The Onion’s jab:

Boston residents are particularly endearing when they get all dressed up for a night at the theater; eat a big, fancy dinner at the Prudential Center’s top-floor restaurant; and read The Boston Globe, whose reporters get to play a game of Big-City Journalist each and every day.

* Pretty cute watching Boston residents play game of “Big City” (theonion.com)

The Globe’s response:

The giveaway that the article was satire was the use of the word “charming” in the same sentence with the “T,” the city’s trolley and subway system. Bostonians use many words to describe the “T” and it’s fair to say, the Globe has learned, that “charming” is not one of them.

* Globe has evidence that The Onion isn’t a legit news source (boston.com)

Posted on Facebook:

Nick Ravo tells me he wrote his poem for the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts.

* Despite journalist’s outrage, Atlantic’s unpaid freelance request isn’t unusual (editorsweblog.org)
* The Atlantic pays to reprint Stephanie Lucianovic’s “Why I Write for Free” piece (theatlantic.com)
* Alexis Madrigal: A day in the life of a digital editor (theatlantic.com)
* Writer’s complaint about the Atlantic gets him 100,000+ pageviews (natethayer.wordpress.com)

– From today’s RedEye, responding to the image below.

* RedEye crime article sparks discussion about media racism (wbez.org)

Letter to Romenesko
From A TRIBUNE CO. NEWSPAPER EMPLOYEE: Have you seen this? A photo of a story in the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye sparked righteous indignation among thousands on Facebook who believe the devotion of 300-some words to a single shooting in a “white” part of Chicago while four other shootings in “black” neighborhoods were summarized in 20-some words is proof of structural racism in the mainstream media.

The notion that journalists in a major metro’s newsroom would prioritize coverage based on race or socio economic status is laughable to anyone who has worked in such a place. We all know that you get the story that you can get when deadline is looming. And a look at the Tribune version of the story reveals that the north side shooting that got the bulk of the space in this story simply had the meatiest narrative. There were details (names, ages) of the victims in the other four shootings, but the narratives lacked the punch to lead the story, in my opinion.

The RedEye is targeted at commuters on the El, many of whom ride downtown from the north side, so it would make sense to put the focus of a crime story on that neighborhood, which I understand is more ethnically diverse and gentrifying than “white.” I would also note that the races of the subjects of the story are not identified.

In my experience, there are reasons that crime in poor neighborhoods sometimes gets short shrift that are related to race, but racism among journalists is not one of them./CONTINUES Read More

Bill Walsh has been trying to promote his latest book, “Yes, I Could Care Less: How to Be a Language Snob Without Being a Jerk,” and noticed this morning that LinkedIn was offering $50 worth of ads at no charge.

“I decided to try it,” the author and Washington Post copy editor tells Romenesko readers.

His ad was quickly rejected, though. The reason: “Poor grammar.”

“Apparently the LinkedIn people are sticklers!” writes Walsh. “I haven’t bothered to appeal, because I wasn’t all that intent on placing the ad in the first place.”

(Note: The LinkedIn email was altered to make the rejection reason stand out.)

* Ben Yagoda: It’s okay to use I could care less to mean “I couldn’t care less” (theweek.com)

John Temple, who joined the Washington Post as managing editor last April 30, is leaving the paper on March 22 “to try his hand at something new.” Here is executive editor Marty Baron’s memo to staff:

Date: March 6, 2013, 12:05:48 PM EST
To: NEWS – All Newsroom
Subject: Staff News: John Temple

To all:

From the moment it was announced that I would be joining The Washington Post, John Temple reached out to offer assistance in any way possible. And, sure enough, he helped in countless invaluable ways. I could not have asked for a more generous, amiable, and energetic partner.

John Temple

The only disappointment came in recent days when John told me he was restless to try his hand at something new. He now wants to immerse himself in surveying the opportunities. So he’ll finish up a few important projects and make Friday, March 22, his final day in our newsroom.

John has told me how much pride he takes in what The Post has been able to accomplish as a team since his arrival. With good reason.

John came to the Post as managing editor to oversee the departments that predominantly serve the local audience and to act as the newsroom’s senior digital editor. Shortly after he arrived, he also assumed responsibility for newsroom budgeting and other operational issues, such as disaster response, and was asked to work on the Post’s executive strategic team. This year his role was shifted to oversight of digital, operations, administration, production and visual departments, such as photo and design./CONTINUES Read More

Sen. Joe Manchin now claims the Martinsburg (WV) Journal was never told it couldn’t ask questions about gun legislation during an interview last week. “Our people made a mistake in the way we explained it,” he says.

Zack Harold of the Charleston Daily Mail writes:

Manchin said his communications staff likely told Journal staffers they should avoid asking questions about gun control because there were no new developments on the matter. He said the paper misunderstood, believing it was not allowed to ask about guns.

“They should have said, ‘We’ll talk about, but we don’t have anything new to talk about on the gun thing,’” he said.

Journal editor Chris Kinsler says Manchin’s staff made it clear that guns couldn’t be brought up in the interview.

“From the conversation we had, I don’t think we interpreted it wrong.”

* Manchin says “no guns” rule during Journal interview a misunderstanding (dailymail.com)
* Manchin tells Journal reporter there’s little to say about guns (journal-news)

Earlier on JimRomenesko.com:
* Senator’s staff tells WV newspaper that gun talk isn’t allowed
* Manchin is ready to discuss guns with reporters

(Credit: Michael Grecco)

Matt Drudge must have been going through his scrapbook over the weekend. He tweeted a 15-year-old photo of himself and asked: “How did I EVER get talked into that? …Ahh,, [sic] Hollywood and Ego.”

The answer is, Matt, it wasn’t easy — or that’s what the photographer tells me.

“He was a control freak,” Michael Grecco says of Drudge. “It took a tremendous amount of negotiating” to get him to pose with his pants down during the all-day shoot for People magazine at Los Angeles’s Lacy Street studio in 1998. (“That was around the time he caught Clinton with his pants down and we wanted to play off of that, but he was very reticent.”)

Grecco adds: “It would be him, Kanye West, Oliver Stone and Val Kilmer — people who I’ve photographed who are control freaks.”

The photographer laughed when I asked if he reads the Drudge Report. “No. I’m a confirmed liberal.”

Drudge didn’t respond to my email about the shoot and why he posted the old photo.

* “How did I EVER get talked into that?” (@drudge)

As Washington Post deputy managing editor, Scott Vance will be responsible “for driving our daily news coverage online and in print,” says executive editor Marty Baron.

“The move is aimed at bringing more cohesion to the journalism we produce, on all platforms, from the beginning of the day to night’s end. ….We believe that merging digital and print news decision-making under Scott will only heighten our ability to quickly focus newsroom resources on the most important targets.”

Vance has been the Post’s news editor since 2009.

Read Baron’s memo after the jump.
Read More