On the Media Game

I saw an interesting blog from Tom Foremski on the techie site zdnet, defending the New York Times' new website paywall and saying he didn't understand the controversy about it.

Discussing the effects of giving news away for free, he writes, "we are witnessing a wholescale dumbing down of our media, and therefore a dumbing down of our ability to make the right choices" for our society.

He contends, as I have on this site and in outlets such as OJR, that people will simply have to pay to get quality journalism if we are to continue to have it in America. How else can papers survive?

Just when you think it can't get any worse ... it gets worse. Turns out that Kevin Provencher, 52, a sportswriter for the Manchester, N.H., Union Leader for 23 years, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to running a prostitution operation.

The prosecution showed he advertised on craigslist and other sites, placed the women he recruited into hotel rooms, demanded half their $240 hourly fee plus the cost of the room, and even collected loyalty rewards points.

And what was the defense of this four-time winner of the New Hampshire Sportswriter of the Year award? Why, he was forced into his crimes by a reduction in salary brought about by the newspaper industry's economic woes. Ah well, now he can probably promote himself to sports editor ... of his prison paper.

On the Media Game blog is written by Gerry Storch.

Continuing our miniseries on new forms of libel suits ... now we have one from NBA referee Bill Spooner against a Twitter feed from AP coverage guy Jon Krawczynski, according to this story by David Hanners in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Spooner had called a foul on one of Timberwolves coach Kurt Rambis' players, and Rambis complained, as is always the case in the NBA. Krawczynski tweeted that Spooner then told Rambis he would "get it back" ... meaning get a makeup call that would go his way.

The lawsuit claims the writer thereby accused Spooner of game fixing, a serious offense. Spooner denies saying it and Krawczynski was very foolish to imply what he did ... he has no way to prove it. The judge may whistle him to the showers and levy a fine.

On the Media Game blog is written by Gerry Storch.

In my previous post, I discussed a lawsuit involving possibly libelous online comments in the Indianapolis Star. Now, from a story by Aisling Swift in the Naples, Fla., Daily News comes this new twist ... a lawsuit involving texting, or "textual harassment."

Seems a woman received an anonymous text to her cell claiming her husband had cheated with one of his employees. Since hubby is a multimillionaire, he can easily afford an attorney, and the couple filed suit against Jane/John Doe. The next step is discovering the identity of the texter by forcing it out of the service provider.

We live in an age of new platforms of communication. But sorry, texters and Tweeters and posters, the libel laws follow you wherever you go.

On the Media Game blog is written by Gerry Storch.

The Indianapolis Star is in hot water as a judge has ruled that a former Junior Achievement exec in Indiana, Jeffrey Miller, can be given the identities of anonymous posters to the paper's website as part of his defamation lawsuit.

Miller's angry because one commenter said he had committed “most likely a criminal act,” and another called him “the most greedy man I’ve ever known."

He has a right to be angry. Doesn't matter if the originators of the content aren't staff writers or if it's online instead of in print ... as long as the paper publishes it, it falls under the purview of libel laws ... and the Star may have to learn its lesson the hard way, by doling out compensatory cash to Mr. Miller.

On the Media Game blog is written by Gerry Storch.

Imagine the furor if it was learned that an enormous conservative foundation had quietly bankrolled some of the coverage in leading media outlets in America.

Yet the same thing is being done from the other side of the aisle, and who knew? An excellent expose piece in the Seattle Times by Sandi Doughton and Kristi Heim reveals that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation financed ABC's recent special on an incubator to boost preemie survival in Africa and a three-part series on poverty and AIDS in Mozambique on the PBS NewsHour.

Such stories, of course, dovetail with the foundation's agenda and it's a sad day when large organizations like ABC and PBS compromise their journalistic independence for Gates' money.

On the Media Game blog is written by Gerry Storch.