Monica Seals didn’t waste time. Within 24 hours after the nonprofit ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune published an investigation revealing the widespread practice of putting children into solitary confinement in school districts in Illinois, the Centralia radio reporter pressed local officials for answers. Seals, news director at the Withers Broadcasting … [Read more...] about ‘Quiet rooms’ investigation is a call to action for community news outlets
News business is about death and imagination
I want to tell you a story about covering Congress in 2002 that doesn’t feel that long ago but my 18-year-old students at Columba College in Chicago would assure me otherwise. I wasn’t too much older than that when I started working for The Washington Post after graduate school. I was young, ambitious, serious and rigidly “old school.” I was covering several financial … [Read more...] about News business is about death and imagination
Community news outlets should use inclusive language when covering immigration
A recent study by the nonprofit media and culture group Define American and the MIT Center for Civic Media found that major newspapers have adopted President Trump’s rhetoric for immigration, using language and labels like “illegal immigrant” to describe people working or residing in the United States without a visa or permit. The New York Times and The Washington Post both … [Read more...] about Community news outlets should use inclusive language when covering immigration
Opinion: Mike Wallace documentary reminds us of importance, power of TV journalism
For many of us who have spent our careers in print journalism, it’s easy (though grossly unfair) to blame TV news--and particularly its pundits, for the credibility crisis we find ourselves in. TV needs slick visuals. TV needs drama. TV has its watcher-in-chief who also likes to tweet, and those tweets make for good TV (as well as ink.) Television news, we console … [Read more...] about Opinion: Mike Wallace documentary reminds us of importance, power of TV journalism
Southern Illinois paper breaks story in print about state cancelling Confederate Railroad band. It still goes viral.
Just days before the 4th of July holiday, the DuQuoin Weekly in Southern Illinois got a tip that the country music band, Confederate Railroad, would no longer be playing at the DuQuoin State Fair in August. Confederate Railroad/confederaterailroad.com At first it appeared like a typical scheduling conflict, which wouldn’t have been much of a story. But earlier in … [Read more...] about Southern Illinois paper breaks story in print about state cancelling Confederate Railroad band. It still goes viral.
