Restoring trust in courts after Charles Tan case
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The decision shows why we need to return cameras to New York courtrooms on a regular basis. Charlie Tan is a name that Rochester will likely remember for decades. His notorious case has many of the makings of a crime show. It includes violence and murder, and raises questions about politics, privilege, fair play and justice.
Unlike most television dramas, however, this story was not neatly tied up with a bow at the end. Instead, we are left with numerous loose ends that might never be resolved, and an unsettling sense of doubt that the system worked the way it should.
There is danger in doubt. For a criminal justice system to be effective, people must have a great deal of faith in it. The Tan case took away some of our trust, and has left us speculating without knowing all of the facts.
This is a classic example of why we need to return cameras to the courtroom on a regular basis.
Judge James Piampiano says there was not enough evidence to try Tan again. That came as a shock to two jurors who told us Thursday that the only stumbling block to conviction was the charge. Had the prosecutors offered a manslaughter charge instead of murder, they say, Tan would be behind bars today. Who is right? Most of us were not sitting in the courtroom, so we did not see the prosecution present what it believed to be ample evidence. We did not watch how Piampiano conducted the trial, how the defense addressed the allegations, or how the witnesses described what they saw. We were not there on Thursday morning, when Piampiano threatened to handcuff the very distraught assistant district attorney. And we can't hit "play" to watch it all over again. More
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Towanda and Shamokin, PA dailies sold to Sample Media
From Cribb, Greene & Cope release
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Towanda Printing Company (TPC) has been sold to Sample Media Group according to Gary Greene, Cribb Greene & Cope who represented the seller in the transaction.
George Lynett, Jr., CEO of Times-Shamrock Communications, the parent company of TPC, made the announcement along with George "Scoop" Sample, President of the Sample Media Group.
Towanda Printing Company is made up of three newspaper clusters that include daily, weekly and monthly publications that serve a five county area centered in Northeast Pennsylvania and South Central New York. Those publications include The Daily Review, the Bradford Sullivan Pennysaver, and the Farmer's Friend, all in Towanda, PA; the Northeast Driller, Sayre, PA; the Troy Pennysaver, Troy, PA; the Susquehanna County Independent and Weekender in Montrose, PA; The News Item in Shamokin, PA; the Citizens Standard, Valley View, PA; and the Owego Pennysaver in Owego, NY. Also included in the sale is the company's modern printing facility in Towanda.
"This is a bittersweet moment for our family and for me as a former Publisher of the Daily Review. We have had a wonderful experience as owners of the Towanda Printing Company," Lynett said. "But we are also confident that we have placed Towanda Printing in the capable hands of another respected family-owned media company."
Sample News Group, headquartered in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, owns more than 50 publications, including 15 daily newspapers, in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
"We welcome Towanda Printing Co. and Shamokin into our family of newspapers," Mr. Sample said. "We are honored to have been selected by Times-Shamrock to continue their legacy of delivering all the best news to these fine communities."
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News Companies See Movies as Opportunity for Growth
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When the digital wizards at a forward-leaning media company last year introduced their newest idea, an entertainment unit, they couldn't resist an antique touch: "BuzzFeed Motion Pictures" arrived with a video logo modeled on images from a primitive movie projector called a zoopraxiscope, invented by one Eadweard Muybridge, circa 1879.
"We were looking back in time, and were sort of blown away" by the trappings of the early film industry, explains the BuzzFeed division's president, Ze Frank. "There was something almost otherworldly about them."
Old viewing habits die hard.
In a surprising turn, some of the most aggressive contemporary purveyors of information, journalistic and otherwise, are seeking future growth from what has not seemed novel since Edison's day: the feature-length motion picture.
The last several years, BuzzFeed Media, Vice Media, CNN, Condé Nast and Newsweek have all built units or alliances aimed in part at creating long-form narrative or documentary films that will be seen in theaters. More
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Wall Street Journal Launches In-App 360° Video and Virtual Reality
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The Wall Street Journal announced Wednesday that it is advancing a dynamic new storytelling form by enhancing its flagship iOS and Android apps with built-in 360° video and virtual reality viewing capabilities.
For Journal app users, this technology will provide a seamless viewing experience that allows users to enjoy 360° video without the need for a separate app or additional hardware. Mobile app users who want to experience the virtual reality features with a headset can use a number of available models. Desktop visitors can view the content either as 360° video in a browser, or as virtual reality with Oculus headsets.
The Journal first introduced virtual reality programming on its platforms in April, with the award-winning 3D NASDAQ interactive, which showcased a virtual reality guided tour of 21 years of the stock index. Building on that effort, the Journal released its first foray into 360° and virtual reality video, with a new piece profiling American Ballet Theatre soloist Sarah Lane. In the coming weeks, the Journal will use this technology in a major explanatory journalism series.
More
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The History Project Launches, Raises $2 Million In Funding To Fuel Digital Storytelling Platform
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The History Project, a modern reinvention of the time capsule, announced today that it is launching with $2 million in funding led by The New York Times Company, with additional investment by Matter Ventures and Altpoint Ventures, as well as several angels. The History Project connects memories and artifacts scattered over digital, social, and physical worlds for users to create meaningful, collaborative, and interactive life narratives. The company will use the funding to grow its platform, attract additional partners and scale its History Concierge service.
Currently, social media sites capture the here and now, but they lack historical perspective and lose important memories to a fast-moving stream. Unlike other platforms, The History Project combines capturing significant memories and digitizing offline content and cloud storage into a set of mobile and online tools that lets users intelligently collect, curate and collaborate in building personal stories. No other tool on the market today combines multimedia storytelling with technology to provide a platform to collect and bring history to life.
"Every second, we are losing one of our greatest human resources: our history. Millions want to capture their life stories of someone they love, but the process feels too complex, tedious and overwhelming," says Niles Lichtenstein, CEO and co-founder of The History Project. More
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