It’s that time again. Pressroom Buzz sifts through the pile of news and notes that have crossed the Internet browser recently in search of a few noteworthy items to pass along.
Maybe he did get the memo: Conservative blogger and longtime state employee Kevin Fischer recently moved from being an aide to State Sen. Mary Lazich to being a spokesman for the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, as Dan Bice reported late last month. Fischer’s longstanding reputation for snide commentary in the blogosphere — and one of his trademark posts last month dumping on Senate Democrats — prompted lefty blogger Jim Rowen to wonder whether he was failing to live up to the terms of a recent WHEDA memo urging employees to “Be thoughtful about how you present yourself in online social networks.”
Idly curious, Pressroom Buzz took a look at Fischer’s blog, which resides at the Journal Communications Franklin NOW website — and came away with a distinct impression that Fischer has toned down his act — without compromising his hard-starboard politics.
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Lessons for the future? “Credit card fears unfounded so far” said the headline about a month ago in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The AP took the time to follow up on the dire (and self-serving) predictions from the credit card industry that last year’s new rules to protect consumers would trigger a spike in fees and interest rates, among other things. The finding? The forecasts were so much blather.
Good for the AP. Now will reporters point to such failed forecasts the next time an industry group cries wolf to forestall consumer protection legislation?
Hmmm… didn’t think so…
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Newsonomics: Check out Ken Doctor‘s recent essay on the economics of investigative reporting, which he wrote for the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard. He uses California Watch and its series “On Shaky Ground” — about the risk of earthquakes threatening schools — as a case study. Note: California Watch includes three Milwaukee Journal Sentinel alums: education reporter Erica Perez, science writer Susanne Rust, and California Watch director Mark Katches, who built the JS’s Watchdog Team during his brief tenure here.
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Speaking of the JS, kudos to Food Editor Nancy Stohs, a finalist among mid-circulation papers in a national contest of the Association of Food Journalists.
The limits of algorithms: Mark Little writes thoughtfully about why and how automation will never really replace the human touch in selecting what readers should pay attention to in the flood of news, even in this new digital age…
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Tablets, shmablets. Jann Wenner, the founder and still top dog at Rolling Stone, tells Ad Age (you might have to register to read the story) that the rush to put magazines into iPad format is foolish and short-sighted — which is what commenters to the story say of Wenner’s casual dismissal of the tablet computer craze. Whoever is right, the Wenner interview and the comments make for interesting reading.
Confession confusion: One of the reasons I got into journalism was my eclectic topical interests. In keeping with that, the twice-weekly online newsletter Sightings, from the University of Chicago Divinity School, is regular reading. This recent item offers a lesson on how the media widely mis-reported the development of an iPhone app for confession by the Catholic Church.
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And finally, no — Pressroom Buzz has absolutely nothing to say about “Weinergate.”
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