Matt J. Duffy

AJC has a nose for news

2009-12-15T07:43:00.000-05:00

Note the self-laudatory phrase used in the lede to the AJC article about plans to expand an suburban Atlanta airport:

A New York firm has told Gwinnett County leaders that it would like to acquire Briscoe Field near Lawrenceville, expand the runway and begin up to 20 daily commercial flights to such destinations as New York, Chicago and Washington, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned" implies that the AJC did some investigating to dig up this story.

Where did they learn about these plans? Did they rifle through some buried court documents perhaps? Six paragraphs further, the AJC details how they "learned" about the plans:

Smith said he has spoken with some “big players” among air carriers but declined to identify them. Propeller’s Web site, whyprivatizebriscoe.com, features a bold rendering on its home page that appears to include airplanes from both Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines on the tarmac at Briscoe.

Quite a scoop. The AJC "learned" about these plans by going to the Web site created by the firm looking to expand the airport.

It's an interesting story, but the AJC should have saved the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned" phrase for a story involving real investigative reporting.

Iranian protesters becoming more radical

2009-12-12T08:09:00.001-05:00

From the NY Times, interesting developments in Iran:

In the video, one of hundreds filmed during Iran’s nationwide demonstrations on Monday, an enraged woman’s voice can be heard as a paramilitary truck runs a motorbike off the road amid a crowd of fleeing protesters.

“This is the Islamic Republic!” she shouts, gesturing at the vehicle.

That message has grown increasingly common in recent protests, as demonstrators have made it clear that their target is not just President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or the disputed election that returned him to power in June, but the entire foundation of Iran’s theocracy.

During Monday’s demonstrations, the civil tone of many earlier rallies was noticeably absent. There was no sign of the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi, a moderate figure who supports change within the system, and few were wearing the signature bright green of his campaign.

Instead, the protesters, most of them young people, took direct aim at Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, chanting, “Khamenei knows his time is up!” They held up flags from which the “Allah” symbol — added after Iran’s 1979 revolution — had been removed. Most shocking of all, some burned an image of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the revolution.“This is the Islamic Republic!” she shouts, gesturing at the vehicle.

That message has grown increasingly common in recent protests, as demonstrators have made it clear that their target is not just President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or the disputed election that returned him to power in June, but the entire foundation of Iran’s theocracy.

During Monday’s demonstrations, the civil tone of many earlier rallies was noticeably absent. There was no sign of the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi, a moderate figure who supports change within the system, and few were wearing the signature bright green of his campaign.

Instead, the protesters, most of them young people, took direct aim at Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, chanting, “Khamenei knows his time is up!” They held up flags from which the “Allah” symbol — added after Iran’s 1979 revolution — had been removed. Most shocking of all, some burned an image of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the revolution.

Here's the mentioned at the beginning:
Looks like there could be some kind of massive showdown looming between protesters and the Iranian government. Hope we don't see another Tiananmen Square.

Hi-tech

2009-12-09T16:01:00.001-05:00

And these guys do not throw around the word "hi tech" lightly.

White House Gives Agencies Transparency To-Do List

2009-12-09T07:05:00.002-05:00

This is good news:

The Office of Management and Budget gave federal agencies the detailed directive on transparency that President Barack Obama called for on his second day in office.

The 11-page directive sets out specific tasks for agencies and gives them deadlines. (Despite the 2008 date on the memo, it was not issued by the Bush administration.) It also calls for agencies to use technology to distribute information proactively, rather than forcing people to file Freedom of Information Act requests. Federal agencies process hundreds of thousands of FOIA requests each year.

From the looks of this new road map to transparency, federal officials will have to get busy. Among the tasks agencies must do within the next 45 days:

•Publish online three "high-value" data sets that have not previously been released in an easily downloadable format, and register them on the federal information site data.gov, which currently catalogues 803 files.
•Designate a "high-level senior official" to be accountable for spending data that is made available to the public.
•Form a new working group of senior-level officials to address issues of transparency and accountability.

Looking forward to seeing how this is carried out.

It's plush

2009-12-07T13:45:00.002-05:00

Blanket, throw AND wrap!

2009-12-05T12:01:00.000-05:00

C-USA championship game. Go Pirates!

Thursdays are special

2009-12-03T22:26:00.003-05:00

Sweater vest change

2009-12-03T08:43:00.001-05:00

This is why I voted for Barack Obama

2009-12-01T22:10:00.001-05:00

From the NY Times:

Addressing critics who have likened Afghanistan to Vietnam, Mr. Obama called the comparison “a false reading of history.” And he spoke directly to the American people about the tough road ahead.

“Let me be clear: none of this will be easy,” Mr. Obama said. “The struggle against violent extremism will not be finished quickly, and it extends well beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan. It will be an enduring test of our free society, and our leadership in the world. And unlike the great power conflicts and clear lines of division that defined the 20th century, our effort will involve disorderly regions and diffuse enemies.”

In language that often echoed themes struck by his predecessor, George W. Bush, Mr. Obama cited the longstanding moral burden carried by the United States in global affairs, and he celebrated America as a nation “founded in resistance to oppression.”

Had President John McCain made this speech, half the country would have ignored it as the ramblings of a war-mongering neo-con.

As I said before the election:

But, pacifist Democrats would have to accept that the President of the United States must sometimes act in unilateral ways to achieve national security goals. Seven years after 9/11, I think it's time a Democrat holds the responsibility for the protection of the United States. It will change the tenor of the debate dramatically.

He did.

Finding the dead

2009-11-30T10:39:00.001-05:00

Here's a great read about being an EMT. It's a good reminder that many people hold jobs the rest of us could never imagine:

Usually we find them in houses. Always upstairs, always in a tiny room. The sick and dying tend to know something is wrong and, if they can, they make their way to the bathroom. I’ve seen countless bodies, stiff and swelling, pinned between the toilet and the tub. Even when they’re in the bedroom or the kitchen the bathroom light is on, the medicine cabinet open and pawed through. By the time we’re called no one has spoken with him in days and a son or daughter has come to check on him. Usually they get no closer than the front door when their worst fears are confirmed. Once a woman rotted in her stifling hot apartment for two weeks before someone finally called. As we walked around, faces covered with towels, her neighbors were so ashamed they wouldn’t meet our eyes. ‘I just thought it was a rat in the wall,’ one woman told me. The smell was drifting out into the street and I asked her how big a rat did she think it was. She shook her head, embarrassed, then went back inside and locked her door.

Read the rest.

Kevin's a former newspaper alum and a great writer. Can't wait to read his published work.

Terrible unnamed sourcing

2009-11-28T19:00:00.002-05:00

Terrible unnamed sourced reporting:

Memphis will have a new coach in LSU assistant Larry Porter, a source with direct knowledge of the search said Saturday.

Porter, in his fifth year as running backs coach at LSU, is also assistant head coach and chief recruiter on Les Miles' staff in Baton Rouge

An entire news article written based on one unidentified person without any verification. This should never have made it onto ESPN's Web site, much less a televised report.

When I'm finished with my PhD, here's a study I'll conduct: I'll examine a sample of sports articles attributed to anonymous sources, then check to see how many turned out to be accurate. Wonder what they percentage will be. Below 50 percent perhaps? Particularly around the trade deadlines...

It's vs. Its

2009-11-25T09:25:00.001-05:00

2009-11-24T13:17:00.001-05:00

Never knew how brussel sprouts grew

Global Warming rigged?

2009-11-24T10:13:00.001-05:00

Here's a good take on the global warming email scandal that broke last week. It's written by George Monbiot, a well-known environmental advocate, so it's fair to say this isn't ideological posturing:

It's no use pretending this isn't a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I'm dismayed and deeply shaken by them.

Yes, the messages were obtained illegally. Yes, all of us say things in emails that would be excruciating if made public. Yes, some of the comments have been taken out of context. But there are some messages that require no spin to make them look bad. There appears to be evidence here of attempts to prevent scientific data from being released, and even to destroy material that was subject to a freedom of information request.

Worse still, some of the emails suggest efforts to prevent the publication of work by climate sceptics, or to keep it out of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I believe that the head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign. Some of the data discussed in the emails should be re-analysed.

But do these revelations justify the sceptics' claims that this is "the final nail in the coffin" of global warming theory? Not at all. They damage the credibility of three or four scientists. They raise questions about the integrity of one or perhaps two out of several hundred lines of evidence. To bury man-made climate change, a far wider conspiracy would have to be revealed. Luckily for the sceptics, and to my intense disappointment, I have now been passed the damning email that confirms that the entire science of global warming is indeed a scam. Had I known that it was this easy to rig the evidence, I wouldn't have wasted years of my life promoting a bogus discipline. In the interests of open discourse, I feel obliged to reproduce it here.

Good points. The emails are certainly a blow for those who worship at the altar of science.

Difference between a reporter and a columnist explained!

2009-11-23T15:14:00.001-05:00

My students often ask me about the difference between a reporter and a columnist. Well, here's a the NY Times Op/Ed editor answering the question:

Andrew Rosenthal: The license and responsibilities of an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times are similar in some fundamental ways to those of a news reporter but profoundly different in other ways.

First, the similarities. A columnist is subject to the same standards of factual accuracy as any writer in The Times, on any page. If a columnist writes that something happened on a certain date, or that the government spent a certain amount of money on something, or that a specific number of people have died in the war in Iraq, to pick a few examples, it is his or her responsibility to make certain that information is correct. Columnists must make sure that when they describe an event they are being accurate in their description. When they quote someone, they are required to do so accurately. Errors that are made must be corrected openly and quickly.

Columnists are required to follow basic New York Times style — on the use of profanity and vulgarity, for example. But they do have more freedom to express themselves than news reporters, in big and small ways. When it comes to Times style rules, for example, we do not require them to use the honorific, Mr., Ms. and so on, if they choose not to. (The Public Editor has that right too.) One of our columnists hates to use “whom,” when it feels awkward, so we bend that rule. Maureen Dowd frequently uses humorous nicknames for public officials (Donald Rumsfeld was often Rummy in her columns), and that is O.K. too.

Most of all, columnists are not only free to express their personal opinions, that is the primary part of their job. We pay them to have strong opinions and to express them sharply and with great style. They can choose any subject they want to write about, within the bounds of decency and appropriate journalistic inquiry (although we do ask them, with varying degrees of lack of success, to avoid directly endorsing a candidate for office). All of our columnists have areas of interest and expertise that they will return to frequently, but the subject matter of any given column is up to them. They do not have to clear them in advance with me, nor do I exercise any control over the positions they take. The columnists have a very personal relationship with their readers, and the readers deserve to hear directly from the columnists.

While columnists must adhere to The Times’s high standards of factual accuracy, they are allowed great latitude in characterizing events, people or issues in a way that expresses an opinion. They are free, for example, to say that they believe that the Catholic Church’s hierarchy treats nuns unfairly, even if the members of that hierarchy deny it. They are not even required to include that denial in their columns. Columns are not required, or intended, to be fair and dispassionate accounts of events. They are by nature one-sided. Columnists may find it useful to give the opposing views on any position they take, or they may not, and it’s entirely up to them.

A columnist can be tough, acerbic, playful, joyful, angry, chagrined, outraged or anything else — within the general bounds of decency that are embodied in the values of The Times.

Straight from the horse's mouth.

Upon refelction -- "often" may be too strong. A few students, over the years.

A good education

2009-11-20T21:20:00.002-05:00

Normally, I don't like to side with the man, but for this case I digress:

Stevenson High School administrators said Friday that school staff halted publication of the campus newspaper because the latest edition would have included anonymous allegations of students breaking the law.

“The Statesman's publication, originally scheduled for Friday, November 20, was delayed because its faculty advisors determined that an article featuring anonymous sources discussing alleged illegal activity was not fit for print,” according to a written statement from school administrators that Jim Conrey, Stevenson's director of public information, e-mailed in response to Pioneer Press questions.

The school administration disputed a news report in which student editors said publication was stopped because the newspaper included articles about teen smoking, drinking, pregnancy and shoplifting.

I'd call that good journalism pedagogy. Students should learn to avoid unnamed sourcing -- especially in high school.

Oh, and that's perfectly constitutional, by the way, because of the precedent set by Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier.

About the new Gap ad

2009-11-20T12:33:00.001-05:00

Here's a great column from Cathleen Falsani on what's wrong with the new Gap ad, which suggest that we should "86 the rules" and just do whatever-we-wanna:

Unless we're meant to be concelebrating Bacchanalia or -- and this is even a stretch -- Mardi Gras, nothing in the Christian, Jewish and pagan traditions or the African-American cultural ideals that Kwanzaa celebrates would encourage the faithful to throw all rules out the window and do whatever feels good, man.

If that were true, the Gap ad would have done well to end with an Ayn Rand look-alike in a Santa hat and white beard driving a sled pulled by 12 tiny flying armadillos.

Christmas is about selflessness and transformative love, the improbable gift of a divine baby born into straw poverty in order to reconcile the world back to God. We do celebrate Christ's birth by giving something to each other to commemorate that epic, divine gift. But it's not supposed to pivot around the exchange of material goods, and it's definitely not about sweaters and turtlenecks.

Hannukah is about power of perseverance, faith and righteousness to overcome tyranny. It's about a small miracle that changes everything. The seven principles of Kwanzaa are: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. Those principles are pretty much the direct opposite of the idea of "do whatever you want." And Solstice is, first and foremost, a natural, communal, Earth-centered event. Nothing about ushering in the death of the old year and the birth of the new says "fleece hoodies" to me.

The "Dowhateveryouwannukah" spots have made me think twice about where I'll purchase any last-minute stocking stuffers this year. But not for the same reason as that of the perennial saber-rattling "pro-family" organization the American Family Association, which, it brags, has been for 32 years "on the frontlines of the American culture war."
Well said. Read the whole column, especially if you'd like to read the word "twee" in the sentence. (She's got the commercial posted there too.)

The best journalism class I never taught

2009-11-19T16:56:00.003-05:00

Remember that Atlanta Magazine story, "The Last Heavy Footfalls of Doc Hullender," that I raved about a few months ago? Today, the author of that article, Thomas Lake, came to my Media Writing class. He gave my students a great introduction to the art of journalism. Where does it begin? With a commitment to honesty and a gentle spirit that appreciates the humanity in all of us.

Here's Lake and one of my students, Ivy Bailey. He asked the class to jot down a few sentences about a memory we have that made us feel electric. Bailey shared her memory -- being a soldier in California and standing in formation as the morning bugle played and the sunlight rose above the mountains. She got chills as she recalled it. So did I. Lake's point? Convey to your readers the same jolt of electricity.

If you haven't read "Doc Hullender," please do. It definitely conveys that jolt. I also recommend you read some of Lake's other work, particularly 2 on 5, a tale about basketball and life.

Videos from Egypt

2009-11-17T20:16:00.001-05:00

Here are some videos I took in Egypt:

My wife and I crossing a street in Cairo.

Walking around Alexandria.

Driving in Alexandria.

A street scene on the Mediterranean.

Defending free speech

2009-11-16T07:37:00.001-05:00

While in Cairo, the Georgia State University newspaper published my op/ed column about the fundamentalist Christian protests on campus last month. I responded to the managing editor of the school paper who called for free speech zones on campus to be moved to locations where they'd be less intrusive:

Most agree that free speech and the marketplace of ideas are concepts that help create a healthy democracy. Even the hateful speech heard on campus earlier this month had some benefits. Sarkesian said the counter-protests “did help to unify our very diverse campus against an insignificant, yet potentially dangerous, contingent.” I see value in that unification.

It’s pretty clear that the protesters weren’t winning over many converts. Perhaps the cool reception helped some students – maybe those who harbor some disdain for homosexuality – see that their views are out of alignment with the mainstream. Again, there is value in this open market of ideas.

If we agree that a marketplace of ideas is a good thing, then we must also agree on the makeup of the market. If the market is so far away that no one can shop there, then the market can’t really flourish or provide any service.

Please read the whole thing -- and feel free to comment on the paper's Web site.

Two German Killers Demanding Anonymity Sue Wikipedia’s Parent

2009-11-13T16:31:00.002-05:00

From the New York Times, an interesting case balancing the right to privacy vs. free speech:

Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber became infamous for killing a German actor in 1990. Now they are suing to force Wikipedia to forget them.

The legal fight pits German privacy law against the American First Amendment. German courts allow the suppression of a criminal’s name in news accounts once he has paid his debt to society, noted Alexander H. Stopp, the lawyer for the two men, who are now out of prison.

“They should be able to go on and be resocialized, and lead a life without being publicly stigmatized” for their crime, Mr. Stopp said. “A criminal has a right to privacy, too, and a right to be left alone.”

Buttressed by a German privacy law, the lawyer has successfully petitioned online editors in Germany to remove any reference to the killers. Now, he wants to make the English-language Wikipedia remove the entry as well. The entry discussing the murder is right here.

Wikipedia isn't likely to budge until more than a German court weighs in. Their legal counsel, Michael Godwin, said Wikipedia "doesn’t edit content at all, unless we get a court order from a court of competent jurisdiction." (Godwin, by the way, is the originator of Godwin's Law.)

The article featured names and photos of the two killers. The last two paragraphs read:

In a written response to Mr. Stopp, Wikimedia questioned the relevance of any judgments in the German courts, since, it said, it has no operations in Germany and no assets there.

“We’ll see,” Mr. Stopp said in an interview. In an e-mail message after the interview, he wrote, “In the spirit of this discussion, I trust that you will not mention my clients’ names in your article.”

Guess the spirit of the discussion didn't hold much sway with the reporter.

Cairo :: A bustling city

2009-11-10T14:43:00.000-05:00

Walked around a healthy chunk of Cairo today. It's definitely vibrant.

Enjoy this photo -- there's a lot going on in it. This guy is selling a drink that he pours out of his giant jug. Decided to not risk a sample myself. Heading to Alexandria tomorrow by train.

The pause that refreshes

2009-11-06T15:50:00.000-05:00

Luckily, you can buy a Coke at the Pyramids. That's Sphinx on the right. I thought it was much bigger.

Heading to Cairo

2009-11-04T07:55:00.001-05:00

I'm flying to Cairo today for an nine-day trip. I'll be presenting a paper at the Arab-U.S. Association for Communication Educators conference. My paper is entitled: "Wikipedia, the Armenian Genocide, and the Search for Truth." So, you know, ask me about that one sometime.

My wife and I plan to visit a lot of sites and take a day-trip to Alexandria. Plan to post lots of photos.

Using Anonymous Sources Harms Credibility of News Industry

2009-11-02T09:57:00.000-05:00

New research shows unnamed sourcing lowers credibility for readers:

"Readers sometimes believe sources have a vested interest in being anonymous, and they may also interpret the use of un-named sources as reporter incompetence, according to the study. Either way, the result is lower credibility.

The researchers, Miglena Sternadori and Esther Thorson, examined how readers reacted to investigative news stories using anonymous sources, as well as how the designation of a story as an “award winner” affected believability.

Stories in which the source had a vested interest and stories in which the author did not explain the use of anonymous sources ranked lowest in terms of credibility. Stories in the “award winners” category had more credibility with readers.

Interesting because some earlier research wasn't as conclusive.