Off to a good start

Media statistic of the week 

New research from the Tow Center shows Facebook is falling short of its goal to establish a “best in class” reputation in content moderation. As Priyanjana Bengani and Ian Karbal report at Columbia Journalism Review, in five days of reviewing fact-checking labels on Facebook, they found that the company failed to consistently label content flagged by its own third-party partners.  

“Facebook’s ten US fact-checking partners debunked over seventy claims. We identified over 1,100 posts across Facebook and Instagram containing the debunked falsehoods; less than 50 percent bore fact-checking labels, even in instances where there were minor deviations from the original vetted posts,” they reveal.

This week in media history

On November 10, 1969, the preschool educational television program Sesame Street debuted on public television stations in the U.S. “Sesame Street” now reaches children in 150 countries and 70 languages. It has won eleven Grammys and 150+ Emmys—more than any other children's show.

This past week in the media industry 

To accurately report what is happening

As predicted, Election Day turned into Election Days/Daze last week, and Americans were glued to social media, cable TV and their favorite news outlets, scrolling and scrolling for the latest updates. 

One person who had a hard time being patient for the results to come in was President Trump, who prematurely declared himself the victor on Wednesday morning. And as Oliver Darcy reports at CNN, news anchors on every network forcefully called him out for it.

“The media reportedly did well late last night to their credit,” tweets Brendan Nyhan. “But essential to accurately report what is happening - an assault on the democratic process - at every step.”

As the counting continued on Thursday, Jon Allsop wrote in Columbia Journalism Review about what it means to get the election wrong. While many liberals were shocked to see how many millions more Americans voted for Trump in 2020 compared to 2016, he notes that many members of the media have also been wondering, once again, how they failed to see this coming.

He also emphasizes the distinction between being factually wrong and morally wrong. “Trump and his allies in right-wing media...have poisoned millions of Americans not just against the mainstream press as it currently exists, with all its flaws and blind spots, but against the basic principles undergirding what journalism is,” writes Allsop. “If anything, learning that this worldview holds more sway than we thought makes it more urgent that we tell the truth.”

Meanwhile, as Sara Fischer wrote at Axios, the media and its gatekeepers managed to make themselves a central story in the 2020 presidential election, particularly on cable news, “where mentions of terms like ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ have skyrocketed in the past few weeks, surpassing mentions of issues voters typically say they care about like ‘social security,’ ‘climate change,’ and ‘immigration.’” 

Much of that conversation was being driven by Trump, she notes. An Axios analysis found that “fake news” was the most consistent topic among Trump’s ad spend on Facebook all year.

Breaking up with the Nates

Ben Terris of The Washington Post explores why Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight and Nate Cohn of The New York Times make us feel alive during elections — and why the relationship might not be worth saving. 

Calling it “A perfect piece,” Natalie Daher highlights, “They may not have been responsible for the bad polling... but that doesn’t necessarily absolve them of contributing to our collective freakout.” Adds Anthony Adragna, “Omg this quote on ?@NateSilver538? and ?@Nate_Cohn?: ‘To a large extent, it’s our own fault. But they are the street dealer of the drug — polling — that so many people find themselves addicted to.’”

Speaking of polling, Eric Lach says, “you should read @GrahamDavidA on what not being able to trust polls anymore might cost us.” That’s David A. Graham, writing in The Atlantic about The Polling Catastrophe. If public-opinion data are unreliable, we’re all flying blind, he says.

“Couldn't agree with this take on polling more,” says Penny Riordan, who quotes from the piece “Whatever the instructions on the bottle, the public uses opinion polls to try to understand what happens. If the polls and their analysts don’t offer the service that customers are seeking, they’re doomed.” And Alex Roarty shares one more: “‘If their snapshots are so far off, though, where were they aiming the lens?’ @GrahamDavidA with the deserved fire on the 2020 election and polls.”

A modest proposal

In Politico Magazine, Jack Shafer argues that Cable News Needs to Take Election Day Off, a suggestion that even he acknowledges won’t ever happen. But with time to fill and nothing of substance to report, every tiny development is treated like major news. Justin Katz thinks “This problem goes far beyond Election Day. It is an inherent problem in 24/7 cable news as a means of journalism...And also why I refuse to willingly watch any form of cable news.”

“Election Night TV news is worse than one of those Netflix series you continue to watch not because you’re interested any longer but because the sunk costs of your time persuade you that the rational thing is to view it to the end,” Shafer wrote...while watching CNN.

An important read

Writing for Poynter, Doris Truong shines a spotlight on how Election Day compounded an already trying year for journalists of color. It’s not only the work; it’s the emotional labor, she points out, and once again, journalists of color are exhausted. “100% yes to all of this,” tweets Leezel Tanglao.

Cal Lundmark says it’s “An important read from @DorisTruong. If you are a manager or supervisor, make space for your team to rest, recover and have time to be human. You can set the standard for self-care and help ease the toll of heavy emotional labor.”

The real fake news

“NEW: About a dozen accounts have posed as the AP to falsely declare election results on Twitter as part of a coordinated campaign to inject disinfo into late-stage vote tallying. A London teen linked to one of the accounts says he was recently hacked.” Dustin Volz links to his reporting with Rob Barry and Jenny Strasburg of The Wall Street Journal, Fake Twitter Accounts Posing as News Organizations Prematurely Declare Election Victories. Emily Kuhn with some good advice at any time: “Watch for the blue check mark.”

Jennifer Elias of CNBC reports that YouTube said it won’t remove a video that claims Democrats are committing voter fraud against Republican ballots, despite admitting the video undermines confidence in elections. “Twitter and Facebook seem like they’re legitimately trying. I am not convinced YouTube is,” tweets Matt Rosoff. 

Also doing a better job than YouTube: TikTok. Sarah Perez of TechCrunch reports that TikTok took down election misinformation aimed at younger users. The videos, which had made claims of “election fraud,” were first spotted by Taylor Lorenz, a reporter for The New York Times.

For his piece on Living in a QAnon Home as the Prophecy Crashes Down, MEL Magazine’s Quinn Myers shared that he “stayed up last night chatting with some folks as their #QAnon parents stockpiled supplies for the apocalypse and screamed at the TV.” One told him that his parents are “treating it like it’s going to be an apocalypse no matter who wins. And it’s frightening. The fear-mongering from Fox News and right-wing media is working, and people are stocking up on everything they need to prepare for a civil war.”

Basically the coolest person 

And now for something a little different. At The New York Times, Katie Robertson gives us a glimpse of The Election Work Diary of a Reporter With 2.5 Million Subscribers. The owner of that diary is former CNN reporter Peter Hamby, who moved to Snapchat in 2015 and now hosts the politics show “Good Luck America.” Also, “.@PeterHamby is basically the coolest person I know in real life,” Abby Livingston shares.

As Chris Megerian says, “This @PeterHamby diary gets off to a good start, and that's even before we meet Boone and his love of rocks.” Adrian Carrasquillo highlights the “Most relatable bit from @PeterHamby: 9:30 a.m. One of my best Democratic sources texts to inform me that he has moved from optimism to terror because of a single Florida poll. It’s that time of year.”

Farewell to a legend

Seymour Topping, was one of the most accomplished foreign correspondents of his generation and a newsroom leader at The New York Times under renowned executive editor A.M. Rosenthal, died on Sunday at 98. Robert McFadden has the Times’ obituary for Topping, the former Times journalist with an enviable view of history — and “One of my profession’s leaders,” as Teri Sprackland says. 

“RIP, Seymour Topping?? Legendary NYT journalist and administrator of @PulitzerPrizes. My @columbiajourn @columbia colleague for a decade. One of the nicest gentlemen I ever met,” Sree Sreenivasan says. And Matt Volz shares, “Remembering Professor Topping from his Covering Conflicts class. He had the simplest, best advice for any young reporter thinking about taking a leap into foreign reporting: ‘Go while you've got the fire in the belly.’”

 “He was much admired as an editor and, before that, as a brilliant foreign correspondent. We’ll miss him. RIP, Top,” tweets Nicholas Kristof.

A few more

• As Simon Albury puts it, “Journalist given a second chance deceives again.” From Jeremy Barr of The Washington Post, The Atlantic gave Ruth Shalit a ‘second chance’ 25 years after a media scandal. It ended with a bitter retraction. That was after the magazine appended the article with a nearly 800-word editor’s note informing readers that it was “deceived” by the story’s author, Ruth Shalit Barrett. Keith Reid shares, “Resisted tweeting abt this but it makes me so angry. SO MANY good writers, nvr get bylines at places like @TheAtlantic or @newrepublic. This liar gets chances across the decades.”
• Jim Waterson of The Guardian reports that BBC journalists are pressing for greater clarity on whether they are allowed to attend events in support of transgender rights or publicly back anti-racism campaigns, after the corporation was forced to clarify new rules on impartiality. 
• At Netzpolitik.org, Alexander Fanta and Ingo Dachwitz report that the Google News Initiative is funding media organizations around the globe, including pro-regime newspapers in countries under autocratic rule — a move that baffles human rights advocates.
• Michael Barthel, Katerina Eva Matsa and Kirsten Worden of the Pew Research Center have the numbers on the financial state of the U.S. news media in the second quarter of 2020: Coronavirus-Driven Downturn Hits Newspapers Hard as TV News Thrives. 
• Nathan Bomey of USA Today reports that its parent, Gannett, posted a revenue decline but topped 1 million digital subscriptions in the third quarter.
• The Native American Journalists Association is demanding that CNN apologize for using “something else” to describe Native voters. “This type of language continues the efforts to erase Indigenous and other voters who don’t neatly fall into the race categories listed in the graphic,” NAJA notes.

From the Muck Rack Team

As part of our Muck Rack Live series, I recently caught up with Axios’ Sara Fischer to hear her thoughts on the trend of journalists starting newsletters in 2020. She also offered some of her proven tips and tricks as the author of Axios’ weekly “Media Trends” newsletter. Head over to the blog for Sara Fischer’s tips on how to conceptualize, design and grow your own newsletter.

Muck Rack recently partnered with Angela Chitkara, lead researcher of The World in 2020 Project, and Robert Y. Shapiro, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Columbia University, to survey the public relations industry on what motivates PR teams to launch Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, and what necessary context those initiatives are missing. Along with a panel of experts, they recently joined Muck Rack’s Justin Joffe for a webinar exploring some of the eye-opening results from that survey. Head over to the blog to read about the key findings discussed during the webinar and to download the 2020 State of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in PR study.

Question of the week

How would you rate the media’s performance in covering the election last week? Any standouts?