Media

Rumor, Fact Follow Sherman Hemsley, Sally Ride Deaths On Facebook Tuesday, Joyce Ladner, a former interim president of Howard University, posted a notice about the death of actor Sherman Hemsley of television’s “The Jeffersons” and praised him as “out and proud.” Friends approved with a “like.” No point in being in the closet one’s whole…

Pundit Admits Opining on Paterno Statue Too Soon File this under “it sounded good at the time” or “too-infrequent admissions by commentators that they aren’t always right.” Ta-Nehisi Coates, the Atlantic magazine blogger, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times last week in which he argued that the statue of Joe Paterno, the disgraced…

Denver Post Editor Greg Moore Says Today’s Coverage Will Have More Impact Than That of ’99 Massacre The mass shooting at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater that killed 12 people and wounded dozens early Friday presents the kind of story that tests news organizations, particularly in an era of cutbacks. The Denver Post, the dominant…

Racial ID Presaged Suspension of Other Media Rules News consumers learned that the man suspected of shooting 70 people in Aurora, Colo., on Friday was white before they knew his name. NPR described the man accused of killing 12 people and injuring at least 58 others as a “white male in his early 20s. “On…

Funeral services for William Raspberry, the retired Washington Post columnist who died of prostate cancer Tuesday at age 76, have been scheduled for Thursday, July 26, at 10 a.m. at the Washington National Cathedral, according to journalist Walt Swanston, a family friend. A reception is to follow from 12:30 to 3 p.m. at the Washington…

U.S. to Review the Record After ProPublica Stories “The Obama administration has asked for a fresh review of an Alabama federal inmate’s commutation request and directed the Justice Department to conduct its first ever in-depth analysis of recommendations for presidential pardons, according to several officials and individuals involved,” Dafna Linzer reported Wednesday for ProPublica. “The…

Cancer Claims Pioneer Among Mainstream Pundits William Raspberry, retired Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at the Washington Post and its first African American in that role, died early Tuesday at his home in Washington, his wife, Sondra, told Journal-isms. He was 76 and died of metastatic prostate cancer. “We had a full 45 years together,” she said.…

Lynn Hoppes, senior director/entertainment at ESPN, former newspaper sports editor and former president of Associated Press Sports Editors, has been scolded for “journalistic laziness” after the Deadspin website found that he had been “shall we say, over-reliant on Wikipedia as a research tool,” as Deadspin put it. ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz told Journal-isms Friday by…

Number Far Exceeds Cases of Alleged Fraud “When Edward and Mary Weidenbener went to vote in Indiana’s primary in May, they didn’t realize that state law required them to bring government photo IDs such as a driver’s license or passport,” Mike Baker reported Monday for the Associated Press. “The husband and wife, both approaching 90…

S. African Cartoon Depicts President as Male Body Part In May, tensions were inflamed in South Africa after the ruling African National Congress objected to a satirical art exhibition that included a painting showing President Jacob Zuma as Lenin with his genitals exposed. The ANC forced a newspaper to remove the image from its website, and the painting was…