Stuart Millar, The Guardian‘s online news editor, will join Gibson in New York as her deputy.

“Janine Gibson has been at the heart of our web operations and is the ideal person to lead our new team in the U.S,” said Alan Rusbridger, the paper’s editor-in-chief, in a statement.

Details about the new entity are still scarce. We only know that the new entity “will be significantly larger than anything we’ve done in the states before,” according to Rusbridger. More details will surely follow.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

According to Asia Times, Hong Kong journalists working on the mainland, who had enjoyed unprecedented access as reporters in the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games, must now be accredited by the mainland must be accredited to the All-China Journalists Association and get “the consent of the individual or organization to be interviewed.”

The policy is “one step forward, two steps back” for media freedom in the Communist state, Woo Lai Wan, a representative of International Federation of Journalists, said. Wan, however, isn’t to worried about the new regulations: “These rules were there before the Olympics and we ignored them. We will ignore them again.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

At a University of Cambridge speech, a bystander tossed a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The Associated Press sets the scene:

In the live broadcast of the speech on CCTV’s Web site, the camera remains fixed on Wen, not showing the shoe or the protester, although his remarks and the sound of the shoe hitting the stage can be heard. Wen pauses, glances sideways as the shoe hits the stage, and then continues his speech.

However, according to the AP story, “state-run newspapers and Web sites in China carried stories on Wen’s speech but had no reference to the shoe-throwing. Content mentioning it on Internet forums also appears to have been deleted.”

Thankfully, the Chinese blogosphere covered the incident. Bloggers, changing your opinions about journalism, one step at a time.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Natural disasters have a way of pushing these stark realities to the forefront. Searching for information about Hurricane Gustav, we stumbled upon the Cuban News Agency, which provides a decidedly non-American perspective on the island nation. So the Cubans aren’t ungodly heathens? Shock.

Fidel Castro called the devastation a “nuclear strike.”

From the same article:

“It has been a hard blow; I could not even imagine it,” said in a hoarse voice, hurt by the effort but steady and resolute, Ana Isa Delgado, the Party Secretary and President of the Defense Council in that important municipality.

We also learned that the Venezuelan Community Party and the Russians will help Cuba and how Gustav affected the United States. Good stuff throughout.

Thanks for listening. We will now return to our regularly scheduled narcissism.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The reason? Army chief Anupong Paochinda has been unwilling to comply with the PM’s ruling, hoping the situation will resolve itself peacefully.

This sounds like good news, but since Western media can’t hope to understand what’s happening (CNN is accused of cutting quotes), we’ll refrain from judging.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Hussein, part of the AP photography team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005, had been held since April 12, 2006 on charges of possessing bomb-making materials, conspiracy with insurgents and helping to forge identification cards.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Dealing with pompous, asinine politicians is one of the hazards of working in television news. But Sri Lankan state broadcaster Rupavahini TV lived the dream… and held the country’s Minister of Labor hostage for three hours.

Here’s what happened… Mervyn Silva, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Labor, stormed the offices of state broadcaster Rupavahini along with his entourage. Silva was upset that a speech he made on Wednesday had not been covered by the station. A scuffled ensured and one of Silva’s aides allegedly assaulted Rupavhini’s news director. Silva was then held hostage by Rupavahini’s staff for more than three hours… the problem?

Rupavahini TV would have let Silva leave the building if he apologized. He eventually apologized… after Rupavahini’s corporate HQ was surrounded by commandos and police with tear gas. But, wait. Silva gave a non-apology apology:

“If my action is considered as a wrong act, I would like to apologise to the employees,” said Silva.

Silva has had a history of violent behavior in the past.

(Image via Al-Jazeera/Reuters)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When he finds himself among soldiers, he takes a scrupulous care of their life from cultural and emotional activities to meals, showing them warmer affection than their own parents would.

He took measures to let the soldiers have many photos taken so that they would be able to keep them long as mementos of their military service. When he visited a women’s company in a deep valley, he took care that all conditions were taken so they could watch clear and clean TV scenes.

[...]

Concerned even over the cold wind filtering through needle holes of soldiers’ winter clothes, he took care that they were replaced with better ones. He acquaints himself with the room temperature and water quality while making a round of bedrooms, wash-cum-bath houses, kitchens, non-staple food stores and other supply facilities and teaches them food processing methods, too.

That’s right: Serve in the North Korean military and the Dear Leader will personally fix your television reception.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

So, hmm. The bastion of press freedom known as China is building an extensive database on the 30,000 foreign journalists scheduled to cover the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But, don’t worry: It’s not to create blacklists, obstruct reporters or to prevent access to those rabblerousing Uighur and Tibetan secessionists.

The San Francisco Chronicle was told they have until February to disclose the names of their journalists… and the Agence France-Presse got the quote of the day, from Li Zhanjun of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee’s media centre:

“Some reporters like to cover sport and some others are very interested in politics … so we have some kind of data and information concerning that.”

No comment necessary on that one, eh?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Survey Polls – Take Our Poll

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

• Condé Nast is spending €
  500,000 (US$670,000) weekly on the magazine, which is also suspected of exaggerating a sold print run of 120,000.

• The usually mild-mannered Spiegel accuses Vanity Fair EIC Ulf Poschardt of “flamboyant arrogance” and his staff of “burn-out syndrome.”
• A photo shoot in Dresden is a sign of the editors’ “desperate search for glamour.”
• Editors are complaining that the magazine lacks “political relevance and journalistic seriousness.”
• In a German version of the Bono/Africa VF stunt, German pop star Herbert Gronemeyer guest edited an issue of the magazine and “received little in return.”
• Poschardt claims overblown expectations as a “result of the magazine’s association with the legendary US edition of Vanity Fair.”
• German Condé Nast publisher Bernd Runge dodged questions about the magazine’s circulation.

Spiegel‘s verdict:

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Romney:

“I was shocked to see the ABC News report regarding covert action in Iran. The reporting has the potential of jeopardizing our national security. To put it quite plainly, it has the potential of affecting human life, we may never know.”

ABC News’ response:

“In the six days since we first contacted the CIA and the White House, at no time did they indicate that broadcasting this report would jeopardize lives or operations on the ground. ABC News management gave them the repeated opportunity to make whatever objection they wanted to regarding our report. They chose not to.”

The story, by the way, has drawn over 1,500 comments.

EARLIER:

Video: D.C. Madam Slams ABC News

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

]]> Dylan http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/fallout-over-abc-news-iran-covert-action-report_b5071#disqus_thread http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/fallout-over-abc-news-iran-covert-action-report_b5071 http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/k-rock-returns_b5090 Wed, 23 May 2007 15:20:28 +0000

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, an award-winning filmmaker for the Discovery Channel, PBS and New York Times TV among other media outlets, is asking for help in an effort to save Ghufran Haider, a young Pakistani featured in Obaid Chinoy’s 2005 film Pakistan’s Double Game who saved hundreds of lives by stopping a suicide bomber in Karachi. Haider, who testified against the bomber, is in Dubai, but faces probable death in Pakistan if he returns.

Haider’s visa expires May 19.

Obaid-Chinoy’s memo:

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, an award-winning filmmaker for the Discovery Channel, PBS and New York Times TV among other media outlets, is asking for help in an effort to save Ghufran Haider, a young Pakistani featured in Obaid Chinoy’s 2005 film Pakistan’s Double Game who saved hundreds of lives by stopping a suicide bomber in Karachi. Haider, who testified against the bomber, is in Dubai, but faces probable death in Pakistan if he returns.

Haider’s visa expires May 19.

Obaid-Chinoy’s memo:

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

]]> Dylan http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/filmmaker-makes-plea-for-suicide-bomber-hero_b5026#disqus_thread http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/filmmaker-makes-plea-for-suicide-bomber-hero_b5026 http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/weinstein-books-thin-fall-catalog_b5045 Wed, 16 May 2007 14:36:22 +0000

AOL, via Facebook, has obtained Cho Seung Hui‘s Richard McBeef, a play he supposedly wrote while at Virginia Tech. A student explains the eery background to AOL:

A major part of the playwriting class was peer reviews. We would write one-act plays and submit them to an online repository called Blackboard for everyone in the class to read and comment about in class the next day. Typically, the students give their opinions about the plays and suggest ways to make it better, the professor gives his insights, then asks the author to comment about the play in class.

When we read Cho’s plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn’t have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. I was even thinking of scenarios of what I would do in case he did come in with a gun, I was that freaked out about him. When the students gave reviews of his play in class, we were very careful with our words in case he decided to snap. Even the professor didn’t pressure him to give closing comments.

EARLIER:

Va. Tech Shootings: Notes On Coverage

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]]> Dylan http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/va-tech-shooters-play_b4827#disqus_thread http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/va-tech-shooters-play_b4827 http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/new-york-times-bought-virginia-tech-shooter-keyword-on-google_b4846 Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:05:00 +0000

George W. Bush made a surprise visit to the New York Stock Exchange floor — only the second sitting president to do so

CNN’s transcript:

LISOVICZ: President Bush, welcome to Wall Street. Welcome to Wall Street.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good to be here, thanks.

LISOVICZ: What do you think of the reception here?

BUSH: I’m impressed and grateful.

LISOVICZ: Do you think it’s warmer than on Capitol Hill right now?

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Susan Lisovicz, I knew you could do it. You of all people got the president live on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

LISOVICZ: I don’t know — I don’t know if you saw the glance he gave me after I asked him if he would have an easier time with Capitol Hill, but it was sort of a suspicious glance, and he covered the microphone.

PHILLIPS: He covered your microphone?

LISOVICZ: He did. He did. He said — he is — probably about ten feet away from me right now. Anyway, it’s a historic day on Wall Street, and I’m moving forward because I’m being pushed forward.

Bush, of course, has had a rather checkered history with CNN microphones, and, for that matter, so has Kyra Phillips.