Joe Pompeo

    Media Reporter
  • We’ll be back shortly …

    The Cutline--along with what seems like half the media world this week!--will be on vacation until after Labor Day. If any big news breaks, the blog may be updated, but otherwise, you can expect posting to resume as usual on Tuesday, Sept. 6. In the meantime, we leave you with some reading to catch up [...]

  • New Yorker dismisses attack from Church of Scientology

    The Church of Scientology has been known to go to great lengths to retaliate against members of the press who produce skeptical reports about its operations. Case in point: last summer, when the church produced an entire magazine devoted to blasting Anderson Cooper, and then handed the rag out in front of CNN headquarters. The church's [...]

  • FIRST CUTS: Weather Channel’s ratings soar; big news month boosts Fox News, CNN

    Our list of stories that should be on your morning media menu: • Jeremy Peters on the new breed of campaign reporters: "It is not so glamorous anymore." (New York Times) • Jeff Bercovici asks: "Could Bill O'Reilly drag Fox News into the hacking probe?" (Forbes) • In a massive news month, Fox News finished [...]

  • AP photographer Richard Drew retraces the steps that led him to the ‘Falling Man’

    As part of the Yahoo! News "9/11 Remembered" series marking the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, I profiled Richard Drew, the AP photographer who captured the famous "Falling Man" shot that became the subject of 2003 Esquire piece by Tom Junod. Earlier this summer, I accompanied Drew to the spot where he took the [...]

  • The latest in Gawker vs. Fox News: Report claims Bill O’Reilly retaliated against wife’s detective boyfriend

    The war between Gawker and Fox News just got a little uglier. After months of digging up dirt on Roger Ailes, the chairman and CEO of the top-rated cable news network, Gawker sleuth John Cook has unearthed some potentially damaging dish on Fox News primetime stalwart Bill O'Reilly. In Cook's latest investigative report, he writes: [...]

  • News International confirms internal review of ‘journalistic standards’

    As the saga of the British phone-hacking scandal continues slowly to unfold, News International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has confirmed it is conducting a thorough internal investigation of its properties. The company had already been forced to shutter its 168-year-old Sunday tabloid, the News of the World, when it was buffetted [...]

  • WikiLeaks lashes out at ‘Pentagon tabloid’ New York Times

    When WikiLeaks, the online clearing-house of secret documents, unleashes a new body of material, another installment of feuding with print-media outlets is bound to ensue--and the latest such release was no exception. After WikiLeaks pushed a new cache of diplomatic cables into the public domain, the group promptly lashed out at the New York Times [...]

  • FIRST CUTS: A suggestion for Slate; Irene propels Patch

    Our list of stories that should be on your morning media menu: • CNN's Piers Morgan convened a panel to discuss whether Hurricane Irene was hyped. (Mediaite) • AOL's Patch got a traffic boost from its coverage of the storm. (FishbowlNY) • Fox News anchor Shep Smith recalls his 9/11 coverage. (Daily News) • Paul [...]

  • The tricks to reporting a hurricane on live TV (without getting killed!)

    When covering a hurricane live amid the torrential rains and skin-stinging wind, there is one crucial item no TV news crew member should be without: a condom. A handy latex prophylactic, it turns out, is just the thing for keeping a battery pack dry, as an audio engineer from the Weather Channel learned in the [...]

  • Was this weekend’s hurricane coverage all wet?

    Now that cynical New Yorkers are grumbling about how they needlessly stocked up on Poland Spring and Clif Bars in preparation for Hurricane Irene--while other swaths of the East Coast remain powerless or under water--a discussion has begun over whether the news media's coverage of the hurricane was more severe than the storm itself. Irene [...]

  • FIRST CUTS: Covering Irene; Anonymous helps Time Warner

    Our list of stories that should be on your morning media menu: • Hurricane Irene brought out "media's big guns." (AP) • Inside the Weather Channel's daring coverage: "The audio engineer wrapped his battery pack in a condom to keep it dry." (New York Times) • Meet the woman behind the popular ElBloombito Twitter account: [...]

  • ‘Where were you?’ News outlets crowdsource their 9/11 coverage

    Media outlets have been pouring resources into their 9/11 coverage as the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks approaches. Among the most valuable resources, it turns out, are readers. From the Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C. to the Bulletin of South Washington County, Minn., news organizations nationwide are asking readers to share their memories [...]

  • FIRST CUTS: Hurricane Irene coverage; how Jobs changed journalism

    Our list of stories that should be on your morning media menu: • The networks are ramping up their coverage of Hurricane Irene. (TV Newser) • The Weather Channel is expecting big ratings from its coverage. (Adweek) • What the networks are planning for their 9/11 coverage. (Hollywood Reporter) • The meaning of this week's [...]

  • Jack Shafer, newly jobless media critic: ‘I was thinking of becoming an alcoholic.’

    "I was thinking of becoming an alcoholic. Because one of the things I've always prided myself in, in these first 59 years of my life, is being a controlled drinker. I think now is the time to throw off the training wheels, and see if maybe in the last decade and a half of my [...]

  • Apocalypse now: NY tabs blessed with two cataclysms in one week

    It's not often that the New York tabloids get to whip their readers into a frenzy about two natural disasters in a three-day period. But the earth did shake Tuesday in the Big Apple, and the skies are indeed expected to open up on the city this weekend as a result of approaching Hurricane Irene. [...]

  • FIRST CUTS: Freed journos describe life inside the Rixos; latest phone-hack fodder

    Our list of stories that should be on your morning media menu: • "For Murdoch, media has often been about friends and influence." (Los Angeles Times) • Who's paying Andy Coulson's legal fees? (AP) • American Journalism Review published a profile of media critic Jack Shafer Wednesday just before Slate laid him off. (AJR) • [...]

  • Glenn Beck boasts ‘courage’ at Israel rally ahead of upcoming web TV premiere

    One year after hosting a mega rally in Washington, D.C, conservative pundit Glenn Beck gathered supporters near a holy site in Israel Wednesday. The event, which was not without controversy given its location and host, was smaller than some of his past assemblies, but that did not stop Beck from a full display of rhetoric. [...]

  • FIRST CUTS: Slim ups Times stake; staff cartoonist comeback

    Our list of stories that should be on your morning media menu: • Al Sharpton speaks about his new full-time hosting gig at MSNBC. (The Wrap) • Carlos Slim has upped his stake in the New York Times Company. (Media Decoder) • An update from the journalists being held in Tripoli's Rixos Hotel: "Not happy [...]

  • MSNBC loses competition for Libya ratings, Fox News wins

    MSNBC finished in third place in the ratings among the cable-news networks on Sunday, when viewers began to tune in seeking live coverage of the unfolding battle in Tripoli, Libya's capital city. As we reported yesterday, MSNBC was conspicuously late to the party when its cable news competitors had for hours already been covering the [...]

  • Al Sharpton will host nightly ‘PoliticsNation’ on MSNBC

    After a month of speculation, MSNBC has announced that the Rev. Al Sharpton will permanently host a nightly political show on the network at 6 p.m. Eastern time. Titled "PoliticsNation," the program will feature Sharpton, a Baptist minister, political activist and radio personality, leading "a lively and informed discussion of the top headlines, bringing viewers [...]