STRAIGHT STUFF
Merrie Spaeth, former media director for the Reagan White House and PR counsel for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and Dr. Rita Kirk, chair of the SMU Division of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, will discuss the impact of blogs on American politics at the IABC/Dallas meeting Tuesday, April 12. More here. ...
A louder bark, a sharper bite. Organizers promise a full day of learning investigative skills, including how to unlock doors to public information, and another half-day of computer-assisted instruction (beginner and intermediate) at the May 21-22 Better Watchdog Workshop, presented by Investigative Reporters and Editors, hosted by TCU's Schieffer School of Journalism and sponsored by the Star-Telegram and Fort Worth SPJ. Cost for the May 21 session is $60 for professionals and $30 students and includes a six-month IRE membership. The optional May 22 computer-assisted reporting training is $30. More at ire.org/training/betterwatchdog/fortworth.html. ...
Susan Orlean, author of "The Orchid Thief," from which sprang the Nicholas Cage-Meryl Streep movie "Adaptation," will headline the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest, July 22-24 in Grapevine. Norm Pearlstine (Time, Inc.), Ken Wells (The Wall Street Journal/Crown Books Publishing Division), Alex Kotlowitz ("There Are No Children Here") and Paul Hendrickson ("Sons of Mississippi") are among other nationally prominent writers scheduled to attend. More at mayborninstitute.unt.edu/. ...
The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is accepting applications for an expenses-paid seminar focused on multimedia reporting, in-depth exploration of media convergence and other critical issues for online news operations. Applications are due April 1 and are available online. Contact Paul Grabowicz at grabs@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-3310.
PRSA local update: Several PRSA members joined students from TCU PRSSA on March 10 at Texadelphia to watch the premiere of MTV's "PR Girls." The group was greatly amused at the scant reality depicted in the show about Lizzie Grubman's New York publicity firm.
PRSA local update II: Angela Vargo with Southwest Airlines and Ruth Fitzgibbons, principal for Richards/Gravelle, will discuss "Beyond Cause Marketing: Connecting the Brand with a Cause" at Dallas PRSA's 2005 Pro-Am Day on Friday, April 15. More here.
SPJ national update: When it smells like news but isn't (but it still smells); it's only barbaric when someone else does it; and all the answers except the answer. Boston U. j-teachers unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the practice, lately employed by the Bush administration, of broadcasting government video news releases where the source of the material is not identified. The faculty slammed the "phony reporters" and their phony reports and urged the White House to cease other VNR practices "that run a substantial risk of misleading the public." At least 20 federal agencies have made hundreds of news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were broadcast on local stations across the country with no acknowledgement of the government's role in their production. Meanwhile, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, asked the FCC to investigate whether television stations' unattributed use of VNRs produced by federal agencies violates FCC rules. More here and here and here and here and here. ... Both stricken patients were severely brain-damaged. Both were incapable of surviving without medical assistance. Both were said to have expressed a desire to not be kept alive by artificial means. And neither of them had a living will. One was Terri Schiavo. The other was Charles Ray DeLay, the father of Tom DeLay. In fall 1988, the Texas lawmaker who would one day champion political intervention in the Schiavo case and call removing the woman's feeding tube "an act of barbarism" joined the sad family consensus to let his father die. "Tom knew -- we all knew -- his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way," said Maxine DeLay, the congressman's 81-year-old mother. More here and here and here and here and here. ... Thousands of pages of notes, memos, transcripts and other materials collectively known as the Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers quietly opened to the public Feb. 4 at UT Austin, minus the most fascinating detail: the identity of Deep Throat. The name of the executive branch source, as well as dozens of other confidential sources, will remain secret until their deaths, as promised to them by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose reporting for The Washington Post led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974. More here and here.
SPJ national update II: Fake cable labels writer a spy; flipping for fun and profit; maybe this is why they hate us; "the sad arc of greed has finally hit bottom"; and we decide, then we report ... The Pentagon calls a Defense Intelligence Agency cable accusing NBC News military analyst William Arkin of spying for Saddam Hussein a forgery. Arkin says it's "chilling" and demands an investigation. Arkin wrote "Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operations in the 9/11 World" and has produced several scoops critical of the Bush administration. More here. ... Clear Channel Communications on March 17 launched a progressive FM station in San Antonio to further capitalize on the growing demand for liberal-leaning talk. The latest station "flip" -- the huge, politically conservative company has made around 30 going back to last year -- features programming from Democracy Radio. Industry sources said a rival AM station in San Antonio will soon announce an affiliation with Air America. More here and here. ... The story of Iraq is usually told at ground level: roadside bombs, U.S. raids on insurgent hideouts, pipeline explosions. But well after the big blasts of the war's first nights two years ago, the U.S. bombing has continued with relatively little media attention. From last May through February, U.S. warplanes flew 13,000 missions and dropped about 490 bombs and missiles weighing a combined 265,800 pounds. More here. ... In a Feb. 28 memo to colleagues, prize-winning Newsday reporter Laurie Garrett offered a blistering assessment of journalism today -- who's calling the shots, and why, and who loses. More here. ... In covering the Iraq war last year, 73 percent of the stories on Fox News included the opinions of the anchors and reporters involved, a new study says. By contrast, 29 percent of the war reports on MSNBC and 2 percent of those on CNN included the reporters' own views. More here.
