Written Pyramids

A newspaper discovers that it is bad to to copy. And even worse to put someone else's name on it. "Weaver said he understood that Cobler told the newsroom that he’d reached an agreement with AP that allowed the Tribune to copy other papers’ work and run it under an AP credit line." WHAT?

Janice Min, editor in chief of Us Weekly, tells a room full of college journalists that tabloid, celebrity journalism is important. She says it with enough self deprecating humor to give her some credit for running one of America's most successful magazines. (Less credit, is given to America) and Gawker makes fun of everyone all around.

A massive pillow fight? This is just cool. And totally ridiculous. Oddly enough, though they covered it last year and it was bigger this year, the Washington Square News, missed it this year. (Maybe they are on break? Right now, there is no news on the Web site just a housing guide). But, their uptown competition at Columbia covered it with pizazz. Money quote from the organizers: "We sort of have a philosophy about asking for permission and it's that we don't."

On a totally different, much, much, more serious note: While trying to find the right links for my last post I stumbled across this multimedia package about nuclear warfare, which I thought was remarkably well done for a daily newspaper, and this series on a child mauled by pit bulls. I found it horrifying and addictive. I read it late into the night, tears streaming, and it made me wonder why horror in newspapers is so riveting.

It reminded me of this series that I read earlier in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about kids with Tay-sachs disease who underwent a controversial treatment. This series had some personal resonance with me, but it also was one of those voyeuristic kind of reads.