Friday 24 May
OKG Newsletter
Jack Willis
Printing a list (and checking it twice)
Commentary
Jack Willis
Nothing attracts a pack of curious readers like a good list.A list of, say, health-inspection violations issued to their favorite restaurants, or the assessed value of houses on their block, or regist...
Media reports of tornadic deaths are greatly exaggerated
Commentary
Jack Willis
Five die as tornadoes hit Oklahoma, Derrick Henry reported on The New York Times website."Four dead in Oklahoma tornado outbreak," according to Little Rock's KATV-Channel 7 broadcast. "The Oklahoman...
Corporate America, take heed: Publishers should be local
Commentary
Jack Willis
The corporate suits whisked through the newsroom and into the publisher's office. A visit wasn't scheduled, so what were they doing in Oklahoma? Something was up. Nothing good ever came from a surpris...
A 'publish, then filter' approach to communication
Commentary
Jack Willis
Tommy Mason-Griffin, a University of Oklahoma basketball player, recently spoke through his Facebook page " like many young people today " to tell the world he was turning pro.Here's what he wrote, as...
Teaching moments of humility, responsibility and accountability
Commentary
Jack Willis
I felt empathy with Judy Gibbs Robinson as I read about The Oklahoma Daily's handling of a controversial editorial cartoon. Judy is editorial adviser of the student newspaper at the University of Okla...
Secret arrests go against our country's ideals
Commentary
Jack Willis
Trying to access the Cherokee County sheriff's booking records years ago suddenly became a problem for the newspaper. Reporters couldn't do their jobs, and the public didn't know who the sheriff was p...
Blaming media remains a cop-out
News
Jack Willis
Shooting the messenger is certainly not a new concept. Sophocles wrote about it in 442 B.C. in his play "Antigone." Shakespeare wrote about it in "Henry IV, Part II" in 1598. The idea is still alive a...
Distinguishing between journalism, message board yammering
Commentary
Jack Willis
The yearly rumor mill stating that Bob Stoops is leaving the University of Oklahoma " this time for the Notre Dame head coaching job " is exactly why news media should not publish rumors. Stoops wa...
Associated Press becoming less local, less meaningful
Commentary
Jack Willis
The Associated Press is cutting staff, like most everybody else on the planet, and regionalizing its operations " and that's not good for Oklahoma news consumers. The not-for-profit news cooperativ...
Most papers don't spend money to pursue civic responsibility
Commentary
Jack Willis
Props to the Tulsa World for putting its money where its mouth is in an effort to protect citizens' access to public information. The World isn't the first news organization to sue bureaucratic rasc...
Laying off the youngest may not be the wisest choice
Commentary
Jack Willis
We Gannett editors in the 1980s were required to rank employees from most valuable to least valuable. (If you want to make friends and influence workers, try that sometime.) I know supervisors rat...
Government barking at the door of free speech
Commentary
Jack Willis
Back when I was a babe in the woods, the Oklahoma Press Association asked a few of us journalism professors to visit the state's newsrooms. We offered help " if the editor wanted it, of course. It...
Health reform
Commentary
Jack Willis
I always enjoy checking the mail. I'm a retired kind of guy. Strolling to the mailbox often highlights my day. I even like junk mail. I always think someone's going to send me something important. (Th...
Big Brother turns his eye to bloggers
News
Jack Willis
There he goes again. Big Brother has proposed new endorsement guidelines, some of which are aimed at bloggers who review or promote products or services. The Federal Trade Commission guidelines wou...
