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08 Jan 2012 23:02

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U.S.: Gabrielle Giffords, one year later: How an error defined real-time news

  • The sausage was being made in front of our eyes, with all of the messiness that analogy implies.
  • Poynter’s Craig Silverman • Discussing the Gabrielle Giffords shooting one year ago today, as well as the way the media covered it on Twitter. Very notably that day, NPR tweeted that Giffords had died of a gunshot wound to the head, and a number of media outlets reported it, when she in fact hadn’t. Silverman, who runs Regret the Error for Poynter, kept a Storify from that day. It was a key moment for the real-time news movement, and a decision that once might’ve played behind closed doors is now in plain sight. It reflects the new world we live in as both news producers and news consumers — one where the errors play out in the open. source

08 Jan 2012 22:01

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Culture: Stephen Hawking turns 70, misses his own birthday speech

Hawking, one of many famous people (Elvis, David Bowie, Kim Jong-Un) to have a birthday today, was recovering from an infection, but pre-recorded the speech ahead of time. He’s turning 70, despite doctors predicting he wouldn’t pass 25. source

08 Jan 2012 11:44

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Politics: “No Child Left Behind” turns 10, education experts want to leave it behind

  • It is time to acknowledge this failure and adopt a more effective course for the federal role in education. Policymakers must abandon their faith-based embrace of test-and-punish strategies and, instead, pursue proven alternatives to guide and support the nation’s neediest schools and students.
  • A policy assessment written by Lisa Guisbond, Monty Neill and Bob Schaeffer • Suggesting that No Child Left Behind, the Bush-era education law passed under bipartisan circumstances, should go the way of the dodo. The policy, now seen as an example of ineffective government overreach by many, celebrates its 10th birthday today, and politicians who once supported the law — including Rick Santorum, who voted for it and tried to push an intelligent design amendment into the bill — no longer do. Guisbond, Neill and Schaeffer’s report, which suggests revisiting the law based on the lessons learned from the past decade, is available to read over heresource