“Do you like tattoos?” was my standard pickup line. OK, pretty cheesy, but hey, it worked most of the time. I was sitting at a table at the Washington State Convention Center for two days last week surrounded by about 4,000 high-school journalists from all over the country. It was the national Journalism Education Association /National [...]

Mike Wallace changed my life. I never actually met him, but he had a huge influence on my career. Here’s how: Back in the 1990s, I co-edited a media-critique newsletter called CounterPoint  (motto: “Who Will Watch the Watchdogs?”) and co-wrote a column that ran in Seattle Weekly and Eastsideweek called “Watchdogs” (motto: “Woof!”). Barking at journalists, [...]

The Newspaper Association of America recently unveiled a new advertising campaign: “ Smart is the New Sexy. ” I wrote a snarky blog about it, asking “Whose idea was this?” But I’m having second thoughts. I just read the Valentine’s Day issue of my daily newspaper, The Seattle Times. Yikes! This paper is smokin’. Take Page One: There’s a [...]

Secretary of State Sam Reed, who announced his retirement recently, is being hailed for standing up for transparency, accessibility and openness in government — and justifiably so. Reed received the Washington Coalition for Open Government’s coveted James Madison Award last week in recognition of his work. The awards breakfast just happened to fall on International Media [...]

David Brewster’s recent little blog on Crosscut.com, “Chihuly Conquers Boston” (Aug. 8) caught my eye because I saw the Chihuly exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in May. My wife and I spent several hours there. We both thought it was fabulous. Brewster said the exhibit “drew large numbers…and mixed critical reviews.” He cited two [...]

The Newspaper Association of America ( NAA) has just unveiled a new national advertising campaign whose slogan is “Smart Is the New Sexy.” Huh? Whose idea was this? And what was the “Old Sexy” anyway? Dumb? If they’re hoping to attract more newspaper readers and advertisers with this marketing come-on, it’s pretty lame. The NAA developed a [...]

“It’s really important that we have accountability mechanisms in journalism. When it comes to our own accountability, most news organizations are doing a pretty poor job, to [...]

SHEESH! Maybe we should throw in the towel…. The Washington News Council’s mission since 1998 has been to help maintain public trust and confidence in the news media. But today trust in the media is at record low levels. We’ve failed! We were just named “Organization of the Year” by the Municipal League . But perhaps we should [...]

BREAKING NEWS: The WNC issued the following Press Release on April 1, 2011 The day after being named “Organization of the Year” at the Municipal League’s annual Civic Awards banquet, the Washington News Council announced today that it would close its doors. “Mission Accomplished,” said John Hamer, President and Executive Director of the News Council. “We’re [...]

When I got a phone call from a reporter for American Journalism Review (AJR) saying he was doing a story about news councils, I was both happy and wary. Happy because we don’t get much national coverage, especially from a prestigious publication like AJR. Wary because the reporter said he was a young editorial assistant at [...]

“We want to show our readers and the larger journalism community that we stand by the ideals of being Transparent, Accountable and Open in our reporting and all of our practices as student journalists.” — The Roar, Whitney High School, CA “Journalistic ethics are becoming even more critical to the practice of journalism as the field evolves…. like [...]

Journalism, says Tom Stites, should be: 1) relevant to people’s lives, 2) respectful of everyone, and 3) worthy of their trust. Relevant. Respectful. Trustworthy. What’s so hard about that? Nothing, really, but too much journalism today falls short of those goals, according to Stites, founder of The Banyan Project , a nascent national pilot effort still in [...]

The Washington News Council has just been named “Organization of the Year” by the Municipal  League of King County. Here is their press release , sent out today to news media statewide. This is a great honor for our little non-profit organization. We would like to thank all of our friends, supporters and donors who helped make our [...]

The Washington News Council met the Gates Foundation’s Challenge Grant target by raising $100,000 in total donations by the deadline of Jan. 15, 2011. We received the Foundation’s matching check for $100,000 in the mail this week. We are extremely grateful to the Foundation for its continued generous support of the WNC and our important [...]