David Folkenflik

Fox News Reporter James Rosen Caught Up In Federal Probe

David Folkenflik — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:52:00 +0000

There is word of another controversial leak investigation by the Department of Justice. The target is Fox News reporter James Rosen, who was monitored by the department after breaking a story about North Korea's nuclear weapons program in 2009.

Media Covers Itself In Privacy Debacles

David Folkenflik — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:13:00 +0000

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Pair of unrelated stories this week, both involving the news media, served to remind a lot of Americans of how little information that we may assume to be private, really is private. One story involves the U.S. Justice Department's efforts to find out who reporters are talking to; the other, reporters secretly monitoring their sources' activities.

We're joined now by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik, from New York.

Bloomberg News Apologizes For Tracking Subscribers

David Folkenflik — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:11:00 +0000

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News is apologizing. That's after admitting his reporters tracked how subscribers use the company's famous financial data terminals. The disclosure has caused an uproar in the financial services world. As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, the episode has roots both in Bloomberg's innovations in data management, and its corporate culture.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Founder and now New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg was so fixated on data that he liked to know when his employees came and went.

Some Immigration Terms Are Going Out Of Newsroom Style

David Folkenflik — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Journalists make choices all the time that influence our understanding of the news — the choice of what stories to cover, which people to interview, which words to use. And major news organizations have been reconsidering how best to describe a group of people whose very presence in this country breaks immigration law.

News organizations as institutions often decide which terms to use in describing contentious subjects, then codify them in what are called stylebooks. They are subject to change just as society's views change.

Koch Brothers Could Buy Tribune Papers To Add Media Division

David Folkenflik — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:45:00 +0000

The Tribune Co., emerging from bankruptcy and looking to reshape itself, is now considering the sale of all its newspapers — including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun and five other regional newspapers.

Great Long-Form Journalism, Just Clicks Away

David Folkenflik — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:06:00 +0000

In the age of hundreds of cable channels, millions of 140-character bulletins and an untold number of cat videos, a fear has been growing among journalists and readers that long-form storytelling may be getting lost.

People typically sort long-form journalism into two categories — there's investigative or watchdog reporting, and then there's the kind we're talking about today: richly textured nonfiction narratives that delve deeply into the human experience and may have nothing to do with that day's headlines.

NPR To Drop Call-In Show 'Talk Of The Nation'

David Folkenflik — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:50:00 +0000

NPR executives announced Friday that they will stop production of Talk of the Nation this summer. The call-in program will be replaced with Here and Now, a newsmagazine that will be a co-production of Boston member station WBUR and NPR.

NPR To Discontinue 'Talk Of The Nation'

David Folkenflik — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:33:00 +0000

NPR announced Friday morning that it will no longer produce the Monday-to-Thursday call-in show Talk of the Nation.

It will be replaced by Here and Now, a show produced in partnership with member station WBUR in Boston.

With Headline Bus Tour, 'New York Post' Takes Manhattan

David Folkenflik — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:58:00 +0000

One of the joys of living in New York City is laughing at the giant screaming headlines in the New York Post. When the former secretary of state knocked back a beer on one of her trips abroad: "Swillary." When the Lance Armstrong doping scandal broke: "Drug Pedaller." And when CIA director David Petraeus admitted having an affair? "Cloak And Shag Her."

The Post's headlines tell you a lot about the way many New Yorkers view the world, and now visitors can see the city through their eyes.

News Corp. Education Tablet: For The Love Of Learning?

David Folkenflik — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 07:04:00 +0000

The educational division of the media conglomerate News Corp., called Amplify, unveiled a new digital tablet this week at the SXSW tech conference in Austin, Texas, intended to serve millions of schoolchildren and their teachers across the country.

Amplify promises the tablet will simplify administrative chores for teachers, enable shy children to participate more readily in discussions, and allow students to complete coursework at their own pace while drawing upon carefully selected online research resources.

News Corp.

Media Circus: Ah, The President's Mean

David Folkenflik — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:56:00 +0000

The week's developments include a pope emeritus for the first time in six centuries, federal budget cuts seemingly designed by Sweeney Todd, and the visit by one of the NBA's all-time rebounders (Dennis Rodman) to the son of one of the world's greatest sportsmen (that would be North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un, whose late father claimed to have shot five holes-in-one on his very first golf outing).

And yet somehow, legendary Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward thrust himself at the center of the news with his claim that he had been menaced by an unnamed White House official.

CNBC Adopts Tougher Tactic In Booking Wars

David Folkenflik — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:17:00 +0000

CNBC is far and away the television ratings leader in the financial cable news business.

New York Times Plans To Sell 'Boston Globe'

David Folkenflik — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:12:00 +0000

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

The Grey Lady is shedding more of its assets. This afternoon, The New York Times Company announced that it intends to sell The Boston Globe and other properties it owns in New England.

For more on this, NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik joins me from our bureau in New York. And, David, what can you tell us? Why this sale, and why now?

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Well, think about what a come-down this is.

Media Circus: The Football Star And The Will To Believe

David Folkenflik — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:30:00 +0000

One of the top collegiate football players in the country, Notre Dame's Manti Te'o, was lionized by the media amid stories of his perseverance on the field after both his grandmother and his girlfriend died.

Thanks to an expose by Deadspin, the girlfriend's very existence is now believed to be a hoax, throwing the Heisman runner-up and his university on the defensive.

But the episode casts an equally unflattering light on the practices

Coverage Rapid, And Often Wrong, In Tragedy's Early Hours

David Folkenflik — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:26:00 +0000

Nearly everyone reported so many things wrong in the first 24 hours after the Sandy Hook shootings that it's hard to single out any one news organization or reporter for criticism.

Among the news outlets that wrongly reported major parts of the journalistic building blocks of "who, what, where, when, why and how," were CBS, The Associated Press, The New York Times and NPR — a v

Conservative Media Caught in the Blame Game

David Folkenflik — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:17:00 +0000

In the wake of last Tuesday's elections, a lively debate has erupted into the open over whether conservatives and the Republican Party were well-served by their favorite media outlets.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney was reported to have been so certain of a victory on Tuesday night that he cast aside tradition and did not draft a concession speech.

Media Circus: Fox Struggles With Obama's Win In Swing States

David Folkenflik — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:10:00 +0000

Imagine a ballot Tuesday that confronted you not with a choice between candidates named OBAMA and ROMNEY, but that looked more like this:

How much do you support the REPUBLICAN?

Pick only one.

Utterly _____

More than that ____

For much of Election Day, that was what viewers encountered in watching Fox News' coverage.

Sexual Abuse Scandal Rocks U.K.'s BBC Network

David Folkenflik — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 15:18:00 +0000

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. The BBC, one of the world's most prominent broadcasters, is in an uproar over allegations that one of its most famous TV personalities was a pedophile who preyed upon youths who appeared on his shows.

Newspaper Endorsements Still Key In Swing States

David Folkenflik — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:53:00 +0000

This weekend, a slew of newspapers in key swing states including Ohio are expected to release their endorsements for the presidency and other elected positions.

Such external validation is highly prized by candidates, but it's no longer entirely clear why.

The Columbus Dispatch gave a strong endorsement of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney last week, saying President Obama had failed: "Romney brings a wealth of executive experience in the private sector and the public sector th

Media Circus: Tone Trumps Content In Final Debate

David Folkenflik — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 04:54:00 +0000

For most American viewers, including this one, much of Monday night's presidential debate on foreign policy was conducted as though it were in a foreign language.

References to Mali, to former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, missile shields in Poland, "status of forces" agreements — could only have befuddled the voting public.

It's not that the candidates invoked unimportant issues. And it's not that the two held so elevated a conversation mere mortals could not understand.

After 80 Years In Print, Newsweek Goes All Digital

David Folkenflik — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:59:00 +0000

Newsweek editor Tina Brown announced Thursday she would embrace a fully digital future as she revealed that the magazine's final print edition would be published at the end of the year.

Her announcement was a bow to gravity, as her unique blend of buzz and brio proved incapable of counteracting Newsweek's plummeting circulation and advertising amid an accelerating news cycle.

Media Circus: A Shifting Narrative For Obama

David Folkenflik — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:34:00 +0000

Pundits fretted that the town hall format for Tuesday's presidential exchange would yield tepid results: undecided voters posing questions over 90 minutes with little more than a passing touch from the moderator, CNN's Candy Crowley.

Boy, was that a misplaced fear. "So much for the analysis this would not be confrontational," Fox News anchor Bret Baier said in the moments after the debate.

Instead of offering pandering platitudes, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and President Obama unveiled a mutual contempt society.

Media Circus: Who Won? The Moderator

David Folkenflik — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 04:34:00 +0000

Atmospherically, the vice presidential debate pitted old versus new. Vice President Joe Biden lives in a world where no lily goes ungilded, and every 'lative is super. Rep. Paul Ryan speeds through campaigning energetically, like the heroic train in the new movie Atlas Got Cut Using the P90X Workout.

And the moderator Martha Raddatz? She came out guns blazing.

Advice For Moderators: Keep Order, Out Of Spotlight

David Folkenflik — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 07:27:00 +0000

PBS' Jim Lehrer came in for widespread criticism last week for failing to control the first presidential debate. Now, moderator Martha Raddatz is confronting partisan criticism in the lead-up to Thursday night's vice presidential debate, the first and only direct confrontation between Republican Paul Ryan and Democrat Joe Biden.

The standards by which Raddatz will be judged are not exactly clear. Professional observers who pay close attention give advice that's seemingly contradictory: Don't cause any waves, but do challenge any clearly misleading statements.

Lights, Camera, Action (zzzz), Tweet!

David Folkenflik — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 05:13:00 +0000

I have spent the past few days sequestered with a crack team of political pros — actually, curled into a fetal ball, clutching a fading 1980 John Anderson poster — to gird myself for the vital first debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney.

So many questions lingered:

Would Romney offer to wager Obama $10,000 on who wins the race?

Would Obama tell Romney, "You're taxable enough, Mitt"?

Would the two men reveal the secret handshake taught only to graduates of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School? (Didn't remember Romney had the J.D.

The Politics Of Election Polls

David Folkenflik — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:24:00 +0000

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

President Obama has held a lead over Mitt Romney in the polls for several weeks now, and that's prompted a conservative reaction. Some are charging that big media outlets are intentionally designing their polling to make it look like the president is getting the kind of voter surge he had in 2008. NPR's David Folkenflik has the story.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: The political blogger Dean Chambers created the website unskewedpolls.com this past summer.

Sulzberger Ushered 'Times' Into New Era

David Folkenflik — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 23:05:00 +0000

The quiet man who modernized The New York Times over more than three decades and stubbornly defended the press against government interference died early Saturday at his home in Long Island.

Former publisher and Times Company chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Sr. had suffered from Parkinson's disease. He was 86.

Sulzberger's family had owned the Times since 1896, and he was named publisher when his brother-in-law, Orvil Dryfoos, died unexpectedly in 1963.

An ex-Marine, Arthur "Punch" Sulzberger was unfairly considered an intellectual lightweight.

Smaller Audience, Bigger Payoff For Glenn Beck

David Folkenflik — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:11:00 +0000

By the time Glenn Beck left the Fox News Channel in June 2011, both sides seemed ready, even eager, to part ways. Beck announced he would move on to bigger and grander ventures with his own production company, Mercury Radio Arts, but some media critics, such as Variety's Brian Lowry, shrugged then and since.

In 2010, he was instrumental in stirring Tea Party supporters to action. This year, though it's an election year and he's supporting Republican nominee Mitt Romney, Beck hasn't dominated headlines the way he once did.