Media Savvy by Jaci Clement: FYI...

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

FYI...

Reuters is reporting Mort Zuckerman has placed a bid for Newsday and, despite rumors to the contrary, Cablevision's Dolan family is not interested in the daily... Just in case you haven't heard, Dianne Doctor is back in New York news; this time, as FOX 5's news director. The seat had been vacant for far too long... Have you signed up for helpareporter.com? The site brings reporters seeking sources and sources seeking reporters together and oh, it's just pure bliss all around... Thanks to our friends at the Media Giraffe Project, who have helped plaster our opinion piece, What Price for Local News?, across cyberspace. We're proud to be a Giraffe alumna... If it's Spring, it must be the season for awards. FMC's Folio Awards are April 25 with none other than the legendary Helen Thomas delivering the keynote. Come out, support the cause and see what the public thinks of our local news... Co-hosting Folio is WCBS anchor team Kristine Johnson and Chris Wragge who, by the by, just earned himself an Emmy. More winners of the 51st Annual New York Emmy Awards: WNYW FOX 5 won nine awards: Morning Newscast, General Assignment, Hard News Series, Investigative Single Story, Investigative Series, Business/Consumer, Crime, Promotion News Promo - Single Spot Campaign and Advanced Media Animator/Motion Graphic Designer; WXTV Univision 41 won six awards: Continuing Coverage, Feature News Single Story, Feature News Series, Health/Science Program Feature/Segment, Societal Concerns News and Societal Concerns Program Feature/Segment; WCBS-TV won five awards: Daytime Newscast, Breaking News Story, Hard News Single Story, On-Camera Talent Anchor-News and Advanced Media Video Editor; WNJU Telemundo 47 won 5 awards: Evening Newscast over 35 minutes, Historical/Cultural Program Special, Sports Coverage Single Story, Commercial Single Spot and On-Camera Talent Anchor-Weather; News 12 Long Island won four awards: Entertainment News, Health/Science News, On-Camera Talent Reporter-Specialty Assignment and Writer News; WABC-TV won four awards: Evening Newscast over 35 minutes, Journalistic Enterprise, On-Camera Talent Reporter Investigative and On-Camera Talent Reporter-Live; Thirteen/WNET won three in the following categories: Health/Science Program Special, Magazine Program and On-Camera Talent Program Host/Moderator; WNBC-TV won three awards: Politics/Government, Sports Coverage Sportscast and Photographer News; WPIX-TV won three awards: Spot News Story, Director News, Live or Live to Tape and Technical Achievement; News 12 Interactive won for Advanced Media Interactivity. . . Locally, only The New York Times took home the 2008 Pulitzer Prize: Congrats to Walt Bogdanich, Investigative Reporting for stories on toxic ingredients in medicine and other products imported from China and to Amy Harmon, Explanatory Reporting for her examination of the dilemmas and ethical issues that accompany DNA testing. . . You met him: the Fair Media Council's 2006 Folio Awards keynoter Bob Woodruff is a recipient of the 67th annual George Foster Peabody award for broadcasting excellence in news and entertainment.

Quick Takes. . .

"I support the free press, let's just get them out of the room." - George W. Bush
"The one function that TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were." -David Brinkley
"What would you say if a newspaper reporter, because of his fastidiousness or from a wish to give pleasure to his readers, were to describe only honest mayors, high-minded ladies and virtuous railroad contractors?” -Anton Chekhov
"If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure
we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast. " -William Tecumseh Sherman
"If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: 'President Can't Swim.' " -Lyndon B. Johnson
"Gossip is just news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress." -Liz Smith
"I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters." - Frank Lloyd Wright

"If our language, our programs, our creations are not strongly present in the new media, the young generation of our country will be economically and culturally marginalized." - Jacques Chirac

“The organization of our press has truly been a success. Our law concerning the press is such that divergences of opinion between members of the government are no longer an occasion for public exhibitions, which are not the newspapers’ business. We’ve eliminated that conception of
political freedom which holds that everybody has the right to say whatever comes into his head.” - Adolf Hitler
“I am always in favor of the free press but sometimes they say quite nasty things.”
-Winston Churchill

"Journalism largely consists in saying 'Lord Jones is dead' to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive." -G.K. Chesterton

"You can crush a man with journalism." -William Randolph Hearst

“The problem, if there is a problem in this country, is because we have a free press people have no idea what it’s like to live in a country that doesn’t.” -Art Buchwald

“It is well to remember that freedom through the press is the thing that comes first. Most of us probably feel we couldn’t be free without newspapers, and that is the real reason we want the newspapers to be free.” -Edward R. Murrow
"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."- Thomas Jefferson

"The bigger the information media, the less courage and freedom they allow. Bigness means weakness. " -Eric Sevareid, "The Press and the People,"1959