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June 2017

President Trump Picks Christopher Wray to Be FBI Director

President Donald Trump said that he had selected the former federal prosecutor Christopher Wray, now a Washington (DC)-based criminal defense lawyer who recently represented Gov Chris Christie (R-NJ) in the so-called Bridgegate scandal, to be his new FBI director. The president revealed his decision in a morning tweet. His announcement came a day before the former FBI director James B. Comey was to testify about President Trump’s attempts to get him to end the bureau’s investigation into his former national security adviser’s contacts with Russia.

Wray is a safe, mainstream pick from a president who at one point was considering politicians for a job that has historically been kept outside of politics. Wray, a former assistant attorney general overseeing the criminal division under President George W. Bush, is likely to allay the fears of FBI agents who worried that President Trump would try to weaken or politicize the FBI. Wray, two administration officials said, is a hybrid pick for President Trump: He is a seasoned criminal lawyer who bonded with Christie when both were young attorneys in the Justice Department, and a highly regarded criminal defense lawyer who represented Christie in the aftermath of the scandal over traffic jams that rocked his governorship.

Top intelligence official told associates President Trump asked him if he could intervene with Comey on FBI Russia probe

The nation’s top intelligence official told associates in March that President Donald Trump asked him if he could intervene with then-FBI Director James B. Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn in its Russia probe, according to officials. On March 22, less than a week after being confirmed by the Senate, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats attended a briefing at the White House together with officials from several government agencies. As the briefing was wrapping up, President Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The president then started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey’s handling of it, said officials familiar with the account Coats gave to associates.

Two days earlier, Comey had confirmed in a congressional hearing that the bureau was probing whether President Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 race. After the encounter, Coats discussed the conversation with other officials and decided that intervening with Comey as President Trump had suggested would be inappropriate, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters. The events involving Coats show the president went further than just asking intelligence officials to deny publicly the existence of any evidence showing collusion during the 2016 election. The interaction with Coats indicates that President Trump aimed to enlist top officials to have Comey curtail the bureau’s probe.

In Political Media First, President Trump Releases Comey Attack Ad

In what appears to be a political media first, a Super Pac controlled by President Donald Trump has released an ad attacking the character of a witness in advance of a highly anticipated Senate hearing. The ad, entitled “Showboat,” was released June 6 by President Trump’s Great America Alliance and attacks the character of former FBI Director James Comey, who is scheduled to speak publicly June 8 during a Senate hearing. The spot, which will air on national TV outlets during the hearing, reportedly has a $400,000 media budget. Citing alt right news reports such as Breitbart News, American Spectator and AlternNet, the campaign attacks Comey as putting “politics over protecting America” and concludes with the tagline: “Just another DC insider in it for himself.”

Facebook’s Role in European Elections Under Scrutiny

Facebook provides little information on how political parties use ads to reach undecided voters on the site. And concern has been growing since the American presidential election about the company’s role in campaigns, including about how politically charged fake news is spread online. Now, as voters head to the polls across Europe, groups in Britain, Germany and elsewhere are fighting back, creating new ways to track and monitor digital political ads and misinformation on the social network and on other digital services like Twitter and Google.

In a Fake Fact Era, Schools Teach the ABCs of News Literacy

"Fake news is nothing new, and its impact on the national conversation is nothing new, but public awareness is very high right now,” says Peter Adams, who leads educational initiatives for News Literacy Project. Now, Checkology is being used by some 6,300 public and private school teachers serving 947,000 students in all 50 states and 52 countries. Norwood began using the program in March following one of the most frenetic elections in American history. The platform offers lessons on the First Amendment, the difference between branded content and news, and how to distinguish between viral rumors—political and otherwise—and reported facts. Teachers help the kids understand sourcing, bias, transparency, and journalistic ethics.

The Case for Media Impact

What does it mean for a journalistic organization to put the goal of impact at the center of its mission? In this report, we explore this question through the lens of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its explosive project, “Evicted and Abandoned,” in which a collaborative reporting project of more than fifty reporters and fifteen organizations in twenty-one countries took on the World Bank.

Part One of the report introduces the current impact conversation in the media arena and describes ICIJ’s structure and strategy. Part Two traces the forerunners to some contemporary journalists’ discomfort with the notion of impact as a goal for media, and finds that, in fact, the notion of journalistic impact is nothing new. In Part Three, we examine how ICIJ’s impact imperative affects the organization’s approach to story choice, production, and distribution. The report also covers the challenges associated with this model and suggests what other journalistic organizations can learn from the experience of ICIJ.

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