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April 2017

Panel tables Breitbart request for congressional press passes

A panel of journalists voted April 25 to table a request from Breitbart News for permanent congressional press passes, apparently. The Standing Committee of Correspondents, made up up five reporters from traditional media outlets, also put off a vote to extend the right-leaning site's temporary passes, which expire on May 31. The panel reportedly expressed concerns about “more than one troubling aspect” in the information Breitbart provided. It had previously questioned the news outlet's connections to conservative donors and organizations. “The whole thing suggest to me that they’re just not ready for a credential” one panel member said, according to Politico's Hadas Gold.

The Media Bubble Is Worse Than You Think

The national media really does work in a bubble, something that wasn’t true as recently as 2008. And the bubble is growing more extreme. Concentrated heavily along the coasts, the bubble is both geographic and political. If you’re a working journalist, odds aren’t just that you work in a pro-Clinton county—odds are that you reside in one of the nation’s most pro-Clinton counties. And you’ve got company: If you’re a typical reader of Politico, chances are you’re a citizen of bubbleville, too. The “media bubble” trope might feel overused by critics of journalism who want to sneer at reporters who live in Brooklyn or California and don’t get the “real America” of southern Ohio or rural Kansas. But these numbers suggest it’s no exaggeration: Not only is the bubble real, but it’s more extreme than you might realize. And it’s driven by deep industry trends.

The Problem With WikiTribune

[Commentary] The larger problem with WikiTribune is this: Someone who is paid for doing journalistic work cannot be considered “equals” with someone who is unpaid. And promoting the idea that core journalistic work should be done for free, by volunteers, is harmful to professional journalism.

The difference between a professional and a hobbyist isn't always measurable in skill level, but it is quantifiable in time and other resources necessary to complete a job. This is especially true in journalism, where figuring out the answer to a question often requires stitching together several pieces of information from different sources—not just information sources but people who are willing to be questioned to clarify complicated ideas.

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