8/6/2019 January 2011 Spot News

1/4

Spot NewsVOLUME 17, NO. 4 JANUARY 2011

A publication of the East Tennessee chapterof the Society of Professional Journalists

http://etspj.org

Members of the Republican Party

will dominate the guest table at the

ETSPJ Legislative Preview Lun-

cheon on Saturday, Jan. 29, in

Knoxville. Of 16 state senators and

representatives who have been

invited from Knox and nearby

counties, only two are Democrats.

How will this translate into their

representation of the area in the

107th General Assembly? What

issues will they see as priorities,

and which would they be willing to

put on the back burner, by prefer-

ence or for economic reasons?

Legislative Preview: Party Favors?When:When:When:When:When: 111111:30 a.m. Satur1:30 a.m. Satur1:30 a.m. Satur1:30 a.m. Satur1:30 a.m. Saturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,,Jan. 29Jan. 29Jan. 29Jan. 29Jan. 29

Where:Where:Where:Where:Where: Calhouns atCalhouns atCalhouns atCalhouns atCalhouns at

BearBearBearBearBearden Hill, 66den Hill, 66den Hill, 66den Hill, 66den Hill, 66111115 Kingst5 Kingst5 Kingst5 Kingst5 Kingstononononon

PikPikPikPikPikeeeee

CosCosCosCosCosttttt::::: PrPrPrPrProgram is free; op-ogram is free; op-ogram is free; op-ogram is free; op-ogram is free; op-

tional buftional buftional buftional buftional buffffffeeeeet lunch is $1t lunch is $1t lunch is $1t lunch is $1t lunch is $155555

RRRRReseresereseresereservvvvvations:ations:ations:ations:ations: ElenoraElenoraElenoraElenoraElenora

EdwEdwEdwEdwEdwararararards,ds,ds,ds,ds, 865-45865-45865-45865-45865-457-5459,7-5459,7-5459,7-5459,7-5459,

865-385-4865-385-4865-385-4865-385-4865-385-442424242424 or4 or4 or4 or4 or

elenora1elenora1elenora1elenora1elenora199999777771@gmail.com1@gmail.com1@gmail.com1@gmail.com1@gmail.com, b, b, b, b, byyyyy

WWWWWednesdaednesdaednesdaednesdaednesdayyyyy, Jan. 26, Jan. 26, Jan. 26, Jan. 26, Jan. 26

Annual luncheon letspublic, media quiz

senators, reps

Come to the luncheon to see what

these 15 men and one woman have

to say -- and ask your own ques-

tions, if you wish.

Don Dare, reporter and WATE-

TV anchor, will moderate.

The event will be at Calhouns onBearden Hill, 6615 Kingston Pike,

Knoxville, beginning at 11:30 a.m.

with mixing among citizens, news

media representatives and legisla-

tors. Anyone may attend. A buffet

meal will begin at noon. The

program will get under way around

12:30 p.m.

You may attend and not eat, but

those who want the buffet meal,

$15 per person, must make reserva-

tions with Elenora E. Edwards,

ETSPJ president and chairman of

the Professional Development

Committee, at 865-457-5459, 385-

4424 or elenora1971@gmail.com.

Reservations deadline is 5 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 26.

Feb. 4 is deadline for Golden Press Card AwardsThe East Tennessee Society of

Professional Journalists still is

accepting entries for its 2010

Golden Press Card Awards Contest.

This year weve simplified the

electronic entry process with a form

that you can either submit online or

print to mail or drop off entries.

You can pay online as well.

Weve also made some category

changes, and there are plenty of

options for print, broadcast or

online journalists, whether youre

with a media organization or on

your own.

Find the details and entry form

at http://

goldenpresscard.wordpress.com/.

Current members of SPJ get one

entry free. Additional entries for

members, and all non-memberentries, will cost $20.

All work must have appeared

during the 2010 calendar year.

Deadline for entry is Feb. 4, 2011.

Winners will be announced at our

awards banquet, Friday, April 29, at

the L&N Station.

Info: Kristi Nelson, 865-342-

6434 or nelsonk@knoxnews.com.

8/6/2019 January 2011 Spot News

2/4

Social media and ethics speakers

leave journalists with links

James Pilcher, business reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Jack

Greiner, full-time lawyer for the Cincinnati/Kentucky Enquirer, and

a partner at the Cincinnati firm Graydon Head, talk about how jour-

nalists use social media. The Nov. 8 program at the Knoxville News

Sentinel drew both journalists and students.

Cincinnati Enquirer business

reporter James Pilcher and Enquirerlawyer Jack Greiner had a lot to say

about how journalists can still

apply traditional ethical standards

to social media platforms.

The duo updated journalists and

students about the convergence of

new social media tools with corner-

stone journalism standards at a

Nov. 18 ETSPJ program, opening a

discussion of how social media is

and should be used by journalists --

and how that might differ from how

its used by the general public.

Later, Pilcher provided a list of

links to sites and ideas mentioned

in or related to the November

presentation.

Jacks blog:http://www.graydonhead.com/index.php?option=com_

content&view=category &layout=blog&id=44&Itemid=211

James blog entry on this subject

for SPJ Net Worked digital commit-tee blog:http://blogs.spjnetwork.org/tech/

?p=1737

Ron Sylvester, court reporter fromWichita Eagle, twitter site:http://twitter.com/#!/rsylvester

Kimball Perry, court reporter fromCincy Enquirer, twitter site:http://twitter.com/kimballperry

ESPNs Bill Simmons column on

Randy Moss scoop:http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/

101013&sportCat=nfl

James Pilcher twitter feed:http://twitter.com/#!/jamespilcher

Jack Greiner twitter feed:

http://twitter.com/jackgraydon

Chicago Tribunes Colonel Tribunetwitter site:

http://twitter.com/#!/ColonelTribune

Twapper Keeper archive of#spjchat:

Mandy Jenkins social media ethics

guide:http://zombiejournalism.com/2010/06/social-media-guidelines-to-live-by/

Gawker ethics for social media

recommendations:http://gawker.com/5687490/new-rules-for-media-ethics

Australian Broadcasting Company

guidelines:

http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2009/journalists-use-of-social-media/

CJR story on tweeting a wildfire:http://www.cjr.org/the_news_frontier/tweeting_a_wildfire.php?page=all

Steve Buttry of TBD update to SPJ

Code of Ethics:http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/

2010/11/07/journalists-code-of-ethics-time-for-an-update/

And last, but not least: SPJ Code ofEthics:

http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

http://www.twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/spjchat?sm=&sd=&sy=&em=&ed =&ey=&o=

&l=500&from_user=&text=&lang=

If youre using a program that

does not allow you to click on these

hyperlinks in the PDF edition of

Spot News, you can e-mail Kristi

Nelson, nelsonk@knoxnews.com,

to have a hyperlink list sent to you.

8/6/2019 January 2011 Spot News

3/4

COMING UPJan. 29:Jan. 29:Jan. 29:Jan. 29:Jan. 29: Annual

Legislative luncheon,

11:30 a.m., Calhouns

at Bearden Hill

FFFFFeb. 4:eb. 4:eb. 4:eb. 4:eb. 4: Deadline,

2010 Golden Press

Card Awards

FFFFFeb. 11:eb. 11:eb. 11:eb. 11:eb. 11: Deadline,

Green Eyeshade

Awards

FFFFFeb. 2eb. 2eb. 2eb. 2eb. 24:4:4:4:4: Religion and

the Media program,

Arnstein JewishCommunity Center

(time still to be set)

MarMarMarMarMarccccch 25-26:h 25-26:h 25-26:h 25-26:h 25-26:

Region 12

Conference,

Nashville

April 1April 1April 1April 1April 1: Law School

for Journalists,

Howard H. Baker Jr.

Center for

Public Policy

April 29:April 29:April 29:April 29:April 29: Golden

Press Card

Awards

banquet,

L&N Station

Find us onFind us onFind us onFind us onFind us on

FFFFFacebook:acebook:acebook:acebook:acebook:

East TEast TEast TEast TEast Tennesseeennesseeennesseeennesseeennessee

SocieSocieSocieSocieSociety ofty ofty ofty ofty of

PrPrPrPrProfofofofofessionalessionalessionalessionalessional

JournalistsJournalistsJournalistsJournalistsJournalists

Law School for Journalists setFirst of its kind in East TN, conference aims to improve

understanding, dialogue among government, media

On Friday, April 1, East

Tennessee Society ofProfessional Journalists is

proud to present Justice,

Media and the Peoples

Right to Know: Inherent

Tensions and Practical

Implications in a Free

Society, an all-day

conference exploring

ways that journalists and

public officials can better

inform the public to build

trust and confidence in

two institutions important

to a democracy: govern-

ment and a free press.

Journalists, law en-

forcement officials, court

personnel, government

records custodians who

interact with journalists

and other citizens, and thegeneral public are invited

to attend the law school

at the Howard H. Baker

Jr. Center for Public

Policy, 1640 Cumberland

Ave., which is co-spon-

sor.

Pulitzer Prize-winner

Alex Jones, a native East

Tennessean and now

director of the JoanShorenstein Center on the

Press, Politics and Public

Policy at Harvard Univer-

sity, will be the keynote

speaker. Jones covered

the press for The New

York Times from 1983-92

and was awarded the

Pulitzer Prize in 1987.

Other speakers andpanelists include experts

in law enforcement,

criminal and civil court

procedures, Tennessee

laws on open meetings

and records and experi-

enced journalists who

cover governmental

affairs.

The overall goal of the

conference is to promote

public trust and confi-

dence in two institutions

important to a democracy:

government and a free

press.

To that end, the pro-

gram will:

provide training for

journalists who cover

police, courts and othergovernment offices or

tackle any story that can

be enhanced by access to

public records and meet-

ings.

promote a discussion

among journalists, gov-

ernment officials and

other citizens to explore

ways to advance the

publics understandingtheir communities and the

respective roles of the

media and government.

The format for the

conference will be a 30-

to 45-minute overview

about each of four topics:

criminal procedure,

criminal courts, civil

courts and access to

meetings and records.Experts in each area will

teach these instructional

sessions.

Following each teach-

ing session two or three

panelists will discuss

ways that the media and

government agencies

might work together to

improve the quality ofinformation reaching the

public. Questions and

comments from the

audience will be encour-

aged.

Programs like this have

been met with great

success in Nashville and

Memphis, but this is the

first time one has been

planned for East Tennes-see.

Thanks to the generos-

ity of our sponsors and

underwriters, this confer-

ence, including a conti-

nental breakfast and lunch

is free to all attendees

who register before

March 25.

8/6/2019 January 2011 Spot News

4/4

2406 Belt Road

Knoxville, TN 37920

SPJs board of directors voted

Jan. 14 to retire the Helen ThomasLifetime Achievement Award.

The Society will not give out anaward for lifetime achievement.The action does not rename the

award or remove Thomas name.Both the board of directors and

the executive committee heardfrom many people inside andoutside of SPJs membership andjournalism.

A prominent objection to taking

any action was that of HelenThomas free speech rights. SPJstaunchly believes Helen Thomasand all people in the United States

have a right to free speech. TheSociety defends that fundamental

legal right as a core organizationalmission, even when the speech isunpopular, vile or consideredoffensive.

However, the controversy sur-rounding this award has overshad-

owed the reason it exists. Tocontinue offering the award would

reignite the controversy each yearand take away from its purpose:honoring a lifetime of work injournalism. No individual worthyof such honor should have to facethis controversy. No honoree

should have to decide if the pos-sible backlash is worth beingrecognized for his or her contribu-tion to journalism.

SPJ initiated the award in 2000.Helen Thomas was the originalrecipient, and this decision by theboard will not impact that honor orsubsequent honorees.

The Jan. 8 executive committeemeeting marked the second time in

nearly six months the committeeconsidered removing Thomasname, stemming from an incidentearlier in 2010 when the longtimeWhite House reporter and colum-nist commented to a rabbi on videothat Jews in Palestine should gohome.

Thomas drew widespread criti-cism after the video was posted

Amid controversy, SPJ retires Helen Thomas awardonline, and she later resigned herjob as a Hearst Newspapers colum-nist. The executive committee

considered removing Thomasname during a July meeting but didnot, noting it was a one-time,

spontaneous remark for which sheapologized.

In December, Thomas reiteratedher previous comments before aspeech in Dearborn, Mich. TheDetroit News quoted her at the timeas saying, Congress, the WhiteHouse and Hollywood, Wall Streetare owned by the Zionists. Noquestion.

After the speech and follow-up

news reports, calls again includ-ing from inside SPJ came for SPJto remove Thomas name from theaward. The executive committeeplaced the item on the agenda forthe already scheduled Jan. 8 meet-ing and collected a wide range ofletters and e-mails both supportingand opposing removing Thomasname from the award.