PJNet » Spokesman-Review http://pjnet.org Public Journalism Network Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:04:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Spokane Editor Steve Smith Resigns http://pjnet.org/post/1891/ http://pjnet.org/post/1891/#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:26:39 +0000 Leonard Witt http://pjnet.org/?p=1891 Long time public journalism advocate Steven A. Smith’s resignation as editor of the Spokane Spokesman-Review becomes effective today October 3, 2008.

In an interview with Michele McLellan he said:

The journalism that’s important to me is no longer possible…It is no longer my job or our job to save newspapers. Our job is to save journalism and the values that underlie newspaper journalism.

Smith has long been a part of the public journalism movement and was among the early advocates of the Public Journalism Network. He also is a key player in our “Outing of Mayor Jim West” ethics case study here at the PJNet.org. The case study is available for any journalism ethics class to use.

In an Spokesman Review press release Smith is quoted as saying:

“my resignation as editor of The Spokesman-Review should not overshadow
the simultaneous layoff of more than 25 newsroom staffers. Those journalists losing their
jobs are among the newspaper’s best and brightest. I hired most of them. I pledge to do
everything possible to help them find new opportunities in the profession we love.”

The newsroom staff has been cut to 85 or about half its former size since 2000, according to McLellan.

]]> http://pjnet.org/post/1891/feed/ 0 Free Ethics Case Study: Spokesman-Review Outs Mayor Jim West http://pjnet.org/post/1636/ http://pjnet.org/post/1636/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:01:19 +0000 Leonard Witt http://pjnet.org/post/1636/ Remember when the Spokane Spokesman-Review had a computer forensic expert go to online chat rooms posing as a teenage male, which ultimately ended in the outing of the Spokane Mayor Jim West? Was it ethical? I have produced an in-depth case study aimed specifically for journalism and ethics classes to help their students see how difficult it is to make the right ethical decisions. The students will be asked to write a 600-word memo saying whether or not the Spokesman-Review editors acted ethically or not. Their decisions, and there is no equivocation allowed, will be informed by newspaper articles, interviews, opinion pieces and even a TV documentary. Steve Smith, editor of the Spokesman-Review then and now, has agreed to read some of the best memos. As the professor or instructor you can grade them as you like or even ask that the memo be longer. That’s your call.

This will work great for online classes and for face-to-face classes too.  Give it a try, let me know what you think.  If you want a quick three-minute overview, here is a screencast tutorial,  However, you will have to come back here to click on the case study itself.

Thanks to the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation for the funding to help make this possible and to all the newspaper and other news organizations that gave permission to use their copyrighted materials.  

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