Monthly Archives: February 2021

If it’s been awhile since you freshened up your toolbox with new journalism tools and resources, Poynter is offering 50 ideas for you to consider.

You can check them out here.

Social media comes with benefits and drawbacks for journalists. It’s a strong tool for reaching a wider audience, but it an also be used as a tool for spreading misinformation.

RTDNA is tackling the increasingly sticky issue of how much journalists should be using social media.

You can check that out here.

A Milwaukee PBS collaboration supported by Frontline combined the strengths of broadcast and print journalism to produce a two-episode documentary about Wisconsin’s changing rural economy.

Read more about it here.

Tim Vetscher has been promoted to the position of news director at TMJ4 (WTMJ-TV) in Milwaukee.

Vetscher joined the station in 2019 as editorial director. Before joining Scripps, he was a senior producer of in-depth and investigative reports for KSTP-TV in Minneapolis, where he won an Emmy in 2018 for an investigation around the lack of enforcement of laws pertaining to storm shelters in Minnesota.

He has worked in several newsrooms throughout the country in various roles, including time at Scripps sister stations as a managing editor at KJRH-TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a multimedia journalist at KNXV-TV in Phoenix.

“Tim has been a leader in our newsroom since he joined us in 2019 as editorial director,” said Joe Poss, VP and general manager for TMJ4. “His ability to execute on our content strategy and the Scripps mission in a dynamic news market has allowed us to better serve our audiences and the entire Milwaukee community. I have no doubt he will continue to lead our team to success.”

Vetscher graduated from Marquette University with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. He volunteers for a nonprofit called Golf for the Gift that helps raise funds for families hoping to adopt a child. Tim and his wife, Amie, are proud parents of two adopted children themselves, Evelyn and Oliver.

A young broadcaster with links to Wisconsin is seeking help after losing her job at Voice of America which has left her unable to work because of her visa status.

Benazir Samad is from Pakistan and this NPR story explains her situation. She had been a lead multimedia journalist at Voice of America. She was once an intern at WKOW-TV in Madison.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to support her. You can find that here.

Anchor Amy Pflugshaupt announced Monday that she will be leaving NBC 15 (WMTV-TV) in Madison effective March 4.

Pflugshaupt was at the station for six years and worked previously at WSAW-TV in Wausau, starting in 2007.

“She’s worked so hard connecting with our viewers each night. I’m glad that she’ll be able to spend more time connecting with family,” said Don Vesely, Vice President and General Manager of WMTV NBC15.

Pflugshaupt earned multiple Emmy nominations as well as honors from the Wisconsin Broadcaster’s Association. She also served on the WBA Education Committee and WBA Young Professionals Committee.

She will share more about what’s next for her in the coming weeks.

To keep each other safe, we’ve been asked to add barriers  —  distance and masks  —  to our face-to-face interaction. We also have videoconferencing to help overcome those barriers.

Yet to this day, Republican leaders in the state Assembly are holding meetings without requiring attendees to wear masks or offering a video option for those who don’t feel safe attending.

The Assembly Committee on Sporting Heritage is an example. At a joint committee meeting on Jan. 13, chair Rep. Treig Pronschinske, R-Mondovi,members to attend by videoconference or phone and didn’t require that attendees wear masks. The Senate committee members were allowed to attend remotely.

One of the Democratic Assembly committee members, Rep. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton,.

“This is completely unacceptable,” she said. “We are in the middle of a pandemic. Many workplaces and businesses have gone to great lengths to comply with CDC guidelines for their employees and customers. That fact that Republican representatives think health guidelines don’t apply to them is dangerous.”

Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has in-person attendance for all Assembly sessions  —  no remote option is allowed — and has not required masks. (Other states, in contrast, have to make legislative sessions safer.)

Freshman Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton, was : “The WI State Assembly is a hostile (and now dangerous) work environment. Legislators are having to choose between their health, health of their staff, families and communities or being in person for floor session.”

It is also a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the state’s Open Meetings Law.

Under , “No duly elected or appointed member of a governmental body may be excluded from any meeting of such body. Unless the rules of a governmental body provide to the contrary, no member of the body may be excluded from any meeting of a subunit of that governmental body.”

But members are excluded, when attending means potential exposure to a deadly virus. 

Some local public bodies are also effectively breaking the Open Meetings Law by their reckless conduct. 

Last summer, the Menasha Common Council an alderman’s request to attend a meeting virtually due to age and health concerns. After an outcry, it , requiring masks at its meetings and allowing people to attend virtually. 

Last fall, Wisconsin State Journal reporter Chris Rickert on three village boards in western and southwestern Wisconsin that weren’t requiring masks at meetings and didn’t stream their meetings to allow for remote attendance.

That’s not just wrong, it’s illegal of the Open Meetings Law says “all meetings of all state and local governmental bodies shall be publicly held in places reasonably accessible to members of the public …”

Making members of the public endanger their health to attend a governmental meeting is not “reasonably accessible.”

No one in Wisconsin should have to put their lives at risk to attend a public meeting.

Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (), a group dedicated to open government. Larry Gallup is a council member and the digital news director for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

Poynter is offering producers special training next month and applications are due a week from today. Check it out:

Poynter Producer Project

Online group seminar, March 1-25
Apply by Feb. 8

Making stories work involves more than just teases and live shots. This eight-session, four-week online seminar will help you expand your expertise as a TV producer with new writing, storytelling, coaching and ethical decision-making skills.

The Poynter Producer Project is long on practicality and low on theory. Poynter Senior Faculty Al Tompkins and a five-star lineup of visiting professionals will sharpen your writing and ethical decision-making skills, stretch your leadership muscles and increase your value to your newsroom. This course will energize you and expand your professional contacts.

Over the two decades that we have offered this specialized training for TV newscast producers, many of our graduates have gone on to become executive producers, news directors and top managers for stations and broadcast corporations. Poynter graduates also work at network and cable news organizations and at local TV stations across America and around the globe.

Apply Now

What will I learn?

• How to find stories that others miss
• How to find a focus for your story
• How to write clear, clean copy
• The keys to writing teases and show opens that attract and hold viewers
• A framework for making ethical decisions on deadline
• Ways to lead even when you do not have formal authority
• How to better navigate news coverage involving race and bias
• Strategies for managing newsroom trauma and stress

Who will be teaching me?

• Al Tompkins —Poynter Senior Faculty, Broadcast and Online
• Ramon Escobar — VP of Diversity and Inclusion, CNN
• Andrea Parquet-Taylor — News Director, KCBS/KCAL (LA)
• Liz Rolden — News Director, WFOR-TV/CBS4 Miami
• Sidney Tompkins — Licensed Mental Health Counselor
• Doris Truong — Poynter Director of Training and Diversity

Who should apply?

This seminar is aimed at newscast producers and associate producers. Of course, we welcome executive producers from smaller markets, and we welcome educators and dedicated college students who have producing experience and expect to work as professional producers.

What is the cost?

The cost is $499, which includes tuition for the four-week online group seminar and coaching.

Tuition is $250 for NABJ, NAHJ, NLGJA, AAJA, NAJA members, thanks to a grant from CNN. If you are a member of one of these associations, please note it on your application.

Apply by Feb. 8.
 
Apply Now