Connecting - Feb. 29, 2024

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Feb. 29, 2024

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Colleagues,

Good Thursday morning on this Leap Day, Feb. 29, 2024,

Congratulations to our colleague Skip Foreman – among the newest members of the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame.

Skip’s entire 43-year Associated Press career was spent in North Carolina, in Raleigh and Charlotte, and he also was a member of the AP’s Race & Ethnicity Team. Skip retired from the AP in 2022, but not from journalism. He is in his 52^nd year in journalism, now working as regional sports editor for Lee Enterprises for the News & Record of Greensboro.and the Winston-Salem Journal.

We have not uncovered any Connecting colleague with a Leap Day birthday, but we bring you two delightful stories relating to the day.

One of those profiled, New York attorney Jonathan Socolow, is hosting his 15th birthday celebration tonight in the Big Apple. No, he's not the youngest attorney on record. He turns 60 today. He's the son of the late CBS journalist Sandy Socolow. Jonathan notes to friends who may join him, "Of course, as this is my 15th birthday, you'll not be able to buy me any alcohol - but the bar menu looks good."

You'll note that the Birthdays section in today's Today in History is a bit slim. Understandably.

Have a great day – be safe, stay healthy, live it to your fullest.

Paul

Skip Foreman selected for North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame

Skip Foreman, a 43-year veteran of The Associated Press before retiring from the AP in 2022, is among a group of journalists who will be inducted into the 2024 class of the North Carolina Media and Journalism Hall of Fame.

The announcement was made Wednesday by the Hussman School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Others in the 2024 class:

Eric Montross, who will be honored posthumously. He was a UNC basketball player and member of the 1993 NCAA Championship team, an eight-year professional basketball player in the NBA and color commentator of almost two decades on the Tar Heel Sports Network.

J.J. Carter, global chief operating officer and president of Americas at the global public relations and marketing agency FleishmanHillard.

Melanie Sill, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor known for her roles as top editor and senior vice president of news at The News & Observer, Sacramento Bee and KPCC/ Southern California Public Radio.

Ami Vitale, a Nikon, Canson Infinity and Luminar Neo Ambassador and National Geographic photographer, writer, speaker and documentary filmmaker. She has traveled to more than 100 countries, documenting the heartbreaking realities of war and witnessing the inspiring power of individuals making a difference.

Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC), a diversified media company founded in 1937 known for their three television and nine radio stations across North Carolina and ownership of the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team and Coastal Plain summer baseball league. CBC, the inaugural corporate honoree, is represented by CEO and Chairman of the Board James Goodmon.

The six will be inducted on April 19 at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill.

The biography of Foreman from the news release:

Skip Foreman is marking his 52nd year in journalism, going back to his days as a reporter at The Daily Reflector of Greenville while he was in high school.

After entering the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he worked for both The Daily Tar Heel and The Black Ink student newspapers, covering news and sports. Following UNC, Foreman joined in 1977 the news staff at WCHL-AM in Chapel Hill, where he reported news and sports, was an afternoon news anchor and a correspondent for the Tar Heel Sports Network.

In May 1979, Foreman joined the Raleigh bureau of The Associated Press. His 43 years with the news cooperative covered the gamut of its work, from news to photography to broadcast to sports and back to news. He would move from Raleigh to the AP’s Charlotte office in 2013, and during his time there he was appointed to the AP’s Race & Ethnicity Team, a position that led him to coverage of the deaths of Black men at the hands of police in Ferguson, Baltimore and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Following the first incident in Minneapolis involving the shooting death of Philando Castile, he would join in coverage of the memorial service in North Carolina and the protests involving the murder of George Floyd. His work also involved the shooting of two Black men by police in Charlotte, the second of which led to a night of violent protests.

Foreman retired from the AP in July 2022. He joined HBCU Gameday, a website dedicated to coverage of sports and culture at historically Black colleges and universities.

In November 2022, Foreman was hired as regional sports editor for Lee Enterprises for the News & Record of Greensboro.and the Winston-Salem Journal. Last June, he represented the two newspapers in coverage of Wake Forest in the College World Series, adding to a career that includes six Men’s Final Fours, numerous ACC tournaments and the arrival of the Charlotte Hornets and the Carolina Panthers.

Foreman is married to Jeri Young, managing editor of the Journal. They have a son, Trip, who is football operations manager for the Panthers, and a daughter, Katie, who works for World Wildlife Fund.

The NC Media & Journalism Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have made outstanding and career-long contributions to the fields of advertising, journalism, media or public relations. Sponsored by the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media, the NC Media and Journalism Hall of Fame inducts individuals with deep ties to the state.

Originally created as the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame in 1981, the inaugural honorees were Charles Kuralt, C.A. “Pete” McKnight, Vermont Royster, Tom Wicker and Josephus Daniels (posthumously). Recognizing a need to honor the varying industry professions, the school created the N.C. Advertising Hall of Fame and the N.C. Public Relations Hall of Fame in 1988. Charles R. Price was the inaugural honoree for advertising and John Harden (posthumously) for public relations. Up until the mid-2010s, the three Hall of Fames hosted a joint gala in which honorees would be honored in their respective category. In 2015, the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame inducted notable sportscaster and UNC alumnus Stuart Scott in a tribute ceremony following his death.

It’s Leap Day – and here are Leap stories

Jerry Cipriano - One of my last assignments for The Associated Press back in 1984 was writing Today in History, including the edition for February 29th, Leap Day. The file I inherited had only one celebrity birthday for that day, the French film actress Michele Morgan. My search for others in the pre-internet era was fruitless. The most famous leapling I knew was the legendary AP General Desk Editor Ed Dennehy, born on the 29th of February, 1912. In 2000, another Leap Year, I wrote a CBS Radio commentary for Dan Rather to mark Leap Day.

Dan Rather reporting.

What is so rare as a day in June?

THIS day. February 29th.

After all, there are THIRTY days in June.

Hardly could you consider that rare.

But February 29th?

That comes but once every four years.

Which makes people born on this date members of a very exclusive club.

There are just 200-thousand in the U.S.A.

Four-million around the world.

The imperfect world -- in which the earth can't quite complete its journey around the sun in an even 365 days.

No, like most of us, it runs a little behind, making the trip in 365 and a quarter days.

So, every four years, the calendar-makers give the earth an extra day to catch up.

And wouldn't it be nice if the same courtesy were extended to us?

One day to catch up on the tasks we can't quite complete in a day that has just 24 hours ... or a week with just seven days .. or a year with just 365.

But I'm afraid this extra day will not be an opportunity to catch up .. but a day to fall further behind.

An extra day with extra tasks that won't get done between sun and sun.

But perhaps it's an opportunity -- a reminder to take a moment in time to THINK about time -- not how we count it, but how we make it count, for however long or short a time we have on this earth.

Before we run out of time, congratulations to the newest members of the February 29th club, born today.

And best wishes to the senior members of this quadrennial birthday society.

We hope this extra day is extra special for all of you.

Dan Rather Reporting, CBS News.

Dodi Fromson - Only Leap Year birthday I know is that of Jonathan Socolow, son of the late Sandy Socolow, producer and right hand of Walter Cronkite for eons. Actually, Sandy's then wife and I were both due at the same time. Jono was born on the 29th, my son on March 11th. Jono celebrates his "15TH" BIRTHDAY today by inviting friends to stop by and toast him in NY. Sandy and my late husband Murray were housemates in Tokyo back in the '50s after Korean War...Sandy was UPI then...and our late daughter's godfather. Jono is a lawyer in NYC.

So, Connecting reached out to Jonathan and received this:

Jonathan Socolow - I love it.

When you are a kid and go to a friend's house to play, all mothers ask the visiting kid when his/her birthday is - when you say Feb 29 -- the mother gives a huge reaction. Your friend then is incredibly jealous that you were able to get such a rise out of their mom.

It is always a nice topic of conversation....also, in the off years...three out of four -- it is nice to be able to relax and not think about or worry about your birthday. Birthdays are the other guy's problem, not yours. Then every four years when you have one, it feels right and justified to make the big deal. Very self-satisfying celebration. It makes for a nice rhythm in life like the Olympics or presidential elections -- pausing for a lengthy period and then having a big fat noticeable punctuation mark.

Connecting series:

Your stories of serving on a jury

Elaine Thompson - I was called to jury duty in 2002, and assigned with dozens of other citizens for voir dire to a first degree assault case of four teen defendants accused of beating two other teens, including badly injuring one of the victims with his own crutches. The case had received a lot of local media attention and during voir dire I was asked whether I knew of the case and did I have an opinion about it. I said yes to both, expecting to be immediately dismissed, but instead the judge, Richard Jones, turned to me and asked me if, because I was a journalist for the Associated Press, wouldn't I be able to put aside my own opinions, listen carefully and openly to all testimony and judge the cases fairly based only on the evidence provided in court. I answered of course I could do that and, with no objection from the defense or prosecution, was seated on the jury.

The trial lasted six weeks (and fortunately at a slightly slower news and sports time of the year), with local media following it closely. I startled more than one fellow journalist covering the case when they happened to notice me in the jury box, but we no more than caught a glimpse of each other and continued with our work. It was riveting and fascinating to be such an integral part of the justice system--we even had our own "Perry Mason" moment. A key eyewitness left a questioning defense lawyer dumbfounded and the courtroom suddenly dead silent when the attorney pushed her hard on her memory from those months earlier, asking facetiously if she'd written it down or something. "Well, I do write in my diary every night," she answered. She was asked to bring in her diary the next day, and her entry from the night of the assault, which she hadn't read since she'd written it, matched her earlier testimony.

We convicted three of the teens to the first-degree charges, and after much discussion and because we were not wholly convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, the fourth to a lesser charge.

Some small-world moments followed. I happened to run into the parents of the seriously injured teen months later. The mom remembered the faces of all the jurors, thanked me and filled me in on the progress her son was making as he was about to head off to college. And a year after the trial, I was assigned as the pool photographer for the sentencing of the Green River serial killer, before the same Judge Richard Jones. Who, again recognized me as a staff photographer for the AP.

A trip to see Iwo Jima

Frank Hawkins - Iwo Jima was turned back to Japan in 1968. Since then the Japanese have tightly controlled access. There are no permanent residents on the island. However, the Japanese Marine Self-Defense Force maintains an active base there. Once a year they open the island to American visitors to participate in a joint remembrance ceremony to honor the dead on both sides.

In 2016, I was fortunate enough to visit the island for one of those annual ceremonies as part of an honor flight for veterans out of Guam. That’s Mt. Suribachi in the background (above photo) where the American flag was planted in the early days of the month and a half long battle and where the Rosenthal photo was taken. I walked all the way up and all the way down in respect for the 25,000 American casualties including some 7,000 dead. Japanese losses were approximately 22,000 dead. At the top of Mt. Suribachi, I carried a photo of my son-in-law's grandfather standing beside his Sherman tank called the "Dreadnaught" and other members of the 5th Division who fought with him during the battle. It goes without saying that I scooped up some of the volcanic sand and small rocks and brought them back with me. They are in a small jar on my desk.

Fake news, French Fry cones!

Jim Carrier - Real newspapers can’t catch a break.

Even the good ol’ days when they wrapped French fries is gone, usurped by fakes!

Click here.

Stories of interest

Digital outlets The Intercept, Raw Story and AlterNet sue OpenAI for unauthorized use of journalism (AP)

BY DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — Digital news outlets The Intercept, Raw Story and AlterNet are joining the fight against unauthorized use of their journalism in artificial intelligence, filing a copyright-infringement lawsuit Wednesday against ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

The organizations say thousands of their stories were used by OpenAI to train chatbots to answer questions posed to it by users, in effect piggybacking on their journalism without permission, payment or credit.

San Francisco-based OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The already beleaguered news industry sees the practice as a financial threat. Some news outlets, including The Associated Press, have struck licensing deals for use of their material. After similar negotiations broke down, The New York Times filed its own lawsuit in December to halt the practice or receive compensation.

The three outlets suing OpenAI did not offer specific examples of stories they allege were stolen. But they said recreations of what ChatGPT used to train its bots turned up examples of material from the three news outlets.

Read more here. Shared by Bill Sikes.

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How a Small Iowa Newspaper’s Website Became an AI-Generated Clickbait Factory (Wired)

In his spare time, Tony Eastin likes to dabble in the stock market. One day last year, he Googled a pharmaceutical company that seemed like a promising investment. One of the first search results Google served up on its news tab was listed as coming from the Clayton County Register, a newspaper in northeastern Iowa. He clicked, and read. The story was garbled and devoid of useful information—and so were all the other finance-themed posts filling the site, which had absolutely nothing to do with northeastern Iowa. “I knew right away there was something off,” he says. There’s plenty of junk on the internet, but this struck Eastin as strange: Why would a small Midwestern paper churn out crappy blog posts about retail investing?

Eastin was primed to find online mysteries irresistible. After years in the US Air Force working on psychological warfare campaigns he had joined Meta, where he investigated nastiness ranging from child abuse to political influence operations. Now he was between jobs, and welcomed a new mission. So Eastin reached out to Sandeep Abraham, a friend and former Meta colleague who previously worked in Army intelligence and for the National Security Agency, and suggested they start digging.

Read more here. Shared by Claude Erbsen.

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CBS News returns confidential files of reporter covering Hunter Biden laptop scandal (New York Post)

By Alexandra Steigrad

CBS News on Monday finally returned confidential files belonging to fired investigative reporter Catherine Herridge amid mounting pressure from the House Judiciary Committee and the union representing the journalist, The Post has learned

Herridge — who is in the middle of a key First Amendment case — had been probing the Hunter Biden laptop scandal when the acclaimed journalist was shockingly fired as part of mass layoffs by parent company Paramount Global nearly two weeks ago.

Her personal files — along with her work laptop, which may have contained other confidential info — were immediately confiscated and locked away at the CBS News office in Washington, DC.

“Catherine Herridge’s union representative picked up her materials this morning,” a CBS News rep confirmed to The Post on Monday.

Read more here. Shared by Linda Deutsch.

Today in History - Feb. 29, 2024

Today is Thursday, Feb. 29, the 60th day of 2024. There are 306 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On February 29, 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award when she took best supporting actress for “Gone With the Wind,” which won eight Oscars overall including best picture.

On this date:

In 1504, Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica during his fourth voyage to the West, used a correctly predicted lunar eclipse to frighten hostile natives into providing food for his crew.

In 1796, President George Washington proclaimed Jay’s Treaty, which settled some outstanding differences with Britain, in effect.

In 1892, the United States and Britain agreed to submit to arbitration their dispute over seal-hunting rights in the Bering Sea. (A commission later ruled in favor of Britain.)

In 1904, bandleader Jimmy Dorsey was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.

In 1916, singer, actor and TV personality Dinah Shore was born Frances Rose Shore in Winchester, Tennessee. (Shore, who claimed March 1, 1917 as her birthdate, died in 1994 just days before she would have turned 78.)

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a second Neutrality Act as he appealed to American businesses not to increase exports to belligerents.

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced he would seek a second term of office. Serial killer Aileen Wuornos was born in Rochester, Michigan (she was executed by the state of Florida in 2002).

In 1960, the first Playboy Club, featuring waitresses clad in “bunny” outfits, opened in Chicago. Serial killer Richard Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas (he died in 2013 while awaiting execution in California).

In 1968, at the Grammy Awards, the 5th Dimension’s “Up, Up and Away” won record of the year for 1967, while album of the year honors went to The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

In 1980, former Israeli foreign minister Yigal Allon, who had played an important role in the Jewish state’s fight for independence, died at age 61.

In 1984, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced he was stepping down after more than 15 combined years in power.

In 1996, Daniel Green was convicted in Lumberton, North Carolina, of murdering James R. Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan, during a 1993 roadside holdup. (Green and an accomplice, Larry Martin Demery, were sentenced to life in prison.)

In 2012, Davy Jones the heartthrob singer who helped propel the made-for-TV rock band The Monkees to the top of the pop charts, died in Stuart, Florida at age 66.

In 2016, Justice Clarence Thomas broke 10 years of courtroom silence and posed questions during a Supreme Court oral argument dealing with gun rights, provoking gasps from the audience.

Today’s Birthdays: Former astronaut Jack Lousma is 88. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople is 84. Motivational speaker Tony Robbins is 64. Legal affairs blogger Eugene Volokh is 56. Actor Antonio Sabato Jr. is 52. Poet, musician and hip-hop artist Saul Williams is 52. Rapper Ja Rule is 48. Singer-musician Mark Foster (Foster the People) is 40. Former NHL goaltender Cam Ward is 40.

Got a story or photos to share?

Connecting is a daily newsletter published Monday through Friday that reaches more than 1,800 retired and former Associated Press employees, present-day employees, and news industry and journalism school colleagues. It began in 2013. Past issues can be found by clicking Connecting Archive in the masthead. Its author, Paul Stevens, retired from the AP in 2009 after a 36-year career as a newsman in Albany and St. Louis, correspondent in Wichita, chief of bureau in Albuquerque, Indianapolis and Kansas City, and Central Region vice president based in Kansas City.

Got a story to share? A favorite memory of your AP days? Don't keep them to yourself. Share with your colleagues by sending to Ye Olde Connecting Editor. And don't forget to include photos!

Here are some suggestions:

- Connecting "selfies" - a word and photo self-profile of you and your career, and what you are doing today. Both for new members and those who have been with us a while.

- Second chapters - You finished a great career. Now tell us about your second (and third and fourth?) chapters of life.

- Spousal support - How your spouse helped in supporting your work during your AP career.

- My most unusual story - tell us about an unusual, off the wall story that you covered.

- "A silly mistake that you make"- a chance to 'fess up with a memorable mistake in your journalistic career.

- Multigenerational AP families - profiles of families whose service spanned two or more generations.

- Volunteering - benefit your colleagues by sharing volunteer stories - with ideas on such work they can do themselves.

- First job - How did you get your first job in journalism?

- Most unusual place a story assignment took you.

Paul Stevens

Editor, Connecting newsletter

paulstevens46@gmail.com