HuffPo Worth $200M? Em, More Like $2M

Handout would violate journos' watchdog role

(NEWSER) - With the industry in dire straits, some in the journalism business want government help—but they’re not looking for a financial bailout, Reuters reports. “That is so clearly contrary to what our role is as a watchdog that it’s just not acceptable,” said a former newspaper editor. What publishers want are legal concessions: changes to antitrust laws, tax breaks, perhaps the ability to become non-profits. More»

Huffington Post, AP, Philadelphia Inquirer , NYT all score prizes

(NEWSER) - The 2012 Pulitzer Prizes are out, and for the first time in 35 years a Pulitzer for fiction is not among them, reports the AP , which itself snagged an award for its series on NYPD spying. Without further ado, the list of winners:

• Public service: Philadelphia Inquirer
• Breaking news reporting: The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News staff
• Investigative reporting: Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley of the AP, and Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of the Seattle Times
• Explanatory reporting: David Kocieniewski of the New York Times

But public is following it more closely than any other story

(NEWSER) - The drama surrounding Trayvon Martin's death has captivated the country, but a majority of Republicans (56%) believe the case is getting too much media coverage, as do a sizable chunk of white people (43%), according to a new Pew Poll . By contrast, only 25% of Democrats and 16% of blacks believe the story is overplayed. It "has emerged as a kind of flashpoint story that divides people," a Pew associate director tells the LA Times . "People have very different reactions based on race and ethnicity." More»

It's blindly beating the war drums once again: Glenn Greenwald

(NEWSER) - The American media took its lumps after the Iraqi war for not challenging the government's allegations against Saddam Hussein. It promised to learn its lesson. Guess what? The same thing is now happening in regard to Iran, with a twist: The media is actually "out in front of the US government in the propaganda effort rather than in their normal position of submissively marching behind," writes Glenn Greenwald in Salon . More»

...and other mistakes

(NEWSER) - One is the president of the United States. The other was bent on destroying the United States. So you’d think Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden would be pretty easy to keep straight. But when the former announced the death of the latter, a really embarrassing number of news outlets couldn’t , and the ubiquitous "Obama bin Laden dead" gaffes that followed have been named Poynter ’s top typo of the year. Every year Craig Silverman looks at the biggest media screw-ups; the other notable typos, errors, and gaffes he spotted include: More»