David Carson and fellow veteran St. Louis photographer Bill Greenblatt spoke to the St. Louis chapter of Society of Professional Journalists Feb. 14. The pair reviewed the top photos of 2012 and discussed current challenges facing photojournalists. The crowd of nearly 50 met at the Missouri History Museum for the monthly News at Noon event.
Beef Products Inc., the South Dakota-based company suing ABC News for defamation, has asked that the case be returned to South Dakota state court and out of federal jurisdiction. The Jan. 17 article by Reuters, headlined “BPI wants ABC ‘pink slime’ defamation case back in state court,” reports that “BPI’s attorneys argued that a state court is the proper forum because the case also involves two related companies: BPI Technology Inc. and Freezing Machines Inc. that do business in South Dakota and are incorporated in Delaware. BPI and the two other entities are all owned by Eldon and Regina Roth.”
Articles that discuss the weight, attire and hairstyle of female elected officials are a mainstay in today’s media. The 2012 election has brought a record number of women to the U.S. House and Senate. If coverage of the Jan. 3 oaths of office events is any indication, we are certain to see even more articles with appearance details on women in politics.
The sports section of the New York Times’ “Today’s Headlines” email update was full of stories about fallen heroes. “Dispassionate End to a Crumbled American Romance” is one of the articles about Lance Armstrong’s overdue confession to using performance-enhancing drugs. “Image Becomes a Puzzle as Theories on Te’o Swirl” is an article about the odd case of Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o and his fake, dead girlfriend. Many people are talking about these two stories as isolated events of deception. To me, these are just current examples of how easily men (especially male athletes) can – and do – fool the public and the media. Both want to idolize men and make them larger than life. Even when red flags are present, most media don’t do the work because they don’t want to dethrone a hero. Women, however, frequently are doubted and questioned by the public and the media. Women frequently are shamed, blamed and dragged through the mud by the media, especially in stories dealing with sexual assault.
Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton walked into the Kirkwood (Mo.) City Council one night in February 2008 and opened fire on city officials. Police who arrived on scene within minutes shot and killed Thornton, but not before he had killed six people and wounded two others. One of those wounded was Todd Smith, a reporter covering the City Council meeting for the Suburban Journal, a St. Louis-area publication. Smith, who was shot in the right hand, found himself catapulted from his reporting beat into the spotlight of national media. Smith recalled the events of the night for a group of 40 who attended a recent News at Noon event titled “Massacres in the Media” that was sponsored by the St. Louis-area Society of Professional Journalists.