… is the internet, of course. OK, I’m going there. At the risk of being swallowed by the online universe and spit out the other end as a decrepit, hopelessly out of date, moldering relic of the newspaper past — all of which I am, by the way — I’m …
Read More »Video of police officer is public record, judge rules
There’s more than meets the eye to this recent ruling by a federal judge that a police body-cam video in Las Vegas is, indeed, a public record. (Thanks to Vanessa Spinazola at ACLU for bringing this ruling to my attention.) First, it’s good news to open-government advocates that the judge …
Read More »Welcome, judge, to the public-records problem
Now a judge knows what it’s like to try to pry records out of an uncooperative Nevada agency. I should say another judge, as U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen isn’t the first to confront the problem. We saw it in several rulings on the Reno Gazette-Journal’s lawsuit to get access …
Read More »Comstock Chronicle getting new owner
Another Nevada newspaper is changing hands — this time, it’s the Comstock Chronicle in Virginia City. Richard and Angela Mann, who have been running the Chronicle for eight years, announced they have sold the weekly paper to Zach and Harry Spencer, who have extensive backgrounds in newspapers and public relations. …
Read More »News as a byproduct of social media
With the vast and unprecedented power of the internet to share news comes vast and unprecedented power also to shape the news people actually see. In this thoughtful piece for the Columbia Journalism Review, Trevor Timm explores the relationship between a major newspaper like the New York Times and social …
Read More »Covering the story on the North Charleston shooting
I’m copying a story from the South Carolina Press Association’s newsletter this morning that traces The Post and Courier’s coverage of a video that exploded across the nation’s headlines. It touches on a number of issues, such as police body-cameras and victims’ rights, that are relevant in Nevada and nationwide. …
Read More »Now they’re stealing fakes?
Here’s a new take on the problem of people stealing images from the internet: Who added that dog to my image? As I understand it, somebody ‘borrowed’ Ben Canales’s photo, photoshopped a silhouette of a dog in the tent and posted it online. When Backpacker Magazine — which had legitimately …
Read More »How Rolling Stone can fix it
Back in January, a month after Rolling Stone’s disaster of a story came to light, I offered some free advice. This was soon after the magazine announced it would have Columbia Journalism School conduct an audit of the story and tell us what went wrong. The CJS report was released …
Read More »How to make police videos a matter of public record
For police body-cam videos to do any good, they have to be seen by the public. That much seems obvious from the many examples floating around the internet, and the results seen by police departments that have started using them. But, as I’ve said before, there are plenty of issues …
Read More »Difference between urban and rural
I live in Carson City, which is neither urban nor rural. It is more than a town and less than a city. We have most of the conveniences of an urban area, but not a lot of choices. We can, of course, drive 20 minutes north to Reno. Or four …
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