NY DAILY NEWS CUTS NEWSROOM STAFF IN HALF

A great victory in the battle against fake news and corrupt “journalists.” The CBS News story —

New York Daily News layoffs chop famed tabloid’s newsroom by 50 percent

Tronc, the parent company of the New York Daily News, is slashing the tabloid’s newsroom in half.

In an unsigned email to staff, the company wrote the reductions “reflect the realities of our business and the need to adapt to an ever-changing media environment.” It added that the newspaper would refocus much of its remaining talent on breaking news, “especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility.”

The paper intends to “lead Tronc’s transformation and become the newsroom of the future,” continued the email, obtained by CBS News.

The company also announced the departures of Jim Rich, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, and Kristen Lee, its managing editor. Robert York, the former publisher and editor of Pennsylvania’s Morning Call newspaper, will take the helm as editor on July 30.

The Daily News at onetime had hundreds of employees, but over the years has seen its staff pared down to a newsroom of roughly 75 to 100, according to The New York Times. In 2015, the paper laid off dozens of workers under the ownership of real estate developer and media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman.

Tronc in September bought the paper that bills itself as “New York’s Hometown Newspaper” in 2017 for $1, along with the assumption of pension and other liabilities.

Michael Ferro stepped down as Tronc’s chairman in March, just hours before the publication of a report that had two women accusing him of inappropriate sexual advances. Ferro agreed to sell all of his shares — representing a more than 25 percent stake of the company — the following month for more than $200 million to a member of Chicago’s McCormick family, which founded the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company, but the deal was called off.

Tronc in June reportedly disclosed paying Ferro $15 million in consulting fees in one lump sum by the company he formerly chaired, with the payment made in the first quarter and resulting in a net loss of $14.8 million.

The paper’s revenue and print circulation have been falling for years, even as it provided critical coverage after the Sept. 11 attacks and zeroed in on issues like public housing. It won a Pulitzer for drawing public attention to health problems suffered by by first responders after the collapse of the Twin Towers. It also won a Pulitzer Prize last year for stories with ProPublica on abusive eviction rules in New York City.

Despite such editorial successes, revenue at The Daily News slid 22 percent between 2014 and 2016.

Rich voiced his disapproval of the cuts in a Twitter post on Monday: “If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you.”

The job cuts brought an unusual display of unity from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, both of whom spoke out against the cuts.

“Tronc’s greedy decision to gut the newsroom is bad for government and a disaster for NYC,” the mayor tweeted. “Tronc should sell the paper to someone committed to local journalism and keeping reporters on the beat.”

Cuomo also objected to the cuts at what he termed “an important New York institution and one of our nation’s journalism giants.” The governor in a statement urged Tronc to reconsider, saying the company made its move “without notifying the state or asking for assistance,” while noting that his father, when governor, “came to the aid of the New York Post when it was facing difficult financial times.”

Employees of the paper reportedly were steeling themselves for weeks as rumors swirled that Tronc was preparing to make large cuts at the Daily News. The company has a track record of trimming editorial staff at the papers it owns, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

The layoffs are part of a trend affecting more than a third of the country’s largest newspapers, according to a recent analysis from Pew Research Center. Among newspapers, those with the highest circulation were most likely to be impacted, the study found.

“The analysis comes amid a series of highly publicized staff reductions by hedge fund companies that had acquired well-known newspapers, including the Denver Post, where employees publicly criticized the cuts made by the papers’ owners,” the authors of the Pew analysis noted.

Original story:
CBS News – Daily News story

 

Newspapers Opposing Trump Begging for Relief on Duties On Newsprint From Canada By IRA STOLL, Special to the Sun January 2, 2018

If you think President Trump has an antagonistic relationship with the press now, just wait until his administration slaps a new 30% tax on newsprint.

Seriously. That’s the threat America’s newspaper publishers are warning about, with the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration set to issue a preliminary determination by March 7, 2018, on whether Canada’s export into the United States of “certain uncoated groundwood paper” meets the legal tests to qualify for countervailing duties under the Tariff Act of 1930.

The publisher of Maine’s largest newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, raised an alarm about the issue in her year-end letter to readers. “We are facing a new challenge that threatens our newspapers,” the publisher, Lisa DeSisto, wrote. “The Trump administration is looking to impose a tariff on newsprint from Canada, which would have a disastrous effect on the entire newspaper industry. We purchase all our newsprint from Canada, as Maine mills no longer produce it. It would be near impossible for us to absorb a 30 percent increase in newsprint costs.”

Ms. DeSisto wrote, “We hope the president backs away from that idea because it could hamper our ability to bring you the journalism you have come to expect from us.”

Nor is Ms. DeSisto alone. The News Media Alliance, the newspaper trade association last seen pleading with Congress for a special antitrust exemption to allow Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and Buffalo News owner Warren Buffett stronger negotiation positions against Google and Facebook, is now mobilizing against the newsprint tariff.

“These duties, if implemented, have the potential to run many small-town newspapers out of existence,” the chief executive of the News Media Alliance, David Chavern, warned on December 19.

Mr. Chavern claims the American-based paper company pushing the tariff case, North Pacific Paper Company of Longview, Washington, is owned by “a New York-based hedge fund.” Actually, it’s a private equity firm. There’s plenty of institutional and hedge fund money backing Mr. Chavern’s newspaper chain owner-members, too.

In general, I’m for cutting taxes, not raising them. I also wrote a biography of Samuel Adams, who started what became the American Revolution in part as a protest against the Stamp Act, a British tax on paper, including newsprint, in what were then the American colonies. So I can understand the concern of the newspaper proprietors.

Even so, though, it’s hard to escape a certain amount of humor in the whole situation. A lot of the newspaper owners who are now complaining that Mr. Trump’s newsprint tax could put them out of business or raise prices for their customers are the same ones who spent the past few months issuing editorials ridiculing efforts by President Trump and Congressional Republicans to cut taxes on businesses.

Take the Portland Press Herald, which does some excellent journalism, as an example. Just a week before its publisher warned about the potentially “disastrous” effect of a tariff on her industry, Press Herald issued an editorial excoriating Senator Collins for voting in favor of the Trump tax cut bill. The editorial condemned the legislation as “a rehash of trickle-down economic theories that have proven not to work.”

“It will benefit the already-wealthy most,” the editorial fulminated. “In the long term, it drops a time bomb in the federal budget that will put pressure on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, negatively affecting people who are already struggling… a 40 percent tax rate cut for corporations that are enjoying near-record profits.”

Well, if the Portland Press Herald is so concerned about the federal budget deficit, you’d think it would be glad to help to do its part to close it by means of a newly increased tax on newsprint. If the Press Herald thinks “the already-wealthy” and profitable corporations have plenty of money, what better way to equalize things than with a newsprint tax that would mainly hurt newspaper owners such as Bezos, Buffett, or Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire who is the largest economic owner of the New York Times?

The other amusing aspect of the situation is that just a few years ago, the New York Times Company was begging the Obama administration to impose precisely the tariff that the newspaper industry now is complaining about. Back then, the Times Co. was more vertically integrated — it owned part of a Maine paper plant that has since closed. That plant made coated paper used for Sunday newspaper magazines rather than the uncoated paper at issue in the present case, but many of the issues are the same.

It’s almost enough to make one think that newspaper’s positions on the trade, dumping, and tariff issues involved depend less on the facts and law involved, and more on whether they happen to own the American paper plants themselves or whether they import paper from foreign vendors. Maybe it depends on who is president at the time of the tariff.

Tempting as it might be for Mr. Trump to slap the tariff only on the newspapers that opposed his tax cut, it’d be a violation of the First Amendment and a mistake worthy of George III. The Commerce Department’s challenge will be to applying the law impartially to the facts of the case. Newspaper readers and owners will be watching, as will be the owners of the American paper mill and its employees.

 

ABC News boss berates staff for botched Brian Ross story, report says

The boss at ABC News viciously berated his staff on Monday over Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross’s botched “exclusive” about former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to a bombshell new report.

“I don’t think ever in my career have I felt more rage and disappointment and frustration that I felt through this weekend and through the last half of Friday,” ABC News president James Goldston raged in audio obtained by CNN.

“I don’t even know how many times we’ve talked about this, how many times we have talked about the need to get it right,” he reportedly added. “That how we have to be right and not first. About how in this particular moment, with the stakes as high as these stakes are right now, we cannot afford to get it wrong.”

(For the full story of this new major “fake news” incident, click HERE.)

A Reporters Love Story – Opposites Attracting

After meeting at The St. Petersburg Times, co-workers Vanessa Gezari and Will Vant became fast friends and eventually became a couple. The two traveled north to New York, and while living together their career paths traveled in completely different directions. Gezari was a visiting professor in 2013, and adjunct in 2014. She was also managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review in 2015. Her book on the Afghan War entitled “The Tender Soldier” received some favorable reviews and the 41-year old journalist is the midst of a respectable career.

On the other hand, being the father of Gezari’s 1-year old son Max may be the closest that Will Van Sant ever got to journalism. The former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter seems more comfortable with tabloid-type reporting that is reminiscent of the National Enquirer. Van Sant is often criticized by colleagues for being a bit on the lazy side and extremely loose on fact checking. Also, he is considered to be the weakest link in what is thought of as a disastrous investigative reporting crew at his current employer, Newsday.

The Long Island-based daily was once highly regarded but is now in a free-fall in sales, readership and especially respectability. Van Sant was recruited by his mentor and editor, Matthew Doig. Doig and Van Sant are also privately accused of being loose with the company’s budget. Van Sant always seems to be more interested in receiving his pay check than actually earning it.

Newsday’s parent company, Cablevision, is being purchased by the French media conglomerate Altice. Will Van Sant is a likely candidate to be axed in the upcoming transition while his better half, Vanessa Gezari, continues to build her credibility.

(The couple has one child, Max, who was born on Sept. 24, 2014.)

Doig: Big Spender with Newsday…But, Now What?

Beyond his own salary, Newsday’s Investigations Editor Matt Doig is known for his “spare no expense” approach to fund his brand of tabloid journalism. Doig developed his free spending habit while on the job at The Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Doig’s reputation at the Southwestern Florida paper was a very expensive one. “Matt went a little heavy on the company’s expense account, but that’s just in his nature” said a friend of Doig’s and someone who still works for the Herald-Tribune.

At Newsday, the free-spending Doig reportedly exceeded every budget the company set for him. When given a choice, Doig almost always opts for the most costly choice.

If no one else, Doig is at least loved by his staff of such as Tania Lopez, Will Van Zant and Keith Herbert, all who have expensive tastes. The staff was thrilled when the Long Island daily acquired Doig in May of 2012. His staff has quadrupled since arriving and they had a much more liberal approach to the finances than any of the other crews. The “scandal-a-week” idea was reportedly Doug’s and Doig’s alone, but for some reason publisher Gordon McLeod turned a blind eye to Doig’s penchant to spend, spend, spend. The problem is that the new regime’s philosophy is in direct opposition to Matt Doig’s where the thought is to cut, cut, cut.

The flowing river of money coming from the so-called “Doig Disaster” which refers to his hiring in 2012 doesn’t stop at the Investigations Department. It’s been very taxing on the Long Island public. A “scandal-a-week” means that government agencies such as the U.S. Attorney, NY Attorney General and the Nassau and Suffolk Counties need to at least look at Newsday’s targeted stories. Even Doig’s harshest critics won’t suggest that corrupt politicians, unscrupulous business practices and even rouge law enforcement officials shouldn’t be taken to task. The issue at hand is that Doig’s methods call for extreme exaggeration and puffery in order to justify his extraordinary spending, and to give the illusion of a crime being committed without actually saying it (that would be libel.)

McLeod’s appeasement of this probably stems from desperation rather than total agreement. Doig proved to be a master salesman, when he led the tabloid down this road because the paper was already in deep financial trouble. Chief Editor Deb Henley also banked on the sensationalism leading to readership, which would in return possibly lead to ad and sales revenue. Of course none of this happened. The readers tuned out and sales and revenues plummeted.

Doig, through expensive assets like self-proclaimed “gotcha reporters” Sandra Peddie, Tania Lopez or Gus Garcia-Roberts (see story below) would churn out a droning five-page cover story about nothing. The end result being a costly investigation over time card disputes, or typical, albeit sleazy, back room politics.

Now we come to a crossroads. Matt Doig in one corner with three years of complete failure with unimaginable expenses, facing the staff of new Cablevision owner Patrick Drahi. Drahi has earned a host of colorful nicknames for ruthlessly cutting costs at new acquisitions.

Mr. Doig, meet Chainsaw Al…good luck, Matt!

MATT DOIG BLAMED FOR NEWSDAY’S CRASH AND IMMINENT DEMISE

Insiders at Cablevision privately blame Investigations Editor Matthew Doig for the decline of the paper. Doig joined the Long Island paper in May of 2012 and the wheels came off the publication almost immediately. One source, a top Cablevision executive, said that Matt probably had good intentions, but his execution has been devastating to the paper. He overestimated the public’s dislike for law enforcement and quite frankly underestimated the intellect of the readers.

The executive, who wished to remain anonymous, was referring to Doig’s failed investigations into Nassau and Suffolk police agencies, as well as other law enforcement agencies. Doig’s style is viewed as better suited for a Star or Enquirer-type of tabloid rather than a daily newspaper.

Doig’s team, led by Tanya Lopez, Will Van Sant, Gus Garcia Roberts and the self-proclaimed “Gotcha Reporter,” Sandra Peddie, collectively threw out their journalistic ethics and created a series of one-sided and openly biased slam pieces. The result was a historic free fall in circulation, readership, and most importantly for the struggling daily, ad and sales revenues. Cablevision has reported losses of more than $100 million per year since Matt Doig’s hiring.

In fairness to Doig, newsprint in general is on the endangered species list. The NY Daily News is firing staff at a rapid rate due to decreased revenues. Still, The News’ decline pales in comparison to Newsday’s, and there is no distinctive style change connected to one central figure as in the case with Doig.

There are obviously very few Doig supporters in and around Cablevision, but people close to the much-maligned investigative team point to criminal investigations that were created by their scandal-a-week method. In truth, the investigations have led to very few significant falls from grace, just minor issues like time sheet disputes, election law gaffs and government mishaps. Certainly “Watergate” has not been duplicated by Newsday’s crack team of flawed characters.

Three years of horrendous failures does not make Matt Doig a likely candidate to survive the new ownership’s chopping block. The bigger question is, does Doig ever work again at this level? Matt Doig and the aforementioned team may be done as credible journalists, but may have built a three year body of work that will impress mostly super market tabloids.

NY Daily News Eyes Oblivion with Dismissal of Star Writers, Reporters; Newsday Next?

Take a look at this very interesting article from Showbiz 411…..

http://www.showbiz411.com/2015/09/19/ny-daily-news-eyes-oblivion-with-dismissal-of-star-writers-reporters-newsday-next

Here’s the text…..

(start of article)

The world of print publications is shrinking fast now.

Yesterday, the New York Daily News laid off whoever was left among its star writers and reporters. Among them: David Hinckley, Jim Farber, Bill Madden. Mike Lupica apparently will be gone before the end of the year. Filip Bondy and Hank Gola are also gone.

At this point, there is no Daily News without these guys. But Mort Zuckerman can’t find a buyer for the paper. The rumor is he’s going to cut the print editions until it’s almost all on the web. The News was famous for photographs, but their most famous picture taker– the legendary Richard Corkery– is long gone.

Last week, the editor in chief, Colin Myler, was sacked as well.

I’m not even sure where the Daily News offices are anymore. In its heyday the paper was on East 42nd St. in a building likened to the Daily Planet of “Superman” fame. The lobby there was a work of art. Then Zuckerman moved the paper to far west 33rd Street in an anonymous slab of concrete. For all I know, they’re in Hoboken now.

Meanwhile, the death of Newsday seems imminent. It was sold this week by Cablevision to a French company. AM New York may have been sold with it, but no one’s mentioned it. All the people who remain at these papers labor out of love at this point. They’ve been whittled to nothing.

In the the late 80s, Newsday–which serves Long Island– moved into Manhattan for a short glorious run. Don Forst made New York Newsday a must-read. Now things are so bad that their stories are behind a paywall. When they reported the Cablevision sale this week, you had to pay to read about Newsday’s fate. I’m sure few did.

This will be Zuckerman’s legacy in journalist. He bought the Atlantic Monthly, the Atlantic Monthly Press, US News an World Report and the Daily News to change his standing from Canadian realtor to international world pundit. In 30 years all the publications were either sold off (Atlantic) or destroyed (all the others).

Congratulations.

(end of article)

NEWSDAY 2014 SEC FILING

NEWSDAY’S  2014 SEC FORM 10K FILING (For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014) REPORTED THE FOLLOWING  AVERAGE PRINT CIRCULATION NUMBERS:

WEEKDAYS – 237,000 (DECLINE OF 6.9% FROM THE PRIOR YEAR)
SATURDAYS  – 228,000  (DECLINE OF 9.2% FROM THE PRIOR YEAR)
SUNDAYS – 284,000   (DECLINE OF 9.1% FROM THE PRIOR YEAR)

NEWSDAY’S  2014 SEC FILING REPORTED THE FOLLOWING  AVERAGE  DIGITAL CIRCULATION NUMBERS;

WEEKDAYS – 103,000
SATURDAYS  – 93,000
SUNDAYS – 99,000

NEWSDAY’S  2014 SEC  FILING REPORTED THE FOLLOWING  AVERAGE PRINT AND DIGITAL COMBINED CIRCULATION NUMBERS;

WEEKDAYS – 340,000
SATURDAYS – 321,000
SUNDAYS – 383,000

NEWSDAY’S  OWN SEC FILINGS REPORT A 15% DECLINE IN CIRCULATION FROM 2013-2014, AND A $108.8 MILLION IN LOSSES DURING THAT 2 YEAR PERIOD. THEY ALSO REPORT THAT MORE LOSSES RELATED TO LOWER CIRCULATION AND DECREASES IN ADVERTISING ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE INTO THE FUTURE.  EVEN MORE DISTURBING IS A $480 MILLION LOAN THAT WILL MATURE ON 10/12/16. THE LOAN IS SECURED BY A LIEN ON NEWSDAY’S ASSETS.

THIS CONVERGENCE OF LOWER DEMAND FOR THE PUBLICATION AND ENORMOUS DEBT HAS UNDOUBTEDLY LED TO INTERNAL PRESSURES TO INCREASE REVENUES. IT APPEARS FROM ALL OF THE INFORMATION GARNERED FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES DETAILED HEREIN THAT NEWSDAY IS DEFRAUDING BUSINESSES TO GAIN ADVERTISERS BY EXAGGERATING ITS TRUE CIRCULATION NUMBERS.

DURING A RECENT ADVERTISING SALES PITCH MADE BY A NEWSDAY EMPLOYEE TO A LOCAL BUSINESS OWNER, NEWSDAY’S SALES STAFF GAVE FALSE AND INFLATED CIRCULATION NUMBERS IN AN EFFORT TO SELL AN AD IN THE NEWSPAPER.  NOT ONLY WERE THESE FIGURES VERBALLY INFLATED, BUT THE BUSINESS OWNER WAS GIVEN A “FACT SHEET” DETAILING WHAT APPEARS TO BE FALSE AND MISLEADING INFORMATION.

THE “FACT SHEET” STATES THAT NEWSDAY’S AVERAGE PRINT/DIGITAL CIRCULATION IS AS FOLLOWS:

WEEKDAYS – 245,016/206,775    TOTAL:  451,791
SUNDAYS – 299,284/206,957      TOTAL:  506,241

THESE CIRCULATION NUMBERS RUN COUNTER TO THE INFORMATION NEWSDAY REPORTED TO THE SEC. FURTHERMORE, IN 2013, THE ALLIANCE FOR AUDITED MEDIA (WHICH IS THE LAST AUDIT AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC) STATED THAT NEWSDAY HAD A TOTAL AVERAGE  CIRCULATION, WHICH INCLUDED BOTH PRINT AND DIGITAL NUMBERS COMBINED,  OF ONLY 377,744.  SINCE NEWSDAY HAS REPEATEDLY REPORTED ANNUAL DECLINES IN CIRCULATION TO THE SEC, IT COULD ONLY BE SURMISED THAT THE “FACT SHEET” CONTAINS HIGHLY INFLATED CIRCULATION NUMBERS.

IT SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED THAT NEWSDAY’S 2014 SEC REPORT SIGNIFICANTLY OVERSTATED ITS OWN 2013 CIRCULATION NUMBERS WHEN COMPARED WITH AAM’S AUDITED NUMBERS.

FOR THE YEAR ENDING 2013, NEWSDAY REPORTED;

“As filed with the Alliance for Audited Media (“AAM”) on January 15, 2014 and subject to audit by the AAM, Newsday submitted its most recent report which indicated total average circulation for the three months ended December 29, 2013 of approximately 437,000 on weekdays, approximately 434,000 on Saturdays and approximately 495,000 on Sundays.”

THESE UNUSUAL DISCREPANCIES SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED.

NEWSDAYS FALSE AND DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING ALSO CLAIMS IT HAS 720,010 DAILY READERS AND 888,862 SUNDAY READERS.

IT ALSO CLAIMS TO HAVE A COMBINED AVERAGE DAILY READERSHIP OF 1.5 MILLION BETWEEN NEWSDAY AND ITS NYC BASED PUBLICATION, am NEW YORK.

STATISTICALLY, THESE FIGURES RUN COUNTER TO INFORMATION CONTAINED IN NEWSDAY’S 2014 SEC FILING, WHICH STATES THAT amNEW YORK HAS A WEEKDAY CIRCULATION OF APPROXIMATELY 324,000 AND A DECLINING READERSHIP. THIS IS A CLEAR EXAMPLE OF PUFFERY.  IT WOULD MEAN THAT EACH AND EVERY NEWSPAPER WOULD NEED TO HAVE A MINIMUM OF 2 READERS, AND AT LEAST 172,000 WOULD HAVE 3 READERS PER PAPER.   THIS DOES NOT EVEN TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE NUMBER OF NEWSPAPERS THAT ARE DISTRIBUTED TO CONVENIENCE STORES AND THE LIKE, BUT NEVER PURCHASED.  THIS IS LIKELY AN EXAGGERATED AND DECEPTIVE CLAIM.

QUOTE FROM 2014 SEC FILING:

”As filed with the Alliance for Audited Media (“AAM”) on January 19, 2015 and subject to audit by the AAM, Newsday submitted its most recent quarterly report which indicated total average circulation for the three months ended December 28, 2014 of approximately 340,000 on weekdays, approximately 321,000 on Saturdays and approximately 379,000 on Sundays. These circulation figures include digital editions (most of which are free to Optimum Online and Newsday print subscribers) to Newsday’s restricted access website and mobile applications. These circulation figures include Newsday’s total average print circulation of approximately 237,000 on weekdays, approximately 228,000 on Saturdays and approximately 284,000 on Sundays, which represents a decline of approximately 6.9%, 9.2%, and 9.1%, respectively, over the comparable prior year period. Circulation revenue for the year ended December 31, 2014 increased $4,189 (5%) primarily due to the impact of rate increases partially offset by a decline in volume.

On October 15, 2014, Newsday’s other publications, which include amNew York and Star Community Publishing and are distributed for free, filed their most recent Publishers statements with the Certified Audit of Circulations, a subsidiary of the AAM. amNew York averaged gross weekday circulation of approximately 324,000 for the six months ended September 28, 2014, which represents a decline of approximately 5.9% over the comparable prior year period. Star Community Publishing distributed approximately 1,763,000 copies each week for the six months ended September 28, 2014, which represents a decline of approximately 2.0% over the comparable prior year period.”

REFERENCE PAGES 46-48

GOTCHA REPORTING

By Caroline Mintz

(Long Island, NY) Gotcha journalism entails the use of interviewing methods designed to encourage people to make statements that may damage their reputation in one regard or another. These journalists often have a hidden agenda that prompts them to want to portray an individual or situation in an unfavorable way, and in some cases, journalists build their entire careers on these dubious tactics.

In the extreme is the case of Sandra Peddie, a controversial reporter for Long Island’s Newsday, who is well-known for ‘gotcha journalism.” In fact, Peddie glorified the method in a televised commercial for the struggling publication by stating that her goal as a reporter is to “make you spit out your coffee.” She goes on to explain the deep satisfaction she feels in the moment she can say “gotcha.”

Also noteworthy is the sexualized manner in which Peddie displays herself in the commercial. Cindy Holliman, a fourth-year journalism student, was shown the Sandra Peddie commercial as part of a focus group. She stated: “We were shown it to determine what the class thought of gotcha reporting as opposed to journalism.  We learned that you’re either a gotcha reporter or a journalist, and you can’t be both,” said Holliman. She added, “In general, the consensus was that she is old-school. She is a sixty year old woman that isn’t embarrassed to use her sexuality in exchange for information. She showed no shame in it.”

Others seem to share that view. Steve Levy wrote in his book Bias in the Media that “Peddie, without question, was the most unprofessional reporter I had ever come across.” He went on to stay that “Peddie went out of her way to build a false narrative.”

America’s True News made several attempts to reach Sandra Peddie for an interview for this article. She refused to comment through Newsday’s legal counsel. Newsday suffered operating losses of $37.7 million in 2014, and many people believe that Peddie’s disingenuous reporting is a factor in the failing paper. “Twenty years ago, you could get away with tabloid journalism, or “gotcha” journalism, but with the advent of the internet and the ease at which people can check facts, it just doesn’t fly anymore,” said Holliman. “I think people know when a story line just doesn’t add up or make sense, and readers tune it out,” she added.

Newsday’s “moral compass” Filler a man of convictions….well, at least six convictions

The much maligned New York print publication Newsday is facing yet another possible scandal.

A few years back, the Long Island based tabloid was hit with a 100-million dollar penalty for lying about their circulation. It is now uncovered that the publication’s editorial writer, Lane Filler, was convicted for a string of crimes ranging from domestic violence to multiple check frauds.

Filler’s crime spree occurred in his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, where he was then known as Adam L. Filler. It is not certain whether or not the writer uses his current alias to hide his past criminality, but Kara Williams, who lives outside Columbia and was close to one of the victims scammed by Filler, believes that is exactly why.

“It amazes me that anyone would hire Adam,” Kara said. “I watched him at one of his arraignments just standing there without an ounce of remorse. The prosecutor told me and the other woman afterwards, ladies, you have been hurt by the true scum of the earth! We all agreed. To find out that Filler is actually considered a ‘moral compass’ to anyone is flabbergasting!”

Filler and another writer, Rita Ciolli from Huntington, NY, write the bulk of Newsday’s editorials. Adam L. Filler now lives in an apartment in the city of Smithtown, NY with his wife Angela and child. Smithtown is about fifteen miles east of the city of Melville where Newsday is currently published.

James Morris – Richland County, South Carolina