For the Record

The Advocate, Local Newspaper Co-Host Iowa LGBTQ Presidential Forum:

GLAAD, One Iowa, The Gazette of Cedar Rapids and The Advocate will co-host a LGBTQ forum for Democratic presidential candidates at Coe College's Sinclair Auditorium from 7 to 9 p.m. on September 20. The event will be streamed exclusively on YouTube. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Julián Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Sestak and Marianne Williamson are scheduled to participate.

FLSI Publishes Legal Guides:

The Fact-checkers Legal Support Initiative (FLSI) — a partnership between the International Fact-Checking Network, the Media Legal Defence Initiative and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press — has published four legal guides to assist fact-checkers in legal jeopardy. "Our primary goal was to provide an overall view of the legal scenario and help fact-checkers prevent legal issues and lawsuits," said FLSI staff attorney Sarah Matthews. "But we didn't want just to lower the risk around their work but also encourage them to access public data and request court records, for example."

Zuckerberg in Washington:

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is slated to meet with several legislators this week in his first visit to Washington since last year's hearings on the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. In addition to House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah), Zuckerberg will meet with several prominent critics of the platform, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

Pogrebin and Kelly Address Critics:

New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly said in an interview on MSNBC Monday that they initially wrote "that a woman who [Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett] Kavanaugh was said to have exposed himself to while a student at Yale had told others she had no recollection of the alleged incident." However, the reference ultimately was removed from the Sunday Review piece in what Pogrebin has characterized as the "haste of the editing process." According to Politico's Michael Calderone, the piece has "come under widespread scrutiny, with criticism of the Times for publishing Pogrebin and Kelly's new reporting in a Sunday Review essay, rather than the paper's news pages, and its promotion of the piece with a now-deleted tweet that appeared to make light of allegations against Kavanaugh."

The Misinformation Beat:

Journalists who cover misinformation have developed strategies for dealing with online trolls, characterized by Wikipedia as individuals who "star[t] quarrels or upse[t] people on the Internet to distract and sow discord." Daily Beast conspiracy theory specialist Will Sommer has asked QAnon followers to "send me a picture and to DM [direct message] me from their Twitter account so I knew it was actually them," while BuzzFeed News' Jane Lytvynenko cultivates sources in specialized subreddits. "You need to be extremely measured in your responses, because they want to call out malice on your behalf," said Sommer. "So it's best to respond to tips with things like 'Oh, interesting' or 'I would like to learn more.'"

Post Launches Advertising Network:

The Washington Post has launched Zeus Prime, an interface developed in collaboration with Polar that will enable select companies to purchase advertising in real time. "Publishers and individual content creators have little control over their revenue technology and monetization efforts," said Vice President of Commercial Technology Jarrod Dicker. "The industry demands a revenue performance platform that rewards original storytelling while providing an instant and transparent exchange of value between brands, publishers and their readers." According to Dicker, "Each advertiser must be approved by The Post’s Commercial group, as Zeus Prime is a closed network. Once access is granted, advertisers can buy on their own without having to engage with The Post."

Times Closes Spanish Platform:

The New York Times announced Tuesday that it will shut down NYT en Español, its Spanish-language platform. "We launched NYT en Español as part of an experiment to reach and engage more international readers by extending our coverage to different languages," a spokesperson said. "While the Español site did attract a new audience for our journalism and consistently produced coverage we are very proud of, it did not prove financially successful." The Times will continue to offer translations of select stories in Spanish and other languages.

Leaving the Family Business:

Jane Mayer of The New Yorker interviewed James Murdoch about his recent break from his father Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, whose portfolio includes the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Dow Jones, HarperCollins and Fox News in the U.S. "The connective tissue of our society is being manipulated to make us fight with each other, making us the worst versions of ourselves," James Murdoch told Mayer.

Cokie Roberts (1943-2019):

Longtime broadcast journalist Cokie Roberts has died at age 75 of complications from breast cancer. Roberts spent years at National Public Radio, helping develop its sound and culture, before moving on to ABC News. "It is such a privilege — you have a front seat to history," Roberts said of her reporting career during a 2017 interview.

'Facts Can Cause Social Change':

"Even at a time when everything seems so stuck ... like the very notion of truth is collapsing, facts can cause social change." 2018 Public Service winner Jodi Kantor said on Brian Stelter's "Reliable Sources" on CNN. "Carefully documented facts can really trigger empathy and compassion and action." Kantor appeared on the show with fellow prize winner Meghan Twohey to discuss "She Said," a book that followed from their reporting on Harvey Weinstein.