The Indiana Publisher

August 2018 Page 9 News in brief Leaked white paper proposes Congressional regulation of social media platforms There have been multiple sessions in Congress over the past year looking at the failures of digital platforms such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter, including their failure to limit the actions of trolls spreading misinformation during the 2016 election. But there have been very few concrete proposals from the government on how to deal with that, or with the virtual monopoly platforms have on certain types of information, or how they should handle user privacy. Democratic Senator Mark Warner hopes to fi ll that gap with a policy discussion paper he has been circulating in governmental and tech circles, according to a report from Axios (which obtained a copy of the paper from an unknown source). The proposals in the paper are wide ranging and in some cases even politically impossible, and raise almost as many questions as they try to answer. The paper argues that the revelations of the past year, including evidence that Russian trolls manipulated Facebook, have "revealed the dark underbelly of an entire ecosystem." When it comes to misinforma- tion, the Warner paper says one possible proposal is that platforms be required to label automated bot accounts, and also do more to identify who is behind anonymous or pseudonymous accounts. If there's a failure to do these things, it says, the Federal Trade Commis- sion could step in with sanctions. — Columbia Journalism Review SPJ shirts to benefi t Capital Gazette staff SPJ is selling First Amend- ment T-shirts, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Capital Gazette in Maryland. Five of its employees were shot and killed on June 28. The T-shirts cost $20 each. (Orders placed via PayPal cost $21 to cover PayPal's processing fee.) There is no charge for shipping. To order, visit https:// www.spj.org/tshirts.asp. — Society of Professional Journalists More than 100 newspapers will publish editorials decrying Trump's anti-press rhetoric The Boston Globe has been contacting newspaper editorial boards and proposing a "coordi- nated response" to President Trump's escalating "enemy of the people" rhetoric. "We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date," The Globe said in its pitch to fellow papers. The effort began just a few days ago. As of Aug. 5, "we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days," Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy editorial page editor, told CNN. "The response has been overwhelming," Pritchard said. "We have some big newspapers, but the majority are from smaller markets, all enthusiastic about standing up to Trump's assault on journalism." — CNN Money www.newspaperconsultants.com | 910-323-0349 | info@newspaperconsultants.com "Your team did everything you said you'd do (and more) when you were pitching us. That's rare for a vendor - we felt more like partners, and that's much appreciated." Scott Rosenburgh, Observer-Dispatch Boost your annual advertising revenue with a new or existing TV magazine! commit. The Tribune's Christian Sheckler and ProPublica's two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Ken Armstrong will walk seminar attendees through their reporting process — which included obstacles in obtaining information like a judge saying trial exhibits were off limits. Sheckler said to tell the full story, it's important to push for access to information and leave no stone unturned. "There's a payoff to getting documents that have never made their way into previous news coverage of a story," Sheckler said. The seminar session will offer advice that newsrooms can use to tell in-depth stories and will also explain ProPublica's project. "I hope they walk away with an awareness of ProPublica's Local Reporting Network and some of the benefi ts that can come from it," Armstrong said. ProPublica is adding another seven newsrooms to its network, Armstrong said. These organiza- tions will be a part of a project specifi cally focusing on statehouse coverage. The deadline to apply for that project is Sept. 15 "I think that really what everybody wants is that the best, most important stories get the resources they need and that they be told," Armstrong said. Sheckler encourages Indiana newsrooms to apply to ProPubli- ca's program. "It's been such an amazing opportunity to have their support doing this," Sheckler said. To apply for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network, visit https://tinyurl.com/propublicalrn. To read the South Bend Tribune's stories, visit https:// tinyurl.com/sbpropub. To read more stories from ProPublica's Local Reporting Network, visit https://www. propublica.org/local-reporting- network/. ProPublica Continued from Page 1

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