AP’s Tom Kent leads ONA effort to provide building blocks for ethics codes

Tom Kent, linked from his Twitter avatar

I called yesterday for detailed practical advice on making ethical decisions in today’s journalism. After I posted, I emailed the people I mentioned in the post, inviting them to respond. This is the response from Associated Press Standards Editor Tom Kent, who is leading an ethics initiative of the Online News Association:

Steve, you raise some excellent points about where we stand in the ethics conversation. Sometimes, as you suggest, we’re a little too philosophique, thinking big thoughts without the concrete examples that would make them immediately useful. Meanwhile, we’re trying to write ethical codes for a profession that’s in the process of splitting into some distinctly different philosophies.

However much we agree on certain unifying concepts (tell the truth, don’t plagiarize, don’t take money to skew your stories), after that we start to differ widely. You referred to the contrast between those who think it’s fine to write from a certain political point of view (as long as you’re transparent about it) and those who favor an updated version of objectivity and neutrality (find my defense of that here). There are disparate points on view on many other questions.

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Journalism ethics conversation needs one more thing: Detailed situational advice

Someone should compile detailed ethical guidance for journalists in the difficult decisions we face in doing our jobs today.

The journalism conversation about ethics has been more robust this year than at any time I remember in my career, and I’ve been fortunate to be involved in much of it. But I think we need still more.

Two notable collaborations have re-examined the most important statements of journalism ethics:

• The Society of Professional Journalists is considering an update to its Code of Ethics. I was part of a group making recommendations relating to digital journalism (more on that later).
• Kelly McBride of Poynter and Tom Rosenstiel of the American Press Institute edited a book, The New Ethics of Journalism, featuring Poynter’s new Guiding Principles for the Journalist and 14 chapters by other writers on various topics. I didn’t write anything for the book but I participated in a 2012 discussion that was part of the process of writing the book. I already blogged about the new Guiding Principles, and will comment later here on the other chapters.

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Kennedy assassination front pages: A close look 50 years later

I am under no illusion that my thoughts or memories of the Kennedy assassination are any more insightful than all the others you’ve already read and heard for the last month or so.

But I do think the front pages my father saved from November 1963 are pretty interesting.

We lived in Sunset, Utah, at the time. I was a fourth-grader at Doxey Elementary School. My father saved the front page above from the evening edition of the Ogden Standard-Examiner, the daily paper delivered to our home. It apparently started Dad (and then me) on a couple lifetimes of saving historic front pages. This is the oldest of dozens of papers Dad saved over the next 15 years before his death. As the journalist in the family, I got his collection and added dozens (maybe hundreds) more.

Take a look at the front page above. Kennedy was shot at 12:30 a.m. p.m. Central time, 11:30 a.m., right on (or perhaps after) deadline for an evening paper. Clearly they just had enough time and material for one wire story (from UPI) and a file mug shot of the president. There isn’t even a wire photo from Dallas.

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My Digital First Media world tour: 84 newsrooms (so far)

With Thursday’s visits to the Deming Headlight and Silver City Sun-News, I have visited the newsrooms of every Digital First Media daily newspaper.

With some weeklies, a magazine and visits to four newsrooms that moved between visits and our national Thunderdome newsroom, I’ve visited 84 DFM newsrooms altogether.

I started trying to write some observations about the various newsrooms, but I guess much of that is what I’ve been blogging about here. So I’ll just observe this personal milestone. If I’ve missed a daily newsroom, please let me know. I still have some non-dailies I haven’t visited (though everyone is daily — even hourly — in Digital First). I look forward to reaching those newsrooms eventually.

These are the newsrooms I’ve visited:

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Excellent attribution advice from Ellyn Angelotti

Ellyn Angelotti photo linked from Twitter

Update: I’ve added a 2011 Dan Gillmor piece on linking at the end of this post. 

Journalists interested in attribution, plagiarism and journalism ethics should read Ellyn Angelotti‘s two-part series about attribution.

Part 1 discusses plagiarism, particularly why journalists should attribute when they use content from press releases:

When deciding whether to publish information that comes via an organization’s official release, it’s important to consider the context of the source. The release could reflect a skewed perspective — or, worse, the information may not be accurate. So by publishing information in a release verbatim, you potentially run afoul of the important ethical value of acting independently and holding those who are powerful accountable.

Additionally, disseminating information published in official releases without additional reporting may not allow for diversity of voices in the conversation, especially on social media. When people recirculate the same information, they contribute to the echo chamber of the existing conversation online, instead of adding new knowledge.

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My brief take on Digital First’s ‘all-access’ subscription project

@stevebuttry Will you be blogging a response later? @jxpaton

— Andy Paras (@AndyParas) November 18, 2013

Of course, I’m blogging a response, but not much:

I’ve said before that I’ve grown tired of expressing my views about paywalls. That hasn’t changed just because CEO John Paton has adopted an “all-access” subscription project for Digital First Media.

While I don’t agree with the approach, I do have full confidence in John’s overall strategy and leadership of Digital First Media. Whether he’s right or wrong in this particular aspect of the approach, I think he’s right about enough things that we’re going to continue making progress toward prosperity.

I’ve been wrong a lot of times in my career. I hope my view about all-access is another.

The Subscription Project Update – Buying gas in the tank for the journey – http://t.co/bQlUGPYevj – #DFM

— John Paton (@jxpaton) November 18, 2013

I curated some responses from Twitter, with apologies for all the related media and parent tweets repeated (I blame Twitter, which gives you an option to omit those; I clicked those options and apparently they don’t work):

@ryanchittum What do you make of this – http://t.co/UzExw2KRMm It's like the fall of communism – but with consultants.

— Robert B Levine (@RobertBLevine_) November 18, 2013

I’d add this @stevebuttry take on All Access tactic for Digital First http://t.co/3qCGbmOflm More $ to invest in digital innovation is great

— Matt DeRienzo (@mattderienzo) November 19, 2013

@mattderienzo @stevebuttry Good luck gentlemen. The subscription model seems to be working pretty well for us.

— Philip Tortora (@PhilipTortora) November 19, 2013

@stevebuttry‘s brief take on Digital First’s all-access subscription project http://t.co/pKEs19EdoK Me:Sad this is best @jxpaton could do.

— Cynthia & Bunny (@typaldos) November 19, 2013

It’s not the #paywall our readers deserve, but it’s the one we need right now… @jxpaton on #DFM‘s strategy: http://t.co/5cVQLMdls0 #Batman

— Gina D. (@GNAdv) November 19, 2013

Now begins the tea-leaf reading about what @jxpaton means by “short-term.” A gutsy, if not desperate, move. – http://t.co/UH0OQDn4qp

— Mark Loundy (@MarkLoundy) November 19, 2013

Digital First CEO @jxpaton: The transformational journey from print to digital is a long one. And it is all uphill. http://t.co/CuwuQSZq4u

— Steffen Konrath (@StKonrath) November 18, 2013

@mathewi @jxpaton …”But it’s a tactic that will help us now” Hard to flip that switch off again

— Michael Rondon (@Mike_Rondon) November 18, 2013

Smart RT @JesseHolcomb: Wow, big news from @jxpaton and Digital First Media: more metered paywalls (75 dailies total) http://t.co/xUzAHjd5UX

— Henry Blodget (@hblodget) November 18, 2013

CEO @jxpaton: all 75 dailies in Digital First Media will go to the meter and “all access” pricing. He explains why: http://t.co/SmHFY3I3gt

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) November 19, 2013

@jayrosen_nyu @jxpaton DFM launches all access, while CEO claims paid digital subs still not the strategy?

— John L Brown (@johnbrownjlb) November 19, 2013

@johnbrownjlb What’s the contradiction there? @jxpaton said, yes, it’s not the strategy but it is a useful tactic and he’s making use of it.

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) November 19, 2013

@jayrosen_nyu @jxpaton methinks he doth protest too much… Totally ok to change mind.

— John L Brown (@johnbrownjlb) November 19, 2013

@johnbrownjlb Fair enough. So you don’t buy the distinction between a strategy and a tactic, or you think he’s just bullshitting about it?

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) November 19, 2013

@jayrosen_nyu Series of tactical, multi-year experiments that build on each other begins to feel like strategy. If it walks like a duck….

— John L Brown (@johnbrownjlb) November 19, 2013

@johnbrownjlb I still don’t get it, but thanks for explaining. 🙂

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) November 19, 2013

@emilybell by the way, what does Digital First Media’s august advisers think of its move to, er, metered paywalls?

— John Gapper (@johngapper) November 19, 2013

@johngapper DFM already has a large number of them, so it is an extension of an existing tactic. @jxpaton was pretty clear about rationale

— emily bell (@emilybell) November 19, 2013

@emilybell @jxpaton so you think it’s a good idea?

— John Gapper (@johngapper) November 19, 2013

@johngapper @jxpaton why wouldn’t I?

— emily bell (@emilybell) November 19, 2013

@emilybell @jxpaton answer the question, Ms Bell

— John Gapper (@johngapper) November 19, 2013

@johngapper @jxpaton yes

— emily bell (@emilybell) November 19, 2013

@emilybell @jxpaton hallelujah

— John Gapper (@johngapper) November 19, 2013

@johngapper @jxpaton what?

— emily bell (@emilybell) November 19, 2013

“@emilybell: @johngapper @jxpaton yes” oooh… You’ve changed Emily.

— Matt Kelly (@mk1969) November 19, 2013

@mk1969 @johngapper @jxpaton no, I haven’t. Neither has Gapper. Who claimed in 2010 Guardian would have a paywall by the end of the year.

— emily bell (@emilybell) November 19, 2013

@mk1969 @johngapper @jxpaton …he did not say which year, tbf

— emily bell (@emilybell) November 19, 2013

@johngapper @emilybell Only thing more boring than the paywall debate is being woken up at 5:30 am by tweets on paywall debate. #needcoffee

— John Paton (@jxpaton) November 19, 2013

@jxpaton @johngapper he started it. Gapper should get us both coffee

— emily bell (@emilybell) November 19, 2013

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John Kroll: Ask the 5 W’s in fact-checking

John Kroll, photo linked from johnkrolldigital.com

John Kroll advises journalists to fact-check by asking the 5 W’s when we’re reporting on statistics that sources cite.

The truth is that many statistics cited in news stories are not fully vetted by journalists. Someone we regard as knowledgeable cites a figure and we parrot it.

But we should always ask the most important verification question: How do you know that? And too often, as John points out in asking the 5 W’s about a bogus but oft-cited stat about 100,000 Christians being killed for their faith every year, the answer is that the source doesn’t really know.

Truthfulness and verification are the core of good journalism. John gives some excellent advice for verifying numbers and getting closer to the truth.

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Todd Starnes apparently doesn’t care about accuracy or about Baptist heritage

Jeff Edelstein

Shaky journalism ethics and hypocrisy in the name of religion are a couple of my pet peeves.

I’m a little peeved now at Todd Starnes of Fox News.

Some background will help. My Digital First colleague Jeff Edelstein, a columnist at The Trentonian, broke the story Oct. 22 that MacFarland Intermediate School in Bordentown had dropped three overtly religious Christmas songs from its winter concert. You can agree or disagree with that move, and I’m not going to argue the merits of the school’s decision here, but it’s clearly newsworthy.

Starnes was one of many journalists jumping on the story after Jeff broke it, along with his Fox colleague Bill O’Reilly. The story fits their imaginary “war on Christmas,” so you can see why they would want to give it attention. But they didn’t bother to acknowledge the source of their information in any way.

I think an ethical journalist should acknowledge and link to sources. You can disagree with me on that and you’ll have some company. It’s not one of those ethical points on which journalists are mostly united, like that we should publish accurate stories and shouldn’t plagiarize.

But let’s get to the question of accuracy. Starnes tweeted this week:

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Slides for social media workshop in Regina

I’m in Regina, Saskatchewan, today to lead a social media workshop for the Saskatchewan Media Guild.

I’m delighted to be working with my old friend Don Gibb, Canada’s leading writing coach. We tag-teamed four regional workshops for the Canadian Association of Newspaper Editors starting about a decade ago, but I think the last time we worked together was 2006 or 2007.

While I won’t be talking only about Twitter today, the most helpful links accompanying today’s workshop are from my #twutorial series.

Here are the slides I’ll be using in today’s workshop.

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‘The Homecoming’: Updated lessons from a memorable story

Buddy Bunker’s photo of the homecoming of Lt. Col. Robert Moore won a 1944 Pulitzer Prize. He’s hugging his daughter Nancy as his wife, Dorothy, and nephew, Michael Croxdale, watch. My 1997 and 2008 stories about this photo are two of the most memorable of my career.

One of the best stories (and the longest story) of my career actually had a huge hole in it. But I got to fill that hole 11 years later.

This post continues my series providing updated journalism lessons from memorable stories of my career. (I welcome other veteran journalists to share similar updated lessons from old stories in guest posts.)

Today I’ll discuss the two stories I did on the people in the photo above, first an incredibly long print story and then a multimedia story. First a warning: This was the longest story of my career, 200 inches long (I like to joke, though it’s accurate, that I wrote 250 inches, but the bastards made me cut it). And that’s back when newspaper columns were wider than they are today. It ran more than 9,000 words. And that doesn’t count the sidebar about Bunker and the photo, the timeline or the cast of characters.

One thing we’d certainly do with this project today would be to make an ebook. It was well on its way to book length anyway. Since I’ll be posting the full story here, plus some background, observations and ways that I’d do the story differently today, it’s certainly going to be my longest blog post ever. If you spend the time to actually read all the way through, I hope that the story itself and/or my observations about it are worth your time.

The story is about the photo above and the people in the photo. I used the story frequently in writing workshops, long before I started teaching digital journalism tools and techniques. I’ll share some of those lessons, too.

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Verification Handbook to be published in January

I’m pleased to be involved in the Verification Handbook, a new project to help journalists and aid providers sort fact from fake.

The handbook is a project of the European Journalism Centre and is edited by Craig Silverman, with whom I’ve collaborated before in accuracy workshops.

I wrote Chapter 2, “Verification Fundamentals: Rules to Live By.” Other chapter authors, in addition to Craig, are Rina Tsubaki of EJC, Claire Wardle and Malachy Browne of Storyful, Trushar Barot of BBC News, Mathew Ingram of GigaOm, Patrick Meier of the Qatar Computing Research Institute and Sarah Knight of the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

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Susan Steade’s SEO headline tips: Business up front, party in the back

Search-engine optimization sometimes gets a bad rap from journalists (more on that later). But I always thought a headline’s job was to attract eyeballs, to get someone to read the story.

That’s the job of a digital headline, just like it was when I wrote print headlines as a copy editor for the Des Moines Register 35 years ago.

What’s changed is how people find our headlines. Instead of having the newspaper delivered to their door, and browsing pages for a headline or photo that catches their eye, many people find our stories in answer to the questions they ask search engines. Just as I tried my best to catch the browsing reader’s eyes, now I try to catch the search engine’s eye.

But it’s a two-step process: I need some keywords (utilitarian and sometimes dull) so the search engine will find my story and I need an enticing headline, so people will click on it (getting onto the first page of search results only gets me the chance to compete with nine other headlines for your click).

Susan Steade has a great metaphor for the SEO headline: Business up front, party in the back. In other words, start with some keywords, so the search engine will find your headline, then have some fun, so people will click on your headline rather than the others the search engine presents.

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