Awful gotcha reporting; poor public editing
I recently published two commentaries on The Huffington Post.
The first was about Dateline NBC's awful "To Catch a Predator" series and why it's not really investigative journalism. The column also talks about Carl Monday, whom I consider to be the most prolific gotcha television reporter working in North America. That's not a good thing.
The second column compares current New York Times Public Editor Byron Calame to his predecessor, Daniel Okrent. Calame has started to catch heat from media critics and commentators and I add my take on his disappointing performance.
HuffPo, yo
Just over a year into its run, The Huffington Post has turned out to be quite the success. On Wednesday it launched a new section called Eat the Press. It features media news and press criticism from writers, bloggers and other news sources. I'm pleased to say that I've been invited to contribute by Rachel Sklar, HuffPo's media editor. Rachel used to edit FishBowlNY, a media blog on MediaBistro, until she left and soon took this job. She was always an enthusiastic supporter of Regret the Error, and I enjoyed her work as well. And she's Canadian, which is always a bonus.
I wrote my first post for the site this week and you can read it here. It's about the recent onslaught of plagiarism, and plagiarism about plagiarism. I hope to be a regular contributor.
Welcome
Hey there. Thanks for stopping by. I'm a freelance journalist and author in Montreal, Canada. I serve as an associate editor for PBS MediaShift, a website that reports on trends in new media and journalism. I edit RegretTheError.com and wrote a book of the same name. I'm also the co-author, with Michael Calce, of Mafiaboy: How I Cracked The Internet and Why It's Still Broken. Both books are listed to the right.
I write weekly columns for Hour and Columbia Journalism Review online, and am a former columnist and blogger for The Globe And Mail. Read my bio by clicking on the "About Me" link above, or check out the "Writing Samples" page to read some of my work. If you're interested in speaking with me about an assignment or project, email me at the address listed below.
Recent Writing/Work