The Slander Industry
From Aaron Krolik and Kashmir Hill writing for The New York Times… At first glance, the websites appear amateurish. They have names like BadGirlReports.date, BustedCheaters.com and WorstHomeWrecker.com. Photos are badly cropped. Grammar and spelling are afterthoughts. They are clunky and text-heavy, as if they’re intended to be read by machines, not humans. But do not […]
It’s War: The New Dilemma For Corporations And Social Issues
After you read the article by Richard Levick below, we hope you’ll also read two articles we wrote for the National Law Review on a companion subject: Political Action Committee & Personal Political Contributions Become the Next Reputational Challenge for Law Firms & Their Clients Political Action Committee & Personal Political Contributions Revisited – Only […]
Landmark Case May Dictate How Far School Districts Can Go in Disciplining Student Speech Online
By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications A Pennsylvania student’s decision to express her frustration about being passed over for promotion on the cheerleading squad will mark the U.S. Supreme Court’s first review of the limits of free speech for students in the age of social media when it rules on a case heard April 28. School […]
Reflections on My Days Working With the ‘Founding Mothers’ of NPR
From Richard Harris, writing for Next Avenue… With National Public Radio (NPR) approaching its 50th anniversary and the release of the book “susan, linda, nina & cokie” about NPR broadcasters Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts, Next Avenue has published an article by Richard Harris, “The Founding Mothers of NPR.” Harris worked […]
Why do Americans Share so Much Fake News? One Big Reason is They Aren’t Paying Attention, New Research Suggests
By Denise Marie-Ordway, writing for the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School… Many Americans share fake news on social media because they’re simply not paying attention to whether the content is accurate — not necessarily because they can’t tell real from made-up news, a new study in Nature suggests. Lack of […]
“I’m Afraid to Open Twitter”: Next-Level Harassment of Female Journalists is Putting News Outlets to the Test
By Charlotte Klein, writing for Vanity Fair… It started late one day, and you could see it kind of building on social media,” Washington Post national editor Steven Ginsberg recalled of the torrent of online abuse directed last month at Seung Min Kim. The Post reporter had been photographed showing Senator Lisa Murkowski a critical tweet sent by Neera Tanden and seeking comment, a standard journalistic practice somehow interpreted as […]
Few Facts, Millions Of Clicks: Fearmongering Vaccine Stories Go Viral Online
From Miles Parks at National Public Radio… The odds of dying after getting a COVID-19 vaccine are virtually nonexistent. According to recent data from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, you’re three times more likely to get struck by lightning. But you might not know that from looking at your social media feed. A new NPR analysis finds […]
A Newspaper Has a Novel Strategy for Covering One Politician’s Falsehoods: Don’t
From Marisa Iati, writing for the Washington Post… Ohio’s biggest newspaper is taking an unusual tack toward covering falsehoods from a U.S. Senate candidate: It doesn’t plan to do so at all. The Plain Dealer in Cleveland said its journalists intend to ignore inaccurate statements from Republican Josh Mandel that they consider to be ploys […]
New York Gov. Cuomo is the Textbook Example of How Not to Apologize
From Lisa Leopold, writing for The Conversation… New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s two apologies for alleged sexual misconduct are straight out of a master class in how not to say you’re sorry. The governor, who had become something of a celebrity during his nationally broadcast press conferences early in the coronavirus pandemic, is now embroiled in a sexual […]
Why Oprah’s Interview with Harry and Meghan Matters
From Tom Jones, writing for Poynter… Why should we care? What’s the big deal? Don’t we have more important things to worry about than some soap opera half a world away? That was the general feeling among many following Sunday night’s Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Millions of […]