Observer » Media Failures

NBC Fires Producer of Misleading Today Segment About Trayvon Martin

Steve Huff — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:25:32 -0400

Remembering Trayvon Martin. (Getty)

NBC fired the producer of the deceptively edited call from George Zimmerman to 911 on Thursday. NBC News would not name the long-time Miami-based producer, citing "internal company matters" to the New York Times. The firing followed NBC's review of the Today Show segment about the Feb. 26, 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin. The report aired March 27 and featured audio from George Zimmerman's 911 call edited in a manner that seemed to point to a distinctly racist motivation for the shooting. However, as Brian Stelter reported late Friday for the Times:

...Mr. Zimmerman's comments had been taken grossly out of context by NBC. On the phone with a 911 dispatcher, he actually said of Mr. Martin, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about." Then the dispatcher asked, "O.K., and this guy — is he white, black or Hispanic?" Only then did Mr. Zimmerman say, "He looks black."

Conservative media watchdog NewsBusters.org first noticed the sketchy edits and by the end of March NBC had launched an investigation into the report.

In spite of the rampant suspicion among conservative bloggers and pundits that the tapes were intentionally pieced together to paint George Zimmerman as a racist, sources insisted to the Times that the "misleading edit" was "a mistake, not a purposeful act."

NBC issued a statement April 4 stating that they will take steps to stop any future repeats of such a mistake.

How Much Is the New York Post Worth to You?

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:22:02 -0400

What is the going rate for sparkling-wit headlines? Cartoons with questionable depictions of women and minorities? And national treasure Andrea Peyser? If you said, "Priceless," you're in luck.Because the answer is actually 75 cents, beginning Monday. The tabloid of record is raising its newsstand price 50 percent from the old rate of half-a-buck. We suspect that if you listen closely in bodegas across the city, come next week, you will hear the chorus: "What?! 75 cents?! Hell with that! Give me the Daily News."

Also, how annoying will the two-tab readers find the fact that their once-convenient $1/day paper habit now requires a supplemental quarter?

BREAKING: No Breaking News Merits Pulitzer this Year

Kat Stoeffel — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:39:55 -0400

No Pulitzer Prize was awarded for breaking news this year. We're thinking we, the media, blew it by incorrectly breaking the death of an elected official and outsourcing our breaking news to entire nations-in-revolt of citizen journalists. Then again, ProPublica won for an investigation which never appeared in print and social networking featured prominently in the winning fiction, A Visit From the Goon Squad, so maybe the Internet hasn't completely murdered the written word. Oh but we all just crashed the Pulitzer website. Call it a wash. Full awards below.

PUBLIC SERVICE - Los Angeles Times

BREAKING NEWS REPORTING - No Award

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING - Paige St. John of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune

EXPLANATORY REPORTING - Mark Johnson, Kathleen, Gallagher, Gary Porter, Lou Saldivar and Alison Sherwood of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

LOCAL REPORTING - Frank Main, Mark Konkol and John J. Kim of the Chicago Sun-Times

NATIONAL REPORTING - Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein of ProPublica

INTERNATIONAL REPORTING - Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry of The New York Times

FEATURE WRITING - Amy Ellis Nutt of The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.

COMMENTARY - David Leonhardt of The New York Times

CRITICISM - Sebastian Smee of The Boston Globe

EDITORIAL WRITING - Joseph Rago of The Wall Street Journal

EDITORIAL CARTOONING - Mike Keefe of The Denver Post

BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY - Carol Guzy, Nikki Kahn and Ricky Carioti of The Washington Post

FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY - Barbara Davidson of the Los Angeles Times

FICTION - "A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan (Alfred A. Knopf)

DRAMA - "Clybourne Park" by Bruce Norris

HISTORY - "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery" by Eric Foner (W. W. Norton & Company)

BIOGRAPHY - "Washington: A Life" by Ron Chernow (The Penguin Press)

POETRY - "The Best of It: New and Selected Poems" by Kay Ryan (Grove Press)

GENERAL NONFICTION - "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner)

MUSIC - "Madame White Snake'" by Zhou Long, premiered on February 26, 2010 by the Boston Opera at the Cutler Majestic Theatre.

kstoeffel@observer.com :: @kstoeffel

News Corp. to Shelve Hubristically Named News Aggregator

Nate Freeman — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:55:47 -0400

Project Alesia, Rupert Murdoch's ambitious plan to construct a digital newsstand out of News Corp. properties, has been spiked, a source told Reuters. The service, had it endured, would have offered a subscription package that users could access on devices such as an iPad, or their cellphone. The source said News Corp. was seeking a "critical mass" of publishers interested in collaborating on the project, and was unable to do so.

The decision will result in the reassignment of 100 staffers at Murdoch-owned publications in London, and Reuters said a similar displacement will occur in New York.

With the announcement of the project's failure, there's delicious irony to be found in its name. The Battle of Alesia, fought between the Romans and the Gauls in 52 B.C., was a brilliant and celebrated victory for Julius Caesar — the emperor's army was outnumbered four-to-one by the opposing forces. The win was a turning point for Rome in the Gallic Wars, and the name "Alesia" invokes majestic victory in the world of antiquity. Too bad Murdoch — who here must have pegged himself as Caesar — couldn't overcome the opposition, and now must surely rue the day he flexed his hubris.

nfreeman at observer.com |@nfreeman1234