SPJ Blogs

Longtime readers of News Gems know that I'm a huge fan of two-time Pulitzer winner Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune. In 2006 I named his "Tank of Gas, World of Trouble," the #1 News Gem of the year. This week Salopek is back with another masterpiece....

Hi guys, I've seen this circulating a few places and thought it might be helpful. ...

Ruth Teichroeb of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer tells a troubling story of sexual assault and official neglect in "Voiceless and Abused." To her attacker, Jamie must have seemed like the perfect victim: blind, nonverbal, infantlike in her mental ability...

The East Tennessee Pro chapter will host a program on "Freelancing for Fun and Profit," Thursday, Nov. 20, in the Knox Room at the Knoxville News Sentinel. Free to members and students; $5 for non ETSPJ members.  Panelists include veteran freelance...

"Mexico Drug Wars Spill Across the Border," by Richard A. Serrano and Sam Quinones of the Los Angeles Times, describes an alarming development in the international drug trade. The drug violence that has left about 4,000 people dead this year in Mexico...

Before there was Karl Rove, his mentor Lee Atwater was the top Republican strategist in the land. In "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story," producer Stefan Forbes documents Atwater's rise as a brilliant, charming and sometimes vicious strategist...

At the recent University of Wisconsin-Madison mini-conference on Journalism and Democracy there was a running joke from panelists and speakers on when they first got into journalism. John Nichols, Associate Editor of The Capital Times and Washington correspondent...

"Strategies for Rebuilding Cleveland: What Can Be Learned From Other Cities" by Robert L. Smith of The Plain Dealer is a fine example of how to find solutions where readers might least expect them. Here's what Smith found in Schenectady: Like a flower...

There was no shortage of blogs predicitng the loss of revenue that would plague local TV stations after the election, largely because political ads were keeping them afloat. Well, there's a major cost saving measure underway between Fox and NBC that will...

One month ago today, on October 13, 2008, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (WFOIC) held a small celebration to celebrate its 30-year anniversary. The Society of Professional Journalists has been involved with WFOIC from the beginning.This...

Buried beneath the recent headlines about U.S. job losses and home foreclosures are the remnants of my optimism for a reporting career. I’ve been looking for a job for six months. The U.S. unemployment rate hit a 14-year high in October. Ohio – my...

In May we highlighted "Former High School Pitcher Hopes Rules Are Changed to Protect Young Arms" by Tom Wyrwich of the Seattle Times. Now Wyrwich has written another outstanding story about young athletes playing when hurt, "The Dangers of Adolescents...

In Editor & Publisher, (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003889304), Joe Strupp explores the demands on journos asked to be both reporters and bloggers, going beyond just the facts. The Associated Press...

OK. Finally getting around to uploading some news. This is a fairly long post, so I'll save other news for another post later this week.The MidSouth Pro Chapter (my home chapter for 18 years) in Memphis has resurrected itself. Blake Fontenay, an editorial...

The Sunshine in Government Initiative, which includes SPJ, urged this week that Obama foster openness in federal government. In a letter issued Monday, we urged that Obama should: 1. Restore the presumption of disclosure, which was the presumption when...

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will no longer make docket information secret. The court had sealed files and even the existence of files until The Legal Intelligencer challenged the secrecy. The U.S. Supreme Court was to hear the case but last...

Dozens of open-government groups, including SPJ, have provided President-elect Barack Obama a list of suggestions for improving government transparency. OMB Watch led the effort to produce the "21st Century Right to Know Recommendations." Former SPJ...

Bloomberg is suing the Federal Reserve Board to find out who is receiving the $2 trillion in federal loans and what kind of collateral has been given to taxpayers to support those loans. By the way, this has nothing to do with that $700 billion taxpayer...

Hi all, got this message from Eric Francis, a freelancer in North Little Rock, Ark. Francis writes, I moved from newspaper staff to freelance work earlier this year and am still trying to iron out all the wrinkles of working for yourself. Does SPJ have...

So ... I finally decided to get on board this whole Twitter thing. I started one a while ago, but never touched it until just yesterday. Maybe this post is more directed at Sonya, because I know she's been tweeting for a while, but for anyone else as...

For those members in the Great Plains region who are interested in honing their writing skills, SPJ will be offer an online writing workshop on Saturday, Dec. 6, in Fargo, N.D.  The focus of the workshop will be "to learn how your Web stories can...

In "Uncommon Ground," Peter Slevin of The Washington Post does a terrific job of describing Barack Obama's neighborhood of Hyde Park. Slevin mixes observation with quotations and descriptions to give us a tour of this unusual Chicago neighborhood:...

Two interesting points about the election: *It seems that newspapers bounced back for a day on November 5, when they sold out across the country because people wanted a real keepsake of the historic presidential win.  It won't keep the industry from...

The magnificent "Tobacco Underground" by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists proves that great things can happen when reporters cooperate across borders. The consortium, which is affiliated with the Center for Public Integrity,...

Just in case you haven't seen it yet, the non-profit Spot.us launched this week - the very definition of civic journalism.Brought to you by David Cohn, a.k.a "DigiDave," he describes the idea behind it this way:"Journalism is a process not a product,...