WEDNESDAY'S LINKS: Siegel Left His Mark on 'NYT', U.S. Warned on Iraq Propaganda, Singleton's S.F.

By: E&P Staff In today's edition, a U.S. investigation determines that planting stories in Iraqi newspapers does the cause more harm than good, Jack Shafer questions the methodology of the New York Times' recent article on Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Dean Singleton casts his net around S.F..


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Investigation Urges U.S. to Stop Paying Iraqi Reporters
A Defense Department investigation of Pentagon-financed propaganda efforts in Iraq warns that paying Iraqi journalists to produce positive stories could damage American credibility and calls for an end to military payments to a group of Iraqi journalists in Baghdad, according to a summary of the investigation. The review, by Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, was ordered after the disclosure last November that the military had paid the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based Pentagon contractor, to plant articles written by American soldiers in Iraqi publications, without disclosing the source of the articles.


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Fed Chief Acknowledges That Talking to Reporter Was 'Mistake'
Ben S. Bernanke has apparently figured out that as Fed chairman he speaks with a megaphone -- especially when he talks to CNBC reporter Maria Bartiromo. Bernanke acknowledged Tuesday that he made a "lapse in judgment" by discussing Federal Reserve policy with the CNBC television anchor -- comments that subsequently drove stock and bond prices lower.


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The Man Who Knew Plenty
"There's nobody who has had more tangible, visible effect on the newspaper you see when you pick up The New York Times every day than Al Siegal," said Craig Whitney. Al Siegal -- Allan M. Siegal -- retired on May 12, shortly after turning 66 (the mandatory masthead retirement age of 65 is slightly elastic). Mr. Whitney, formerly the night news editor, inherited Mr. Siegal?s title as standards editor.


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'Page Six' Chief Can't Find New Underling
Over the past month, at least a dozen people have turned down the prospect of a job with the New York Post's flagship gossip column -- with the majority choosing not to interview for the position, according to sources familiar with the recruiting drive. "You don?t climb aboard a sinking ship," said one writer who declined to interview for the job.


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Baghdad Blog to Become a Film
The Baghdad Blog, the daily dispatches penned by the Iraqi architect known as Salam Pax, is to be turned into a film. Britain's FilmFour will co-produce the big-screen version of the acclaimed blog written by Pax, which chronicled life during and after the allied invasion. Salam Pax is the pseudonym of the 20-something from Iraq whose online diary Where is Raed? received huge media attention and a loyal, worldwide readership after it appeared on the web in 2003.


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The Bill and Hillary Code
When the New York Times prints a news story in its own private code, as it did with yesterday's Page One article "Clintons Balance Married and Public Lives," veteran readers grope through it, sentence by sentence, in hopes of piecing together the article's true meaning. Even the headline of reporter Patrick Healy's piece appears coded. It alleges a Bill and Hillary "balance," but, specifying no fulcrum upon which the relationship firmly rests, it invites the reader to conjure up a wobbling teeter-totter.


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MediaNews Ready to Take on 'S.F. Chron'
When all the pending deals are signed, MediaNews will own not just the ANG papers but also the Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times, which means it will dominate not just one Bay Area county, as now, but three contiguous ones. So instead of three big dogs in the yard, there will be just two, and the Chronicle will be the smaller one. (Also in the mix is the San Francisco Examiner, a free daily owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz.) The papers owned by MediaNews will have almost 80 percent more circulation than the Chronicle. They will have more newsroom employees (about 770 compared with some 400 at the Chronicle) and perhaps more advertising clout -- and they will have the Chronicle surrounded.


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Appreciation for Jim Carey
"Jim Carey became one of the most powerful influences in the young history of the Poynter Institute," writes Roy Peter Clark. "In the early days, I asked him to help me teach a seminar for sports journalists, and it was a wonder to watch the scholar swap stories with the sports scribes."


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Ex-'Miami Today' Editor Diann Slattery Dies
Ever since she was a little girl, Diann Slattery knew she wanted to pursue journalism for the rest of her life. "She was a professional journalist in pursuit of perfection," said Antoinette De La Flor, her friend and former co-worker. "She was running all over the newsroom, pushing reporters to the max." Slattery, the former managing editor of Miami Today, died Monday morning at Plantation General Hospital after suffering a seizure and heart failure. She was 46.