To:
Jackson, Ryan[jackson.ryan@epa.gov]
From: Morning Media
Sent: Tue 10/3/2017 9:40:09 AM
Subject: Morning Media: Newsrooms tackle latest mass shooting - Hoaxes spread on social media -
Las Vegas Review-Journal swarms - Gawker archives may be deleted
By Michael Calderone | 10/03/2017 05:38 AM EDT
NEWSROOMS HAVE THE GRIM ROUTINE DOWN BY NOW. After initial reports of yet another mass shooting in America, journalists are scanning social media, getting details from authorities, wading through misinformation online, researching the suspect, and interviewing witnesses and family members. Reporters and anchors are dispatched across the country. Coverage dominates cable. There are news conferences. The president makes a statement. Gun stocks rise.
-- If the suspect is of Middle Eastern descent, attention inevitably turns to international terrorism. If the suspect is white -- as was the case in the shooting massacre in Las Vegas that left at least 59 dead and more than 500 injured -- other motives, such as politics and mental illness, are considered. There are immediate calls for gun control, countered by claims that it's too early to talk about gun control. Congress will probably do nothing.
- - Journalists are doing essential work on the ground and on the phone. They're telling harrowing stories of survivors, tragic stories of victims, and inspiring stories of first responders, trauma surgeons, and ordinary people who just thought they were going to a country music concert and ended up saving lives.
- - But The Onion's Monday headline -- "'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens" -- went viral given the all-too-familiar nature of these grave news events. The satirical site has run the same headline for several years, changing the accompanying photo and dateline from Isla Vista, California to Charleston, South Carolina to Roseburg, Oregon to San Bernardino, California. And that's only a handful of the mass shootings that have occurred in the United States, of which there have been 273 this year.
- - CNN's Jake Tapper recalled previous mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and Orlando, Florida at the start of Monday's show, suggesting that this latest massacre is unlikely to be the last. "I wish I could tell you this is the last time I'm ever going to report to you about the deadliest mass shooting in modem American history," he said. "But I cannot tell you that."
Good morning and welcome to Morning Media. You can reach me at mcalderoiie@politico.coni and follow at @mlcalderone. Morning Media is edited by Alex Weprin (@alexweprin), with contributions from Jason Schwartz (@dlippman) Archives. Subscribe.
MUST-WATCH: Jimmy Kimmel's emotional monologue Monday night.
- - "I want this to be a comedy show. I hate talking about stuff like this. I just want to laugh about things every night," Kimmel said. "But it seems to becoming increasingly difficult lately.
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It feels like someone has opened a window into hell. What I'm talking about tonight isn't about gun control. It's about common sense. Common sense says no good will ever come from allowing a person to have weapons that can take down 527 Americans at a concert."
HOAXES, MISINFORMATION SPREAD AFTER VEGAS SHOOTING: As Facebook and Twitter face continued scrutiny for allowing rampant misinformation to spread during the 2016 election, the social platforms, as well as Google, faced deserved criticism as bogus stories flowed in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
- - "Google and Facebook Have Failed Us," writes The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal: Hoaxers "used the infrastructure that Google and Facebook and YouTube have built to achieve wide distribution. These companies are the most powerful information gatekeepers that the world has ever known, and yet they refuse to take responsibility for their active role in damaging the quality of information reaching the public."
-- "The Big Tech Platforms Still Suck During Breaking News," writes BuzzFeed's Charlie Warzel. "This is just the latest example of platforms who've pledged to provide accurate information failing miserably to do so. Despite their endless assurances and apologies and promises to do better, misinformation continues to slip past. When it comes to breaking news, platforms like Facebook and Google tout themselves as willing, competent gatekeepers. But it's clear they're simply not up to the task."
- - Pro-Trump site Gateway Pundit, for one, misidentified the suspect in a now-deleted post that also framed the shooting as the work of a "left-wing loon."
DID SOME MEDIA PLAY INTO ISIS'S HANDS? POLITICO'S Jason Schwartz surveys how different news outlets covered ISIS's claim of responsibility -- without evidence -- for the Las Vegas shooting and looks at whether outlets that reported the claims in headlines were helping fuel the terrorist group's desire for publicity.
AT THE SCENE: Photographer David Becker, who was supposed to be covering the music festival for Getty Images, recalled shifting to cover a tragedy. "It would stop and then more shots, then a lull and then more shots. I could hear people yelling at them to shut off the lights, to be quiet. People were cowering, they were very fearful for their lives. This was at a time before I had looked at any of the photographs and I still didn't know exactly what was happening." (Warning: graphic images).
REVIEW-JOURNAL SWARMS: The Las Vegas paper had about 50 of its 140 journalists covering the shooting on Sunday night and dozens more yesterday, editor-in-chief Keith Moyer told The Washington Post's Paul Farhi. "The Review-Journal treated the episode as a community emergency, directing readers to blood banks and centers where people could find information about lost relatives and victims," Farhi wrote.
SOUND BITE
-- "That Las Vegas authorities have ruled out terrorism at this early stage is another example of
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how the idea has all but been racialized. Essentially, by the definition currently in common currency, a white person cannot be a terrorist." [Jamelle Bouie]
TRUMP'S "POLITICAL SKILLS" WERE A DOMINANT STORYLINE over first 100 days, per new Pew study: "Looking at the total coverage across all 24 outlets, five topics accounted for two-thirds of the coverage during this time period (Jan. 21-April 30): stories about the president's political skills (17%), immigration (14%), presidential appointments and nominations (13%), U.S.-Russia relations (13%), and healthcare (9%). None of the remaining 39 topics accounted for more than 4% of stories."
KELLY CAN'T SHUT OFF FOX: A "longtime Trump adviser" tells BuzzFeed news that chief of staff John Kelly has been increasingly vetting information coming into the Oval Office but hasn't taken away the president's remote: "He cannot stop the president's voracious consumption of television, and therefore Fox is still probably his greatest single influence as far as what he sees monitoring cable and political coverage."
EVERYTHING PUBLISHED ON GAWKER MAY BE DELETED. The site, shuttered last year after the company lost an invasion of privacy lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan, is up for sale. And according to the Wall Street Journal, the buyer can do whatever he or she wants with the Gawker.com domain, its social media accounts, and nearly 200,000 published articles. If the would-be buyers preserve all the articles, they could be legally responsible for them, leading to fears that whoever acquires the site will delete some or all of the pieces.
-- Gawker veterans are understandably concerned. "I imagine most of the people who would be good stewards of the Gawker archives are too scared of being pursued legally to make that purchase," Intercept reporter Sam Biddle told The Journal. "The threat isn't just credible. It's come to pass." And Hamilton Nolan, now with Splinter News, warned in a tweet: "To be clear, it is LIKELY someone will delete the Gawker archives unless a righteous buyer steps up to save them."
CBS NEWS ERRONEOUSLY REPORTED TOM PETTY'S DEATH. CBS had attributed the information to the LAPD, which said it couldn't confirm it, leading the network to walk back the report. TMZ has reported that the legendary rocker suffered full cardiac arrest and is "clinging to life."
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR REPORTER IS ARRESTED: Media law professor and CJR press freedom correspondent Jonathan Peters surveyed 10 media lawyers and news executives over how to respond when a reporter is arrested: "Should the organization cover or otherwise amplify the arrest and underlying incident, as the Post-Dispatch did? What should the organization's editors do? Should the arrested reporter tweet about his or her experience?"
WASHINGTONIAN'S MOST POWERFUL WOMEN IN WASHINGTON: Several women in media made Washingtonian's list, including POLITICO editor Carrie Budoff Brown, New York Times Washington bureau chief Elisabeth Bumiller, BuzzFeed Washington bureau chief Kate Nocera, Associated Press Washington bureau chief Julie Pace, and Univision White House correspondent Janet Rodriguez. Full list here.
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ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI LAUNCHED THE SCARAMUCCI POST last night, and according to The Hill, told attendees at his restaurant event that "we have no idea what the Scaramucci Post is and neither do you."
EXTRAS:
-- CBS fires legal executive for insensitive Facebook post after the Las Vegas shooting.
-- There was a big national media presence already in Las Vegas on Sunday night, prepared to cover O.J. Simpson being released from jail, reports Hadas Gold.
-- Google is doing away with "first click free" as it updates paywall policy for news sites.
-- Bloomberg's new European headquarters has been deemed the world's most sustainable building.
-- Congressman held fake "hearing" for Ukrainian TV.
-- The Times' John Koblin revisits S.I. Newhouse's purchase of The New Yorker, which was followed by outrage from some old timers. He's now seen as the savior of the magazine. (Flashback, Jan. 1987: "Staff Members Upset, Meet At New Yorker")
To view online: http://www.politico.eom/tipsheets/morning-media/2017/10/03/newsrooms-tackle-latest-massshooting-hoaxes-spread-on-social-media-las-vegas-review-journal-swarms-gawker-archives-maybe-deleted-222597
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