For the Record

"Really No Surprise":

Keith Burris has been named executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, suceeding 1995 Beat Reporting winner David Shribman. Burris, who "penned a controversial Martin Luther King Jr. Day editorial and was at the center of the firing of cartoonist Rob Rogers," is believed to be an ally of "JR" Block, the newspaper's controversial publisher. "We must de-escalate. We must heal. We must build again," Burris said in an internal email. "I need your help. I ask for your help."

"Deeply Offensive":

Linden, Ala. Democrat-Register Publisher Goodloe Sutton has confirmed that he authored a February 14 editorial calling "for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again." In an interview with the Montgomery Advertiser, Sutton asserted that he was calling for the lynching of "socialist-communist" politicians: "If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we’d all been better off. We’ll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them." Members of the Alabama congressional delegation (including Rep. Terri Sewell and Sen. Doug Jones) have condemned his remarks and called for Sutton's resignation from the publication.

"New Generation":

NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt will join the Poynter Institute's MediaWise project as its first MediaWise Ambassador. He will lead teaching events and contribute social media content to the digital literacy initiative, which will teach 1 million teenagers "how to sort fact from fiction online by 2020."

"Privacy Missteps":

According to Washington Post sources, the Federal Trade Commission and Facebook "are negotiating over a multi-billion dollar fine that would settle the agency’s investigation into the social media giant’s privacy practices." It is believed that the multi-billion dollar fine will be the largest the agency has ever levied on a technology company. "Facebook faces a moment of reckoning and the only way it will come is through an FTC order with severe penalties and other sanctions that stop this kind of privacy misconduct going forward," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut).

"A Trailblazing Contributor":

Betty Ballantine died Tuesday at her home in Bearsville, N.Y. She was 99. The co-founder of Bantam and Ballantine Books (both now part of Penguin Random House), Ballantine played an integral role in the popularization of the paperback and science fiction and fantasy, acquiring works by 2007 Special Citation recipient Ray Bradbury ("Fahrenheit 451") and J. R. R. Tolkien.

"Restrictive Proposal":

More than 300 Los Angeles Times Guild members have signed an open letter "protest[ing] a proposed company policy on intellectual property" that may be included in the union's first contract with the newspaper. The policy would grant the newspaper full editorial control and film rights to potential books (including those written on unpaid leave for an outside publisher) written by employees. 

"Legal Acrobatics":

Journalist Maria Ressa posted bail Thursday folling an arrested on cyber libel charges in the Philippines. A critic of the Duterte administration, Ressa previously was charged with tax evasion. The libel charges stem from a 2012 article published by Ressa's news organization, The Rappler, in which the journalist and colleague Reynaldo Santos Jr. alleged that former Chief Justice Renato Corona used a car registered to a prominent businessman. "What we're seeing is death by a thousand cuts of our democracy," Ressa said upon her release.

"Overdue Conversation":

Following a wave of layoffs, BuzzFeed's U.S. journalists "agreed to unionize" Tuesday, "saying they would seek better benefits and fair pay." In a statement, the unionizing journalists said they "reject the argument that we must choose between freelancing in a hellscape gig economy for vampirical platforms or submitting to the whims of a corporation that botches basic HR tasks."

"Powering Growth":

Apple's proposed financial terms for its incipient news subscription service allegedly will enable the Cupertino, Calif.-based company to keep "about half of the subscription revenue from the service." The platform, which has been characterized as "Netflix for news" and likely will be announced alongside other subscription services at an event on March 25, "would allow users to read an unlimited amount of content from participating publishers for a monthly fee" as a paid tier of the Apple News app.

"The Hate You Stream":

Nearly two centuries after "the first known newspapers managed and edited solely by black, Latinx and Native American people emerged," Aaron Miguel Cantú argues that "every new iteration of news dissemination has further entrenched white supremacy." He adds: "Even if the American press could fully shed the biases stemming from its own racist origins, a plurality of this country’s dangerous white population would probably seek out other sources, false or otherwise, to affirm their beliefs about who poses the greatest threat to America."