Results tagged “journalism”

In a time when most newspapers see their futures on the internet, the Daily News has put $150 million where it might make the least sense: brand new printing presses. The paper "heralded a new era for New York's favorite newspaper" with a gala yesterday to celebrate its new printing presses, which are faster than the older presses and capable of printing color on every page — potentially allowing paper to secure more lucrative color ads and push back its deadlines to gain an an edge on the Post.

Talk about an awkward business relationship. Former police reporter and Newsday columnist Leonard Levitt continues to visit Police Headquarters every week to gain sources and get tips — even though he was once banned from the building and had to rely on civil rights lawyers to regain his press pass. Levitt, who currently runs the website NYPD Confidential, isn't well liked by the brass at One Police Plaza. “His self-absorbed bitterness and inaccuracy remind me of the old biddy, an aging malicious gossip I knew growing up in the Bronx,'" Paul Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, told the Times in an e-mail.

You've got to hand it to the Post for being the first local paper to do its due diligence and cover both sides of last week's Fort Hood massacre. In the kind of story that simultaneously riles up its readers and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of some journalistic basics — akin to quoting the Grinch for fairness in an article about Christmas tree sales — the tabloid today gives ink to a lone Queens man who thinks that Major Nidal Hasan did the right thing when he opened fire inside the Texas base last week, killing 13 and wounding 38. "An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a pre-emptive attack," Yousef al-Khattab wrote on his website, "Revolution Muslim." "Rest assured the slain terrorists at Ft. Hood are in the eternal hellfire."

In what might inspire the first Arnold Diaz meta-segment, a consumer watchdog columnist was fired from a Hartford newspaper he had worked at for forty years after writing a piece that exposed allegations against retail giant Sleepy's for selling second-hand mattresses as new—including one with bedbugs. Despite the case being currently under investigation by the Connecticut attorney general, the Hartford Courant refused to publish George Gombossy's exposé on one of their largest advertisers. Gombossy quotes a report from a NJ environmental group that was brought in to exterminate bedbugs out of a box spring he had recently purchased at Sleepy's and appeared to have been previously used. The report found that the “box spring … was the culprit. There were bedbugs inside and the box spring did not look like it was new.” Gombossy has published the column on a new watchdog blog he started, where he prefaces it by saying, "This was the first time in my 40 years at The Courant that an investigation by the attorney general was withheld from the public." His site invites advertisers with the caveat "you will be treated the same as non-advertisers."

We're looking for one more enthusiastic intern to work out of our Brooklyn office (or from the comfort of your own home/dorm room, depending on the task at hand) on Tuesdays and Fridays for the rest of the summer, and, who knows, maybe beyond. Responsibilities vary widely, hours are very flexible. Bloggers, journalism students, English majors, autodidacts, quick wits, and anyone with a passion for NYC and the skills to write about it are encouraged to drop us a line. No pay, but occasional perks and college credit available. For more details inquire within, and please email your resume and any other relevant information to info (AT) gothamist (DOT) com, subject "internship." (No attachments, please.)

       

With the arrival of the first official weekend of summer, skies glowing in mesmerizing patterns and everyone looking for a breather from a full month of June gloom, New Yorkers already out in the streets have continued to form their own impromptu tributes to the late Michael Jackson. In Washington Square Park, a spontaneous dance party broke out yesterday at dusk with fans doing the signature moves of Moonwalker and Thriller alike, led by the few who showed up in fedoras, gloves on one hand and one MJ lover who went the full nine and had the classic red leather jacket.

NBC News just announced that retired Nightly News anchor and eminence grise Tom Brokaw will moderate "Meet the Press" through the 2008 election. NBC News president Steve Capus said, "A lot has been said in recent days about what 'Meet the Press' means to NBC News and to the nation. To have someone of Tom's stature step up and dedicate himself to ensuring its ongoing success is not only a testament to his loyalty to Tim, but his enduring commitment to NBC News and our viewers."

The weekend was filled with tributes to the late NBC News journalist, Tim Russert. New York State lawmakers, including Senators Schumer and Clinton, announced yesterday that they are going to introduce a resolution to rename part of U.S. Route 20 after Russert. The section they want to rename runs in front of the Buffalo Bills' stadium--Russert grew up in Buffalo and was an unabashed fan of the Bills, as well as the Sabres.

The sudden death of Tim Russert, NBC News Washington bureau chief and Meet the Press moderator, shook the media and political communities as well as the many faithful viewers of Meet the Press yesterday. Last night's NBC Nightly News was completely about Russert's career and legacy, as a journalist, friend and family man. MSNBC spent the evening remembering Russert; Fox News and CNN also spent considerable time remembering him. Tomorrow's edition of Meet the Press will be a special one dedicated to Russert's "extraordinary life," anchored by Tom Brokaw and with many guests, including James Carville, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Gwen Ifill, Maria Shriver, and Mary Matalin.

Resumes are being accepted to fill a sudden vacuum in the self-proclaimed “drug ring” that is Gawker. On Friday afternoon, at the end of a long Gawker post about palling around with the n + 1 crowd – who happen to be publishing a long think-piece on Gawker in their new issue – editor and cewebrity Emily Gould abruptly announced that managing editor Choire Sicha was to resign. And she would be joining him....

Fox News Porn Robert Greenwald, the man behind the 2004 documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism which concluded that Fox News Channel is biased to the right based on memos and footage from the network, is at it again. This time around he is using clips from the channel culled from six months of broadcasts featuring women in bikinis and pixilated nudity in a YouTube video and website that mimics a porn site called...

Giving Proper Credit to CBS 2 and Scott Weinberger

Senator Larry Craig, whose guilty plea to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor at a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport bathroom effectively tanked his political career, resigned this morning. Craig had been arrested after soliciting an undercover police officer for sex (read a transcript of his arrest interview here and listen to the interview here) earlier this summer. Today he said:

"What is best for Idaho has always been the focus of my efforts and it is no different today. To Idahoans I represent, to my staff, my Senate colleagues but most importantly to my wife and my family, I apologize for what I have caused. I am deeply sorry.

Continue reading "Idaho Senator Larry Craig Resigns"

Switcharoo at CBS 2

WNBC’s investigative reporter Jonathan Dienst is a native of the tri-state area, originally from Teaneck, New Jersey and is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has worked behind the scenes at Newsday, and got his start in television at WSAV-TV in Savannah, Georgia where he worked for about half a year. He then had the opportunity to return to the city as NY1 was starting up and eventually moved to WPIX. Dienst has been the first reporter to break some major stories such as the "Mafia Cops", Bernie Kerik’s mafia ties and most recently the Fort Dix Terror Plot and the Kennedy Airport Pipeline Plot.

(directed by Billy Ray)

Sen. Chuck Schumer appeared in Red Hook yesterday to support the plight of the vendors that serve the people who come to watch and play sports at the Red Hook ballfields. The vendors have been cooking up ethnic food that appeals to their mostly Hispanic clientele for several years under a series of temporary permits from the city. The Parks Dept. wants to put an official vending permit up for bidding, and the current vendors who sell relatively low-priced food to their customers are not assured of winning the contest over a business catering to newer and more well-heeled Red Hook residents.

Yesterday, the man suspected of raping and torturing a 23-year-old woman in her apartment pleaded not guilty to the attack. However, police say that they have DNA evidence linking ex-con Robert Williams to the scene. The victim, a graduate student at Columbia's Journalism School, remembered that the attacker wore one of her T-shirts, which was thrown into a wastebasket, and the police have DNA from Williams' spit (he spat into a station house wastebasket).

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Fire Department, saying that FDNY exams in 1999 and 2002 discriminated against black and Hispanic candidates. Black and HIspanic candidates fail the exam at much higher rates, and currently, the blacks and Hispanics make up only 7.5% of the FDNY's 11,000 firefighters. The NY Times notes that the fire departments of LA and Philadelphia are more than 40% black or Hispanic.

Everyday at 5 PM EST, Peabody award winning journalist Gary Baumgarten sits down with the likes of Arianna Huffington, Dr. Keith Ablow, and Mia Farrow for a one on one discussion. But this isn't for TV or the Radio, it's for Paltalk's News Talk Online , a web based talk show that allows listeners from all over the world to get the answers they want by asking the questions themselves.

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

The man police believe raped and tortured a Columbia graduate student last week for 19 hours was arrested last night. Police officers saw Robert Williams trying to break into a building in Hollis, Queens and was taken to the 103rd Precinct, where he was recognized from a police sketch released earlier this week.

The police have revealed that their suspect in the brutal 19-hour rape and torture of a 23-year-old Columbia journalism student is William Roberts, a 30-year-old man with a criminal history. According to WABC 7, Roberts has been charged with attempted murder twice - once in 1993, once in 1996 for shooting a man in the back. Last year, he was charged with assault as well as fare jumping.

The Post gives more detail about the brutal attack: Apparently the attacker rushed her when she opened the door to her apartment Friday and beat her. Then he tied her to a futon with coaxial cable, beating and sexually assaulting her. He poured boiling water on her in an attempt to remove DNA evidence and set the futon on fire Saturday afternoon before leaving. But the fire "melted the plastic covering of the coaxial cable" and she was able to escape. A building resident tells the News that the woman "keeps blaming herself" for letting him in.

Police are still looking for a man who raped and tortured a 23-year-old woman in her apartment on Hamilton Terrace off West 141st Street Friday night through Saturday afternoon. The attacker had tied up the woman and set her apartment on fire when he left, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "It appears she was able to escape as a result of the fire. She was tied, and the flame was used by her to break the bond."

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a stabbing at Utica and Atlantic Aves. in Brooklyn, an overturned auto with passenger ejection on the LIE in Queens, and a report of a suspicious device on 43rd St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan.
• NJ police located the driver of the red pickup truck that initiated the chain reaction car crash that's left the state's Governor John Corzine seriously injured. The 20-year-old driver will not be ticketed.
• Hoping to regain some of the luster lost during the Imus-"Hos" fiasco, CBS Radio will be replacing the shock jock with Mike & The Mad Dog in the station's morning timeslot.
• Hardly a surprise, but the failed-pitcher-turned-actor who beat his girlfriend's cat to death doesn't limit himself to hurting animals. The NY Post reports that he roughs ups the ladies as well, once slamming a girlfriend's fingers in a metal door.
• AIDS activists are upset that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn won't support a housing program for HIV-positive New Yorkers. They feel she's attempting to appear more mainstream in advance of a run for Mayor.
• A Brooklyn woman who joined the Peace Corp after an earlier career in journalism has gone missing in the Phillipines.
• A litany of complaints from an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center suddenly ceased when he started having sex with his jailhouse therapist.
• A private plane rolled right off the runway at Teterboro Airport early yesterday evening.
• Yankee pitcher Carl Pavano's arm hurts, so the team is reorganizing its pitching rotation.

Twenty-five-year old Jared Kushner hasn't owned The Observer for a year yet (he bought it last July), but it seems he's fully immersed and determined to make it his own. He's changed it from broadsheet to tabloid-style, which has gotten mixed reviews, but hey, now it's clear that it's not Arthur Carter's Observer anymore. The NY Times, though, wonders if Mr. Kushner will tire of his trophy newspaper, especially given his only other foray into journalism was an article about Harvard's food.

DISCUSSION: What is the future of alternative journalism? Find out tonight as experts Elizabeth Spiers, Jeff Koyen, Bob Cox and Roxanne Cooper tell you all about what they foresee. If you don't know who those people are, then you probably don't care about the future of alt media anyway.

Remember that smart-alecky retort, “It’s a free country”? That's the brazen spirit behind Radical Living Papers: A history of the free, alternative, counter-culture and underground press, 1965-75. Situated in the Passerby bar, it no doubt will inspire many fervent debates about freedom of the press.