The Quill articles from January 2001

The Quill archives from January 2001

Election 2000: Was our credibility the big loser?(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The news media should start taking notes from the lessons of the past year's election. In the October/November issue of Quill, my column was about the dangers and pitfalls journalists face when covering a presidential election. The first...

Make members a must.(Society of Professional Journalists)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Take part in new programs to share the benefits of SPJ membership with colleagues. At its height, the Society of Professional Journalists had more than 20,000 members. Like many associations, our membership numbers have dropped, and...

GANNETT LEADS TREND OF FRONT-PAGE ADS.(Gannett Co. Inc.,)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Since USA Today began running one-inch strip ads across the bottom of Page One a year ago, more newspaper ad directors are looking at their front pages and seeing a new way to grow revenue. Many of the papers flirting with the concept --...

OLD EXAMINER ENDS AN ERA; NEW PAPER OFF TO A ROCKY START.(San Francisco Examiner)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The afternoon San Francisco Examiner, the world's first Hearst newspaper and the Monarch of the Dailies, moved into the pages of history Nov. 21. A story that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle the following day said that it appeared as...

The Arizona Republic.
January 1, 2001... The Arizona Republic, the state's largest daily, said in early November it was planning to restructure its workforce -- a move resulting in the elimination of 60 jobs. The Republic currently employs more than 2,500 full- and part-time...

Dallas Morning News.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Dallas Morning News converted three of its five struggling suburban newspapers into sections of the News, starting the week of Nov. 13. The move was intended to boost profitability at the semiweekly publications by reducing newsprint use;...

Wall Street Journal.
January 1, 2001... The Wall Street Journal planned to cease printing its six weekly regional editions, eliminating 34 jobs, to focus on the national edition, which brings in much higher advertising rates. Managing Editor Paul Steiger announced the decision...

Times Mirror Co.(axes jobs at Baltimore Sun)
January 1, 2001... In late November, the Baltimore Sun became the latest of the Tribune Co. papers to axe jobs since the takeover of the Times Mirror Co. Newspaperwide, the Sun plans to cut 60 positions, or 3.3 percent of its total work force, "through...

BLACK BUYS STAR-BULLETIN, BUT ALL NOT YET SMOOTH.(David Black, Honolulu StarBulletin)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Canadian publisher David Black said Nov. 9 that he reached an agreement in principle to buy the Honolulu StarBulletin, saving the 118-year-old afternoon newspaper and creating head-to-head business competition between Oahu's two dailies. ...

JUDGE DENIES PAPER'S EFFORTS TO BLOCK SALE.(of Salt Lake Tribune)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... A federal judge on Dec. 15 refused to block the sale of The Salt Lake Tribune to Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc. Judge Tena Campbell's 33-page ruling denied all of the Tribune's claims that MediaNews and the Tribune's current owner,...

ROLLING STONE RETRACTS CLINTON MISQUOTE.(Bill Clinton misquoted on "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays in the military)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... President Clinton didn't use unsavory language in Rolling Stone's December issue when referring to the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for homosexuals, the magazine now says. The misquote got attention in a briefing at the...

HEADLINE PROMPTS APOLOGY AND DISMISSAL.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... A libelous headline published in the a Spokane, Wash., newspaper in early November had major repercussions: Editors at The Spokesman-Review made public apologies to the president of a nearby university, asked a copy editor to resign and...

VOLUNTEERS PROOF PAPER'S COPY.(Orange County Register, California)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Orange County (Calif.) Register has drafted 36 readers for a proofreading program initiated by ombudsman Dennis Foley, who invited readers recently to "help clean things up" by studying their newspaper for errors. "They expressed...

PAXTON GROUP TO BUY MESSENGER-INQUIRER.(Paxton Media Group Inc. to purchase newspaper from Belo Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Paxton Media Group Inc., which owns the Paducah Sun and 27 other daily newspapers, announced Nov. 22 its intentions to buy the Owenboro Messenger-Inquirer. The sale of the paper by Dallas-based Belo Corp. to Paxton is expected to be...

HOW DO WE READ ONLINE?(study of consumer response to news published online)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... A new study shows that journalists need to make some changes in online news presentation. Journalism' digital revolution may not be so revolutionary -- at least when it comes to readers' behavior. Experts say the keys to success in...

How did we get it so wrong?(television news coverage of the United States presidential election, 2000)
January 1, 2001... The media's election-night screw-ups resulted in a complex game of finger-pointing. What happened -- and how do we avoid it in the future? Some say it was faulty data from the Voter News Service (VNS), which provides the networks and The...

NEWSPAPER GROUP PLANS TO KEEP VOTE COUNT GOING.(newspapers investigate outcome of Florida vote in United States presidential election, 2000)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The presidential election had been settled only a week when news organizations started reviewing 6,600 Broward County, Florida, ballots Dec. 18 to try to determine if they had been properly counted in November. About a dozen reporters,...

'BUSH WINS' HEADLINES BECOME ONLINE COMMODITY.(copies of newspapers incorrectly calling George W. Bush winner of presidential election, 2000)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... Newspapers that prematurely called George W. Bush the winner of the U.S. presidential election became instant commodities on Internet auction sites on Nov. 8. The errant headlines served as reminders of the embarrassing "Dewey Defeats...

COVERAGE GAFFES ERODE PEOPLE'S FAITH IN MEDIA.(news coverage of presidential election, 2000, and public opinion)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... If some people doubted journalists' accuracy and motives in July 1998, when political news stories focused on Monica Lewinsky and presidential honesty, their mood turned far more cynical as they attempted to follow the electoral tangle in...

Election coverage: A major media mistake.(media coverage of presidential election, 2000)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Failure to act independently on election night leaves news organizations struggling with loss of credibility. The stage was set. The stakes were huge. Voter interest newly rejuvenated. Election night 2000 was another chance for the...

Indy Star intern makes the election-night team.
January 1, 2001... She was in the right place at the right time -- and she was prepared. On election night Nov. 7, I wrote history at The Indianapolis Star. And I was completely unprepared. I selected The Star for my Medill School of Journalism...

MAKING DIGITAL HISTORY.(election 2000)
January 1, 2001... As online news sites were recording history this election, they were also making it. Record numbers of people went online for news, marking the first true test of the medium. This past election set records around the country - and not...

SPECIALTY SITES FOUND INSIDER NICHE.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Just as many mainstream news sites found themselves competing with online sites, television programs and journals focusing on "insider politics" were faced with their online counterparts. Two online publications -- Slate.com and Salon.com...

NET DOESN'T HELP VOTER TURNOUT.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Even though more and more people are using the Internet to get their political news, looking up Supreme Court decisions, and dropping by political chat rooms, it doesn't mean that more people are becoming interested in politics. ...

Covering the "New" Energy Crisis.
January 1, 2001... When the term "energy crisis" was coined in 1973, members of the media were caught in an unenviable situation: their public (and their editors) were screaming for information reliable information -- about energy in general and about the...

DIVERSITY.(in the newspaper industry)
January 1, 2001... Going further than the hype When it came to addressing issues of diversity, many newspapers thought they knew the drill. Hire a journalist of color. Maybe more than one. Or make someone responsible for diversity coverage, maybe even...

Make FOIA a national priority.(Freedom of Information Act)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Improving the openness of federal government should be the first bipartisan undertaking of the new administration. AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH Dear Mr. President: Last October, at my organization's most recent...

CLINTON VETOES CLASSIFIED-LEAKS BILL.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... President Clinton vetoed a bill in early November that would have made leaking government secrets a crime. Thc legislation, he said, might "chill legitimate activities that are at the heart of a democracy," according to The Associated Press....

PUBLIC RECORDS A GAMBLE IN COLORADO, SURVEY FINDS.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Over a period of two months, local government agencies in Colorado failed to comply a third of the time with a state law that declares "all public records shall be open for inspection by any person at reasonable times." That's what...

NEW MEXICO OFFICIALS FAIL TO RELEASE RECORDS.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... A statewide survey by New Mexico newspapers found that public officials routinely violate state law by not releasing public records like budgets, public employees' salaries and reports of crimes and court cases. Three of every 10...

MEDIA WIN APPEAL TO UNSEAL DETAILS OF MURDER.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... News organizations received a small victory Dec. 12 when a federal appeals panel agreed to unseal the details of the slaying of Joie Armstrong, a Yosemite naturalist who was beheaded last year in the national park. For months, media...

Keep it straight forward.(journalism)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... When presentation techniques get in the way of writing, readers lose interest. Burl Bovine's rubber boots crunched through the ice covering the muddy ruts in his barnyard. The light from the Kitchen of his 115-year-old farmhouse lit the...

HOSTS OF ABC TALK SHOW PROMOTE SOUP IN PAID SPOTS.(Barbara Walters)(Meredith Vieira)(Star Jones)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... If you tuned in to ABC's "The View," a lively women's talk show that stars Barbara Walters, a few months ago, you would have seen a selling technique not seen since the early years of television: TV hosts paying homage, during airtime, to...

NEWSPAPER REGRETS ALTERING PHOTO.(Free Press (Burlington, Vt.))(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Burlington, Vt., Free Press executive editor said Oct. 24 that the paper should not have altered a photo published on its front page that week. "It shouldn't have happened," Mickey Hirten told the Rutland Herald the next day. The...

THE TENNESSEAN PRINTS PRE-EXECUTION IMAGE.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Small pieces of a silent 22-minute video that show death row inmate Robert Glen Coe being transferred from his cell to the execution chamber April 19 were obtained by The Tennessean via court order in late November. The images offer a...

TABLOID EDITOR'S GIFT GETS CHARGES DROPPED.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... An editor of a supermarket tabloid agreed to donate $100,000 to a journalism ethics program to avoid being charged with bribery and extortion after being accused of attempting to purchase a copy of the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note. At the...

HUD regulations long way from censorship.
January 1, 2001... Keeping our work inclusive is a benefit to our work, not a threat. It would be hard to find a journalist who didn't strive for precision in his or her copy. Or a reporter who wouldn't fight -- be it with an editor or with a court -- for...

PAPERS OFFER DOMESTIC-PARTNER BENEFITS.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The number of newspaper companies offering domestic-partner benefits is on the rise, with Dow Jones & Co. Inc. telling employees that their partners will be eligible for health benefits as of January. Richard Tofel, vice president of...

FREEDOM FORUM PLANS CENTER FOR MINORITIES.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Freedom Forum unveiled plans Nov. 13 for an innovative training institute for minority journalists. As part of the plan, the organization will also relocate most of its administrative staff to Nashville, Tenn., from its Arlington, Va.,...

TV STATIONS DECLINE TO COMPLETE NAACP SURVEY.(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... When six television stations in Boston received a survey on minority hiring practices from the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, all six declined to complete it. "We expected a 100 percent...

Silenced because of race.(african american journalists)
January 1, 2001... In the 1950s, black journalists struggled to find outlets for African American voices. Today, it's up to every journalist to listen and then ensure all voices are heard. In 1903, W.E.B. DuBois wrote that the "problem of the Twentieth...

Milestones in African-American journalism history.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... During February, as part of Black History Month, Americans pay tribute to the richness and diversity of African Americans. SPJ recognizes the struggle of African Americans in the journalism field. 1829 - David Walker, a free Black man,...

Keeping dead cats and 'brights' in AP style.(teaching journalism)
January 1, 2001... When a journalist took on a classroom of students, she learned some lessons of her own. You would think that after years as everything from a magazine editor to a beat reporter for a major daily, I would be able to teach a few college...

Killed in search of truth.(murder of journalists)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... CPJ documented 24 journalists that were killed last year while reporting the news. Last spring, in Moscow, Igor Domnikov was returning home from work when he was attacked in the entranceway to his apartment building, bludgeoned, and left...

Journalists killed in 2000 because of their work.
January 1, 2001... BANGLADESH: 2 Mir Illias Hossain, Dainik Bir Darpan, Jan. 15, Jhenaidah Hossain, 43, editor of the newspaper Dainik Bir Darpan, was assassinated in the southwestern town of Jhenaidah by three attackers. The paper had been outspoken...

CHINA ESCALATES CRACKDOWN ON MEDIA FREEDOMS.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... November marked significant setbacks for journalists and Internet freedoms in mainland China and Hong Kong. First, Willy Wo-Lap Lam, arguably the most prominent China-watcher in Hong Kong, resigned Nov. 7 as a columnist and editor at The...

Crawl before running.(journalism; writing techniques)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Master the basics of writing before moving on to advanced techniques. It happens all the time. A media reporter comes in or calls or writes, saying: I want to be a better writer of narrative. Or: I'd like to be able to use metaphor and...

Writing the words we hear.(television news writing)
January 1, 2001... Television news writing requires attention to detail and a consistent technique. The basic rules for goad writing are essentially the same in print as for television, but there are important differences. Television's "words" are also the...

Clean up your copy.(journalism; writing technique)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Effective techniques to tighten your writing Copy editing is paramount in a point-and-click era as print and new media vie for readers with shorter attention spans. Most editors and writers know the basic rules: use one word rather...

PEOPLE & PLACES.
January 1, 2001... Walter Mears, whose Associated Press byline has been synonymous with presidential election coverage since 1964, is getting off the campaign bus and retiring after the 2000 season. "Walter is hanging up his pen at the end of this election...

DEATHS.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
January 1, 2001... Katherine W. Fanning, 73, former editor of the Christian Science Monitor and the Anchorage Daily News, died Oct. 19 of colon cancer in Boston. Fanning married the former editor and publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1950, but she delved...

Cleveland Pros celebrate chapter's golden anniversary.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Cleveland SPJ Professional Chapter celebrated its 50th anniversary with a gala celebration Dec. 1, in the Ambassador Room of the Renaissance Hotel. Carol Story, former producer of the award-winning "Morning Exchange" on WEWS, TV-5,...

Fort Worth Pros get final word on Election 2000.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... So you thought the nation's what-killed-vaudeville presidential election had finally ended? Not until the SPJ Fort Worth Professional Chapter finished hashing it out. A month's worth of hindsight gave local journalistic and...

High school recruitment trip shows Society's commitment to students.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Natalie Strobach joined the staff of her high school student newspaper three years ago because it looked like a good way to bring change. Strobach is now the editor in chief of the Carmel High School Crossroads in suburban Chicago, and...

Chapters can benefit from new LaRocque book.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Want to brush up on your writing skills and have a good read at the same time? Then you'll enjoy a new book from Paula LaRocque, Quill columnist and writing coach. "Championship Writing: 50 Ways to Improve Your Writing," is a compilation...

Three new faces join staff ranks at Society HeadQuarters.(Society of Professional Journalists)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... INDIANAPOLIS -- Faces are changing at the Society of Professional Journalists Headquarters. Three new employees recently joined the staff ranks. MEMBERSHIP & AWARDS Lynn Nerz, a south side Indianapolis resident, started Nov. 20...

SPJ helps Kentucky State yearbook win case against censorship.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Society of Professional Journalists helped secure press freedom for college journalists nationwide by working to convince a federal appellate court that free-speech restrictions applied to high school students have no business on college...

Medical privacy rules ignore public interest, news media's role.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... New federal rules protecting the privacy of individuals' medical records say nothing about the value of providing information to the public, according to the Society of Professional Journalists. The rules also do little to case media...

Society says Philadelphia judge should reverse reporters' $40,000 fines.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Society of Professional Journalists urged a Philadelphia judge to reverse her decision to fine two reporters $40,000 each. Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan fined Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Mark Bowden...

Society asks U.S. Supreme Court to limit government agencies' claims to FOI Act exemptions.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... In a friend-of-the-court legal brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Society of Professional Journalists says thc Court should uphold an appeals court decision that limits a government agency's ability to claim the "intra-agency" exemption...

Society challenges Supreme Court to allow cameras in courtroom.(Society of Professional Journalists)(presidential election coverage)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The Society of Professional Journalists has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to broaden its media access policies, despite its recent decision to expedite the release of audiotapes for the Dec. 1 scheduled hearings on the results of the 2000...

Society asks Missoula officials to drop legal battle against student journalist.(Linda Tracy)(University of Montana)(Society of Professional Journalists)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... A University of Montana student journalist is entitled to the same protections afforded professionals, says the Society of Professional Journalists. The Society is urging Missoula, Mont., city officials to drop their unwarranted case...

SPJ Ethics Committee says hasty election coverage violated Ethics Code.(Society of Professional Journalists)(U.S. presidential election)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Many Americans media outlets acted hastily in their reporting on the results of the 2000 presidential election race, further damaging the credibility of journalists in the eye of the general public, says the Society of Professional...

Our New Year's Resolution.(journalist credibility)(Brief Article)(Column)
January 1, 2001... We've got a long deadline for this magazine, so as I write, the presidential election has not been resolved. Something else remains unresolved, too, but I don't believe there is a time constraint on that issue. It's our credibility among...