Brady retires! (Maybe)

Too-eager journalists create confusion over star QB’s decision

Oops.

A couple of ESPN journalists found themselves in a controversy Saturday when they tweeted that Tom Brady — probably the greatest quarterback in the history of professional football — would retire from the game at age 44 after 22 seasons in the NFL. Brady led the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to seven Super Bowl championships — six in New England and one in Tampa.

Tom Brady is retiring from football after 22 extraordinary seasons, multiple sources tell @JeffDarlington and me.

More coming on https://t.co/rDZaVFhcDQ. pic.twitter.com/6CHWmMlyXg

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 29, 2022

Brady followed immediately by claiming that he hasn’t made the decision yet.

His agent wrote this confusing statement for Brady:

“I understand the advance speculation about Tom’s future,” Yee wrote on Saturday. “Without getting into the accuracy or inaccuracy of what’s being reported, Tom will be the only person to express his plans with complete accuracy. He knows the realities of the football business and planning calendar as well anybody, so that should be soon.”

Here’s what you can do:

So what does it mean? Brady may very well retire, and he may announce it today. Or next week. It’s likely the journalists were right, but the public’s response to Schefter and Darlington was predictably negative.

How would your news organization cover news like this? Ideally, a journalist with confirmed information would then check with the subject of the news and write a story, not just Tweet information.

Professional high-level and proven journalists such as Schefter and Darlington do it because they’ve proven to  have reliable sources. In your case, as novice journalists, you probably don’t have the credibility built up to do such a thing.

It’s a great discussion to have about what kind of sources and information qualify as full confirmation that a story is true. Don’t rush to publish if you don’t have something nailed down 100 percent.

Fashion never dies

Fashion icons Manfred Thierry Mugler and André Leon Talley dead, but their legacy lives

Outlandish, iconic French designer Manfred Thierry Mugler died at 73 last week after defining hate couture since 1973.

Throughout his career Mugler dressed celebrities like Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Diana Ross, and Kim Kardashian in beautiful, creative designs. He wasn’t the only legendary fashion Icon to die recently.

André Leon Talley also died this month at 73 years old. Talley was a fashion journalist who was a director and editor at Vogue magazine. In his memoir The Chiffon Trenches, released in May 2020, Talley wrote about being raised by his grandmother in segregated Durham, North Carolina. He said going to church with her sparked his passion for fashion.

Here’s what you can do:

Writing obituaries doesn’t always have to be sad and bleak. You want to shed light on the changes that person made in their life and celebrate them. Features on someone after their death come from looking into things they said, wrote, or made during their life and talking to people who were close to them.

There are many ways you can cement someone’s memory in publications. This feature about Talley from NPR is a conversation about his legacy through a podcast.

This article from Beyond The Dash shows how to create a good feature obituary. Some things you want to keep in mind are that you want to make a feature much more in-depth than a normal news obituary and you often want to use a creative story format using literary devices to tell a story with perspective.

Journalism can help to keep the memory of legendary celebrities and community members alive after death.

Media bias helps no one

Child actor who was once typecast as the “fat kid” shows the label sticks with him today

Robert Capron, who played Rowley in Diary of a Wimpy Kid sat down with The New Yorker to discuss how being perpetually labeled as the “fat kid” in movies, was damaging for the young actor. At 11 years old, he was immediately made into a stereotype that he desperately wanted to escape.

Typecasting is popular in movies and television and it can hurt audiences who can relate to certain characters. The stereotype assigned to Capron as a child followed him through adulthood as his acting career continued. He landed fewer parts or was only sought out for “heavier” roles.

Capron’s discussion with the publication shed light on the detriments of stereotyping in media as it continues to occur in much of the popular media we consume.

Here’s what you can do:

Movies and TV shows aren’t the only forms of media infected with stereotyping. News publications need to work on making sure every voice is represented equally and fairly.

Stereotyping in the media has a significant effect on how different identities and minorities are perceived. The SPJ Code of Ethics states, “Avoid stereotyping. Journalists should examine the ways their values and experiences may shape their reporting.”

Facing History has a lesson on how to minimize bias in the media that runs students through a practice of providing accurate and ethical reporting without stereotyping. The lesson includes a reminder that journalists need to keep their own biases in mind because we use our rational minds to come up with as much evidence as possible that confirms our existing emotions, ideas, and beliefs about a given subject.

Sorry you don’t get free college, here’s some free college!

Mistake made at Michigan school leads to an apology in the form of free tuition

Officials at Central Michigan University mistakenly told students that they would receive full-ride scholarships to the university, and when they realized the mistake they attempted to make it up to the students — by giving them scholarships anyway.

58 students were notified about the awards but staff said that technology malfunctions caused the messages to be sent to all those students.

The school understood that they made a mistake, took responsibility for it, and even made up for it no matter how much it cost them.

Here’s what you can do:

Journalists make mistakes too, even if we hate to admit it. When you do, it’s not the end of the world. The first thing you should do when you make a mistake, is reach out to your editor or advisor. I’s also a good idea to offer phrasing for the correction, because as the writer you have the best idea of what the correction should look like.

The Open Notebook offers a guide for how to handle mistakes as a journalist and overcome them. The guide says that a critical aspect of mistake correction involves communication between the journalist and the person the mistake involved. For instance, if a story included a misspelling of someone’s name or misstated their gender, it’s important to apologize as soon as possible.

If you fail to print a correction and apologize, your audience may lose faith in you or your publication. Just remain transparent and honest with your audience.