The Penn State – Joe Paterno situation immediately grabbed public attention. But it took way too long for the Michigan State University gymnastics scandal to capture the country’s attention. Here’s why. From Alex Putterman, writing for The Atlantic: It was an arresting moment, even on a day full of them. The Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman […]
From The Washington Post: The near-daily tide of sexual misconduct allegations against famous men has spawned a head-turning stream of apologies, acknowledgments that experts say have been generally self-serving and aimed at the public more than the victims. The apologies have often seemed obligatory, as the men offer excuses for their behavior or cast doubt […]
From our good friend, Gene Grabowski: A disturbing sidebar to the story about accusations that Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein engaged in decades of alleged sexual misconduct features the performance of his former lawyer, Lisa Bloom. Bloom, who resigned after clashing with the Weinstein Company’s board of directors, was recently exposed for presenting to the board […]
From Roy Peter Clark, writing for Poynter, on the why of it all. For journalists, that means get it right the first time on the why. Mistakes on the why will live forever. Our worst blunders are immortal. If I made a list of books that all journalists should read, “Columbine” by Dave Cullen would be near […]
By Howard Fencl/Hennes Communications Here’s a frightening quote from a founder of Wired magazine – perhaps the most frightening quote about the future of truth I’ve yet encountered: “Truth is no longer dictated by authorities, but is networked by peers.” The rise of “fake news” and the proliferation of misinformation – particularly in the social […]
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications In 1782, Benjamin Franklin, while serving as American ambassador to France, reported a shocking story. American revolutionary soldiers had found bags with more than 700 scalps of soldiers, boy, girls and even infants. The massacre, Franklin wrote, was the work of Indians who were allied with King George. And the Indians […]
From The Atlantic: Phrases that are not often used to describe a cease-and-desist letter: “the best,”“hilarious,” “cool,” “perfect,” “super classy.” And yet that is exactly the praise that Netflix’s lawyers received this week, from a variety of media outlets, for going about that most lawyerly of tasks: telling people they aren’t allowed to do a thing. In this case, […]
From The Guardian: The University of Washington’s Synthesizing Obama project took audio from one of Obama’s speeches and used it to animate his face in an entirely different video In an age of Photoshop, filters and social media, many of us are used to seeing manipulated pictures – subjects become slimmer and smoother or, in the case […]
[By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications] In the years I was helping run newsrooms, one of my least favorite experiences was being in the news. Odd sounding, I know, in that I spent 33 years putting people, businesses and other organizations in the news. Hypocritical? Perhaps. Almost always, though, if one of my newspapers was in […]
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] “The house could be burned down before you even smell smoke.” In 2009, The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics set out to study how the court of public opinion can shape legal controversies. The sources were the people on the front lines – responses gathered from a questionnaire sent […]