MMMM # 458 -- Covering Statehouses. The bots, and one amazing footnote passes.

•      The PEW folks have been counting heads.

     They wanted to see if the number of reporters covering Statehouses in The U.S. has dropped as a result of The Great Recession and the digital media Tsunami.

Their answer: Yes.

• Robot Journalists, Part 2

     We posted about the new AP bots that will write some business stories last week, and a writer at The New Yorker welcomes the bots...to a point.
     The way some stories are written by humans, they may as well be a robot's work. The "police need you help" endlessly and and no blood drive story is complete without a reference to "gift of life".

•      One of the journalists who proudly bore the scars of being attacked by Klansmen while the Montgomery Police intentionally looked the other way died last week. 

     He was interviewed during a 2007 reenactment of the Freedom Riders journey and dismissed his own part in the vicious attack as a "footnote:

"I'm going on this trip largely because I'm one of history's accidents. It was their vision and their courage that made the difference," said Seigenthaler. He called himself only "a footnote to the history of the Freedom Riders."

John Seigenthgaler was 86. 

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of TimElnnox.com]