Brand Central Station

“Free Speech” can be a tricky thing … especially for journalists. And Helen Thomas, the esteemed columnust for Hearst Newspapers and long-time fixture in the White House Press Room found out today that saying what’s on her mind – even if it’s her right to do so – can come with a price.

Whether you agree with Ms. Thomas’ opinion that Jews in Isreal should “get the hell out of Palestine” or not, what’s important to note here is that controversial opinions like these carry both implied and real consequences when they’re utterred in a public forum and captured for re-broadcast via YouTube, CNN, FOX and scores of other news and non-news venues.

The firestorm resulting from Ms. Thomas’ comments and weak-kneed apology are understandably political and, in many cases, incindeary bombs of their own. But it’s the reaction from her agent and both the White House Correspondents Association and Hearst Corporation that really left no choices for Ms. Thomas other than immediate retirement.

On Sunday, Ms. Thomas’ agent, Nine Speakers, Inc. dropped her and her writing partner, Craig Crawford (who co-authored “Listen Up, Mr. President” with Thomas) annoucned he would no longer work with her.

The respect Ms. Thomas earned over fifty years of working the White House didn’t provide enough cover for the 89 year-old journalist’s bombshell with her peers, either. The WH Correspondents Association announced a special meeting on Thursday which, in all likelihood, would have resulted in Ms. Thomas’ demotion from the front row in the WH Briefing Room – a seat she has occupied for decades.

The entire kerfuffle put Hearst in a position where it could do almost nothing to help. The immediate retirement is, in all likelihood, the best way to extinguish the problem before it becomes a longer-term problem for Ms. Thomas and Hearst.

So, what’s the problem?
Ms. Thomas’ opinions, no matter how outrageous, are certainly protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. But the nature of the comments, and the way they were delivered, cast a shadow on the credibility and “assumed” relative objectivity of her analysis as an opinion columnist and member of the White House press corps. Certainly the standards of objectivity are relaxed for a columnist – but as the ONLY columnist with a seat in the White House briefing room, Ms. Thomas had a higher standard to meet.

Ironically, it’s a standard that she set as a leading member of the press corps for the past five decades.

Political backlash aside, there was really nothing else Hearst could do but accelerate Ms. Thomas’ retirement and hope that this will all blow over leaving nothing but charming memories of an “institution” of the White House beat.

Welcome to the regular world, Helen. Your First Amendment rights are still protected – but now you’ll get paid for your opinion at the same rate the rest of us do. Zip.

What do you think is next for Helen Thomas?

In a recent post on B2B Magazine’s web site, Stephen Brill, L. Gordon Crovitz and Leo Hindery announced the launch of Journalism Online, a company designed to help newspapers, magazines and other media get paid for content distributed online.

And publishers of every print media could use the help.  Magazine revenue dropped nearly 25% this past quarter. Newspaper and other medias are down big, too.

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The marketing news site ADOTAS caught my eye with this article on the growth of local news sites earlier this week.  While dozens of companies have been trying to develop the sites to tap into local ad dollars, there are some problems.

The lure of billions of advertising dollars (an estimated $32B will be spent by 2013, ADOTAS reports) is attracting developers but the big problem is content.  Will these local sites be able to afford the reporters, et al, neccessary to provide relevant (and readable) content local news consumers will want?

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An ad promoting NBC’s edgy, new copy show, “Southland” has set journalistic purists and other media watchers on edge by not only appearing on the front page of the LA Times but showing up in the guise of a newspaper article strategically placed next to a display ad for the show.  The article/ad was designed to look like a report about the series’ hero.

While running ads on the front page is nothing new for the LA Times (they’ve been doing that since 2007), this is the first time the paper has run mock news article on page 1.

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Interesting piece in the Cision Navigator this month.  Jason Falls writes about how media pitches need to change with the evolution of media.

Jason blasts PR’s who were “lulled into laziness by technology” and relied on fax blasts, email marketing and blind cc’s on emails to push releases and information to journalists by the hundred (or thousand).  It was, as Jason aptly describes it, a numbers game.  Then bloggers started “outing” lazy flacks:

Bloggers changed the dynamic. They not only were not lulled into tolerating the mass mail mentality like traditional media, they discovered they could combat it by publicly humiliating public relations pros who did it.

Good for them. Without that shock to our system, the public relations industry would still be spiraling down a path of journalists as numbers, not as people.

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Astroturfing is bad … and there are plenty of published floggings of PR firms guilty of “over-enthusiastic” shilling for clients.  Enough, in fact, that many PR folks are viewed with disdain by journalists and bloggers.

There’s no doubt that PR firms that plant good reviews on blogs, write letters to the editor in support of their clients, etc. – and don’t identify themselves as agents for their clients are stepping over an ethical line.  But what do you do when you find bloggers (and journalists) who offer to provide positive reviews and/or coverage at a price?

Danny Brown, social media maverick and PR guy, posted an example of this on his weblog yesterday and it deserves further review and comment.

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Gary Goldhammer’s recent post on his Below the Fold blog recalls a reporters life before the ubiquity of the Internet or the advent of “social media.”

It’s a great piece on the emotional connection between reporting and being a reporter.

Read it.