Connecting - June 27, 2024

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June 27, 2024

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Colleagues,

Good Thursday morning on this June 27, 2024,

We lead today’s Connecting with the viewpoint of Columbia Journalism Review on the plans announced by the AP to create a new sister organization to fundraise for and support state and local journalism.

Governed by an independent board of directors, the 501(c)3 charitable organization will help AP sustain, augment and grow journalism and services for the industry, as well as help fund other entities that share a commitment to state and local news.

We also deliver more of your stories of working in your first AP bureau – continuing an ongoing theme that’s proven highly popular.

Our colleague Norm Abelson observes: “Of all the compelling, humorous, moving and enlightening pieces I have read on Connecting, the recent stories on first AP assignments rank near the top.

“Often they're as interesting as a novel, as educating as a J-school grad course, as personal as a memoir. The stories are told with honesty and openness, recalling both the successes as well as the miscues and bumps along the way.

“Both for those who opted for a career with the news service, as well as those of us who moved on to other interests, I'd argue there is no better foundation for a meaningful and fulfilling career than time spent at The AP.”

Here’s to a great day – be safe, stay healthy, live it to your fullest.

Paul

The Associated Press finds a new way to combat news deserts

By JOEL SIMON

Columbia Journalism Review

Nonprofit news organizations including ProPublica, The Marshall Project, and The 19th have transformed the American media landscape in the past decade. But the Associated Press has been at it far longer. Throughout its 178-year history, the AP has been run as a not-for-profit cooperative. And talk about impact. The AP has been the backbone of the American news industry, providing coverage of global and national events, feeding local stories to the national press, reporting on elections, and declaring the victors.

Unlike the current crop of nonprofits, the AP has been funded not by donations and grants, but by its members, news organizations across the country and around the world that license content. But that’s changing. The news deserts that have spread across the US are not only bad for democracy—they are bad for the AP’s business model. Fewer news organizations mean fewer AP members and therefore less revenue. Today, it’s national and international broadcasters who rely on the AP for content, especially video, that keeps the lights on. The AP has responded by seeking new funding to support coverage of key issues.

Donations and grants from philanthropic organizations have helped underwrite AP reporting on democracy, science, religion, climate, and health. Additional philanthropic support has come from foundations with a media focus, particularly the Knight Foundation. All told, the AP has raised more than $61 million in philanthropic funding in the past seven years.

While grants from foundations still represent a small percentage of the AP’s overall income, it’s a stream that is growing and, according to AP executive editor Julie Pace, could grow some more. Pace is particularly focused on attracting expanded support for coverage of state and local issues in the US. “There’s just a very clear need for more news, and I would say high-quality, nonpartisan, independent news,” Pace told me. “We’re going to try to raise money to address exactly this crisis.”

To achieve that goal, the AP plans to create a new sister organization—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that Pace and others believe will make it easier to attract and manage an increasing flow of contributions. The new entity—whose structure and mandate are still being defined—would be a conduit to philanthropic investment in the AP and would support improvements to the local news and information ecosystem. The new entity will be governed by an independent board of directors and administered by the AP’s vice president of philanthropic development, who is being recruited.

Read more here. Shared by Lisa Gibbs.

Cleveland's Marv Kropko honored by SPJ chapter

On Wednesday evening, the Cleveland chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists presented its Distinguished Service Award to retired Cleveland AP staff writer Marv Kropko. Several of his former colleagues were able to attend.

Front row from left: Retired staff writer Lisa Cornwell (Cleveland and Cincinnati), Olga Kropko and retired Cleveland writer Marv Kropko.

Back row from left: Retired Cleveland writer Tom Sheeran, retired Cleveland photographer Tony Dejak and retired Cleveland photographer Mark Duncan.

Photo by Theresa Duncan

Stories of your first bureau

Robert Meyers - My first of two AP bureaus was London. LDAPPHO - In April 1986, I left my job as chief photo editor with a full news and feature beat at the Gannett-owned Sturgis (Mich) Journal. My future wife and I did a two-month farewell tour of the USA visiting friends and National Parks and crossing major rivers by ferry wherever possible. My father drove with us from Pittsburgh to Montreal and we boarded the Polish-operated Stefan Batory in early May for a nine-day crossing to London Tilbury.

Over the summer, I did freelance photography, mainly for the West Kent Extra series which gave me assignments but only paid per image published. I got the weekly UK Press Gazette which listed media jobs and interviewed for a variety of positions but nothing was forthcoming until I spotted an ad in September for a photo editor at the Associated Press.

I was hired by Horst Faas, Peter Bregg and Myron Belkind to the London Photo Desk which ran the AP Photo Network across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Moscow, New Delhi and Hong Kong. London Photo Editors had multiple roles including editing UK produced materials. Scheduling and connecting wire transmissions and communicating with AP on dedicated message wire circuits as well as telex and other means. I was trained in the ins and outs of selecting frames and instructing the darkroom to print, writing captions and preparing prints for transmission. On reading the wire, responding to breaking news, working with the wireroom to connect circuits by a custom Nat Vickers-built switchboard. Announcing the next transmission to Frankfurt via a voice circuit. Calling in transmissions from Tass Moscow and a lot of other tasks and activity that changed by the minute in a fast-breaking news cycle.

After a couple of weeks instruction, I was flying solo, but there was always Madge Stager in New York to call less than a minute after a mistake was made to inform and educate in a firm, but accurate way. Our rotating schedule was an eight-week cycle of shifts ranging from 11 p.m - 8 a.m., overnights to 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., easy days with one Friday afternoon to Monday morning weekend, and another late Friday night to Monday morning weekend. There were a lot of "German weekends" - single days off mid-week.

What I remember most about those early years was the full-on engagement required from answering endless phone calls from our "subscribers," colleagues in other bureaus worldwide and the endless flood and variety of news on the wire. Television news and newspapers all provided such a tiny amount of the news of the day.

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Lee Mitgang - I joined AP's business news department in 1974. It was an uptown move in every sense: from the grungy 11th floor of the Daily News Building where I'd worked for two years as a cub Wall Street writer for UPI, to the AP's headquarters at 50 Rock. With the UPI strike a few months earlier still fresh in my mind, the AP seemed by comparison an oasis of security, self-confidence and affluence.

It was a particularly exciting time for the business beat. Americans were allowed for the first time to freely buy and sell gold bullion. The Arab oil embargo, ended early that year, was forcing a new debate about our energy future. Computers were changing everything, introducing such things as electronic funds transfers into consumer banking. The first signs of an emerging financial crisis for America's cities were appearing in the bond market.

And what a cast of all-stars we had to cover those stories: John Cunniff, Chet Currier, Dierdre Donnelly, Josh Fitzhugh, Bob Holden, bureau chief Steve Miller and director of financial services Bob Haring. Chet and I were actually direct competitors as Wall Street writers when I was at UPI. But when I joined the AP, we quickly put that aside and channeled our rivalry into the occasional lunchtime chess game.

My first AP assignment came when Steve Miller had me check out a story about an emerging shortage of Ball canning jars. With the economic world coming unglued and more "big stories" than we could ever handle, this trivial-sounding idea felt to me like Steve's idea of hazing for a newbie. But write it I did, and the tearsheets came in by the score. A pretty good lesson for a brash 25-year-old reporter about the stories that can hit the mark with readers.

FACT FOCUS: Associated Press video manipulated to make it appear Slovak flags banned at soccer match

BY MELISSA GOLDIN

Manipulated video from an Associated Press report circulated on the eve of the match between Slovakia and Ukraine at this year’s European Championship, with the false claim that Slovak flags had been banned from all games because of their similarity to the Russian flag.

“UEFA has banned the Russian flag from being carried to all matches of the Ukrainian national team at Euro 2024 after some of them were hung in the stands in other matches,” says the voiceover made to sound like an AP reporter. “Security staff will seize Russian flags from all fans, regardless of the country of the rival. It also became known that the ban will also apply to the flags of Slovakia at the upcoming match with Ukraine. The organizers claim that the Slovak flag is very similar to the Russian one, which can cause provocations against Ukrainians.”

No such video exists and the AP has not reported that there is a ban of Slovak flags at the soccer tournament.

Read more here. Shared by Richard Chady.

China pandas

Nick Ut – I am just back from a visit to China where I took pictures of the China Giant Panda. In 2008 following the earthquake that severely damaged its sister reserve at Wolong. Bifengxia is now home to 80 pandas, some of which may eventually be returned to the wild. Location in Bifengxia Scenic - Ya’an City. Sichuan Province.

Connecting wishes Happy Birthday

Stories of interest

Opinion | How PolitiFact and others are preparing for tonight’s presidential debate (Poynter)

By: Tom Jones

Katie Sanders is editor-in-chief of Poynter’s PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others.

So, of course, she will be watching tonight’s big presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. But she will have to be up at 3 a.m. to do it.

That’s because this debate coverage is a bit different for PolitiFact. Sanders and others from the PolitiFact and Poynter staff are at the 11th annual GlobalFact conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. But even halfway around the world, Sanders is leading up the effort to cover one of the most important presidential debates in our lifetime, and one that surely will have fact-checkers furiously working to dig into the claims of the two candidates.

And, it should be mentioned, this debate is a bit different, too. There will be no live audience. Microphones will supposedly be cut off if the candidates get unruly. And it’s June — nearly five months before the election and before either party has had their national convention.

Read more here.

AP classes, by the year...

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a listing of Connecting colleagues who have shared the year and the bureau where they started with the AP. If you would like to share your own information, I will include it in later postings. Current AP staffers are also welcome to share their information.)

1951 - Norm Abelson (Boston)

1953 – Charles Monzella (Huntington, WVa)

1955 – Henry Bradsher (Atlanta), Paul Harrington (Boston), Joe McGowan (Cheyenne)

1957 - Louis Uchitelle (Philadelphia)

1958 – Roy Bolch (Kansas City)

1959 – Charlie Bruce (Montgomery)

1960 – Claude Erbsen (New York), Carl Leubsdorf (New Orleans)

1961 – Peter Arnett (Jakarta, Indonesia), Strat Douthat (Charleston), Warren Lerude (San Diego), Ed Staats (Austin)

1962 – Paul Albright (Cheyenne), Malcolm Barr Sr. (Honolulu), Myron Belkind (New York), Kelly Smith Tunney (Miami)

1963 – Hal Bock (New York)

1964 – Rachel Ambrose (Indianapolis), Larry Hamlin (Oklahoma City), Ron Mulnix (Denver), Lyle Price (San Francisco), Arlene Sposato, Hilmi Toros (New York)

1965 – Bob Dobkin (Pittsburgh), Harry Dunphy (Denver), John Gibbons (New York), Jim Luther (Nashville), Larry Margasak (Harrisburg)

1966 – Mike Doan (Portland, OR), Edie Lederer (New York), Nancy Shipley (Nashville), Mike Short (Los Angeles), Marty Thompson (Seattle), Nick Ut (Saigon), Kent Zimmerman (Chicago)

1967 – Dan Berger (Los Angeles), Adolphe Bernotas (Concord), Lou Boccardi (New York), Linda Deutsch (Los Angeles), Don Harrison (Los Angeles), Doug Kienitz (Cheyenne), David Liu (New York), Bruce Lowitt (Los Angeles), Chuck McFadden (Los Angeles), Martha Malan (Minneapolis), Bill Morrissey (Buffalo), Larry Paladino (Detroit), Michael Putzel (Raleigh), Bruce Richardson (Chicago), Richard Shafer (Baltimore), Victor Simpson (Newark), Michael Sniffen (Newark)

1968 – Lee Balgemann (Chicago), John Eagan (San Francisco), Joe Galu (Albany/Troy), Peter Gehrig (Frankfurt), Charles Hanley (Albany), Jerry Harkavy (Portland, Maine), Herb Hemming (New York), Brian King (Albany), Samuel Koo (New York), Karren Mills (Minneapolis), Michael Rubin (Los Angeles), Rick Spratling (Salt Lake City), Barry Sweet (Seattle)

1969 - Ann Blackman (New York), Ford Burkhart (Philadelphia), Dick Carelli (Charleston, WVa), Dennis Coston (Richmond), Mary V. Gordon (Newark), Daniel Q. Haney (Portland, Maine), Mike Harris (Chicago), Brad Martin (Kansas City), David Minthorn (Frankfurt), Cynthia Rawitch (Los Angeles), Bob Reid (Charlotte), Mike Reilly (New York), Doug Tucker (Tulsa), Bill Winter (Helena)

1970 – Richard Boudreaux (New York), Richard Drew (San Francisco), Bob Egelko (Los Angeles), Steve (Indy) Herman (Indianapolis), Tim Litsch (New York), Lee Margulies (Los Angeles), Chris Pederson (Salt Lake City), Brendan Riley (San Francisco), Larry Thorson (Philadelphia)

1971 – Harry Atkins (Detroit), Jim Bagby (Kansas City), Larry Blasko (Chicago), Jim Carlson (Milwaukee), Jim Carrier (New Haven), Chris Connell (Newark), Bill Gillen (New York), Bill Hendrick (Birmingham), John Lumpkin (Dallas), Kendal Weaver (Montgomery)

1972 – Hank Ackerman (New York), Bob Fick (St. Louis), Joe Frazier (Portland, Ore.), Terry Ganey (St. Louis), Mike Graczyk (Detroit), Denis Gray (Albany), Lindel Hutson (Little Rock), Brent Kallestad (Sioux Falls), Tom Kent (Hartford), Nolan Kienitz (Dallas), Andy Lippman (Phoenix), Ellen Miller (Helena), Mike Millican (Hartford), Lew Wheaton (Richmond)

1973 - Jerry Cipriano (New York), Susan Clark (New York), Norm Clarke (Cincinnati), Joe Galianese (East Brunswick), Merrill Hartson (Richmond), Mike Hendricks (Albany), Tom Journey (Tucson), Steve Loeper (Los Angeles), Tom Slaughter (Sioux Falls), Jim Spehar (Denver), Paul Stevens (Albany), Jeffrey Ulbrich (Cheyenne), Owen Ullmann (Detroit), John Willis (Omaha)

1974 – Norman Black (Baltimore), David Espo (Cheyenne), Dan George (Topeka), Robert Glass (Philadelphia), Steve Graham (Helena), Elaine Hooker (Hartford), Sue Price Johnson (Charlotte), Dave Lubeski (Washington), Janet McConnaughey (Washington), Lee Mitgang (New York), Marc Wilson (Little Rock)

1975 – Peter Eisner (Columbus), David Powell (New York), Eileen Alt Powell (Milwaukee)

1976 – Brad Cain (Chicago), Judith Capar (Philadelphia), Dick Chady (Albany), Steve Crowley (Washington), David Egner (Oklahoma City), Marc Humbert (Albany), Charlotte Porter (Minneapolis), Chuck Wolfe (Charlotte)

1977 – Bryan Brumley (Washington), Robert Burns (Jefferson City), Charles Campbell (Nashville), Dave Carpenter (Philadelphia), Ken Herman (Dallas), Mike Holmes (Des Moines), Brad Kalbfeld (New York), Scott Kraft (Jefferson City), John Kreiser (New York), Peter Leabo (Dallas), Kevin LeBoeuf (Los Angeles), Ellen Nimmons (Minneapolis), Dan Sewell (Buffalo), Estes Thompson (Richmond), David Tirrell-Wysocki (Concord)

1978 – Tom Eblen (Louisville), Ruth Gersh (Richmond), Doug Pizac (Los Angeles), Charles Richards (Dallas), Steve Wilson (Boston)

1979 – Scotty Comegys (Chicago), Frances D’Emilio (San Francisco), Brian Friedman (Des Moines), Sally Hale (Dallas), Jill Lawrence (Harrisburg), Barry Massey (Kansas City), Phillip Rawls (Nashville), John Rice (Carson City), Linda Sargent (Little Rock), Robert Wielaard (Brussels)

1980 – Jeff Barnard (Providence), Mark Duncan (Cleveland), Bill Kaczor (Tallahassee), Mitchell Landsberg (Reno), Kevin Noblet (New Orleans), David Speer (Jackson), Hal Spencer (Providence), Carol J. Williams (Seattle)

1981 – Paul Davenport (Phoenix), Dan Day (Milwaukee), John Flesher (Raleigh), Len Iwanski (Bismarck), Ed McCullough (Albany), Kim Mills (New York), Mark Mittelstadt (Des Moines), Roland Rochet (New York), Lee Siegel (Seattle), Marty Steinberg (Baltimore), Bill Vogrin (Kansas City)

1982 – Dorothy Abernathy (Little Rock), Al Behrman (Cincinnati), Tom Cohen (Jefferson City), John Epperson (Chicago), Ric Feld (Atlanta), Nick Geranios (Helena), Hpward Gros (New Orleans), Robert Kimball (New York), Rob Kozloff (Detroit), Bill Menezes (Kansas City), David Ochs (New York)

1983 – Scott Charton (Little Rock), Sue Cross (Columbus), Mark Elias (Chicago), Diana Heidgerd (Miami), Sheila Norman-Culp (New York), Carol Esler Ochs (New York), Amy Sancetta (Philadelphia), Rande Simpson (New York), Dave Skidmore (Milwaukee)

1984 – Owen Canfield (Oklahoma City), Wayne Chin (Washington), Jack Elliott (Oklahoma City), Kelly P. Kissel (New Orleans), Joe Macenka (Richmond), Eva Parziale (San Francisco), Keith Robinson (Columbus), Cliff Schiappa (Kansas City), David Sedeño (Dallas), Andrew Selsky (Cheyenne), Patty Woodrow (Washington)

1985 - Betty Kumpf Pizac (Los Angeles)

1986 – Joni Baluh Beall (Richmond), Tom Coyne (Columbia, SC), Dave DeGrace (Milwaukee), Alan Flippen (Louisville), Jim Gerberich (San Francisco), Howard Goldberg (New York), Mark Hamrick (Dallas), Sandy Kozel (Washington), Robert Meyers (London)

1987 – Donna Abu-Nasr (Beirut), Dave Bauder (Albany), Chuck Burton (Charlotte), Beth Harris (Indianapolis), Lynne Harris (New York), Steven L. Herman (Charleston, WVa), Rosemarie Mileto (New York), John Rogers (Los Angeles)

1988 – Chris Carola (Albany), Peg Coughlin (Pierre), Kathy Gannon (Islamabad), Steve Hart (Washington), Melissa Jordan (Sioux Falls), Bill Pilc (New York), Kelley Shannon (Dallas)

1989 – Charlie Arbogast (Trenton), Ron Fournier (Little Rock)

1990 – Frank Fisher (Jackson), Dan Perry (Bucharest), Steve Sakson (Baltimore), Sean Thompson (New York)

1991 – Amanda Kell (Richmond), Santiago Lyon (Cairo), Lisa Pane (Hartford), Ricardo Reif (Caracas), Bill Sikes (Buffalo)

1992 – Kerry Huggard (New York)

1993 – Jim Salter (St. Louis)

1996 – Patricia N. Casillo (New York)

1997 - Pamela Collins (Dallas), Madhu Krishnappa Maron (New York), Jim Suhr (Detroit), Jennifer Yates (Baltimore)

2000 – Gary Gentile (Los Angeles)

Today in History – June 27, 2024

By The Associated Press

Today is Thursday, June 27, the 179th day of 2024. There are 187 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 27, 1957, Hurricane Audrey slammed into coastal Louisiana and Texas as a Category 4 storm; the initial official death toll from the storm was placed at 390, although a variety of state, federal and local sources have estimated the number of fatalities at between 400 and 600.

Also on this date:

In 1844, Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois.

In 1880, author-lecturer Helen Keller, who lived most of her life without sight or hearing, was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama.

In 1942, the FBI announced the arrests of eight Nazi saboteurs put ashore in Florida and Long Island, New York. (All were tried and sentenced to death; six were executed while two were spared for turning themselves in and cooperating with U.S. authorities.)

In 1944, during World War II, American forces liberated the French port of Cherbourg (SHEHR’-boorg) from the Germans.

In 1950, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling on member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.

In 1974, President Richard Nixon opened an official visit to the Soviet Union.

In 1991, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black jurist to sit on the nation’s highest court, announced his retirement.

In 2005, BTK serial killer Dennis Rader pleaded guilty to 10 murders that had spread fear across Wichita, Kansas, beginning in the 1970s.

In 2006, a constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the American flag died in a Senate cliffhanger, falling one vote short of the 67 needed to send it to states for ratification.

In 2011, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY’-uh-vich) was convicted by a federal jury in Chicago on a wide range of corruption charges, including the allegation that he’d tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat. (Blagojevich was later sentenced to 14 years in prison; his sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump in February 2020.)

In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its strongest defense of abortion rights in a quarter-century, striking down Texas’ widely replicated rules that sharply reduced abortion clinics.

In 2018, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote often decided cases on abortion, gay rights and other contentious issues, announced his retirement.

In 2022, the Supreme Court said a high school football coach who sought to kneel and pray on the field after games was protected by the Constitution. Opponents said the decision would open the door to “much more coercive prayer” in public schools.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is 86. Singer-musician Bruce Johnston (The Beach Boys) is 82. Fashion designer Norma Kamali is 79. Fashion designer Vera Wang is 75. Actor Julia Duffy is 73. Actor Isabelle Adjani is 69. Country singer Lorrie Morgan is 65. Writer-producer-director J.J. Abrams is 58. Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte (AY’-aht), R-N.H., is 56. Olympic gold and bronze medal figure skater Viktor Petrenko (peh-TREHN’-koh) is 55. Latin singer Draco Rosa is 55. TV personality Jo Frost (“Supernanny”) is 54. Actor Tobey Maguire is 49. Reality TV star Khloe Kardashian (kar-DASH’-ee-uhn) is 40. Actor Drake Bell is 38. Actor Sam Claflin is 38. Actor India de Beaufort is 37. Actor Ed Westwick is 37. Actor Matthew Lewis (Harry Potter film series) is 35. Actor Madylin Sweeten (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is 33. Pop singer Lauren Jauregui (Fifth Harmony) is 28. Singer-songwriter H.E.R. is 27. Actor Chandler Riggs (“The Walking Dead”) is 25.

Got a photo or story to share?

Connecting is a daily newsletter published Monday through Friday that reaches more than 1,800 retired and former Associated Press employees, present-day employees, and news industry and journalism school colleagues. It began in 2013. Past issues can be found by clicking Connecting Archive in the masthead. Its author, Paul Stevens, retired from the AP in 2009 after a 36-year career as a newsman in Albany and St. Louis, correspondent in Wichita, chief of bureau in Albuquerque, Indianapolis and Kansas City, and Central Region vice president based in Kansas City.

Got a story to share? A favorite memory of your AP days? Don't keep them to yourself. Share with your colleagues by sending to Ye Olde Connecting Editor. And don't forget to include photos!

Here are some suggestions:

- Connecting "selfies" - a word and photo self-profile of you and your career, and what you are doing today. Both for new members and those who have been with us a while.

- Second chapters - You finished a great career. Now tell us about your second (and third and fourth?) chapters of life.

- Spousal support - How your spouse helped in supporting your work during your AP career.

- My most unusual story - tell us about an unusual, off the wall story that you covered.

- "A silly mistake that you make"- a chance to 'fess up with a memorable mistake in your journalistic career.

- Multigenerational AP families - profiles of families whose service spanned two or more generations.

- Volunteering - benefit your colleagues by sharing volunteer stories - with ideas on such work they can do themselves.

- First job - How did you get your first job in journalism?

- Most unusual place a story assignment took you.

Paul Stevens

Editor, Connecting newsletter

paulstevens46@gmail.com