Quotation of the year
“I refuse to let my professionalism and my femininity be defined by a piece of fabric.”
— Melissa Medley, Enterprise Florida
Florida answers critics of ‘sexist’ logo: ‘It’s just a cartoon’ (M. Alex Johnson/NBC News)
Police Blotter of the Day: ‘Marijuana’ in undercover deal was sandwich
A Graham man was charged Monday with selling an undercover police officer a bag that he said contained an ounce of marijuana.
Instead, the bag contained a half-eaten chicken sandwich.
(Dustin Rockwell Davis, 23, was charged with selling and delivering a counterfeit controlled substance — which is also a felony.)
Full story (Burlington, N.C., Times-News)
Police Blotter of the Day: Kaboom! Oddly named man’s walking stick leads to evacuation
An aluminum pipe with the word “Kaboom” written on it led to the evacuation of Akron City Hall on Wednesday. Turns out it was a walking stick, and “Kaboom” was the owner’s name. Really.
Full story (NBC News)
Shepard Smith apologizes for the wrong thing
Watch the full apology (YouTube via TPM)
After Fox News broadcast a man’s shooting himself in the head near Salome, Ariz., after a hundred-mile car chase Friday, anchor Shepard Smith abjectly apologized to his viewers:
“Sometimes, we see a lot of things that we don’t let get to you, because it’s not time appropriate, it’s insensitive, it’s just wrong. And that was wrong. And that won’t happen again on my watch. And I’m sorry.”
Hats off to Smith for the apology, which was richly merited — but not for the reason he gave.
What Fox viewers should have heard was an apology for the network’s having devoted any time at all to a local police chase involving some random guy whom nobody besides his friends and family have heard of.
#JournalismRules update: ‘exclusive’; ‘scoop’
I’ve updated The Reader’s Guide to Journalists with two new entries. Check it out and pass along your proposed rules.
Can you scientifically quantify social media opinion?
Over at NBCNews.com, we’ve started publishing daily charts tracking what people are saying about the presidential and vice presidential candidates on Twitter and Facebook. Here’s today’s for the weekend (click here for the full-size version):
In my analysis, I write:
In recent weeks, Obama has generally led Romney by two to seven percentage points in national polls, which carefully select their samples to reflect Americans most engaged in the election and registered to vote.
The picture is different among Americans who have gone online to talk about the election, however — NBCPolitics.com’s analysis indicates that that narrower but more diverse sample of the country prefers Romney by 36 percent to 32 percent overall and by 51 percent to 49 percent when they’re compared head to head:
Police Blotter of the Day: Be on the lookout for me
Lithonia Police Chief Washington Varnum Jr. is accused of attempting to serve his own eviction notice.
“He basically provided a sworn statement to the courts that he himself could not be found,” said Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) spokesman Ryan Powell.
Full story (WSB-TV of Atlanta)
Police Blotter of the Day: Drunk man goes into wrong house, gets into bed with couple
Click to watch the report from WDIV-TV
Police said House had a blood alcohol level of 0.174.
Full story (WDIV-TV of Detroit)
Police Blotter of the Day: Honestly, officer, that’s not cocaine
FORT WALTON BEACH — A man who pulled out his pants pockets to show a Fort Walton Beach Police officer he wasn’t carrying drugs didn’t count on a plastic bag of cocaine falling to the ground.
Full story (Northwest Florida Daily News)
Nope, I haven’t changed jobs, or: Welcome to NBCNews.com
But my employer changed names:
NBC News has acquired full control of msnbc.com and its digital network from Microsoft Corp. and is immediately rebranding the site as NBCNews.com.
Many details of the arrangement remain to be worked out, and financial terms weren’t disclosed.
But NBC News President Steve Capus said the site — one of the news industry’s earliest and most successful online operations — would become part of NBC News Digital, a new division led by Vivian Schiller, the former president and chief executive of National Public Radio. Schiller joined NBC News as chief digital officer last year.
Full story (M. Alex Johnson/NBCNews.com)
Alex Johnson - Journalist at Large 