Bloomberg prematurely shared news about Evan Gershkovich before he and other prisoners were safely back in the US, putting the operation in jeopardy Email not displaying correctly?
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** OPINION
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Good morning, everyone. Tom Jones is on vacation, but the team at Poynter is keeping tabs on the latest media news and analysis.


** Why Bloomberg’s broken embargo matters
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Evan Gershkovich talks on the phone after he arrived at Kelly Field after being released by Russia, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

The big news last week: After 16 months of imprisonment in Russia under false charges, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was free ([link removed]) .

The Journal was not the newsroom to break that story, however.

Bloomberg News was.

And it wasn’t a scoop to celebrate, since it came thanks to what looks like a broken embargo and before Gershkovich and other prisoners were safely back in the United States.

In the days since, the story of how that happened has itself become the news.

“Embargoes are an important tool for both journalists and sources,” said Kelly McBride, Poynter’s senior vice president and the chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership. “Most of the time they involve a timing request by the source: Don't report this information until this specific point in time. They allow journalists to prepare a news story, so that they can publish the moment the embargo is lifted. Just like granting a source background or off-the-record status, agreeing to participate in an embargo is a promise that you are making.”

They can also be crucial to national security, troop movements and people’s lives.

On Friday, Charlotte Klein wrote for New York Magazine “Everybody Is Mad at Bloomberg News for Its Embargo-Breaking Gershkovich-Is-Free Scoop.” ([link removed])

Klein reported: “At 7:41 a.m. on August 1, Bloomberg published its scoop ([link removed]) about the prisoner swap. Ten minutes later, a Bloomberg editor posted proudly on X, ‘It is one of the greatest honors of my career to have helped break this news. I love my job and my colleagues.’ Then, 8:59, the piece was updated to read: ‘An earlier version of this story was corrected to reflect that the Americans have not been released yet.’ The Journal itself didn’t report it until just after 11 when their reporter and other Americans — whose freedom was negotiated by the U.S. Government as part of an extremely complicated ([link removed]) , 24-person swap across multiple countries — actually deplaned in Turkey.”

That scoop, Klein continues “was inaccurate, given that the Russian plane was still in the air at the time of publication. That plane could have just turned around and gone back to Moscow, which is why the Journal and other publications had agreed to hold off.”

Klein reports that Bloomberg was among the news organizations that were getting briefings after agreeing to hold the story.

On Monday, New York Times media reporter Katie Robertson tweeted ([link removed]) about disciplinary action Bloomberg took against a number of people involved and included the screenshot of an email from Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief, John Micklethwait.

Soon after, Washington Post media reporter Elahe Izadi tweeted ([link removed]) that one of the two Bloomberg reporters who broke the news was no longer at Bloomberg. That reporter, Jennifer Jacobs, followed up Monday afternoon with a tweet that further explained the breach ([link removed]) .

Bloomberg wasn’t the only news organization to disregard the embargo. Author and journalist Brian Stelter tweeted ([link removed]) that Fox News broke the news on Wednesday night.

While most embargoes are about the release of reports, studies and rulings and can be inconsequential, McBride said, that doesn’t mean they should be disregarded.

“It undermines the trustworthiness of you and your colleagues.”

By Kristen Hare, Poynter faculty

A MESSAGE FROM POYNTER
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In partnership with the Society of Environmental Journalists, in this Beat Academy: Climate Change session, we'll connect you with reporters and editors who will share the habits and practices that generate leads. We'll also talk about keeping our eyes open and the reporting methods that turn nascent ideas into coverage that makes climate change real and relevant.

Read more enroll now ([link removed]) .


** Why was Trump at NABJ?
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Why was former President Donald Trump at the Black journalist family reunion last week? The question continues to reverberate.

Before a crowd of predominantly Black journalists at the NABJ convention in Chicago, Trump implied his opponent Kamala Harris is Indian and not really Black, berated Black women moderators, and toyed with giving immunity to Jan. 6 Capitol insurrectionists and the police officers who killed Sonya Massey.

His appearance pushed NABJ into the national news, brought protesters to the hotel where the convention was hosted, and created a rift within the organization. One of the interview hosts received death threatsfollowing the interview ([link removed]) .

Some left asking — what’s a Black journalists’ convention for?

NABJ has long faced questionsover its mission ([link removed]) .

Letrell Crittenden ([link removed]) , now the director of inclusion and audience growth at the American Press Institute ([link removed]) , wrote his dissertation ([link removed]) on NABJ’s history.

There has been “a great deal of dissension over how and for whom NABJ would operate” ever since its founding meeting on Dec. 12, 1975, Crittenden wrote. (Read Crittenden’s dissertation on the history of NABJ, from its founding in 1975 through 2014, here ([link removed]) .)

The question about purpose emerged yet again last week, like an ugly pimple, when NABJ was at the top of the news cycle for all the wrong reasons.

“At a time when NABJ members should have been engaging in fellowship with their peers and mentors,” Shamira Ibrahim ([link removed]) wrote ([link removed]) in The Guardian last week, “they were instead forced to extend professionalism to a hostile guest who peddled racist ideas.”

The organization faced the tension between its dedication to journalism and journalistic integrity and its mission to advocate for fair treatment of Black journalists.

While leadership has defended its decision to invite Trump, there’s no ignoring the potential for a ripple effect.

By TyLisa C. Johnson, audience engagement producer


** Louisana police: ‘Stay back’
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Anew Louisiana law ([link removed]) will make it a misdemeanor for anyone — including journalists — to be within 25 feet of a law enforcement officer if the officer orders them back, Nieman Lab reports ([link removed]) .

A coalition of media companies representing a couple dozen Louisiana news outlets are alleging the law violates the First Amendment, and has filed suit against Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, State Police Superintendent Robert Hodges and East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III.

In 2016, two Louisiana journalists were among a group that filed a suit alleging their constitutional rights were violated when they were arrested during a protest march in Baton Rouge. The city later agreed to pay them $1.17 million.

Images made by those in attendance, including the journalists, were critical in countering the officers’ claims that the protesters were the aggressors, said William Most, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The two journalists said they wouldn’t have been able to capture those images if the law had been on the books during the protests.

By TyLisa C. Johnson, audience engagement producer


** Divide and conquer
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Bill Grueskin, professor at the Columbia Journalism School and alumnus of The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and the Miami Herald, wrote for CJR about the benefits and complications ([link removed]) of starting a new arm of a newsroom in the spirit of innovation.

“(Harvard Professor Clay) Christensen nailed the key issue, then and now: newsroom managers must figure out if their current staff is equipped — intellectually, emotionally, technologically — to handle the pace of change in the business.”

The Washington Post is the latest traditional outlet to rise to such a challenge, with new publisher Will Lewis putting into action a plan that created a third, digital division ([link removed]) .

The piece also reminds readers that if this seems like deja vu, that’s because it is. Other outlets, especially in the very early 2000s, allowed digital teams to experiment with homepage editing, podcasting, blogging, etc. “And let me tell you, it was glorious,” Greuskin wrote.

Greuskin also said the quiet part out loud: “Dual staffs are expensive.” And he recalled how contentious these “digital vs. print” divisions got in newsrooms.

By Josie Hollingsworth, audience director


** Media tidbits and links
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* Unionized staff at Crooked Media — which was founded by former Barack Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor — staged a one-day strike Monday after more than a year of contract negotiations. Members of the 61-person union alleged in a statement ([link removed]) that the company was not living up to its progressive values: “Jon, Jon, and Tommy have consistently reminded us that organizing is essential to successful politics. If the founders believe that this is the case, we ask them to show that by coming to the bargaining table in these final days.” Among the union’s demands are higher salary floors, annual cost-of-living adjustments and safeguards against layoffs.
* McClatchy — which owns about 30 newspapers, including the Miami Herald and The Kansas City Star — will merge with accelerate360 ([link removed]) , a major magazine publisher and distributor. The magazine company owns such titles as Us Weekly, In Touch Weekly, Woman’s World and Life & Style. Its tabloid publications, including the National Enquirer, Star, National Examiner and Globe, will not be included in the merger. Both companies are owned by hedge fund Chatham Asset Management.
* The Buffalo News has completed the sale of its former headquarters ([link removed]) to a local developer for $5.2 million. In a feature story about the effects of new leadership on the News ([link removed]) , Poynter media business reporter Angela Fu noted that a previous deal, for $9 million, fell through in February 2023. Once interest rates cool down, the developer plans to connect the property to others that he owns and create a neighborhood of little alleys and “very cool little buildings.” He also plans to make “some kind of display and create a museum about the history of The Buffalo News.” The News was housed in the brutalist structure from 1973 until 2022.
* What happens when a news site shuts down and takes its website with it? Neiman Lab’s Hanaa' Tameez with “To preserve their work — and drafts of history — journalists take archiving into their own hands.” ([link removed])
* 404 Media’s Samantha Cole with “Leaked Documents Show Nvidia Scraping ‘A Human Lifetime’ of Videos Per Day to Train AI.” ([link removed])
* The New York Times’ David McCabe writes, “‘Google Is a Monopolist,’ Judge Rules in Landmark Antitrust Case.” ([link removed]) We’ll have more on this in the coming days and weeks.
* The United States’ Olympic drought in the men’s 100m final came to an end on Sunday, thanks to Noah Lyles — and extremely precise photo finish equipment. Lyles beat Jamaica's Kishane Thompson by just .005 seconds. ESPN has a photo breakdown ([link removed]) of Lyles’ by-a-hair finish.

Today’s Poynter Report was written by Kristen Hare, TyLisa Johnson, Angela Fu and Ren LaForme.


** More resources for journalists
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* Lead With Influence ([link removed]) is for leaders who manage big responsibilities but have no direct reports.
* Public media journalists: attend our Digital Transformation Project Q&A webinar ([link removed]) Aug. 13.
* Teaching, informing, empowering and convening — see our impact ([link removed]) .

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
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