Civil Weekly Newsletter: 1/11/2019 Edition

Here’s what Civil Newsrooms covered this week.

Congratulations to The Colorado Sun for hiring another reporter. Veteran investigative journalist Christopher Osher, formerly of the Denver Post, will be covering education for the Sun, and is already “digging in deep” to issues that afflict the state’s education policy. Be sure to subscribe to their newsletter to read the publication’s great journalism that’s already being produced in the Centennial State.

Here’s some of what Civil Newsrooms wrote about this week:

• The new governor of Colorado’s desk is mostly empty except for a plaque that reads, “BE BOLD.” That, he tells the Colorado Sun, is exactly how he plans to govern. Read the exclusive first interview about the new governor’s bold, new agenda for the next four years.
• Johnson & Johnson will soon be bringing its $350 billion enterprise of health products to Africa, including its cancer-causing baby powder, reports ecoWURD. And though the company is entering the market toting strategies to combat diseases like HIV and tuberculosis, global health advocates are rightfully concerned. Read the publication’s account of this issue.
• Prager University’s right-wing website has published videos with discriminatory rhetoric about immigrants and Muslims. Sludge looks into the deep sources of funding for these videos — and what they found may surprise you.
• The Small Bow has a new series written by writers who are still problem drinkers, and it’s called “Why I’m Probably A Drunk.” The first in the series — an essay on family, marriage and travel — is one you probably don’t want to miss.
• The Trump administration has abandoned the lawful procedures used to evaluate the Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, reports Documented. Read what this could mean for some 50,000 Haitians by July 2019.
• In 1996, California became the first U.S. state to legalize medical cannabis. And now, unlicensed collectives could be exposed to penalties as the parts of the bill that protected them are being repealed, explains Cannabis Wire.
• In Near West Side in Chicago, activists are getting ready to protest outside R. Kelly’s studio this weekend, reports Block Club Chicago. The protests come after a recent documentary included allegations alleging abuse against the R&B singer.
• More media attention in the United States has been focused on police killings over the past few years. The River goes into police brutality in the Hudson Valley, and how the community there is working to prevent fatalities from police.
• Are Spongebob Squarepants characters representative of different sins? One Indonesian-based publication seems to think so. Splice goes into how this alternative publication is appealing to a millennial, urban base.
• One hundred years after the truce that ended World War I, GroundTruth Project goes over the lessons that can still be learned in the modern world’s most pressing conflicts. Listen to their special presentation.
• “Why can’t men describe women’s hairstyles?” A Popula author recounts the time her father tried to explain her mother’s hairstyle — but seems to lack the vocabulary to describe it.
• The L train tunnel in New York City was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Seven years later, Governor Andrew Cuomo has changed his mind about plans to shut it down. Listen as FAQ NYC takes this issue to public transportation experts to ask, “what’s up?”

Civil en español

• Hay contaminación acústica por toda la ciudad de La Habana. 14ymedio informa sobre las consecuencias.

Regístrese para un seminario web de Civil en español

Civil, un nuevo modelo para el periodismo actual. El próximo jueves 17 de enero, Civil impartirá un webinar donde podrás conocer nuevas herramientas tecnológicas junto a los beneficios de unirte a esta comunidad mundial de redacciones éticas, algunas de ellas ya han comenzado a publicar en blockchain. Aquí están los detalles del seminario. ¡Te esperamos!

Interested in starting your own Civil Newsroom? Learn how you can join the Civil community. Or, for a daily feed from Civil Newsrooms, follow @CivilStories on Twitter.

Hmm Weekly: Coming to an inbox near you.

Hmm Daily, the newsroom that challenges readers to “think again,” is expanding its coverage to a weekly newsletter. To sign up for “Hmm Weekly,” go to hmmdaily.com and register for its email list. You’ll soon receive a message from them about how to sign up. According to Hmm Daily Founder Tom Scocca, the newsletter will take on a more conversational — and experimental — approach than its website counterpart.

Tom shared more detail on Hmm Weekly, as well as a look back at the first several months of Hmm Daily, in an interview on Civil’s blog this week. He also shares his experience of permanently publishing a story to the blockchain for the first time — and why he chose the specific story he did.

The Random Musing Section

This week, more than 35 million people tuned in for President Trump’s first primetime Oval Office address. Each of the major U.S. broadcast and cable news networks, plus some of the largest digital news distribution platforms, aired the address in which he reiterated his case for completing construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

It was as captive and massive an audience as anybody could ever hope to have, and there’s certainly ample precedent of sitting presidents using primetime slots to address the nation on critical policy matters.

The decision to air this specific address — which had up to 89 misleading or downright false claims, according to the non-partisan factcheck.org — is leading to justified criticism of the major networks. The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan, one of the brightest media minds out there, said it best in her latest column:

There was no — zero — news in President Trump’s address to the nation last night.

There were high-drama quotes: “crisis of the soul.”

There was fearmongering: “I’ve met with dozens of families whose loved ones were stolen by illegal immigration.”

But there wasn’t anything of substance that we haven’t heard many times before.

And all the fact-checking in the world — worthy as it is — can’t make a dent in the spread of misinformation that such an opportunity gives the president.

News organizations have a sacred responsibility to do everything in their power to ensure that information meant to inform and activate the public is fact-based and verifiable. The government shutdown continues, our elected officials are as polarized as ever… and we can’t even agree on an established, factual narrative.

We all deserve better.

— Matt Coolidge