable body of award-winning local journalism over the years that lays a strong foundation for this investment in deep listening and collaboration with the communities that most need to be heard,” said GBH News Editor-in-Chief Dan Lothian. “We know that the trust our Equity and Justice unit builds with sources and audiences is key to producing the reporting on the critical issues of inequity that an informed citizenry relies on.”
The GBH News Equity and Justice unit will extend its reach throughout Massachusetts through a new content collaboration with MassLive, the top digital news source for Western Massachusetts. The collaboration between GBH News and MassLive will result in distinctive local stories being shared across radio, digital, and social media platforms from both news organizations. A MassLive reporter will work with the GBH News Equity and Justice unit to produce stories that will also publish on MassLive, and will join GBH News programs to provide context.
Content produced by the Equity and Justice unit will be distributed across all GBH News properties, including GBH flagship radio shows, YouTube, social and digital platforms, and via GBH News’ Connecting the Commonwealth partners, New England Public Media (NEPM) in Western Massachusetts; CAI, the Cape and Islands NPR station; and the New England News Collaborative (NENC).
“Many of GBH News’ most impactful stories have touched on systemic injustices and the ways in which marginalized communities are blocked from progress. We’re thrilled to assemble this accomplished group of journalists fully dedicated to bolstering our capacity to listen and engage with underserved audiences,” said Hill. “Together, our Equity and Justice unit, with the added power of our reporting and distribution collaboration with MassLive, will also be a resource to inform all of GBH News’ reporting, ensuring that overlooked angles are considered from pitch to publication.”
There’s some exciting news to report out of CommonWealth Beacon today. Laura Colarusso, currently the editor of Nieman Reports, will be the new editor of CWB, succeeding Bruce Mohl, who’s retiring.
I got to know Laura when she was digital managing editor of GBH News, for whom I wrote a weekly column for a number of years. I also had a chance to write for her at Nieman Reports. She will be terrific, as she combines leadership skills with vision and a strong ethical compass.
Originally a public-policy quarterly called CommonWealth Magazine, CommonWealth Beacon has morphed into a digital-only publication with a significant daily presence.
Bruce, who came to CWB from The Boston Globe, leaves behind an admirable legacy, transforming the publication to a leading source political and public-policy news about Massachusetts. The nonprofit is published by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, or MassINC, a nonpartisan think tank that concentrates on quality-of-life issues.
(Disclosure: I’m a member of CommonWealth Beacon’s editorial advisory board.)
What follows is MassINC CEO Joe Kriesberg’s announcement:
Dear reader,
Following a nationwide search, I am excited to share with you that we have hired Laura Colarusso to succeed Bruce Mohl as the next editor of CommonWealth Beacon.
Taking the helm in November, Laura has the experience, network, and leadership skills to build on Bruce’s sixteen-year legacy. Our team is excited to welcome Laura and to continue building CommonWealth Beacon as the dynamic, civic news outlet that readers like you rely upon.
Laura comes to CommonWealth Beacon from Nieman Reports, an online and quarterly print publication with a mission of promoting and elevating journalistic standards. She has reported on a wide variety of topics including climate change, education and health care, and covered the Pentagon in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
She has held leadership positions at GBH News in Boston, where she was the digital managing editor before joining Nieman Reports in 2021, where she served as editor. Laura won a regional 2020 Edward R. Murrow Award for the story “The Original Old Boys Club” while she was at GBH.
As Laura has shared:
CommonWealth Beacon has a long history of creating outstanding journalism that helps the people of Massachusetts understand their government and the changes taking place in the world around them. I couldn’t be more excited to join this organization at such a critical time for our democracy, and I’m looking forward to leading CommonWealth Beacon as we work to connect with broader and more diverse audiences, and deliver even more high quality news and information to our readers.
Nearly one year ago, we launched CommonWealth Beacon with an expanded newsroom, a more readable and accessible digital platform and an updated strategy for audience and community engagement.
We are thrilled to have Laura lead our team in this next phase of CommonWealth Beacon’s journey and to better serve you, our diverse audience of readers, and the people of Massachusetts.
Sincerely,
Joe Kriesberg
CEO of MassINC, Publisher of CommonWealth Beacon
GBH headquarters in Allston. Photo (cc) 2011 by WGBH.
At a time when public media operations are cutting back, GBH News is leveraging partnerships with other stations in order to bolster its statewide coverage. It strikes me as a smart way of doing more with less following cutbacks at both of Boston’s news-focused public radio stations, GBH and WBUR, and at public broadcasters across the country. (I should note that CAI is actually part of GBH.) Below is a press release from GBH.
GBH News Joins with CAI: The Cape & Islands NPR station and New England Public Media toExpand Coverage Statewide
GBH News, CAI and New England Public Media (NEPM) today announced a partnership to report and expand news coverage statewide, reaching listeners from Springfield to Provincetown and points between. Connecting the Commonwealth, the first initiative of its kind in Massachusetts, will build upon a longstanding relationship between the three public media outlets, as well as GBH News bureaus in Worcester, at the State House, and in Boston.
Coverage will focus on the stories that matter to audiences locally and statewide, including education to the environment, the economy and inequality. From breaking news to in-depth human interest stories, Connecting the Commonwealth will weave regional and local enterprise reporting through radio and digital storytelling daily across all three media outlets’ digital and broadcast platforms. Jennifer Moore, GBH’s first Statewide and Features Editor, will lead the collaboration.
“There’s an immense need for local journalism on issues that matter to Massachusetts residents. Through our relationships with NEPM and CAI, we’ll partner to create content of interest to all of the state’s 7 million residents, something few media outlets in Massachusetts can do,” said Dan Lothian, editor-in-chief of GBH News and The World. “Jennifer Moore will lead our collaborate efforts, creating new content and sharing reports from all of our newsrooms, allowing us cover more breaking news and enterprise features that shape the conversation.”
“NEPM is excited to strengthen our partnership with GBH and CAI to deliver even more timely and comprehensive coverage of the news and issues facing residents of western Massachusetts,” said John Sutton, VP of content and audience strategy for NEPM. “This collaboration will help us to better report on topics of statewide importance and to build the type of community connections that lead to a healthier commonwealth.”
“Having a statewide editor overseeing the efforts of all three newsrooms will allow us to bring these important stories to our listeners in a timely manner,” said CAI Managing Director of Editorial and Host and Producer of The Point, Mindy Todd. “We look forward to working closely with GBH and NEPM to cover even more local and regional stories.”
Moore was previously features editor at GBH News. Earlier in her career, she served as the news director and content coordinator at the NPR & PBS stations in Springfield, Missouri. As a freelancer, she’s reported for The New York Times and NPR, including from the Middle East.
“Each Massachusetts community is unique. At the same time, they all need news and information about many of the same issues, whether that’s education, the environment, the economy or our elections. We believe Connecting the Commonwealth will be a trusted destination for news from across the state,” said Moore. “I look forward to hearing from our audiences about what matters most to them and reaffirming our commitment to impactful daily journalism.”
Connecting the Commonwealth reporting will appear across multiple platforms at each organization, including GBH 89.7FM, gbhnews.org, and the GBH News YouTube channel; 88.5 NEPM and nepm.org; CAI 90.1 FM, 91.1 FM, and 94.3 FM and online at capeandislands.org.
Following a tumultuous four years as general manager of GBH News, Pam Johnston has been named CEO of Rhode Island’s public television and radio operations, according to a report by Ian Donnis and Pamela Watts for The Public’s Radio.
Johnston left GBH in May, nearly four months after Mark Shanahan of The Boston Globe reported on discontent among some employees over her management style. Within days, GBH announced that the station’s three local television programs on public affairs, “Greater Boston,” “Basic Black” and “Talking Politics,” would be canceled, though they may be back as digital offerings at some point.
In Rhode Island, Johnston’s duties will be similar to those she had at GBH News, the local news arm comprising radio, digital and — until recently — television. She will head up both Rhode Island PBS and The Public’s Radio, outlets that have merged during the past year. In a statement, Johnston said:
I am honored to be stepping into this role at such a vital moment. At a time when trust in the media is eroding and societal gaps are widening, public media can play a critical role in fostering understanding, goodwill, and connection. I believe that here in Rhode Island we have the team, talent, and resources to redefine the very best of what public media can be.
In 2022 Johnston was a guest on “What Works: The Future of Local News,” a podcast that I host with Ellen Clegg.
My standard disclosure: I was a paid part-time contributor to GBH News for many years, mainly as a panelist on “Beat the Press with Emily Rooney,” a weekly TV show that was canceled under Johnston’s watch in 2021.
A “disgruntled homophobic Middle School janitor.” The Massachusetts legislature, which has resolutely refused to strengthen our notoriously weak public records law. A Rhode Island city councilor who threw a critic out of a public meeting. A Malden charter school that refused to turn over public records on the patently absurd grounds that it’s not a public school.
These are just a few of the people and institutions that I’ve singled out over the past year as recipients of the New England Muzzle Awards, my annual Fourth of July round-up of transgressions against freedom of expression.
From 1998 to 2012, I wrote these up for the late, much lamented Boston Phoenix. Then, from 2013 to 2022, the Muzzles were hosted by GBH News. I decided to call it a wrap with the 25th-anniversary edition. But then I began to write up Muzzles as they came to my attention rather than saving them all for Independence Day. What follows are Muzzle Awards I’ve handed out since last June.
Kudos, as always, to my friends Harvey Silverglate, who conceived of this annual feature all these years ago, and Peter Kadzis, who edited all 25 editions. They were inspired by the Jefferson Muzzles, which no longer are awarded. Here in New England, though, their spirit lives on.
At a time when democracy itself is under threat, defending the First Amendment is more important than it’s ever been. The envelopes, please.
These are just a few of the people and institutions that I’ve singled out over the past year as recipients of the 
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