The Washington Post
Thursday, December 3, 2009
correction
A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number.
(via)
“Tiger Woods was text messaging the magazine people and then he drove into a tree.”
Food for thought for all the unemployed or underemployed journalists out there:
“Ratio of Katie Couric’s salary to the total operating expenses of NPR’s seventeen foreign bureaus: 3:2”
(via: Harper’s Index)
An oldie, but goodie: Eleven year-old reporter Damon Weaver interviews Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
Washingtonian reports on fisticuffs inside the newsroom of the Washington Post:
“Details are sketchy, but numerous witnesses report that veteran feature editor Henry Allen punched out feature writer Manuel Roig-Franzia on Friday. The brawl took place in sight of Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli’s office. Brauchli rushed to the writhing bodies and helped pull Allen off…
According to many sources, the incident began when Style editor Ned Martel assigned a semi-political story to Monica Hesse and Roig-Franzia… Allen took a look and didn’t like. He started ranting about the number of mistakes he had found.
Hesse at one point asked him to send the copy back to her. She got a bit teary at the verbal beatdown.
Allen, according to sources, said: ‘This is total crap. It’s the second worst story I have seen in Style in 43 years.’
Roig-Franzia then wandered into the newsroom. A veteran foreign correspondent, he has been turning out political features for Style. He heard Allen’s rant and stopped by his desk.
‘Oh, Henry,” he supposedly said, “don’t be such a cocks——-.’
Allen lunged at Roig-Franzia, threw him to the newsroom floor, and started throwing punches. Roig-Franzia tried to fend him off. Brauchli and others pulled the two apart.
Veteran Style writers said they knew Allen wasn’t happy… Working part time on contract, Allen seethed over the lost art of long-form journalism.”
(via Rebecca Armendariz)
You might have missed this sad media industry anecdote buried in part three of New York Times reporter David Rohde’s amazing series on being kidnapped by the Taliban:
“I argued that the United States was not the menacing, predatory caricature that they believed. I also tried to counter their belief that all Americans were astonishingly rich. Nothing I said, though, seemed to change their minds.
One day, I received a copy of Dawn, an English-language Pakistani newspaper, that featured an article on the perilous financial state of The New York Times. I saved the newspaper until commanders stopped by for visits.
Showing them the headline “New York Times Struggles to Stay Afloat,” I explained that the American newspaper industry — as well as the American economy — was in a free fall. They listened to what I said and nodded. Then, they ignored me.”
You know things are really bad at your newspaper company when even the reporters being held captive in remote Pakistani tribal regions can’t escape the grim reality of your financial troubles.
New York Magazine shatters my dreams:
“January Jones — AND HER CLEAVAGE — appear on the November cover of GQ. Her breasts, as depicted by GQ, immediately prompt the question of artificial enhancement by way of Photoshop. Judging by a side-by-side photo of January from the Emmys… GQ may have tried to make them look bigger.”
To: nikki@deadline.com
Subject: Gawker Photo Bounty
Dear Ms. Finke,
My name is Hunter Walker and I am a writer/blogger in New York. I would like to propose that we work together to collect Nick Denton’s bounty for your photo. Though I have had dalliances with many of the companies in the New York media scene, only one of my gigs in the past few years has been remotely permanent and I was laid off from that job after about 10 months. Currently, I am trying to improve my lot by attending the Columbia School of Journalism. I am writing about spending the year in school for Gawker and my posts there have been covered by the New York Times, NPR, Mediabistro, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. As a journalism student, I have a great deal of debt and questionable job prospects. I am not paid for my work at Gawker.
Giving me a copy of your picture would allow me to collect the $1,000 reward being offered by Gawker. You would be able to choose the photo that ended up appearing online while simultaneously doing a good deed by getting me paid. You could consider it a scholarship for a young, struggling journalism student. I think this would help you turn what otherwise might be an onerous ordeal into some great PR and karma.
Let me know what you think. If you’re interested all you need to do is send me a .jpg of a photo.
Thanks,
Hunter Walker
Gay Talese: Getting Drunk at the New York Times
“When I was young, I do remember there were a lot of drinkers who were known to be good writers… There was a celebration of alcoholism almost within the creative arts and also even in journalism.
I remember my first time in the city room of the New York Times… There’s nothing like that today.
City Room in those days… The whole room was full of smokers and drinking… Now there’s a big series on television called ‘Mad Men’ about the advertising agency life of the 1960’s and the 70’s. Hell, the drinking that went on in journalism was beyond that… drunken people all over. It’s a wonder the paper could ever get out. There were enough sober people at least for every issue… but another half of the staff was out of it.”
(via: fimoculous)
