The Latest: Serial rises (again) amid pushback; Anchors suspended, fired; Mic layoffs

September 21, 2022

■ News anchor suspended for criticizing the treatment of former co-anchor amid controversial departure (People) / Local Fox anchor fired from TV station after profane on-air tirade at female co-host (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) / New York City weatherman fired after webcam nudes leak (Daily Beast)

■ ‘Serial’ rises on podcast charts after Adnan Syed conviction is vacated (Wall Street Journal) / How the investigation of Adnan Syed became a podcast phenomenon (NPR) / 'Serial' put global attention on Adnan Syed. Is that still possible in today's crowded podcast market ? (NBC News) / ’Serial’ made true crime prestigious, but now it feels dated (BuzzFeed)

■ 'Ppl keep telling me we wouldn’t be here who @Serial - true but here’s the best analogy I can come up with about it. Imagine you ask someone to help renovate your house. Instead they set fire to it. The story about the fire brings thousands to your aid that rebuild your house.’ (Rabia Chaudry) / 'I'm not saying I can't appreciate what Serial lead to. I just think all the frustrations that alot of us have are due to it being produced by people who produced if for the wrong reasons and that shows when I listen to it.' (Asia McClain Chapman) / 'Until his release, Syed had been one of 25 incarcerated students in the inaugural class of Georgetown ’s Bachelor of Liberal Arts program, granted by Georgetown College, which launched at Patuxent [Institution] in February 2022’ (Georgetown University)

■ 'After nearly four years as editor-in-chief at Mic, the entire team and I were laid off yesterday . As sad as it is to close this chapter, I’m incredibly proud of what we created.' (Shanté Cosme) / Flashback: Mic, a news site for millennials, lays off most of its staff (New York Times, 2018)

■ 'I'm leaving CNN after six years there … There are changes on one of the teams I led, the Media team, but I’m really glad @oliverdarcy is there to take the baton. (And that the Reliable Sources newsletter will FINALLY be shorter . Sorry @brianstelter, had to say it.)’ (Alex Koppelman)' / 'I am sad to announce that I will be leaving CNN … My five and a half years on the media desk with @AlexKoppelman, @oliverdarcy and @brianstelter are ones that I will never forget’ (An Phung)

■ 'Industry insiders say Gannett is shopping at least 60 of its nearly 500 publications, after dumping more than 100 since 2020 … Cost-cutting has been [CEO Mike] Reed’s calling card since the acquisition [by GateHouse]. The two companies had about 25,000 employees when they combined, a spokeswoman told the Associated Press at the time. By the end of 2021, the ranks had dwindled to 13,800 in the U.S. and 2,500 abroad, according to Gannett’s government filings.’ (Northwestern University)'

■ Here’s how 2 local reporters in battleground states are tackling the midterms (Poynter)

■ How Judy Woodruff saw politics change: The ‘PBS NewsHour’ anchor and managing editor reflects on the changing landscape of gender, politics and journalism (The 19th*)

Press freedom

■ Fired Fox News host Ed Henry’s defamation lawsuit against network dismissed (The Wrap)

■ Judge dismisses BuzzFeed lawsuit aimed at obtaining Jan. 6 records from Capitol Police (The Hill)

■ Florida brings battle over social media regulation to the Supreme Court (Washington Post)

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"Don’t try to list your questions in such an organized way that it makes it hard to actually listen to what someone’s saying to you, because I think sometimes when you go in and have too many set questions it means that in some way you’ve already decided what the person’s going to say to you, and it’s good to go into an interview with an open mind because I find that the best questions are follow-up questions."

-- Jen Maxfield, Emmy award-winning reporter NBC-NY, “How to level up your interview skills by learning to listen better”

Manager's Minute: Is ‘quiet quitting’ a real thing?

Jill Geisler, Bill Plante Chair in Leadership & Media Integrity at Loyola University Chicago and Freedom Forum Fellow in Women’s Leadership, discusses employee disengagement and what leaders can do to prevent this.

Watch next: How do you know when it’s time to quit?

Get more career advice: Read Jill's columns | Watch Manager's Minute videos

Resources

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