In April 1976, Warner Bros. launched the film “All of the President’s Males” starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as legendary Washington Put up journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
The story of how the dogged reporters coated the Watergate scandal did two issues. The true story helped lead then-President Richard Nixon to ultimately resign from workplace. And the dramatized, edge-of-your-seat thriller impressed greater than a era or two to enter journalism.
I argue that “All of the President’s Males” is without doubt one of the most vital and influential moments within the historical past of journalism.
The film debuted lower than a 12 months after The Poynter Institute opened in 1975.
Which, if you happen to do some fast math, tells you that Poynter is approaching its fiftieth anniversary in 2025. The institute has loads deliberate to commemorate this golden anniversary, together with a venture in which you’ll assist. The truth is, we’re asking in your assist.
We’re placing collectively a listing of the 50 most important media moments and folks of the previous 50 years. We’re calling it The Poynter 50. This record, which we are going to unveil all through 2025, would possibly embrace the invention of Fb and Twitter. And inspirational moments, comparable to, like I simply talked about, the making and influence of “All of the President’s Males.” They might middle on essentially the most influential individuals — information leaders and impactful journalists. They may very well be protection of the most important information tales, comparable to 9/11 and the Gulf Battle — which helped with the rise of cable information. They may very well be industry-impacting moments, comparable to the choice to present away information at no cost on the web.
When Poynter opened its doorways for the primary time, there was no web, no social media, no cable tv. Consider all that has occurred since then, all of the influential individuals who have come alongside, and the way the journalism and media {industry} has modified.
So we wish your assist developing with a worthy record. No subject is simply too large. No subject is simply too small. No subject is simply too mainstream, or too area of interest. We’re on the lookout for all kinds of occasions, moments, tales and/or those who helped form our media panorama for the reason that begin of 1975.
Please assist us by filling out this short, two-question survey together with your ideas on what deserves to make the record. There is also a query asking your identify and the way you wish to be recognized. You don’t need to reply that if you happen to don’t wish to. However, please, share your concepts and strategies.
Thanks in your assist!
Now onto the remainder of at the moment’s publication …
For this merchandise, I flip it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.
The New York Occasions Tech Guild, which represents greater than 650 tech staff on the firm, referred to as off its strike Tuesday, roughly per week after members had walked off the job.
Annoyed by disagreements with the corporate over contract proposals concerning job protections, wages and distant work insurance policies, staff began their strike the Monday earlier than Election Day. On the time, the guild vowed to strike till it reached a tentative settlement on a contract with the corporate. However negotiations did not progress, and union members returned to work Tuesday morning with no contract.
“Administration had been tremendous clear that they have been simply not prepared to cut price with us in any respect whereas we have been on strike,” senior software program engineer and union store steward Kait Hoehne stated. “And we simply realized it wasn’t value our unit’s time and cash to proceed that. Our precedence has at all times been attending to a contract, and so we realized that our power was higher spent going again into the workplace and getting again to the desk.”
In timing its strike with Election Day, the guild — which incorporates engineers, venture and product managers, designers and knowledge analysts — had been hoping to hamper the Occasions’ protection and show its would possibly. The guild warned earlier than the strike that the Times’ maligned election Needle was in jeopardy and that readers might expertise technical points on the Occasions’ apps and web site.
However the Occasions had its “smoothest website efficiency throughout an election ever,” in response to spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha. The Needle made an look, and it, together with the presidential election outcomes web page, acquired tens of hundreds of thousands of views from Tuesday to Thursday — greater than every other piece on the Occasions’ website for the reason that 2020 elections. Rhoades Ha attributed the location’s efficiency to months of prep work finished by guild members and others on the firm within the runup to the election. She additionally denied that the corporate refused to cut price with the union, stating that the guild has neither requested nor provided dates for a gathering since Nov. 3.
“Whereas the strike was meant to disrupt our election protection and undermine our capacity to succeed in our readers, it was unsuccessful,” chief know-how officer Jason Sobel and chief progress officer Hannah Yang informed Guild members in a notice Monday night time. “In the end, all it did was value members who participated 2.3% of their annual wages — greater than $3,500 on common together with at the moment’s paid vacation. At present, we stay as far aside as we have been when the strike was introduced.”
Nonetheless, Hoehne stated that the Occasions needed to pull needles for nonpresidential races. Error charges have been “elevated,” and the work stoppage compelled the Occasions to spend cash on contractors to cowl for hanging staff, she added. Regardless of ending the strike, the union’s stance on key contract proposals stays the identical.
“Our targets haven’t modified,” Hoehne stated. “And we are going to take no matter technique will get us to them.”
Olivia Nuzzi — the reporter who parted methods with New York journal after admitting she had an intimate (though not bodily) relationship with a topic she coated, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — has requested the D.C. Superior Courtroom to dismiss her request for a protecting order in opposition to her ex-fiancé, Ryan Lizza, a reporter at Politico.
The Washington Post’s Elahe Izadi and Maura Judkis wrote, “Nuzzi had accused Lizza in a court docket submitting final month of harassment, blackmail, hacking her digital units and making violent threats — allegedly a part of the fallout from revelations of Nuzzi’s relationship with Kennedy, whom Nuzzi had profiled for her employer, New York journal. Nuzzi alleged that Lizza tried to maintain her of their relationship, together with threatening ‘to make public private details about me to destroy my life, profession, and fame — a risk he has since carried out.’ Lizza denied the allegations, and accused Nuzzi of ‘abusing protections meant for survivors of home violence to damage my fame in a last-ditch effort to salvage her personal.’”
Nuzzi’s lawyer stated in a press release, “Ms. Nuzzi has little interest in preventing a public relations battle. For perception into her resolution, you may seek advice from the statements in her movement.”
In a press release Tuesday, Lizza stated, “Olivia shamelessly used litigation with false and defamatory allegations as a public relations technique. When required to take action, she refused to defend her claims in court docket final month. She then sought to cover my response to her claims from the general public by looking for to seal the proceedings that she started. Now, on the eve of a listening to at which she knew her lies can be uncovered, she has taken the one course accessible to her and withdrawn her fabricated claims. Olivia lied to me for nearly a 12 months. She lied to her editors. She lied to her readers. She lied to her colleagues. She lied to reporters. And he or she lied to the choose on this case. I stated I might defend myself in opposition to her lies vigorously and efficiently and I’m absolutely ready to take action. However for now, I’m happy this matter is closed.”
Alina Habba, talking at a Trump rally earlier this month. (AP Photograph/Evan Vucci)
Mediaite’s Diana Falzone reports that Alina Habba, the lawyer who has represented Donald Trump in a bunch of his high-profile instances, is the front-runner to be Trump’s White Home press secretary.
Falzone wrote, “One supply, granted anonymity to talk about inner deliberations, stated there are ongoing discussions with Habba concerning the job but it surely stays unclear whether or not she is going to take it. ‘She’s anticipated to be at Mar-a-Lago this week for conversations concerning a possible function,’ the supply stated.”
Habba earned a level in political science from Lehigh College, after which went to legislation college after that. Most of her skilled background is as an lawyer and adviser. Press secretaries come from all types of backgrounds, however many served as press secretaries or spokespersons of political candidates earlier than holding such an vital place as White Home press secretary.
Habba hasn’t essentially fared so nicely as Trump’s lawyer.
Falzone famous, “She joined his authorized crew in 2021 and represented him in a sequence of instances, together with E. Jean Carroll’s defamation go well with, which led to a $83 million verdict in opposition to Trump, and the New York civil fraud case that led to a $454 million judgment in opposition to the president-elect. The fraud case is at the moment being appealed.”
- In one more Fox-Information-to-the-White-Home transfer, Fox News host Pete Hegseth has been named by Donald Trump as his secretary of protection. Yeah, a little bit of a shock there. CNN’s Jim Acosta tweeted, “In an indication he has been making his cupboard choices whereas watching TV, Trump picks Fox anchor Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Protection.” The New York Times’ Helene Cooper and Maggie Haberman wrote, “The selection of Mr. Hegseth was outdoors the norm of the normal protection secretary. However he was a devoted supporter of Mr. Trump throughout his first time period, defending his interactions with the North Korean chief Kim Jong-un, embracing his ‘America First’ agenda of making an attempt to withdraw U.S. troops from overseas and energetically taking over the reason for fight veterans accused of struggle crimes.”
- Jennifer Rubin’s newest column for The Washington Put up is “Democrats need to reclaim reality from the right-wing disinformation machine.” In it, Rubin writes, “Within the right-wing media’s world, the economic system is in shambles, crime is surging, and youngsters are being lured into sex-reassignment surgical procedure. In such an environment, Democrats’ positions and proposals turn into divorced from the general public’s perceptions of politics.” Rubin provides, “The reply to combating the avalanche of disinformation, sadly, doesn’t reside primarily in legacy media, which hundreds of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of Individuals by no means see or learn. (It actually doesn’t reside in retailers that provided false equivalence, did not oppose a fascist candidate, or ignored voters’ lack of curiosity in democracy and underlying resentment over the lack of White energy.) Reasonably, the answer lies largely in fostering new types of media to counteract the gusher of right-wing disinformation that fills the brains and shapes the attitudes of many Individuals.”
- Axios media reporter Sara Fischer has a well-executed piece about who’s in and who’s out among the many media energy brokers as Donald Trump prepares for his second time period as president. A few of the names you’re going to see are RFK Jr. influencers, impartial streamers, Elon Musk, The New York Put up, Fox Information and lots of others. Great things from Fischer, so test it out.
- Los Angeles Occasions columnist LZ Granderson with “Trump’s election says a lot about trust in journalism.”
- The Washington Put up’s Jeff Stein, Drew Harwell and Jacob Bogage with “Trump expected to try to halt TikTok ban, allies say.”
- TheWrap’s Sharon Knolle with “LA Times Owner to Create a New Editorial Board in Light of Trump Presidency – and ‘The Newsroom Is Pissed.’”
- CNN’s Hadas Gold with “Infowars attracts ‘seven-figure’ auction bids that will decide fate of Alex Jones’ empire.”
- Nicholas Carlson, the previous prime editor of Enterprise Insider, is beginning a brand new firm that can concentrate on video. The New York Occasions’ Benjamin Mullin has extra in “He Saw Digital Media Melt Down. His Next Act? A Media Start-Up.”
- Since final week’s election, many are leaving the social media platform X. And lots of are leaping over to Bluesky. The Guardian’s Luca Ittimani reports that Bluesky has picked up greater than 700,000 information customers prior to now week. Most of that 700,000 has come from the U.S. and the U.Ok. Bluesky now has 14.5 million customers worldwide, up from 9 million in September. Social media researcher Axel Bruns informed The Guardian, “It’s turn into a refuge for individuals who wish to have the form of social media expertise that Twitter used to offer, however with out all of the far-right activism, the misinformation, the hate speech, the bots and all the things else. The extra liberal form of Twitter neighborhood has actually now escaped from there and appears to have moved en masse to Bluesky.”
- For Nieman Lab, Laura Hazard Owen with “I’m a journalist and I’m changing the way I read news. This is how.”
- Keep in mind that comic who informed the joke on the Donald Trump rally about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of rubbish?” Nicely, the day after that controversial look, that comic, Tony Hinchcliffe, recorded an episode of his “Kill Tony” podcast, which was launched earlier this week. In it, he admitted a Trump rally was not the very best place for that joke, however he additionally stated, “I apologize to completely no one. To not the Puerto Ricans, to not the whites, to not the Blacks, to not the Palestinians, to not the Jews, and to not my very own mom, who I made enjoyable of throughout the set. No one clipped that. No headlines about me making enjoyable of my very own mom.” Variety’s Zack Sharf has more details.
- This story will sound acquainted to a few of you. I really heard the identical form of story from a pal simply this previous weekend about her Thanksgiving plans. For HuffPost, Andrea Tate with “My Husband And His Family Voted For Trump — So I’m Canceling Thanksgiving And Christmas.”
- For The Bulwark, Scott Conroy with “Trump Voters Should Do Some Soul-Searching Too.”
Have suggestions or a tip? Electronic mail Poynter senior media author Tom Jones at [email protected].
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