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    • June 25th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    First person: The man behind the notorious Simpson Time cover shares his story

    Time magazine hired illustrator and photographer Matt Mahurin to design its June 27, 1994, cover featuring O.J. Simpson. Mahurin reflects on his decision to darken a police mug shot of Simpson and the controversy that followed in “The Imagemaker’s Handbook,” his five-volume exploration of life as a professional artist, coming out this fall.

    June 20th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    Photo unrealism: Doctoring pics is becoming easier…and harder to detect

    In a week that started with the Sunday murders of O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend and ended Friday with a low-speed police chase of the ex-football star and eventually his arrest, Time magazine planned to feature Simpson on its cover.

    June 17th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    From the President: Meet SPJ’s new executive director

    At the start of my term as president of the Society of Professional Journalists, I became laser-focused on accomplishing one goal in particular: hiring a new executive director who could help solidify the organization as the ethical leader of journalism and champion of press freedoms through turbulent times, and set SPJ on a path to long-term sustainability.

    June 3rd, 2024 • Featured | #Quill Blog | #Odds and Ends
    UPDATED: 200 journalism movies, ranked

    Note: The popularity of this story prompted us to treat it as a dynamic document, adding more reviews as appropriate movies are released or discovered. So what started as “110 Journalism Movies, Ranked” has morphed into “200 Journalism Movies Ranked.”  Hollywood helps define just about everything in America.

    May 28th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    Final Thoughts

    The practice of publishing summations of the lives of the recently deceased goes back a very long way. The ancient Romans developed an early, beta version of the modern obituary (roughly translated from the Latin as “death record”), which they included on publicly posted, handwritten broadsheets called Acta diurna (Daily Events).

    May 17th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    Bookshelf: Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Arthur Kane writes on colleague’s murder

    Arthur Kane, investigations editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wasn’t exactly buddies with fellow RJ investigative reporter Jeff German, but for six years the two were colleagues, teaming up occasionally to break stories about civic corruption and other Sin City scandals.

    May 13th, 2024 • Featured | #Quill Archives
    10 with Leonard Levin

    At age 92, Leonard Levin is a past president and one of the longest active members of the SPJ-New England with more than 70 years in the organization. Levin began his career at the Pawtucket Times in Rhode Island, where he worked his way up to the copy desk.

    April 26th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    AI in the classroom

    The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the journalism industry is undeniable. Views on AI vary from optimism to fear, with no straightforward consensus on how these tools should and shouldn’t be used by journalists. But one thing is clear: these tools are here to stay.

    April 9th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    “Scoop,” “Origin” and more added to Quill’s ranked journalism movies list

    The hits — and flops — just keep on coming. With the help of the team from Midwest Film Journal, we’ve added 10 more films to our growing Journalism Movies Ranked list, including 2023’s outstanding “Origin” and the just-released “Scoop.” To find out where these rank on our list — which now numbers 190 flicks — visit here.

    April 4th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    Let’s Do Better: 2023’s egregious breaches in journalism ethics

    Every good journalist knows the importance of adhering to high ethical standards, but each year, some fail to do so. The past year was no different. Let’s face it, our image has been tarnished for quite a while, and it doesn’t help when colleagues confirm the questionable integrity many Americans already suspect.

    March 22nd, 2024 • Quill Archives | #From the President
    From the President: Student success inspires

    My heart swells with pride and excitement for the future of journalism as I highlight the incredible achievements of the SPJ William Paterson University student chapter. Recently earning the prestigious title of SPJ Campus Chapter of the Year for the second time in three years, its members’ dedication, passion, and commitment to journalistic excellence embody the spirit of SPJ and serve as a shining example for student chapters across the nation.

    March 14th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    Congress may soon pass federal shield law. It’s been a long time coming.

    After years of effort by press freedom advocates and their allies, Congress in its current session seems to be on the verge of finally passing a federal reporter shield law, which would give broad protection to journalists from being compelled to reveal the names of sources and methods in federal court testimony.

    February 23rd, 2024 • Quill Blog
    Was content a factor in Gannett axing “Doonesbury”?

      Fans of “Doonesbury” who’ve been getting the edgy comic strip in a Gannett-owned newspaper searched in vain for it Sunday, Feb. 18. That day’s strip mocked the notion that something other than slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War and featured a teacher telling students that many Southerners assisted the Union Army.

    February 13th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    Nameless In Print

    Marvel Comics and artist Banksy both agree: being invisible is a superpower. You’re there, but you’re not there. The same goes for being a ghostwriter, where staying hidden is a large part of the power. In fact, it’s a core part of the talent, and oftentimes is a contractual obligation.

    January 22nd, 2024 • Quill Archives
    Diversity programs under attack

    Assistant Professor Chalise Macklin makes sure guests who speak to her broadcast classes at the University of Memphis include people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ+  community. And her lectures weave in examples that showcase a diverse range of people and communities.

    January 8th, 2024 • Quill Archives
    10 With Clayton Weimers of Reporters Without Borders

    Since 1985, Reporters Without Borders has defended press freedom, pluralism and independence the world over. Approximately half the global population has no or limited access to free, uncensored, reliable news and information means that its work to track and publicize issues of press freedom infringement is happening around the clock.

    January 3rd, 2024 • Quill Archives
    The Press and the Police: How to handle interactions with law enforcement

    When officers from the Marion Police Department showed up at Eric Meyer’s Kansas doorstep with a search warrant, the Marion County Record publisher and editor kept his cool despite being “incredulous and angry” that the raid, which he believed was unconstitutional, was a coordinated sweep on his home, the Record newsroom and a third location.

    December 7th, 2023 • Quill Blog
    2023 Journalist’s Gift Guide

    Welcome to what has become a Quill winter tradition. Once again, we exercised our research skills, took into account the advice of experts in the field and did a seek and find to uncover great gifts for you or the journalist in your life.

    December 7th, 2023 • Quill Archives | #From the President
    From the President: On board for a bright future

    As we embark on another year of service to the journalism community, I am honored to address you as the President of the Society of Professional Journalists. The SPJ board is already hard at work focusing on improving our fiscal health, strengthening our advocacy for journalism’s vital principles and ensuring SPJ remains relevant and inclusive.

    November 28th, 2023 • Quill Archives
    Bookshelf: “Last Paper Standing” recounts Colorado newspaper rivalry

    As anyone who’s read about 19th century U.S. journalism already knows, old-timey newspaper circulation wars between rival papers could get pretty ugly. Yet even in those two-fisted times, when battles over readership sometimes turned into literal battles, the century-long struggle between the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News was something else.

    November 3rd, 2023 • Featured | #Quill Archives
    Appeals court decision reinstates controversial drone photography law

    In a decision that is likely to restrict the rights of Texas photojournalists to use drones in their reporting, a federal appeals court panel has reversed a lower court ruling that had found major portions of the state’s restrictive drone law unconstitutional.

    October 31st, 2023 • Quill Archives
    “Freelance,” “The Good Mother,” “Perfect,” more added to Quill’s ranked list of journalism films

    Two brand-new releases, a nearly-a-century old Joan Crawford flick, and seven others get added to Quill’s epic, ongoing ranked list of journalism movies. Alas, none here rank very high. To see where our critics panel placed them, you can find the entire list here. 

    September 26th, 2023 • Quill Archives
    2023 Fellow Feature: Lesley Visser

    “I was always the youngest and the first,” Lesley Visser says, summing up, in one short sentence, her pioneering career in sports media.  Visser’s list of history-making moments is longer than a Tom Brady touchdown pass. She was the first woman to cover an NFL team as a beat writer (she reported on the New England Patriots for The Boston Globe beginning in the 1970s) … the first woman to broadcast the NBA Finals, Final Four and World Series … the first woman assigned to “Monday Night Football” … the first woman to handle a Super Bowl trophy presentation … the first woman to be honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame … the first woman to win the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award at the Emmys.

    September 25th, 2023 • Quill Archives
    2023 Fellow Feature: Dana Priest

    Two Pulitzer Prizes — for reporting on the CIA’s secret prisons, and conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center — are just the tip of the journalistic iceberg for Dana Priest. A career reporter (primarily at The Washington Post) and bestselling author, she is the recipient of: the David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism awarded by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University; the Gerald R.

    September 22nd, 2023 • Quill Archives
    2023 Fellow Feature: Marvin Kalb

    Personally recruited to CBS News by Edward R. Murrow, Marvin Kalb abandoned his Ph.D. work in Russian history at Harvard University to plunge into a journalism career that spanned decades, including five and a half years living in the U.S.S.R. Today, at age 93, he resides in Washington, D.C.,

    September 18th, 2023 • Quill Archives
    2023 Fellow Feature: Soledad O’Brien

    During a commencement address at Spelman College, Soledad O’Brien relayed a story about people in Maryland spitting on her parents in 1958 because they disapproved of the marriage between her mother, a Black Cuban, and father, a white Australian of Irish and Scottish heritage.

    September 8th, 2023 • Quill Archives | #From the President
    From the President: A tough call

    Family members streamed into the newsroom clutching pictures of their loved ones, hopeful they were either alive under the rubble of the World Trade Center or injured and dazed in a Manhattan emergency room.  On Sept. 11, 2001, I was design editor at the Staten Island Advance, a daily newspaper in New York City’s smallest borough, just eight miles from ground zero.

    September 5th, 2023 • Quill Archives | #People and Places
    2023 Fellow Feature: Richard Drew

    Even if you don’t know Richard Drew’s name, you’ve no doubt seen his work. As an Associated Press photographer for 53 years, his lens has caught everything from foreign wars, international Olympics Games, U.S. political races and European royalty, to natural disasters, neighborhood fires, police chases and small-town heroes. 

    July 24th, 2023 • Quill Archives | #Digital Media Toolbox
    Making use of open source

    Many major news stories begin their journey to public consciousness via social media. Witness the cellphone video shot by a bystander showing the killing of George Floyd and the videos of the Capitol insurgency of Jan. 6, 2021. With its vast and growing palette of digital tools, such open source intelligence has become a forensic art, applying to both journalism and criminal investigations. 

    July 17th, 2023 • Quill Archives | #Ethics Toolbox
    Covering suicide responsibly

    For more than a quarter of a century, suicide prevention experts have advised journalists against providing too many details about specific suicide methods, or presenting stories about suicide in a prominent way, due to the risk of copycat deaths. So a New York Times front page headline left me shocked: “Where the Despairing Learn Ways to Die.”

    July 11th, 2023 • Quill Archives
    Refreshing the pool

    Like many journalists, Corey Walker didn’t major in journalism; he focused on history and economics while attending the University of Michigan. He loved to write, though, and took one journalism class and penned a few stories for the Michigan Review, a conservative alternative campus publication.

    July 6th, 2023 • Quill Archives | #Ten With...
    10 With Lauren Williams

    In 2020, many heavy issues and events were directly affecting African Americans, and not in a good way. Police or police wannabes killed unarmed Black citizens while a deadly contagion was spreading, disproportionally afflicting Black people. Nonetheless, hundreds of marches against police brutality and nervousness about a consequential presidential election drew scores of people outside, further putting Black Americans, in particular, at risk.

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