May 18, 2022

■ '*NEW* from The New York Times - the company is delaying our return to office date in June because New York City moved to the high covid alert level, and the company is now strongly encouraging employees to wear masks in common areas at our office.’ (Emma Fitzsimmons) 

■ Attack hits local Black publications hard, taking one of their own (New York Times) / AP shares guidance to address inequities in age, race reporting (NABJ) / Facebook and Twitter still can't contain the Buffalo shooting video (TechCrunch) / What the shooting in Buffalo has to do with Fox News host Tucker Carlson (NPR) / Opinion: Buffalo shows why the media covers Tucker Carlson’s ugliness (Washington Post)

■ Scoop: Chris Wallace to anchor new show on CNN (Axios) 

■ There's a new media mogul tearing up Hollywood: 'Zas is not particularly patient' (WSJ) / ‘There is no news organization in the world like CNN’ (Hollywood Reporter) / CNN boss says Morning Show getting reimagined, seeks to be 'a disrupter' of broadcast AM programs (The Wrap) 

■ The 35 most powerful people in New York media 2022 (Hollywood Reporter) / Flashback: The 35 most powerful people in media 10 years ago in 2012 included Roger Ailes, Matt Lauer (Hollywood Reporter)

■ ‘Rachel Maddow usurped Anderson Cooper as the most followed verified journalist on Twitter’ (Muck Rack)

■ In the age of social media blasts, what's the point of letters to the editor? (Poynter) 

■ ‘The E.W. Scripps Company and Google are partnering on a multi-year initiative to transition experienced journalists with primarily print news backgrounds into broadcast news careers’ (SCRIPPS)

■ With the wind out of its sails, a battered BuzzFeed News forges on (Vanity Fair) 

■ Through a lens, documenting Indigenous culture (New York Times) 

■ Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones implores 900 graduates to 'help save this country' (nj.com) / ‘We are all literary chameleons and I think it’s fascinating,’ says Taylor Swift in commencement speech at NYU (Variety) 

■ For Washington Post columnist Heather Long, 'it's never too late to find what really excites you' (pennlive.com) 

Press Freedom

■ ‘Defamation cases are often a punishment for leaving’ (The 19th*)

■ Secret Justice Dept. subpoena drives home the need for a strong journalist shield law (Freedom of the Press Foundation) 

■ The triumph of Marcos dynasty disinformation is a warning to the US (New Yorker)

■ Russia closing CBC's Moscow bureau in retaliation for Canada banning Russian state TV (CBC News) 

■ Ukraine ‘still dangerous for journalists’ (VOA)

New York Times writer and author Elizabeth Williamson is among journalists confronting the rampant rise and spread of conspiracy theories through her reporting and research. Her current work has focused around unraveling the targeted misinformation and lies spread after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the surviving families’ lawsuits against Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and the election disinformation fueling the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack. 

In this instructional program with the National Press Club Journalism Institute, Williamson will share her reporting and research process, along with insights she gained as she connected the dots on how conspiracy theories grow. Williamson, whose critically-acclaimed book “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth” published this spring, will describe how she threaded together more than 400 interviews, 10,000 pages of court testimony and other records, and on-the-ground reporting to trace a line from conspiracy theories around Sandy Hook to Jan. 6, 2021. 

Registration is open for this program, which will take place on Friday, June 10 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET.

More than 75 percent of Americans say religion is an important part of their lives. How do these Americans see themselves and their faith reflected in news coverage? What does reporting on faith get right and wrong? How do editors and reporters think about who they’re reaching with these stories and who they’ve lost? And how might this coverage build trust in journalism among communities who have been historically misrepresented?

Registration is open for this program, which will take place on Friday, June 24 at 11:30 a.m. ET. Participants will learn:

• How journalists of faith navigate challenges from inside their newsrooms and from inside their faith communities
• Whose faith is centered in coverage and whose is marginalized, mischaracterized, or misunderstood
• Which best practices can help extend our community’s understanding of itself

Panelists include:

• Dawn Araujo-Hawkins, news editor at Christian Century; vice president at Religion News Association
• Alison Bethel, vice president of corps excellence at Report for America
• McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic
• Nadine Epstein, editor-in-chief and CEO at Moment
• Aysha Khan, journalist and Harvard Divinity School student
• Holly Meyer, religion news editor at The Associated Press
• Bill Mitchell, publisher, CEO, and president at the National Catholic Reporter
• Paul O’Donnell, editor-in-chief at Religion News Service

The conversation will be moderated by Julie Moos, the Institute’s Executive Director, and is supported by an operational grant from the Deseret Management Corporation.