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Media statistic of the week 

According to a new study, the results of which will be published in the academic journal New Media & Society, when journalists embed President Donald Trump’s tweets into news stories, they could be unknowingly helping him gain voter support.

As Denise-Marie Ordway reports at Journalist’s Resource, the researchers wanted to know whether an audience's response to news stories would differ depending on how the journalists present statements Trump has made on Twitter. One of the main takeaways from the study: “A higher percentage of Republicans reported feeling positive emotions such as pride and optimism after reading articles that contained embedded or quoted tweets compared with Republicans who read the article with paraphrased tweets.”

Among Democrats, no significant differences were elicited by tweet format on perceptions of Trump, the researchers note. However, Democrats rated articles containing verbatim Trump tweets as significantly lower in journalistic quality. One of the researchers told Ordway that the issue needs further research, and he’s curious whether Americans are also influenced by journalists’ presentation of tweets from other politicians.

This week in media history

On July 23, 1829, William A. Burt patented the “typographer,” a predecessor to the typewriter that would revolutionize the writing process and become the first time any type-writing machine was actually constructed. The working model provided by Burt for his 1829 patent was destroyed in a 1836 fire at The U.S. patent office.

This past week in the media industry 

A fascinating look at how journalism got to this place

We start this week with the latest in the New Yorker’s series on the future of democracy, a piece from editor Michael Luo that ponders the question, How Can the Press Best Serve a Democratic Society? In it, Luo revisits the Commission on the Freedom of the Press (aka the Hutchins Commission), a panel that convened in the 1940s to consider the proper function of the media in a modern democracy. 

Ken Armstrong highlights, “A committee with a poet, a philosopher & a historian wrote of the press: ‘it is no longer enough to report the fact truthfully. It is now necessary to report the truth about the fact.’ That was in the 1940s. Still seems apt today.” As does its conclusion — that the responsibility for fixing the press must fall most heavily upon the press itself.

Vera Titunik calls it “A fascinating look at how journalism got to this place and what has always been an ‘insoluble problem of great complexities.’” “This is a must read,” adds Wesley Lowery. “The questions and debate are as old as American journalism. Will we grapple with our systemic failings and strive to be better - or will we be dismissive and defensive?”

Outrageously out of order

Here’s another question: Why Does the N.Y.P.D. Want to Punish Journalists? That’s what the New York Times Editorial Board is wondering, in light of the department’s proposed regulations that would add new reasons to revoke reporters’ credentials allowing them past police lines. 

Maya Wiley’s take: “#NYPD is outrageously out of order here! Free press is a pillar of democracy without which it cannot stand!” But also, “Why does the NYPD get to decide who has press access in the first place?” Greg Bensinger wants to know. Suzanne Nossel shares, “At @PENamerica we're battling in court to stop the White House from punishing journalists. After 500+ incidents of press freedom violations amid recent protests, @NYCMayor @NYPDShea @NYPDnews must turn away from this Trumpian path.”

Combating dis- and misinformation

Not making things easier on anyone, the rampant disinformation that has proliferated online. At Government Technology magazine, Lucas Ropek reports on new research that shows How Disinformation Targeted Governments Amid National Protests. The research suggests that disinformation campaigns helped spawn some of the chaos erupting from the protests by inflaming anti-government sentiment in many communities, sometimes to the point of inspiring violent criminal behavior.

“These campaigns are basically designed to have a lemming effect on Web communities: frequently, the artificially amplified conversation will catch on with real people, who perpetuate the conversation by themselves. This makes sustained manipulation unnecessary,” writes Ropek.

Meanwhile, with misinformation spreading like wildfire, Doctors Have Another Enemy To Fight Besides COVID-19 Itself. But as Asha Shajahan, a primary care physician at Beaumont Health and an Assistant Professor at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, explains at HuffPost, with proper training, physicians could be a valuable tool in combating misinformation. “With weekly webinars on COVID-19, clinical trial reviews and health system updates, physicians are staying informed,” she notes. “This could be taken even further by including education from public health officials and fact-checking experts on misinformation.”

TikTok is also trying to help pour a little water on the blaze of misinformation with its new video series to combat misinformation. Mark Sullivan of Fast Company reports on the platform’s new campaign, called “Be Informed,” that aims to educate users on how to recognize misinformation posted by other users, then refrain from sharing it. It features a number of TikTok’s most popular video makers addressing topics such as how to scrutinize the credibility of the sources of TikTok videos and how to distinguish fact from opinion.

Covering the conspiracy theorists

So back to that quote from the Hutchins Commission for a moment: “It is no longer enough to report the fact truthfully. It is now necessary to report the truth about the fact.” 

At the American Press Institute, Susan Benkelman argues that local newsrooms should talk about how to cover politicians who promote conspiracy theories like QAnon. “Covering conspiracy theories and those who spread them has always been a tricky proposition for journalists,” she writes. “If you are in the business of trying to publish what’s true, how do you treat things that are untrue without amplifying them?” 

In that piece, Benkelman offers five questions local newsrooms should consider when covering political candidates who espouse conspiracy theories. Especially now, when there are a number of QAnon adherents running for office, this is “Extremely important guidance here for journalists,” tweets Janine Zacharia.

Letting false information into the public space

There are conspiracy theories, unwitting spreaders of misinformation and manipulative disinformation campaigns. And then there are outright lies. The Hutchins Commission “was deeply protective of the flow of ideas, even potentially harmful ones,” Luo writes, but they cautioned, “When the man who claims the moral right of free expression is a liar, a prostitute whose political judgments can be bought, a dishonest inflamer of hatred and suspicion, his claim is unwarranted and groundless.”

Recently, NPR Public Editor Kelly McBride had to weigh in on a June 26 “Morning Edition” broadcast, in which U.S. Attorney General Barr falsely declared that mail-in ballots would jeopardize the security of the upcoming presidential election. 

The “demonstrably false claim,” as McBride put it, aired unchallenged, “And it wasn’t even a live interview,” notes Jay Rosen. McBride wrote that she agreed with audience members who complained about how the segment was presented.

Dan Froomkin highlights one part of that piece, tweeting “All @NPR personnel should print this out in a big font and put it near their desks”: A journalist has four clear opportunities to minimize attempts like this to put false information into the public space. Preparing the questions, asking the questions and challenging the answers during the interview, editing the interview and then adding context in the on-air presentation.

You may also recall the column USA Today ran last week from presidential trade adviser Peter Navarro criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci. David Bauder of AP News reports that the paper now admits the column was misleading and did not meet its fact-checking standards. 

USA Today explained the decision in a note by editorial page editor Bill Sternberg, which was attached to the column online. The paper also published a fact-check by Ledyard King, Peter Navarro's claims about Dr. Anthony Fauci are misleading, lack context. However, Bauder writes, “it wasn’t clear how Navarro’s column escaped such scrutiny before being published.” 

Peter Gleick thinks “This is grossly problematic: @USAToday invites and then prints lie-filled op-ed by Navarro and only a day later ‘fact checks’ it?” “Better late than never?” Joyce Terhaar guesses.

Slackroots organizing

Moving on, it’s beginning to look like “Slack is the essential tool of newsroom unrest. Great reporting by @perlberg from the barricades,” says Brian Morrissey, of Steven Perlberg’s story at Digiday about how Slack is fueling the media’s bottom-up revolution. 

“The irony of Slack,” writes Perlberg, “is that media business leaders gravitated to it years ago as a tool to make the labor force more efficient and available at all hours. And now, those same workers are using Slack to fight back against their capitalist bosses.”

 “Yet more proof that good intentions rarely result in expected outcomes: great @digiday piece & also, this trend is not limited to media,” notes Jessi Hempel.

Speaking out

A group of reporters and editors at The Wall Street Journal took a more traditional route at the end of June, writing a letter to editor in chief Matt Murray emphasizing that the paper must “encourage more muscular reporting about race and social inequities” and laying out detailed proposals that push for big changes to its news coverage. 

Marc Tracy and Smith of The New York Times have details from some of the proposals as well as recent developments at the Journal, including the promotion of Brent Jones, who is Black, to the newly created top-level leadership role of editor of culture, training and outreach. “As an alum of the ?@WSJ? I’m glad to see management is responding to employee calls for change; their coverage will be better for it,” says Erin Schulte.

At ESPN, Black employees, many of them behind the cameras, have begun speaking out about the everyday racism and barriers they face at the sports media giant. Kevin Draper of the Times talked with dozens of current and former ESPN employees for this story, and on Twitter, he shares, “I’ve covered ESPN for six years and have never found employees as willing to talk as they were for this. I’ve also never encountered so much PR (and executive) pushback. It’s almost like they were describing two different companies.”

“So wait... All of you pundits on here gunning for a job would do anything to work for ESPN. Myself, I’ve already turned down an offer to work there. Here is why (the worst kept secret in the sports industry),” says John Vogel. 

Sabrina Siddiqui highlights this bit: “On an ESPN conference call of 200+ people, Black employees began sharing their experiences with discrimination. Announcer Dave LaMont, who did not realize he wasn’t muted, was heard complaining that the call was just a griping session for Black employees.”

What we bring to the table

And in an essay for Epicurious, The Color of My Skin Is Sometimes Confused With the Scope of My Talent, Tara O'Brady explains that, when writers of color are asked to write about the food of their heritage, the answer often isn’t a simple yes or no. Monita Rajpal says it’s “Such a good piece by @taraobrady. One’s ethnicity shouldn’t be seen as the only, defining value we bring to the table. Rather, it should be seen as an ingredient in addition to our other skills & talents.

Tejal Rao adds, “every time I work on a story that overlaps with what’s perceived as my own heritage, I tie myself into a human-sized knot, but I’ve never been able to articulate why so clearly — so grateful for @taraobrady’s writing.” “This piece by @taraobrady is incredible. Read it and let the words absorb. Then read it again,” urges Shireen Ahmed.

Past, present, future

“Round things out with @radhikajones's letter from the editor, which I'm also obsessed with,” Tyler McCall suggests, and you’re about to see why. McCall is referring to Vanity Fair editor in chief Radhika Jones’ editor’s letter on Icons, Fame, and Evolution. As Jones describes it, it’s “a look at @vanityfair’s past, present, and future (with cameos by Thelonious Monk and my dad).” She also shares that the new cover of Viola Davis is the first in the history of the magazine to be shot by a Black photographer, Dario Calmese. 

Many journalists are quoting this line from the piece: “it is my job, and the magazine’s job, to center people who are visionaries, who are moving the culture forward. We are not bound to continue the cultural hierarchies we inherit.” Madhulika Sikka points out, “This is such an unexpected letter from the editor of a glossy magazine -Thanks for writing it @radhikajones.” As Lauren Mechling puts it, “All hail this icon ????”

Reporting truth to power

Last but certainly not least, this is “A good reminder of the vital role some underfunded news orgs play in reporting truth to power in Southeast Asia. Focus is on Malaysiakini & Rappler due to recent govt crackdowns but Tempo & Tirto in Indonesia also crucial.” Ross Tapsell links to Ben Smith’s column in The New York Times last week on the precarious state of independent media around the world, While America Looks Away, Autocrats Crack Down on Digital News Sites. 

David Burn says, “The reporters and editors of this global generation of digital start-ups are, pound for pound, the most impressive journalists in the world.” Meanwhile, Jacob Shamsian points out, “A State Department spokesperson in @benyt's new column refuses to go on the record to say that it defends independent media. Astonishing.”

A few more

• As Eriq Gardner reports at The Hollywood Reporter, MSNBC host Joy Reid faces a revived libel claim that will shape the rules of many cases involving free speech. In reviving the claims from a Trump supporter named Roslyn La Liberte, the federal appellate circuit decided that special laws enacted by states like California to protect First Amendment activity don't apply in federal court. Reading this, Alex Weprin thinks, “It seems increasingly that the Supreme Court will decide whether a retweet is in fact an endorsement sometime in the next few years.”
• Vice’s Laura Wagner first delivered the scoop that Bari Weiss was leaving the New York Times, and then we got the full Resignation Letter from Weiss herself. And as Tom Jones writes at Poynter, the reactions to Bari Weiss' resignation from The New York Times just keep coming.
• “Remember last month when NYT opted out of Apple News? Apple is pressing on without them, adding local news curation in the Apple News app and more local papers to Apple News+.” Kerry Flynn links to her story at CNN about the launch of Apple’s new morning podcast called Apple News Today.
• Alex Hern shares, “one of the secrets about Facebook is that if you get into certain niches of its business, like its relationships with big advertisers, it's just as people-driven as the most offline 20th century companies.” At the Financial Times, Hannah Murphy takes us inside Facebook’s exclusive clubs for its top advertisers.
• The Local Media Association announced that it’s launching the Center for Journalism Funding, with financial support from the Google News Initiative. Applications for a funding lab will open in early August. Fifteen publishers will be selected to participate in a six-month program.
• Todd Spangler of Variety reports that Vox Media is laying off 6% of its staff — about 70 employees. The cuts are mainly affecting edit employees at Curbed and SB Nation as well as the company’s events and support positions. The political discussion program the Andrew Neil Show has been cancelled as part of cuts to the BBC’s news operations, although the company is talking to Neil about a BBC One interview show. In total, 520 jobs will go, from a workforce of around 6,000 people. And Jim Waterson reports that The Guardian is announcing layoffs that could affect up to 180 jobs – 110 in departments such as advertising, Guardian Jobs, marketing roles, and the Guardian Live events business, and 70 coming from editorial.

From the Muck Rack Team

The latest update to Muck Rack’s Public Relations Management (PRM) platform gives journalists the ability to showcase their pitching preferences right on their free portfolios, and lets PR teams create a system of record for media contact preferences. Over 10,000 journalists have already shared how they’d like to be pitched on their Muck Rack profiles during the pre-launch period. Mike Schneider shares why Muck Rack launched the system of record for how journalists want to be pitched over on the Muck Rack Blog.

Next month, nonprofit Free Press launches its Media 2070 project, an in-depth essay and organizing hub intended to gather diverse voices in journalism to answer questions around the specific types of harms BIPOC have experienced in their media communities.

Ahead of the Media 2070 launch, Muck Rack spoke with the project’s co-creators and leadership collective in a thorough conversation about media reparations. Head to the Muck Rack Blog for Justin Joffe’s interview with Free Press about why their ‘Media 2070’ project focuses on media reparations.

Question of the week

How do you view journalism’s role in halting the decline of truth in American democracy? How does it need to adapt its methods to meet today’s new realities?