Today, the NYT’s Nick Wingfield and Brian Stelter  are the latest to attempt to read the mind of Jeff Bezos, bringing us the latest in a string of technology and innovation will save us type stories. Ironically, they are the two things some newspapers, WaPo among them, have spent much of the last two decades avoiding.

This one is notable because it attempts to paint Silicon Valley as not just a savior, but an altruistic one at that.

“Call it a sense of obligation. Or responsibility. Or maybe there is even a twinge of guilt. Helping print journalism adapt to a changed era is becoming a cause de jour among the technology elite.”

I’m not and editor, but I think can tighten that up: “Rich tech guy bought a newspaper. Hooray!”

Who else has been riding this bandwagon?

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Revolutions, a blog about numbers and analytics, was on hand to hear ESPN’s Nate Silver at the recent Joint Statistical Meeting in Montreal. He’s got some 11 tips and principles for journalists when it comes to dealing with numbers, specifically statistics.

Here’s a few.

• Our favorite, correlation is not causation. You can’t always connect the dots, as much as you might want to. For example, just because incidences of violence go up when it’s hot, doesn’t mean climate change causes violence, CBS News.
• The average is still the most useful of all stats. “Because they are looking for interesting stories, journalists often focus on the outliers.” While interesting, outliers don’t illuminate much that you can apply to the world.
• Make predictions. “If journalists would put their money and their reputations where their mouths are they might get closer to achieving scientific objectivity.”

How was WaPo “lost” to Jeff Bezos?

The NYT‘s Ross Douthat wrote in his column this weekend that it was because the paper missed its opportunity to seize the internet by the throat. What’s fascinating is Douthat knows exactly when this happened. The moment was “in 2006 when John Harris and Jim VendeHei left … to found Politico.”

He argues that Politico created the political-journalism juggernaut WaPo should’ve and could’ve been, a daily must-read that dominates “the D.C. conversation … that matches the metabolism of the Internet.” There can be only one, and according to Douthat, it’s Politico.

It still gets better. Despite the ass kissing you might think this is at first glance, Douthat doesn’t think so highly of Politico.

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Good news journalists! According to the Pew Research Center’s biannual media attitudes survey, the public is slightly more okay with your existence than in the past—at least in some respects.

They still, by and large, think you focus too much on unimportant stories, are barely ever accurate, try to cover up your mistakes, favor one side over the other and take your cues from the world’s powerful. And it’s just getting worse.

Ratings of the press have become much more negative since Pew Research first began measuring attitudes in 1985. Most of the press ratings tested in this survey are at or near all-time lows reached in 2011. In many cases, the decline in ratings has been dramatic.

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Man kills wife. We share. And Share. And share.

Yesterday in Miami, Derek Medina shot his wife to death and then posted a picture of her body on Facebook with a message that he was going to die and that he’ll miss all his friends. Obvious shock followed, as did the disgust. But here’s the worst part, from CNN: “The disgust did not prevent the commenters from sharing Medina’s photo. Again and again.” Get that? Again and again. We’ve turned ourselves into monsters.

Overworked? Need some vacation? Got a match?

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If you need some innovation inspiration, look no further than Atlantic‘s Quartz, a young outlet “for business people in the new global economy.” They publish online, but in an inventive HTML format designed to work well for smartphones and tablets.

The blog Evolving Newsroom notes this morning that now Quartz is taking things one more step by inlining comments to make them more relevant. Instead of a date- or popularity-sorted block at the bottom, Quartz is letting readers add comments that are more like sidebar annotations, right alongside the paragraphs they’re referencing.

While some sites boast of their comment counts, a quick glance usually reveals a mish-mash of trivial blather, name-calling and overt ignorance. Quartz’s approach just might be one that leads to actual, germane discussions.

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Immigration, Blah Blah Blah

Pramila Jayapal writes in a piece headlined “Why don’t Republicans want to win?” that polls show Republicans stand to lose key House seats and national elections if they fail to pass some kind of immigration reform. Here’s a key line though: “…he’s [Speaker John Boehner] been more Hamlet than hero — hemming and hawing while his caucus goes to war with itself over whether reform is to be or not to be. Something is rotten indeed.” That brings us to a more interesting point, as in what if Republicans do pass some kind of reform? Will it be enough? Will Hispanic voters forgive and forget Rep. Steve King‘s “calves the size of cantaloupes” comment just because the GOP passes immigrant-friendly laws it really, really hates just to win votes? We’ve been over the GOP-must-do-this-to-be-relevant arguments so much it’s almost a trope. It’d be nice if opinion writers start thinking a little deeper on the issue and stop giving us generic columns with well trod ideas.

Bet you hadn’t heard, but WaPo was sold this week…

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If you didn’t know, Twitter has changed everything.

It’s given us more insight into journalists’ and newsmakers’ personalities—the quirks, the foibles, the preternatural ability to crack wonky and bad jokes—all in under 140 characters. Even Jake Tapper can’t hide behind CNN PR (who’ve requested we contact them for “all things Jake”) when he’s on Twitter. For example, thanks to his Tweets we know he’s got a thing for puppies and at least tangentially follows Doctor Who.

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WaPo

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You’ve seen ravishing Paul Wharton on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of DC and you were jealous. Well, no more. Now’s your chance to snag not only some of his style advice but some amazing photos, too (“for your career or just for yourself”).

In case you really need convincing:

“As you’ve now heard, the Beautiful You! Photo Shoots by Paul Wharton and his team are the best way for you to get the up to date, professional  shots you need for your career or just for yourself. Take part in a fabulous day of superstar treatment as you become the star in front of the lights, camera and action!”

We hadn’t actually heard, but we’ll take Wharton at his word.

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