Gary Knell, the former boss of NPR who abruptly quit in 2013 because of an offer he couldn’t refuse from National Geographic, might have set a new standard for clumsy layoff announcements.
National Geographic is in the process of gutting its staff now that it’s in the clutches of one Rupert Murdoch.
The layoffs are underway today. Read more →
Jerry Kill is fair game for the typical judgments of media, which needs to keep a hot story going somehow. But who are we to declare how other people live? Read more →
In the aftermath of last night’s World Series game, a real mystery continues to swirl around the starter for the Kansas City Royals’ starting pitcher. What did he know about the health of his father and when did he know it? And why did we know it first? Read more →
As long as radio survives, many Americans will get to enjoy a favorite pastime of media — critiquing voices coming out of their transistor.
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‘Everybody was saying stuff that they didn’t know.’
That right there is the kind of keen insight about social media that only a 12-year-old can deliver. Read more →
By all accounts, there’ll never be another force on the Iron Range like Veda Ponikvar, of Chisholm, who died yesterday at 96. Read more →
If white men are really interested in supporting diversity in the public space, the very best thing they can do to achieve it, is sit down and be quiet. Read more →
If you don’t have cable TV, the baseball postseason doesn’t exist. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the arm of the sport that controls its media presence, has locked down online access. Even as it advertises its At Bat app to view the playoff games, it’s blacked out many of the games, presumably to protect the rights of the cable TV networks who have purchased them. Read more →
Among the more dispiriting debates for journalists in recent years is the one that’s picked up steam in the last few days: Should news organizations name the man who opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon last week. His name, by the way, was Chris Harper-Mercer. This should be a no-brainer. It’s the Read more →
She’s been a columnist for more than 50 years, but her family says a ‘hip ailment’ is going to keep her out of the paper for a bit. Read more →
A controversy at Connecticut’s Wesleyan University is symptomatic of an increasing reality. Commentary and opinion in journalism is declining as a roadmap to a healthy exchange of ideas. Read more →
A couple of north country newspapers are duking it out on the editorial page over an upcoming special election and the proposed copper mine on the Iron Range.
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The Associated Press today made a significant change in its writing — its ‘stylebook’ is the de facto guide in most every newsroom — which eliminates the description of climate change doubters as ‘skeptics’. Read more →
Garrison Keillor’s decision to walk away from A Prairie Home Companion means the show is going to change. And public radio listeners and station owners are uncomfortable with change.
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Milo Hamilton is dead.
The Iowa native called baseball games on radio — the only real way to follow a baseball game — for 60 years, most recently as the Houston Astros announcer. Before that he was the play-by-play man for the Cubs, Pirates, and several other teams, including the Atlanta Braves, which tied him forever to this moment.
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Bob Collins