Committee summary for Sept. 29

Here's Bob Jaffee's report on city council committee activities for Sept. 29. Please read it. Bob will come talk in class Monday, mostly he'll be there to answer your questions about how news happens, and how it's reported, from an insider's perspective.

Public Activity Log Sept. 26, 28, 29

Here are the police logs for Sept. 26, 28, 29.

The stories that don't get told

Journalists have historically looked past working class America. Despite claiming the comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, the press has poorly served the people pulling their weight in the middle. The economic downturn is especially devastating to working class families. Are there people on your beat with important stories to tell about struggling to get by -- can you look them in the eye and not go looking for an "expert" to tell their story?

Read this interview with Pulitzer winner Dale Maharidge and imagine the power of good journalism well done.

Links of interest: Monday Sept. 28

Here's the police activity report for Saturday Sept 26 .
Big new money: Optimists consider the future of public affairs reporting in a post fact world.

Links of interest

Activity report for Sept. 23 click here.

Bob Jaffee's weekly roundup of City Council committee activity. Sign up for his list serv if you want to see all the chatter that follows after he releases one of these reports. How to is on the bottom of the document.

Here's a round up of today's breaking environmental news.

And for your foodies: Lettuce. It's evil. Again.

Sept. 21 Links: Activity Report, conference

Here's a link to the public safety activity report for Missoula calls on Saturday, Sept. 19.

Sept. 17: Links of Interest

• Policy activity report for calls on Sept. 16.
• City Councilor Bob Jaffee's weekly committee roundup report.
• Read this, and the comments, for an interesting discussion about whether to name the lab tech who is "a person of interest" in the Yale murder case. This is exactly what we have been talking about in class, and a classic example of a situation in which you want to have a newsroom policy and understand it well enough to explain it an apply it under pressure.
  

If you haven't already read through the posts I made yesterday, please do. No word yet on Eli coming to class, so prepare as though he is. The worst that happens is you read some very good reporting.

Possible visit from a fine Washington Post reporter

Eli Saslow from the Washington Post will be in town over the weekend doing some reporting. He may be on campus Monday and I'm trying to get him to come talk to class.

Eli started out as a sports reporter and rode his fantastic reporting and writing skills over to the breaking news and politics side of things at the Post.

He wrote a fantastic story a couple of days after the fatal D.C. metro crash using extensive reporting to recreate events surrounding the crash. Read this and marvel at the power of the written word to surpass the drama of video.

He recalled, in 2008, the 2004 speech that launched Barack Obama's climb to the White House.

These are fantastic stories, told by someone who was no present at the moment he is describing. Yet he takes you there. Imagine the reporting he did that allows him to tell his stories in this detail, with such confidence. He may be breaking some of the rules you will labor under this semester, but the cardinal rules remain the same: Accuracy, newsworthiness, timeliness.

Please read these stories. If were are lucky and get Eli in class, be ready to dive into a conversation with a pro.

September 16: Links of interest

Below are some links to information I think may be of interest to various people in class:

Justice and everyone: Daily Activity Report for 9.15. They'll always be for the day before the document title.

Food beat: Milk prices plummet.

University beat: The provost's state of the university letter. The budget paragraph at the end is interesting.

Recreation: Air strips in the National Forests? The first one to be approved in decades may end up north of Bozeman. Could this be localized by talking to Missoula aviators? Is it newsworthy?

Environment beat: (Oh, nobody took the environment beat. Oh well, here's a great story tracking illegally dumped toxic waste that made its way from Mexico to the Ivory Coast after being denied entry to the Netherlands. It's a global world.

Something for everyone: Targeted New Service, they say they make government records and news easy to access. Easy drop-down menus by beat. See if it sparks any news opportunities for your beat.

Welcome to Mizzoo News 2009

This blog may be goofy, but it's ours. I will post links, tid bits and insight here that I hope will help you understand your beat or the world of journalism.

Today's handy tips:

• The Missoulian reporters have beat blogs. Those of you on the local government beat may find fresh, unreported news in the original reports and spreadsheets at Keila Szpaller's Red Tapecops, crime and courts.
• Reporter Andrew Schneider, formerly of the Seattle P-I, continues his investigative work at his blog, Cold Truth. Food beat folks, he often breaks news related to public health and exposure through food, such as his recent post on deadly cookie dough. He's got two Pulitzers and is a friend of this class. You should all check his blog regularly.
• Culture reporters, there were four, no five, totally distinct cultural events going on downtown this weekend, and that's just the ones I personally ran across. How does Missoula encourage or enable people to gather here and celebrate and share their passions. What does it take in terms of public policy to create that atmosphere downtown? Are there any policies that could threaten this cultural richness? Food for thought for you. (I hope you can name at least three of these events...)

Photo: Nicole Compte