TWO EXPERIENCED WOMEN JOIN PULITZER BOARD

The Pulitzer Prize Board quietly added two new members earlier this month, both veteran women of news experience.

From the Pulitzer website:

Investigative journalist and columnist join Pulitzer Board

Katherine Boo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, and Gail Collins, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, have been elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Boo, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, was a reporter at The Washington Post when her series on mistreatment of mentally challenged people in Washington, D.C., resulted in the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for The Post.
Collins joined the editorial board of The New York Times in 1995 and six years later became the first woman editor of The Times’ editorial page. -- 11/07/2013

But that means that just seven of the 19 board members are women.

BAT KID IS THE S.F. STORY

If you have not heard about Bat Kid, the latest unique San Francisco story, you may have been hiding somewhere.

The City by the Bay, where I toiled in joy for nine years, took this brave Make-A-Wish kid in for the day Friday, allowing him to make his dream come true as a junior crime fighter.

See the video below from Gotham City News (aka KPIX TV):


Of course, local media, as you can see, played a part, especially the San Francisco Chronicle, which put out a special Gotham City Chronicle edition Friday and gave up part of today's actual paper to the young crime fighter.

 

150 YEARS LATER, AN ANTI-GETTYSBURG ADDRESS RETRACTION

It took a while, but a Pennsylvania newspaper finally retracted an editorial that dismissed what turned out to be a pretty important speech by the president of the United States.

No, not Barack Obama, but Abraham Lincoln.

And yes, the speech in question was the 1863 Gettysburg Address.

At issue was the editorial in the now defunct Patriot & Union of Harrisburg, which called the address "silly remarks" and said a "veil of oblivion" needed to be dropped over them.

It would seem timely as this year marks the 150th anniversary of the famous address.

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., published the retraction Thursday, according to Reuters, which reported it states:

Our predecessors, perhaps under the influence of partisanship, or of strong drink, as was common in the profession at the time, called President Lincoln's words 'silly remarks,' deserving 'a veil of oblivion'

The Patriot -News regrets the error.

 

60 MINUTES BENGHAZI MESS HIGHLIGHTS LACK OF BOOK FACT-CHECKING

In all of our coverage of the Benghazi mess at 60 Minutes, which is still not coming completely clean about its October 27 report based on the lies of a former security employee, it became more and more apparent that the book he wrote was likely just as flawed.

Such was the case last week when Threshold, the publisher of The Embassy House by Dylan Davies, retracted the book.

But unlike 60 Minutes, it has not provided any more information on how it got into print or what, if any, reviews were done to check its accuracy.

With that in mind, I spoke to veterans of the book publishing world who pretty much agreed that most publishers do not fact-check and that leaves a big potential problem for many books by non-authors like Davies, and other media outlets who base stories on them.

See my full story HERE.

60 MINUTES "REVIEW" RAISES EVEN MORE QUESTIONS

Just when you thought 60 Minutes' responses to its troubled Benghazi report last month couldn't get any stranger, now comes word that the network is conducting a "journalistic review." But what does that mean?

A 60 Minutes spokesperson offered just this line to me and others when we inquired:

The moment we confirmed there was an issue in our story we began a journalistic review that is ongoing.

But nothing else about who is doing the review, when it began or when it will end. 

Stay tuned, I sure will.

CAN 60 MINUTES LEARN FROM THE PASTS OF OTHERS?

Lots of nice attention on my column today at Media Matters about how CBS News needs to tell us more about why their 60 Minutes Benghazi story allowed its main source witness to appear given his conflicting stories.

I pointed out how several past news outlets had not only gotten through ethical problems, but bounced back from them when they opened up their shops and explained exactly what went wrong, even firing people in many cases

You can read it HERE.

So far nice notice from Jim Romenesko and New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan.

60 MINUTES FALLOUT NOT STOPPED BY LAME APOLOGY

The fallout from the 60 Minutes Benghazi story, and the terrible "correction" Lara Logan tried to make Sunday night, has been greater than even I expected.

When word started to come out that the source witness for the October 27 story about the attack that killed four Americans on Sept. 11, 2012, had lied, the news magazine was slow to respond.

But after overwhelming evidence showed the witness, Dylan Davies, had lied, 60 Minutes had to admit defeat.

Too bad that has only included a short "we're sorry," by Logan.

Media Matters has chronicled the piles of reaction to this inept mea culpa, with likely more to come.

NATIONAL MEDIA NEEDS TO KNOW NEW JERSEY BETTER

It was a bit annoying to see all of the political pundits last night on most national television coverage of Gov. Chris Christie's big win in my home state of New Jersey try to analyze why he won as some kind of comment on national GOP politics.

Yes, he won by a wide margin and is now a clear GOP presidential contender. But most who vote for him here liked his approach to the budget and his independent style, not necessarily agreeing with his views on a lot of social issues like abortion and gay marriage.

They also seemed to wonder why he could win so big, but have the state legislature remain solidly Democratic and two ballot measures on the minimum wage and games of chance, which he opposed, could pass pretty handily.

This ignores the fact that New Jersye is a very swing state with a very mixed vote and a lot of ticket-splitting. People here have elected three Republican governors to two-term tenures since 1981, but always had a Democratic legislature for the most part, while regularly voting Democratic in the presidential race since 1992.

If some of these pundits at the national channels had talked to some local state reporters, they might know this.

In addition, people in this state, and likely many others, vote for governors, mayors and often president because they like the candidate, not necessarily the party. To say Bill de Blasio's big win in New York City for mayor somehow is a comment on the previous 20 years of hard-line conservative mayors does not take into account that he had a very weak opponent, as did Christie. 

"RATHERGATE" INVESTIGATOR WEIGHS IN ON 60 MINUTES LESSONS IN LIGHT OF BENGHAZI REPORT

Former Associated Press CEO Lou Boccardi, who was involved in the review of the so-called "Rathegrate" controversy at 60 Minutes II in 2004, spoke about the lessons learned then in an interview with me on Monday.

He was discussing the issue in light of the recent controversy over a new 60 Minutes report, its Benghazi story from October 27 in which a supposed "witness" of the 2012 attack that killed four Americans claims there were problems with U.S. support.

But now it seems that witness's credibility is in question.

See what Boccardi said HERE.