On Thursday, May 8, the new issue of Vanity Fair will hit newsstands. Inside, there will be an item penned by former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. After 17 years, she's breaking her silence and talking about her affair with President Bill Clinton and what her life has been like since it became public.
Vanity Fair: “Exclusive: Monica Lewinsky writes about her affair with President Clinton”
Lucy McCalmont, POLITICO: “Monica Lewinsky in Vanity Fair: Time to burn the beret”
Catalina Camia, USA Today: “Monica Lewinsky: Affair with Bill Clinton was ‘concensual’”
Fox News: “Monica Lewinsky speaks out, says she was made ‘scapegoat’"
Summer Anne Burton & Jack Shepherd, BuzzFeed: “How websites today would report the Monica Lewinsky scandal”
A Fragile Trust
PBS aired Samantha Grant's documentary, A Fragile Trust, Monday night. Her decade-long study shows how the plagiarism and fabrication by Jayson Blair more than a decade ago left an imprint on the New York Times.
Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post: “’A Fragile Trust’ exhibits irresponsibility behind Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal”
Gigi Anders, Fox New Latino: “’A Fragile Trust’ shines light on former NY Times reporter 11 years after fraud”
Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times: “Exploring the blot on a newspaper’s record”
Howard Kurtz, Fox News: “Jayson Blair’s fabrications, captured on film, after he disgraced the New York Times”
Missing Nigerian girls
Nearly a month ago, more than 230 Nigerian girls were kidnapped from their classroom while taking a test. Their current whereabouts are unknown. The story received very little news coverage in the West until late last week. Awareness in the United States was raised on social media when people began Tweeting and posting to other social networks using the tag #BringBackOurGirls.
Holly Yan, CNN: “276 Nigerian girls kidnapped: Here’s why the world should demand action”
Charlotte Alter, Time: “How we failed the lost girls kidnapped by BokoHaram”
Brian Ries, Mashable: “Why the world is finally talking about Nigeria’s kidnapped girls”
Kellee Terrell, BET: “Commentary: Where’s the media coverage for the missing Nigerian girls?”
Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon: “Why is the media ignoring 200 missing girls?”
Lara Logan's future with CBS
A story in this week's New Yorker asks if Lara Logan is too toxic to return to CBS. Last fall, 60 Minutes and CBS retracted Logan's flawed report on the Benghazi attacks after it was proven that her main source had lied when describing what he claimed was a first-hand account on the attack. Logan spent more than a week defending her reporting, only to later be forced to apologize and and take an indefinite leave from the network.
Joe Hagan, New Yorker: “Benghazi and the bombshell”
Jim Romenesko: “Lara Logan’s ’60 Minutes’ Benghazi piece was deleted from LexisNexis”
Michael Calderone, Huffington Post: “Lara Logan’s future at CBS uncertain since discredited Benghazi report”
Covering Oklahoma’s controversial execution
The state of Oklahoma used a new, unproven, drug cocktail in last Tuesday's execution of Clayton Lockett. The Tulsa World's Ziva Branstetter was one of the media witnesses and describes what she saw.
Ziva Branstetter, Tulsa World: “Eyewitness account: A minute-by-minute look at what happened during Clayton Lockett’s execution”
Paige Hill, KFOR: “Friends of murder victim say justice was served during botched execution”
BBC: “Oklahoma execution: Clayton Lockett death witness speaks”
Ed Pilkington, Jon Swaine & Katie Fretland, The Guardian: “Botched Oklahoma execution ‘fell short of humane standards’ – White House"
Mark Berman, Washington Post: “What it was like watching the botched Oklahoma execution”
White House Correspondents' Dinner: Love it or hate it?
Saturday night, members of the White House Correspondents' Association gathered for its annual gala. The black tie event has come to be known as "nerdprom," bringing together journalists, politicians and celebrities of every ilk. It's the only night you'll find C-SPAN going wall-to-wall with coverage from the red carpet. But, for some, the White House Correspondents' Dinner is reason to raise an eyebrow. (Caution: Video contains language that might not be appropriate for all audiences.)
Kristen Hare, Poynter: “3 reasons not to hate the White House Correspondents’ Dinner”
Caitlin Emma, POLITICO: “Leibovich: WHCD an ‘abomination’"
Roxanne Roberts, Washington Post: “White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner: A theme party has little to do with D.C.”
Katherine Fung, Huffington Post: “John Oliver totally takes down the White House Correspondents’ dinner”
Is Twitter dying?
Has Twitter reached the point of being passé, like Friendster and MySpace? Or is it just now building its popularity?
Adrienne Lafrance & Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic: “A Eulogy for Twitter”
Will Oremus, Slate: “Twitter is not dying. It’s on the cusp of getting much bigger.”
