A story on the battle to liberalize Ireland’s abortion laws published in USA Today Thursday contained edits that grossly altered the original story, according to freelance journalist Caelainn Hogan, who wrote the piece.

Or rather, that was according to Hogan before she changed her mind about complaining about those edits.

Hogan, 24, told FishbowlDC that USA Today‘s version of her story, which was purchased through the freelance writer service Associated Reporters Abroad, added “material I had never seen before” and included “paraphrasing of my own words and manipulation of quotes which I feel distort the original.” Hogan is an Ireland native but is currently in Turkey.

The original version of Hogan’s story, which she forwarded to FBDC, is different from the USA Today version, but mostly by way of inconsequential edits. For example, the original story contained the following quote:

“The issue of abortion in Ireland s [sic] so contentious many are reluctant to discuss it,” said Clare Quigley, 23, a medical student in Dublin.

It was amended to read:

“The issue of abortion in Ireland is so contentious,” said Clare Quigley, 23, a medical student in Dublin.

Not exactly a nefarious edit.

Edits to the story include added quotes… Read more

Twenty four hours in nearby Boston.

HuffPost‘s media story on and by two reporters, Christina Wilkie and Michael McLaughlin, covering the Boston crime scene stories last Thursday read like a potential NYT travel story: “36 Hours in Cambridge and Watertown.”

Where to eat? Aside from adrenalin, keep your energy up with water, brown-bag lunches and Boston Kreme donuts courtesy of the Massachusetts State Police.

Where to stay? There are a few terrible options. 1. In a shopping mall parking lot with the rest of the press. More specifically, a white rented Hyundai. 2. Stay within the designated press areas unless you want to be held at gunpoint by police officers. This happened to HuffPost‘s Christina Wilkie, who learned fast that leaving the group of media covering the story was a very bad idea.

Where to sleep? Sleep? There will be no sleep.

Wifi quality: Somewhere between awful and wretched. From HuffPost writers: “Battery power was carefully rationed for phones and laptops, and drained at an alarming speed.”

What not to miss: Drunks getting too close to the crime scene. They make for good pictures and anecdotes as they were heard cursing and spotted being cuffed and shoved to the ground.

Adventure seekers: Clearly, Watertown. This is where Wilkie strayed by a matter of feet from the rest of the media. This is when all hell broke loose as evidenced by the below anecdote from the story.

An excerpt:

Reporters quickly learned that leaving the group was a bad idea. Along an unbarricaded side street, an officer spotted Wilkie. “Put your hands up!” he yelled. “Put your f***ing hands up!” She did. “Now get outta here. Run!”She did.

We asked Wilkie for more context on what happened before police screamed at her. She told FishbowlDC, “At that point in the night, about 1:45AM, there were about a dozen reporters and cameramen loosely assembled at the edge of the yellow crime scene tape stretched along Nichols Ave at the corner of Nichols and Quimby Streets in Watertown. There was no police tape along Quimby, just a few locals milling around on the sidewalk, so I walked about 30 feet down Quimby St. to see what was going on.”

You don’t want to miss what happens next.

Read more

Although the primary goal of Mariner is to generate buzz for Holland America Line cruises, the magazine also aims to provide material on par with other consumer travel publications. ”Mariner engages Holland America Line’s premium and returning passengers with a mix of cruise line service information, alongside literate travel narrative, world-class photography and high-level design and production,” said editor-in-chief Chuck Thompson.

A lot of the magazine’s success, evidenced by several awards including the Custom Content Council’s Pearl Award for Best Overall Editorial in 2011, can be attributed to the the editors’ strong relationships with freelancers, who supply the vast majority of the magazine’s material. Thompson said that his team is looking for any material that inspires wanderlust. “Travel pieces need not be cruise-based; in fact, most are not. Rather, we publish destination-based travel stories with strong angles,” he explained.

For the whole story, including which sections are ripe for pitches, read How To Pitch: Mariner.

– Nicholas Braun

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

Journey is a bimonthly magazine that covers travel, both between states and international, in a manner that appeals to residents of Washington and other Northwestern states. With 75 percent of its content penned by freelancers, the pub is always looking for writers who can identify with the AAA publication’s readers.

“There are certain angles that make sense for a Northwestern audience and others that don’t,” explained editor-in-chief Rob Bhatt.

However, you don’t have to live out West to make the cut. Journey editors are also looking to beef up content about cool things to do beyond the Mississippi River, particularly on the East Coast and in the Southeast and Midwest. He also stressed that the publication likes destination pieces that don’t leave anyone out on the fun. ”We’re more of an experiential market than a luxury, high-end shopping audience,” he said.

For more details, read How To Pitch: Journey.

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to over 150 ”How To Pitch” articles, hundreds of articles on journalism and media jobs, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

Out of anger over a headline choice, Commandant General Jim Amos recently offered Marine Corps Times reporter Dan Lamothe the opportunity to complete the Infantry Officer Course, known as the hardest physical training of the Marine Corp.

As of this morning, that plan has drastically changed.

Lamothe met with Amos Monday morning and they decided it’s best that the reporter observe and not participate.

Asked if female volunteers would be present for the training he will observe, Lamothe told FishbowlDC: “My understanding is there will be several female volunteers, although they do have the right to change their minds as part of the research.” He maintained the new plan for his coverage is still a good one. “Attending as a participant would have been a good opportunity, pass or fail. This is too, though, and puts the focus where it should be,” he said.

Amos made the original offer after being irked over a headline… Read more

As we reported earlier, the Franklin Center, a conservative nonprofit that covers local governments across the country, was holding a conference call this afternoon at 1 p.m.

The topic: A lawsuit brought against them by Greentech, a company founded by Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.

They dispatched emails to members of the media and included the proper access codes. But since our story ran, they’ve changed the access codes, saying the conference call is meant to be exclusive and not open to the public. This time around, they wrote, “Hi all! This invitation is non-transferrable. PLEASE do not share this. Since this is an exclusive list of folks, I can narrow down who gave the info away. ”

Oops.

In Thursday’s Politico Playbook, Mike Allen lectured HuffPost‘s Peter H. Stone on the rules of reporting. “PLAYBOOK LIFE LESSONS – WHY YOU SHOULDN’T GO AHEAD AND POST A STORY WITHOUT TALKING TO THE KEY PERSON, even if they’re traveling,” Allen wrote in Playbook.

The “key person” in this case is former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. A Wednesday story by Stone cited two Republican “operatives” who said Barbour has decided to leave American Crossroads because he disagrees with its strategy going forward to get Republicans elected in the 2014 midterm elections. American Crossroads is a super PAC run by Republican strategist Karl Rove. Barbour was a heavy fundraiser for the group and a surrogate for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney throughout the 2012 campaign cycle.

Stone’s story said Barbour was “traveling and did not respond to a request for comment.”

Allen received exclusive comment from Barbour after the story published. Barbour told Playbook:

“The [HuffPost] article …. has no basis in fact. Nobody at [HuffPost] even talked to me about it. From the beginning of my involvement with American Crossroads in 2011, I repeatedly, consistently and publicly said my participation with Crossroads was to try to help elect a Republican president in the 2012 election. That effort ended last November; so did my American Crossroads effort. I left with high regard and respect for American Crossroads and its entire team, many of whom have been friends as well as colleagues of mine for many years. …”

Though Barbour denies HuffPost‘s report, Stone tells FishbowlDC he stands by his sources… Read more

With almost half of its content provided by freelancers, Cure is accepting all pitches related to the research and treatment of cancer. The magazine is published quarterly and distributed freely to cancer patients and healthcare professionals.

So, what makes a successful pitch for Cure? Editors say they look for  ideas based on emerging research, commentary on current practices, or personal experience. Featured freelancers have also written about topics that are relevant to readers throughout the country, such as coping with the treatment process or advice on finding the appropriate doctor.

For more, read How to Pitch: Cure [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

– Nicholas Braun

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

Like many scandals involving sex, politicians and extramarital affairs, it’s hard not to mention it each time the lawmaker pops up in the news. Think Weiner. Craig. Foley. Edwards. Vitter. Ensign. Condit. Spitzer. Hart. Clinton. Up front, bold and in the most clever manner possible is the way many publications go. But in the case of former S.C. Gov and Congressman Mark Sanford, news outlets appear to be scattered on how to handle the situation.

The Wrap poses a simple, entertaining question in an email promo for a story: “Can Stephen Colbert’s Sister Beat Disgraced Ex-S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford?” Drudge appears to be aligned with some of his GOP colleagues. They headlined it and highlighted the affair, calling him “philandering” in the headline. HuffPost‘s headline doesn’t have anything about philandering. But they do call it a “Race For the Ages” on the homepage.

National Journal, meanwhile, went with the refined, understated “Stephen Colbert’s Sister Could Beat Sanford” promo. The headline was similarly understated: “Why Stephen Colbert’s Sister Could Beat Mark Sanford.” But the deck went for the dirt: “Scandal-plagued candidates have a lousy track record winning elections.” Like HuffPost, NJ writer Josh Kraushaar calls it a “matchup for the ages.” Number of sentences it took before referring to Sanford’s cheating ways: 5. Number of references to the cheating or scandal in the 12-graph story: 8.

WaPo‘s conservative writer Jennifer Rubin humorously plopped down the news with no sensitivity whatsoever. “Well, you can’t say former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is trying to hide the woman with whom he had an affair and for whom he abandoned his office for several days and ultimately his wife and children,” she wrote in a sentence leaving a reader gulping for air. And later, this: “I can’t wait to hear Sanford explain his position on same-sex marriage and hear his definition of the institution (one man and one woman, a hike, and another woman ?).”

Capitol Hill pubs reacted as follows… Read more

Nothing says more about your ability as a journalist than the content of your clips. The  published articles you submit to perspective employers can make or break your chances, and simply deciding which material to include can be a daunting challenge in itself. Fortunately, there are certain techniques that will help your writing portfolio stand out from the crowd.

Christy Karras, a veteran freelancer who has written for Time, Forbes Asia, and The New York Times told Mediabistro that she tends to choose stories she believes show off her writing and editing skills.

“That could be a deeply analytic magazine feature on the finances of a major city-state that shows my ability to digest complex information and write about it in an engaging way, it could be a news story on a crackdown in the Gulf that shows an editor how well sourced I am in an environment that might not be very friendly to journalists, or it could be a feature profile that I think displays some narrative chops,” she said. “It just depends on the message I’d like to get to the individual editor.”

For more, read 6 Tips for Submitting Freelance Writing Clips [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

– Nicholas Braun

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.