The child welfare system is arguably one of the most difficult systems to navigate. The agencies that comprise the system wield enormous responsibility to ensure children's safety. But they often punish struggling families by removing their children rather than providing services to support them. And while some children may benefit from being in a state's custody, many more face mistreatment within a system that has lasting effects on education, mental health and more.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Poynter Institute celebrated two veteran political journalists turned news entrepreneurs last week, honoring their success at serving audiences in new ways and building trust in a polarized news landscape. Mike Allen, co-founder and executive editor of Axios, and Jessica Yellin, founder of News Not Noise, were each given the Poynter 50 Make a Mark Leadership Award at a dinner and salon discussion in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 19. Poynter is making the awards, and two more at a similar event Oct. 21 in New York, in honor of its 50th anniversary this year.
I just passed a notable anniversary. It's been 40 years since I started writing this column. I had been doing scut work at local radio and television stations, waiting for the big break that looked like it was never going to come, when the Oakland Tribune hired me to be its gossip columnist. Only one hitch: I hated gossip. It's so negative, and it's all about celebrities; and the only thing they're usually famous for is being famous.
But what a life it was! Realizing fairly early that at 5-foot-8 and 130 pounds, a desired career as an athlete was not realistic, Mike thought that if he couldn't play the games well, maybe he could write well about them and set out to become a sportswriter. And, with some fantastic breaks along the way, he became one, first at his hometown newspaper, the Waukesha (Wis.) Freeman, then on to 25 years at the Milwaukee Journal, capping his career with a 23-year stint as senior assistant sports editor at the Los Angeles Times.
"Throughout her life, Ruth Weiss drew on the immeasurable suffering of the Holocaust and her experiences under apartheid in South Africa to formulate an enduring educational mission for us all: Do not divide the world into 'us and you,' but stand up for the 'us' of humanity," Wolfram Weimer, Germany's Minister of State for Culture and the Media, said. At the age of 101, the Jewish journalist, writer and human rights activist passed away in Denmark, surrounded by her family.
Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
Peacock's The Paper, Apple TV+'s The Morning Show, FX's The Lowdown, and Netflix's The Woman in Cabin 10 offer their own visions of who newspeople currently are and what the news should be. Their genres vary, as does the degree to which they actually assess current media culture and whether it's under attack. But they all share a baseline amount of respect for and hero worship toward their protagonists, which feels sometimes comforting, sometimes naïve.
Good morning. I was in Scottsdale yesterday, recording a podcast on site at Deloitte's Next Generation CEO Program, when news about the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk began to trickle in. We had been talking about the challenge of being a public figure in business or politics these days, the need for visionary and visible leadership, when visibility can come at a price.
In the mid-2010s, loosely organized online movements began spilling into the real world, catching popular culture off guard and leaving many journalists flat-footed in unfamiliar internet territory. You know their names. Pizzagate. QAnon. And the most consequential of all, MAGA: a mainstream political movement fueled in part by a fervent online contingent. But before all that came Gamergate, the proving ground where the tactics were tested.
What began as a local news breaker on a clear blue-sky morning in lower Manhattan soon became one of the darkest days in American history, and an hour-long streaming special that premiered in 2021, "Eyewitness to 9/11: Behind the Lens," documents the heart-pounding, moment-by-moment response of the Eyewitness News team at WABC-TV, with never-before-seen footage from that day and dozens of powerful interviews that resonate with raw emotion.
"He's one of the only people in the world who thinks that," Gleeson says. "I love that he has that love for journalism. I think a character who really cares about something is a character who's easy to care about."
Richard Neuberger was a U.S. senator hard to imagine, in an Oregon now hard to remember. In 1954, he was the first Democratic senator elected from Oregon in 42 years. Before his election - and even while in the Senate - he was a volcanically prolific freelance writer, producing more than 750 articles and six books. He and his wife, Maurine, who would succeed him for a term in the Senate, were the first couple ever to serve in a state legislature together.
I am no expert on the economics of news, but you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. The enterprise of news continues to face two intractable problems: the erosion of its business model, dependent upon print advertising; and the countless attempts by ideologues to undermine its credibility. As more people - especially a younger demographic - encounter the world on their phones, newspapers as objects are disappearing, along with many of the journalists who created them.
Holland's (1985) hexagonal model is the most widely used system for vocational counseling in the world. But its use transcends vocational counseling. In previous PT posts, I have described how Holland's model can be used to understand personality type theories in general, different ways of serving other people, gender norming on personality tests, and core values that underlie life goals. After describing the Holland hexagon, I will then explain how the hexagon can be used to understand the psychology of journalism.
