What happens when human rights issue is also a political one? Should news organizations or individual journalists pick sides and state their allegiances? We’ll analyze how the national and local media covered this week’s landmark Supreme Court decisions on marriage equality, the death penalty, health care subsidies, and more.
Kristen Hare, Poynter: “Today’s same-sex marriage ruling in graphics, maps and a GIF”
CNN Money: “How Obama’s call to Obergefell was caught live on CNN”
Faithful America: “Family Research Council doesn’t speak for Christians”
Trudy Lieberman, Columbia Journalism Review: “The court case is over – but here’s another big story for healthcare reporters to follow”
Beating the Competition
Seconds count when it comes to breaking Supreme Court news. For business-focused organizations like Bloomberg or CNBC, seconds count. That's part of what makes the annual "running of the interns" so significant.
Erik Wemple, Washington Post: “How cutthroat is the Supreme Court beat?”
Benny Johnson, IRJ Review: “The 2015 running of the interns”
Julia Greenberg, Wired: “Why Supreme Court interns still sprint to deliver the news”
James Warren, Poynter: “Bloomberg News is a Supreme Court health care winner”
Journalists showing their colors
Should news organizations or individual journalists be transparent with their support for one side while covering these cases? It's a question we ask again after several national publications changed their social media avatars to logos incorporating the rainbow flag.
Dylan Byers, POLITICO: “Should news outlets declare allegiances?”
Ina Fried, Re/Code: “Tech companies celebrate same-sex marriage ruling by Supreme Court”
Al Tompkins, Poynter: “Same-sex marriage: Covering the battles ahead”
CNN's big blunder
CNN was the only network to report the presence of an ISIS flag at the London gay pride celebration. Maybe that's because it wasn't actually an ISIS flag?
Mark Joseph Stern, Slate: “CNN claimed to spot an ISIS flat at a Gay Pride march. It was actually a drawing of sex toys.”
Erik Wemple, Washington Post: “Exclusive! CNN catches London ignoring ISIS supporter walking the street!”
Colin Gorenstein, Salon: “John Oliver rips CNN for mistaking pride parade flag for ISIS flag: You work at CNN and you don’t know what a dildo looks like?”
Scott Jones, FTV Live: “CNN assignment editor denies reporting on dildo flag”
Max Fisher, Vox: “CNN’s most embarrassing flub ever? The ISIS dildo gay flag explained”
Culture at the Capitol
A blistering Kansas City Star report unveils a pattern of sexual harassment and mistreatment of dozens of female interns working at the Missouri Capitol.
Jason Hancock & Steve Kraske, Kansas City Star: “Dozens of women say they were sexually harassed while working in the Missouri Capitol”
Lauren Klinger, Poynter: "10 questions to consider before naming a possible sexual assault victim"
Virginia Young, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Police report reveals past Diehl affair with Nixon staffer”
Sarah Fenske, Riverfront Times: “How the Post-Dispatch shamed a possible rape victim – and embarrassed itself”
'Finding Your Roots' suspended
PBS announced it is suspending the popular genealogy series, "Finding Your Roots" after it was discovered actor Ben Affleck exerted influence over production. Affleck voiced concerns about releasing details about an ancestor who owned slaves -- and that detail was removed from the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-WtVYtJYYM
John Koblin, New York Times: “Citing Ben Affleck’s ‘improper influence,’ PBS suspends ‘Finding Your Roots’”
Josh Feldman, Mediaite: “PBS postpones ‘Finding Your Roots’ after internal review on Ben Affleck slavery flap”
Hospital bans newspaper
Copies of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are no longer available in five of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-affiliated hospitals because of a spat between hospital administrators and the paper's editorial team.
James Warren, Poynter: “Like bad virus, Pittsburgh newspaper spat spreads to more hospitals”
James Warren, Poynter: “Unhealthy move: Pittsburgh hospitals bar sales of Post-Gazette”
Steve Twedt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “UPMC hospitals ban sale of Post-Gazette from their gift shops”
Editorial Board, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Covering the UPMC: The PG stands by its reporting and commentary”
Steve Twedt, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Two more UPMC hospitals ban sale of Post-Gazette”
Compassionate competitors
Journalists... we're a competitive lot. But sometimes, our ability to demonstrate compassion overruns our competitive nature.
Associated Press, Tulsa World: “Bob Barry Jr. funeral service set for Friday: KOCO reportedly offers to staff newsroom so colleagues can attend”
Milton Kent, Washington Post: “Oklahoma TV station offers to staff competitior’s newsroom during staffer’s funeral”
Kristen Hare, Poynter: “The Post and Courier will continue to the newsroom pizza chain, but it’s not really about the pizza”
