Really? There were journalists who actually believed the story about the Polish dentist who got revenge on her ex by pulling out all of his teeth?

Msnbc.com did some fact-checking and found that police in Wroclaw, Poland, where this supposedly occurred, have no record of the case.

A legal adviser for Poland’s Chamber of Physicians and Dentists, which handles disciplinary matters, said the organization is not investigating and has never investigated any such case, and added that there is no dental practitioner named Anna Maćkowiak listed in Poland’s central register of dentists.

Msnbc.com correspondent Erin Tennant adds: “Most online news outlets in Poland left the story alone.” They weren’t as hot for pageviews as American news outlets?

* Dentist pulls ex’s teeth: America can’t resist the story (LAT)
* Vengeful jilted dentist story was too good to be true (MSNBC.com)

“No sense mincing words in this message to you,” Salt Lake Tribune editor Nancy Conway writes in her memo on today’s newsroom layoffs. “We’ve all watched newspapers around the country trimming staffs, cutting newshole and making savings where they can. You and I know that market and social changes make that a necessity. Until now we have been able to make select cuts and savings through attrition that kept us apace of where we needed to be. That is no longer the case.”

The full memo is after the jump.
Read More

Fox News apparently had second thoughts about its “War on Marriage” headline and changed it to the headline on the right.

Meanwhile, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith told viewers this afternoon that President Obama is now in the 21st century with his support of marriage equality.

* Obama flip flops on gay marriage (Fox Nation)

* Report: Sun-Times parent to buy Chicago Reader for $3 million. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
* How Chicago became a center of journalism innovation. (ChicagoStories.org)
* New York Daily News plans national website called Daily News America. (Capital New York)
* Ex-Publishers Weekly editor-in-chief Sara Nelson named Amazon.com Books editorial director. (paidContent.org)
* Tim Armstrong says report that AOL is trying to sell TechCrunch and Engadget is “100 percent untrue.” (Reuters.com | TechCrunch)
* Why doesn’t AOL just sell Huffington Post? (Forbes.com)

U-T San Diego publisher John Lynch said in a Lions Club speech today that his company is in “final talks” to buy Freedom Communication’s Orange County Register, reports North County Times reporter Eric Wolff. However, KPBS reporter Joanne Faryon tweeted that U-T owner and real estate magnate Doug Manchester told her such reports are “premature”: he did, though, confirm acquisition talks. A Freedom spokesman says the company “doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.”

Reports of Manchester’s interest in the Register have circulated for months. It’s also been reported that he wants to buy the North County Times from Lee Enterprises.

* U-T San Diego in final talks to buy OC Register (North County Times)

The Marist Poll recently reported that “for both women — 28% — and men — 25%, the freezer is the most popular place in the home to keep their money safe.” I don’t know anyone who stashes cash in their freezer. I posted the link on my Facebook to see if this is a common practice that I was unaware of and got some amusing responses. A few:

* I don’t hide cash in the freezer. However, from a movie I got the idea to freeze my credit card in a bowl of water to keep me from using it. It didn’t work.

* I wish I had cash to freeze but I’m a journalist.

* Not quite the same thing, but when he died, Richard Yates had left his unfinished manuscript in the freezer. I remember hearing it was because he didn’t have a firesafe, and in case the building caught fire, at least the book would survive.

* Marist Poll: 27% of Americans say they hide money in the freezer
* What my Facebook friends/subscribers say about hiding cash in the freezer

Hannah Fairfield

Washington Post director of graphics Hannah Fairfield has resigned to join the New York Times as senior graphics editor “who produces, edits and manages visualization projects for science and manages large enterprise series across the newsroom,” says a Post memo.

The full memo is after the jump.
Read More

9 terminated st trib.including me.

— Glen Warchol (@gwarchol) May 9, 2012

From Glen Warchol’s blog bio: “I’ve been a newspaperman for nearly three decades and have done hard time at United Press International; small dailies and nasty alternative newspapers, including the Observer in Dallas.”

UPDATE: The Salt Lake Tribune confirms the nine layoffs and reports:

Five of those laid off were assigned to the paper’s copy desk. Four worked at other duties in the newsroom. …

Copy-editing and page-design functions, along with some copy editors and designers, will be integrated with existing news-gathering and content-producing teams to create five independent news hubs.

The changes will not undercut The Tribune’s output of news and enterprise journalism that readers expect, [deputy editor Tim] Fitzpatrick said. “We think that we can maintain the quality” of the paper.

AJR editor Rem Rieder raises his eyebrow — again — at that last line.

* Salt Lake Tribune cuts 9 journalists (sltrib.com)
* Nine newsroom buyouts at Hartford Courant (CJR)