Daniel Schorr, a veteran journalist who worked for decades in Washington with CBS News, CNN and NPR, has died after a “short illness.”

93-year-old Schorr passed away this morning in a Washington hospital, and NPR posted a lengthy analysis of his distinguished career with a link to his bio page on their site. Schorr rose to prominence for his reporting during the Cold War, but later came under fire for refusing to reveal a source for a controversial FBI/CIA story he leaked to the Village Voice during the 1970s:

This led to his suspension by CBS and an investigation by the House Ethics Committee in which Schorr was threatened with jail for contempt of Congress if he did not disclose his source. At a public hearing, he refused on First Amendment grounds, saying that “to betray a source would mean to dry up many future sources for many future reporters… It would mean betraying myself, my career and my life.”

The House ethics committee voted 6 to 5 not to cite Schorr for contempt of Congress, but he ultimately left CBS after the controversy. He spent the bulk of his later career at NPR after a stint with CNN, and worked on segments All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and provided commentary on live coverage of breaking news.

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Veteran journalist Daniel Schorr dies at 93 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Demand Media, an online content mill that pays an army of work at home moms and the like notoriously low rates to churn out a huge amount of content based on search trends, has inked a deal with Hearst to provide articles for two of their properties- the San Francisco Chronicle and the Houston Chronicle. (As James predicted back in January.)

A leaked email published by BNET indicates that the company- which pays a rate of roughly $7-20 for 300-500 words- has contracted to provide content for the two mainstream news sites. BNET published a portion of the email Demand Media sent to contributors:

We have entered into a partnership with Hearst Newspapers to produce articles for two of their premium publications, San Francisco Chronicle and the Houston Chronicle. Specifically, we are creating articles and videos for the Real Estate section of SFGate.com and the Small Business section of Chron.com.

We’re currently accepting applications for writers and editors. These articles come at a higher fee and your byline will be featured on these premium publications. Qualified applicants will not only be topical experts in their field, but also have relevant writing or editing experience in the subject. To apply, please email [email address omitted] with the subject line “Real Estate” or “Small Business.” Include a summary of your experience and attach any relevant clips. All interested CEs, please cc your copy chief with your application, and unfortunately we cannot consider your application if you have not yet had a review.

We are not currently able to disclose the partners publically and we ask that you keep their names confidential until further notice.

Some of Demand Media’s content- sometimes called “McContent” by journalists for the large volume of it and perceived low value- is already available on USA Today’s site in the Travel Tips section. Mediabistro calls the move “some convergence between the “content-factory” business model and the “real journalism” business model,” and says contributors that get picked up by the Hearst sites will get a slightly better rate and bylines. (Although improving on $7.50 a piece isn’t very difficult.) And while the trend is clearly not totally awesome for journalists, commenters on Gawker say that the pay is low but arrives more quickly and consistently than what they’re used to getting:

I write for Demand Media every once and awhile, and I can tell you right now why they’ll come out on top: they pay. If your work gets approved by the editors you get an transfer into your paypal account by the end of the next pay period, which are about every 3 days. So I can write a short dozen e-how articles at $15 a pop over a couple days and have the money by the end of the week. While that check for a story in a national print publication took four months to get to me.

Report: Demand Media bringing cheap content to Hearst is a post from: The Inquisitr

The $1.75 million Huffington Post investigative journalism fund is under attack by a journalist signed up by the fund on the grounds that The Huffington Post couldn’t adequately edit her work.

Freelance Wall Street reporter Teri Buhl tells Business Insider the Huffington Post fund is having trouble “getting any content out” and that they “lied about having their site ready and a having a business editor to edit my work.” Buhl goes on to whine that the editors for the fund had no business editing experience, and that the head of the fund Nick Penniman doesn’t have print experience, hence “he has no idea what he’s doing to try and cover the econ crises.”

Business Insider claims it’s a rocky start for the fund, but that’s only true if you accept that the fund mistakenly hires snotty journalists who need their hands held and are incapable of functioning without the intense participation of an editor. As we know, that model is working great for newspapers in 2009.

The Huffington Post investigative journalism fund needs to add the following question on the application for writers: are you capable of looking after yourself? If not, please do not apply.

Journalist whines while Huffington Posts tries to help is a post from: The Inquisitr

Talk about leaving your fate in the hands of angels. That is probably how Shellee Hale who as part of a defamation law suit against her is feeling right now. One of the parts of the lawsuit is that the plaintiff in the case, Too Much Media LLC, is demanding that Hale be forced to reveal who her source was for the information that was being used in posts about the company.

The posts are part of an investigation that Shellee Hale was working on about the security breaches experienced by online services using Too Much Media’s security software. The problem is that the judge deciding the case doesn’t have the first clue about blogs, forums or even instant messaging.

Locasio started off by seeing a primer on the basics. Inquiring about one blog that Hale frequented to glean information about internet security breaches, Locasio asked why the author would spend so much time writing on one.

"Why would a guy put all this stuff on a blog? Does he have nothing better to do?" Locasio asked. "Does he get paid?"

She tried to enlighten him about the goal she shares with thousands of other bloggers on the internet.

"To inform the public so they had one place to go," she replied. "It’s just a passion that many of us have to make the world a better place."

He stopped Hale or the attorneys every time they threw out another cyber term he didn’t understand. Words like cyberflashers, avatars, cams and exploits.

He directed Hale to explain the differences between blogs, message boards and forums. He asked for a quick tutorial on instant messaging.

Source: NJ.com

This would almost be laughable if it wasn’t such a serious matter. Here we have a judge set to retire in the next month or two who acknowledges his ignorance about one of the most integral parts of the case but could end up setting precedent.

Hale would probably have better luck with Judge Judy.

Bloggers as journalists – deciding judge doesn’t know what blogs are is a post from: The Inquisitr

The other day Duncan wrote about how a group of ex-Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalists have banded together and created a new Seattle oriented news site called Seattle Post Globe. While the story in of itself was interesting it got me thinking about something.

For as long as there have been blogs there has been this contention; especially among old media journalists, that blogging was in no way comparable to the work they did. Blogging was just a bunch of wise-asses who couldn’t string a coherent sentence together if their lives depended on it. It was the overriding opinion that nothing could supplant good well sourced journalism – which blogging definitely wasn’t.

But oh how times have changed in the last five years or so. Newspaper after newspaper is either seeking the protection of Chapter 11 or just shutting the doors. Journalists are seeing the once proud profession being thrown into disarray as the advertising foundation that supported their work is in itself in a state of confusion. This is leaving many journalists wondering what the hell they are suppose to be doing next.

Out of these ashes though many journalists are banding together and relaunching themselves on the web. Just as the new Seattle Post Globe gets its feet wet in this new world we have seen the same thing happen with journalists from the former East Valley Tribune and the Rocky Mountain News. The interesting thing is as you look at these new journalist offerings is that they are built around the same format as blogs.

This of course raises an interesting question. Have these journalists become what many of their profession despise and blame for the fall of newspapers?

Have they in effect become bloggers?

If this is indeed the case then what makes them any different from those of us that have been blogging all this time?

As we see more and more of this type of thing happening; and trust me we will, has the line separating journalists and bloggers finally been blurred beyond recognition?

Have bloggers and journalists / columnists finally become one and the same?

The blurring line between blogger and journalists is a post from: The Inquisitr

So what do some American journalists think about their employers trying to keep their heads above water in a rapidly changing pace? Apparently new media tools create too much work, and may do nothing to help newspapers.

“Leading journalists” speaking at a National Press Club forum at the University of Missouri Monday told the audience that there is scant evidence that new technology can save journalism jobs and support the news business.

“I have been blogging for years,” said Tony Messenger, a state capital bureau correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I have yet to have a discussion in my newsroom about why we’re blogging and to tie that somehow into the newspaper’s business model.” Messenger also covered a gubernatorial election debate on Twitter and only 13 people followed him, proving that new media tools don’t deliver; “how can we save jobs in the newsroom if we do this?”

Elaine Sciolino, the Paris correspondent for the New York Times, complained that blogging and creating video for the web made her job way too hard, but she isn’t given a choice “If you want to be a journalist today, you just have to work harder and more efficiently. You aim for perfection until your deadline, and then you aim for doneness. You just gut it out.”

Sciolino though earns bonus points for not just being a whinger, but also a kook as well, suggesting that
newsapers cutting back on foreign correspondents is a clear and present danger to the American people:
“The decline in American newspapers is a major national security threat,” she said.

Jennifer Reeves, a Reynolds Institute Fellow said many news organizations were only embracing new technology because it is cool (her word), not because it delivers a better product: “A lot of newsrooms need to take a breath and see if the markets need it and find a way to use it logically” she said.

Apparently having to blog is driving journalists out of the profession and into public relations positions for school boards, according to Charles Davis, director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and a Missouri professor.

There’s some substance in the need for newspapers to refine their use of new media tools to best deliver improved outcomes as they all rocket towards oblivion. However for journalists to whine about newspapers trying to survive, and trying to actually make enough money to keep paying the very journalists whining…well, there’s more than competition from the internet that is killing newspapers, it would appear that the journalists are as well. Of course it’s unfair to generalize: there are many very fine, hard working journalists out there who get what is going on, and are embracing the changes in the market, but too often we are reminded that for a hard core of traditionalists, new media remains the enemy that should be ignored, dying businesses be damned.

As Rome burns, journalists whine about new media is a post from: The Inquisitr