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Category: Journalism

Spate of fake news sites with Russian ties pop up in U.S.

Spate of fake news sites with Russian ties pop up in U.S.

The New York Times reports: Into the depleted field of journalism in America, a handful of websites have appeared in recent weeks with names suggesting a focus on news close to home: D.C. Weekly, the New York News Daily, the Chicago Chronicle and a newer sister publication, the Miami Chronicle. In fact, they are not local news organizations at all. They are Russian creations, researchers and government officials say, meant to mimic actual news organizations to push Kremlin propaganda by…

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New York Times union blasts leak investigation over Israel stories

New York Times union blasts leak investigation over Israel stories

The Washington Post reports: The union representing New York Times employees accused the company Friday of targeting employees with Middle Eastern or North African backgrounds in a weeks-long investigation into leaks from its newsroom regarding the paper’s coverage of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. In a letter obtained by The Washington Post, NewsGuild of New York president Susan DeCarava said that managers have singled out particular employees — “targeted for their national origin, ethnicity and race” — who…

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Six months in, journalist-owned tech publication 404 Media is profitable

Six months in, journalist-owned tech publication 404 Media is profitable

NiemanLab reports: Until January, most stories from 404 Media were available to read for free. But after the four cofounders discovered — through their own reporting — that their stories were being scraped, paraphrased by AI text “spinners,” and published on other websites, they decided to start requiring readers to provide their email addresses to access stories, and they explained why. “We see how Google is degrading in quality. We see how AI content mills are digesting our stories and…

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What the Israeli public doesn’t see

What the Israeli public doesn’t see

Jewish Currents reports: On January 29th, The Nightly News with Michal Rabinovitch—which airs on Israel’s public broadcaster, known as Kan—ran a series of stories that were broadly representative of the channel’s programming over the past few months. A story about diplomatic progress toward a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas was followed by a report on the rockets launched into Israel’s interior from the Gazan city of Khan Younis; the segment included video from inside Hamas tunnels and footage captured…

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Is the media prepared for an extinction-level event?

Is the media prepared for an extinction-level event?

Clare Malone writes: My first job in media was as an assistant at The American Prospect, a small political magazine in Washington, D.C., that offered a promising foothold in journalism. I helped with the print order, mailed checks to writers—after receiving lots of e-mails asking, politely, Where is my money?—and ran the intern program. This last responsibility allowed me a small joy: every couple of weeks, a respected journalist would come into the office for a brown-bag lunch in our…

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Tucker Carlson — Putin’s useful idiot or his co-conspirator?

Tucker Carlson — Putin’s useful idiot or his co-conspirator?

Oliver Darcy writes: It’s evident now why Vladimir Putin granted an interview to Tucker Carlson. Over the course of the more than two-hour sit-down, the former Fox News host turned online commentator largely refrained from challenging the Russian authoritarian, whose brutal war on Ukraine has led to the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Those expecting a hard-hitting face-off will have surely walked away sorely disappointed by the long-winded and rambling interview, in which Tucker himself at times…

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CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’

CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’

The Guardian reports: CNN is facing a backlash from its own staff over editorial policies they say have led to a regurgitation of Israeli propaganda and the censoring of Palestinians perspectives in the network’s coverage of the war in Gaza. Journalists in CNN newsrooms in the US and overseas say broadcasts have been skewed by management edicts and a story-approval process that has resulted in highly partial coverage of the Hamas massacre on 7 October and Israel’s retaliatory attack on…

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The news business really is cratering

The news business really is cratering

Jack Shafer writes: Journalists across the country burst into flames of panic this week, as bad news for the news business crested and erupted everywhere all at once. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire publisher of the Los Angeles Times, laid off 20 percent of his newsroom. Over at Time magazine, its billionaire owners, Marc and Lynne Benioff, did the same for 15 percent of their unionized editorial employees. This latest conflagration had ignited at Sports Illustrated the previous week as catastrophic layoffs were dispensed via email to most staffers. Business…

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Palestinian journalists are being imprisoned by Israel in record numbers

Palestinian journalists are being imprisoned by Israel in record numbers

🔴 CPJ’s 2023 prison census shows that Israel is among top jailers of journalists worldwide, as imprisonments globally continue unabated. Read the report: https://t.co/GTeGIRhA6K#FreeThePress #JournalismIsNotACrime #PressFreedom pic.twitter.com/Nje3ABoLb6 — Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) January 18, 2024 Committee to Protect Journalists reports: In October, when the Israel-Gaza war began, Alaa al-Rimawi snapped into action, covering developments on J-Media, the West Bank-based news agency he directs, as well as on TikTok and Facebook. But his conflict coverage would be short-lived. Less than…

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‘Stunned, angry, and infuriated’: Journalists address U.S. silence on colleagues killed by Israelis

‘Stunned, angry, and infuriated’: Journalists address U.S. silence on colleagues killed by Israelis

  According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 82 journalists and media workers have died since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7th, making this war the deadliest in modern history for journalists. Hamza Al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya are the latest journalists to be killed in the war. Hamza is the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Wael Al-Dahdouh, who had already lost his wife, daughter, another son, and grandson in an Israeli airstrike. Al-Dahdouh vows to continue reporting…

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CPJ and partners call on President Biden to protect journalists in the Israel-Gaza war

CPJ and partners call on President Biden to protect journalists in the Israel-Gaza war

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) joined five other press freedom and human rights organizations on Wednesday in calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to act immediately and decisively to promote the conditions for safe and unrestricted reporting on the hostilities in Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon. The Israel-Gaza war has taken a severe toll on journalists since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, and Israel declared war on the militant Palestinian group, launching military operations in…

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Coverage of Gaza war in NYT and other major newspapers heavily favored Israel, analysis finds

Coverage of Gaza war in NYT and other major newspapers heavily favored Israel, analysis finds

The Intercept reports: The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times’s coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza showed a consistent bias against Palestinians, according to an Intercept analysis of major media coverage. The print media outlets, which play an influential role in shaping U.S. views of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, paid little attention to the unprecedented impact of Israel’s siege and bombing campaign on both children and journalists in the Gaza Strip. Major U.S. newspapers disproportionately emphasized Israeli deaths…

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CPJ urges investigation into whether Israel is targeting journalists in air strikes

CPJ urges investigation into whether Israel is targeting journalists in air strikes

The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for an independent investigation into an Israeli drone strike that killed Al-Jazeera journalist Hamza Al Dahdouh, who is the son of Al-Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Al Dahdouh, and freelance journalist Mustafa Thuraya on Sunday as they drove their car to an assignment in southern Gaza. “The killings of journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya must be independently investigated, and those behind their deaths must be held accountable. The continuous killings of…

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‘He’s breathing’: My two hours under Gaza’s rubble after an Israeli strike

‘He’s breathing’: My two hours under Gaza’s rubble after an Israeli strike

Mohammed R Mhawish writes: On the morning that the unthinkable happened, my father was holding the radio close, hoping the news bulletin might bring some kind of relief such as news of a ceasefire. My mother was attempting to strike a reassuring tone following another long and sleepless night in our family home in central Gaza City. “I am hopeful today shall pass peacefully, or at least be anything unlike last night,” she told us. That morning – December 7…

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The greatest challenge for journalists in Gaza is staying alive

The greatest challenge for journalists in Gaza is staying alive

Afnan Abu Yahia and Lila Hassan write: Samer Abu Daqqa loved being a journalist. A cameraman for over 20 years with Al Jazeera, Abu Daqqa, 45, had covered at least seven wars. Israel’s war on Gaza, however, would turn out to be his last. While covering an air strike at a United Nations–run school on December 15, Israeli forces shot Abu Daqqa. Intense shelling prevented an ambulance from reaching him—three paramedics were killed trying to get to the area—and he…

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IFJ: Almost 100 journalists killed, mostly in Gaza, and 400 imprisoned in 2023

IFJ: Almost 100 journalists killed, mostly in Gaza, and 400 imprisoned in 2023

The Guardian reports: A leading organisation representing journalists worldwide has expressed deep concern at the number of media professionals killed around the globe doing their jobs in 2023, with more journalists killed during Israel’s war with Hamas than in any other conflict in more than 30 years. In its annual count of media worker deaths, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said 94 journalists had been killed so far this year and almost 400 others had been imprisoned. The figure…

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