David Folkenflik

Fox News Reporter James Rosen Caught Up In Federal Probe

David Folkenflik — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:52:00 +0000

There is word of another controversial leak investigation by the Department of Justice. The target is Fox News reporter James Rosen, who was monitored by the department after breaking a story about North Korea's nuclear weapons program in 2009.

Media Covers Itself In Privacy Debacles

David Folkenflik — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:13:00 +0000

Host Scott Simon talks to NPR's David Folkenflik about the Justice Department's seizure of phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, and Bloomberg's secret monitoring of its sources' and customers' activities.

Bloomberg News Apologizes For Tracking Subscribers

David Folkenflik — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:11:00 +0000

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News is apologizing. That's after admitting his reporters tracked how subscribers use the company's famous financial data terminals. The disclosure has caused an uproar in the financial services world. As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, the episode has roots both in Bloomberg's innovations in data management, and its corporate culture.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Founder and now New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg was so fixated on data that he liked to know when his employees came and went.

In Newsrooms, Some Immigration Terms Are Going Out Of Style

David Folkenflik — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:24:00 +0000

Journalists make choices all the time that influence our understanding of the news — the choice of what stories to cover, which people to interview, which words to use. And major news organizations have been reconsidering how best to describe a group of people whose very presence in this country breaks immigration law.

News organizations as institutions often decide which terms to use in describing contentious subjects, then codify them in what are called stylebooks. They are subject to change just as society's views change.

Billionaire Koch Brothers Increase Their Role In U.S. Politics

David Folkenflik — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:17:00 +0000

The Tribune Co., emerging from bankruptcy and looking to reshape itself, is now considering the sale of all its newspapers — including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun and five other regional newspapers.

China's CCTV America Walks The Line Between 2 Media Traditions

David Folkenflik — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:15:00 +0000

At a time when so many major American news organizations are cutting back, foreign news agencies are beefing up their presence abroad and in the U.S. One of the biggest new players arrives from China and, more likely than not, can be found on a television set near you.

CCTV, or China Central Television, is owned by the Chinese government.

Great Long-Form Journalism, Just Clicks Away

David Folkenflik — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:06:00 +0000

In the age of hundreds of cable channels, millions of 140-character bulletins and an untold number of cat videos, a fear has been growing among journalists and readers that long-form storytelling may be getting lost.

People typically sort long-form journalism into two categories — there's investigative or watchdog reporting, and then there's the kind we're talking about today: richly textured nonfiction narratives that delve deeply into the human experience and may have nothing to do with that day's headlines.

NBC Has More Problems Than Just 'Tonight Show' Hosts

David Folkenflik — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:11:00 +0000

NBC announced Wednesday that Jimmy Fallon will take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno next spring. But NBC has a raft of other problems including a rocky ride in prime time. Plus, it fell from first place last fall to fifth in February — behind not just the other broadcast networks but the Spanish language Univision.

NPR To Discontinue 'Talk Of The Nation'

David Folkenflik — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:30:00 +0000

NPR announced Friday morning that it will no longer produce the Monday-to-Thursday call-in show Talk of the Nation.

It will be replaced by Here and Now, a show produced in partnership with member station WBUR in Boston.

Journalist Anthony Lewis Credited With Reinventing Supreme Court Reporting

David Folkenflik — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:00:00 +0000

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Finally this hour, we remember an eminent journalist. Anthony Lewis was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He died today of heart and renal failure at age 85.

With Headline Bus Tour, 'New York Post' Takes Manhattan

David Folkenflik — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:46:00 +0000

One of the joys of living in New York City is laughing at the giant screaming headlines in the New York Post. When the former secretary of state knocked back a beer on one of her trips abroad: "Swillary." When the Lance Armstrong doping scandal broke: "Drug Pedaller." And when CIA director David Petraeus admitted having an affair? "Cloak And Shag Her."

The Post's headlines tell you a lot about the way many New Yorkers view the world, and now visitors can see the city through their eyes.

After Investigation, No Evidence 'Wall Street Journal' Bribed Chinese Officials

David Folkenflik — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:43:00 +0000

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block. The Wall Street Journal reported a remarkable story yesterday about itself. It revealed that over the past year the Justice Department has been looking into whether employees at the Journal's China bureau bribed Chinese officials to get information for their stories.

News Corp. Education Tablet: For The Love Of Learning?

David Folkenflik — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 07:04:00 +0000

The educational division of the media conglomerate News Corp., called Amplify, unveiled a new digital tablet this week at the SXSW tech conference in Austin, Texas, intended to serve millions of schoolchildren and their teachers across the country.

Amplify promises the tablet will simplify administrative chores for teachers, enable shy children to participate more readily in discussions, and allow students to complete coursework at their own pace while drawing upon carefully selected online research resources.

News Corp.

New Fox Sports Network Hopes To Challenge ESPN's Cable Dominance

David Folkenflik — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:45:00 +0000

Rupert Murdoch announced on Tuesday the launch of Fox Sports 1, an all sports cable channel that will compete head to head with ESPN.

Media Circus: Ah, The President's Mean

David Folkenflik — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:56:00 +0000

The week's developments include a pope emeritus for the first time in six centuries, federal budget cuts seemingly designed by Sweeney Todd, and the visit by one of the NBA's all-time rebounders (Dennis Rodman) to the son of one of the world's greatest sportsmen (that would be North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un, whose late father claimed to have shot five holes-in-one on his very first golf outing).

And yet somehow, legendary Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward thrust himself at the center of the news with his claim that he had been menaced by an unnamed White House official.

CNBC Adopts Tougher Tactic In Booking Wars

David Folkenflik — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:17:00 +0000

CNBC is far and away the television ratings leader in the financial cable news business.

New York Times Plans To Sell 'Boston Globe'

David Folkenflik — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:12:00 +0000

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

The Grey Lady is shedding more of its assets. This afternoon, The New York Times Company announced that it intends to sell The Boston Globe and other properties it owns in New England.

For more on this, NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik joins me from our bureau in New York. And, David, what can you tell us? Why this sale, and why now?

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Well, think about what a come-down this is.

'New York Times' The Target Of Chinese Cyber Attack

David Folkenflik — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:59:00 +0000

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

The New York Times revealed today that it was the target of a month's long cyber attack. The paper believes the attack came from Chinese authorities in response to an expose of cronyism among China's ruling elite.

Media Circus: The Football Star And The Will To Believe

David Folkenflik — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:30:00 +0000

One of the top collegiate football players in the country, Notre Dame's Manti Te'o, was lionized by the media amid stories of his perseverance on the field after both his grandmother and his girlfriend died.

Thanks to an expose by Deadspin, the girlfriend's very existence is now believed to be a hoax, throwing the Heisman runner-up and his university on the defensive.

But the episode casts an equally unflattering light on the practices

Oprah Interview Adds To Armstrong's Complicated Media History

David Folkenflik — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:57:00 +0000

After a career of alternately charming, manipulating and strong-arming the media, former cycling champion Lance Armstrong is turning for redemption to a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Winfrey has said viewers of her talk show on her cable channel OWN on Thursday and Friday nights will witness Armstrong confess that he cheated. But, she warned that people will be surprised in the way in which he confesses.

"I would say he did not come clean in the manner that I expected," Winfrey told CBS This Morning.

Tribune Co. Moves Toward Entertainment, Cable TV

David Folkenflik — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 10:08:00 +0000

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The Chicago-based Tribune Company, the corporate owner of the L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and 23 local TV stations, emerged from bankruptcy yesterday after a messy four-year process.

As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, Tribune's future may look very different from its newsy past.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: The company's new controlling owners are the investment firms Oaktree and Angelo Gordon, which bought out creditors at a reduced rate, and JPMorgan - the company's chief lender.

Coverage Rapid, And Often Wrong, In Tragedy's Early Hours

David Folkenflik — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:26:00 +0000

Nearly everyone reported so many things wrong in the first 24 hours after the Sandy Hook shootings that it's hard to single out any one news organization or reporter for criticism.

Among the news outlets that wrongly reported major parts of the journalistic building blocks of "who, what, where, when, why and how," were CBS, The Associated Press, The New York Times and NPR — a v

Murdoch's News Corp. Announces Changes

David Folkenflik — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:55:00 +0000

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

News Corp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, yesterday, revealed the details of his plan to split his media and entertainment conglomerate. One side will include the newspapers and publishing house. The other will contain its profitable television properties and movie studios. As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, Murdoch is trying to appease shareholders, and at the same time, save the newspapers that propelled his initial fortune.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: We now know - among other specifics - the names of the two companies.

Thompson Takes Over New York Times Company

David Folkenflik — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 10:06:00 +0000

This week marks the start of Mark Thompson's tenure as the new chief executive officer at the New York Times Co. It is facing financial head-winds, and is hoping Thompson can recapture some of the success he enjoyed in leading the BBC. But there's concern within the Times that its new leader has been tainted by scandals at his old employer.

Barron To Be Executive Editor At 'Washington Post'

David Folkenflik — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:37:00 +0000

Martin Baron of the Boston Globe has been named the new executive editor of The Washington Post. He replaces Marcus Brauchli who came to the Post in 2008 from The Wall Street Journal.

Conservative Media Caught in the Blame Game

David Folkenflik — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:17:00 +0000

In the wake of last Tuesday's elections, a lively debate has erupted into the open over whether conservatives and the Republican Party were well-served by their favorite media outlets.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney was reported to have been so certain of a victory on Tuesday night that he cast aside tradition and did not draft a concession speech.

Some In GOP Criticize Fox For Failing Its Audience

David Folkenflik — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 22:09:00 +0000

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

A lively post-election debate has sprung up, in conservative circles, about the conservative media. The question is whether Republicans were well-served by pundits who insisted Mitt Romney would win on Election Day.

Media Circus: Fox Struggles With Obama's Win

David Folkenflik — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:10:00 +0000

Imagine a ballot Tuesday that confronted you not with a choice between candidates named OBAMA and ROMNEY, but that looked more like this:

How much do you support the REPUBLICAN?

Pick only one.

Utterly _____

More than that ____

For much of Election Day, that was what viewers encountered in watching Fox News' coverage.

Voters Have Myriad Of Options To Track Returns

David Folkenflik — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 22:22:00 +0000

Transcript

LYNN NEARY, HOST:

There's a principle in marketing that if you have too many similar products to choose from, you can become paralyzed; so, too, in news, as the number of outlets and media platforms explode. On a day when millions of people will be following election results, we asked NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik to give us a sense of the many ways you can find information.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: There was a time back in the murky past, a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, Twitter was but a start-up, Politico but a dream.

Campaigns Use Local Media As A Form Of 'Free Press'

David Folkenflik — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:41:00 +0000

In battleground states like Ohio, distant national figures running for the White House show up in person to capture the local news cycle again and again and again. The campaigns' desire to get "free media" simply by appearing is a source of excitement and exhaustion for local news organizations, which know they're being used but can't help themselves.