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how things work
Learn To Translate Reporters' Lies And Threats!
Us Weekly's lead story right now is a rather substance-free bit on Dallas Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo shopping for a birthday present for his girlfriend, pop tart Jessica Simpson. But Us is doing its best to drum up something better; a reporter sent a vaguely ominous letter to Romo's dad encouraging him to talk, because "Jessica Simpson’s side is controlling the media right now." Which is actually very good reporting! Any journalist worth his paltry salary knows how to use veiled threats, scary insinuations, and bluffs (lies) to get reluctant sources to speak up. We've compiled a handy translation guide; how to decode the most common threatening reporter doublespeak, after the jump: More »
Public relations
Fox News Plays Nice With Times Reporters It Hasn't Yet Smeared
Is the Fox News PR machine trying to get back in the good graces of the New York Times—and slyly drive a wedge between reporters there at the same time? The network's famously vicious media relations operation was ravaged in a David Carr column in the Times on Monday. But now that they've let Bill O'Reilly take his obligatory on-air shot at the paper, the network seems to have decided to play nice with Times reporters—at least, with some of them. More »
media
Washington Post Pwned By Ex-Posties
Two years ago, two of the Washington Post's political reporters urged the paper to start a separate political website. The paper turned them down, and those two guys—John Harris and Jim Vandehei—left the Post and launched Politico.com. Now, the Post has decided it does want to launch a separate political site. But! There was a SLIGHT PROBLEM. More »
not afraid to be servicey
How To Write A Press Release That Doesn't Suck
Press releases: everybody hates them. Reporters hate them because they are trite, condescending, unreadable, superfluous, or some combination thereof. The flacks who write press releases hate them because they know that their intended recipients have nothing but scorn for their hard work. And the public hates press releases because the lazy media uses them anyways, producing tons of craptastic non-news. Flacks recommend buzzwords to get a press release picked up: "green," "environment," "foreclosure," "toxic," and, in Idaho, "polygamy." Wrong! Buzzwords are why people hate these things in the first place. After the jump, five real live ways to put together a good press release: More »
Crime
The Smoking Gun has the entire criminal complaint against Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri, the hustling con artist charged with fraud and money laundering earlier today. Much of the information came out in previous stories and investigations, but it's still pretty stunning to see the extent of the guy's fraud laid out all at once. Payoffs, luxury, deception, and a crooked reporter—all in there. And you can understand why Hathaway stayed with him so long; if your boyfriend had an unlimited pot of (other people's) money to fly you around the world with, you'd like him too:
More »
The Case Against Raffaello Follieri
The Smoking Gun has the entire criminal complaint against Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri, the hustling con artist charged with fraud and money laundering earlier today. Much of the information came out in previous stories and investigations, but it's still pretty stunning to see the extent of the guy's fraud laid out all at once. Payoffs, luxury, deception, and a crooked reporter—all in there. And you can understand why Hathaway stayed with him so long; if your boyfriend had an unlimited pot of (other people's) money to fly you around the world with, you'd like him too:
More »
journalismism
Reporters Are Not World Class Athletes
The Wall Street Journal has a piece today in which it attempts to scientifically determine the best overall male athlete in the world, by submitting a long list of famous athletes to a panel of exercise physiologists who rank them on this and that. This is the newspaper equivalent of Rolling Stone's "100 greatest albums" list—pointless, and meant to generate argument. But they do settle the issue of who is not the world's greatest male athlete: WSJ reporter Reed Albergotti, who goes up against a top decathlete to prove that reporters are, as suspected, goofy, unathletic white guys. God, what a 'Nilla. Video of Albergotti's good-natured crusade of unathleticism is below. More »
Freeze Frames
50 TV Reporters Give You Their Best 'O Face'
Ever wonder what some of your favorite television news reporters look like during sex? Gawker video guys Richard Blakeley and Nick McGlynn, along with their army of interns, have collected still frames of fifty reporters, anchors, and other TV folks giving their best "O faces." The expressions imply everything from long and luxurious moans to awkward and embarrassing early finishes. Find all 50 after the jump. The dirtier your mind, the more you'll enjoy them. More »
psychodrama
Hil Speech Round-Up: "He is the one who destroyed our heroine!"
Hillary Clinton's non-concession speech last night was apparently an insane circus of self-delusion and argument. Also the reporters to supporters ratio had to be totally out of whack, considering how many first-hand accounts are on the web today. So let's pick some anecdotes, shall we? First, from the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, the mystery of the reporter who KILLED CLINTON More »
crime
Reporter-Threatening Japanese Gangster: One Scary Dude
Some secret Japanese government files have emerged about Tadamasa Goto, the Yakuza gangster boss who's threatened the life of American reporter Jake Adelstein and his family. And—we hate to say it—but it really sounds like Goto is not a guy you would want to be threatening your life. The file notes that he both pays off reporters and "will seriously and relentless threaten whoever is responsible for unfavorable coverage." Duh! Well uh, he's not really brutal, is he? More »
ethics
US Surgeons Save Japanese Gangster, Who Can Return To Menacing Reporters
Earlier this month we told you about Jake Adelstein, the American reporter who spent 15 years covering organized crime in Japan and who now, unfortunately, finds himself and his family marked for death by an angry gangster. Adelstein's tormentor, Yakuza boss Tadamasa Goto, has been very sick lately; Adelstein's hope was that Goto would pass away, so he could return to America to be with his family without fear of assassination. Well, bad news: it's been revealed that Goto and three of his henchmen got precious, lifesaving liver transplants in Los Angeles (while many others died waiting). Thanks, science! More »
journalismism
Stabby Hack Hacks Back For Gory Tab Story
Daily News reporter Caitlin Millat went crazy yesterday. Crazy for journalism, that is! "I stabbed an innocent victim, got shot by a police officer, and suffered a severe asthma attack on Wednesday in Brooklyn," she writes, "all in a day's work for the Daily News." She now languishes in an isolation cell on Riker's Island. No, just kidding! She was just playing the role of a crazy person to help out with the city's annual EMT competition. Don't scare us like that, Caitlin! As an added bonus for all of us curious readers, she was able to turn her unique first-person experience into a story in today's paper. Synergetic! There's also a video. Near the end is when she stabs a guy. [NYDN] More »
public relations
Useful Media Relations 101
This email has been floating around for a week or so, but we're going to run it as a public service. It was first circulated by a PR guy named Peter Shankman as a classic "How Not To Pitch A Reporter" lesson. In this case, the email pitch below was sent to a hedge fund reporter. That is to say, a professional journalist who spends his days chronicling the ins and outs of the secretive high finance world. So one might have expected that a PR firm would cull its email blast list just a bit before it went to work on behalf of its "Long Island based car shop" client. But no! Pitches like this are why reporters hate PR people. CAN YOU GUESS WHICH PR AGENCY THIS CAME FROM? The full pitch (to, again, a hedge fund reporter), and the stunning reveal of the agency's identity, after the jump. More »
carla bruni
Horny London Reporter Recalls Failure To Bed Carla Bruni
In the UK, entertainment reporters have a reputation for being tough and heartless when it comes to reporting on celebrities. But you have to give them this: They're also horny sleazebags. At least one is. His name is Rob Grainge, and he works for the London Paper. Now that French first lady Carla Bruni is getting so much press for her tour of England and other endeavors, the London Paper is trying to get some renewed interest in Grainge's interview with Bruni last year, when she was still a simple model and celebrity. And it is interesting, as a case study in a reporter being unable to control his metaphorical boner while interviewing a pretty woman. More »
journalismism
LAT's Tupac Hoax Reporter Has Documented (Ha) Issues
What time is it? Time to pile on the LA Times for its fictitious Tupac shooting story! When one of the nation's top four papers (or, one that once held that position) splashes an investigative story this big that turns out to be based on forged evidence from a lifelong con man, you can expect a lot of tsk-tsking from the journalism establishment. But actually the reaction has been pretty muted. The reason: most reporters know deep down that they could be done in by fake documents just as easily. Slate's Jack Shafer has a rather gentle column today on what LAT reporter Chuck Philips could have done differently—mainly, don't trust con men, and always vet your documents. Your sympathy for Philips (those were convincing forgeries, after all) might be diminished, though, by this quote he gave in a recent web chat, defending his 2002 story that alleged that Biggie "Christopher Wallace" Smalls was involved in Tupac's murder—he sure was sensitive about forged documents back then: More »
journalismism
Nicest Reporter In History Gets Attacked On The Job
In an episode that was simultaneously poignant, noble, and hilariously out of touch, old New York Times reporter David Dunlap—who is always on the lookout for "illegal marketing campaigns"— says he "sensed a story on the evening of the 14th, when I came across two or three young men stapling posters for a new hip-hop album to lampposts." He started taking pictures of them, and they asked him what he was doing. He replied that what they were doing was illegal; then a guy attacked him and smashed his camera [City Room via FishbowlNY]! Dunlap got pushed down and roughed up, but is unharmed. And he refuses to press charges, because he's so grateful that they didn't stomp him out or rob him at the same time! More »
journalismism
J-School Dean Beginning To Hate Journalists
The Dean of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, one of America's most [self] important J-schools, is starting to regret drilling that punctilious attention to "ethics" into students. The Dean, John Lavine, sent out a letter with quotes from anonymous students talking about how great all these new Medill programs are. But another cheeky young bastard-in-training there remembered that the school teaches students not to use anonymous quotes, and started trying to track down who those quotes came from. When he couldn't find them, he wrote a story questioning the almighty Dean. Now it's been picked up by the Chicago Tribune, and Lavine comes off like kind of a dick, especially with quotes like "I am not about to defend my veracity." The lesson: Never work at a J-school for any reason, because you'll suffer all the karmic payback for the time you spent as an annoying journalist yourself. Full version of Lavine's controversial letter after the jump. More »
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