Chelsea Clinton and the press

Chelsea Clinton has established herself as an ambassador for her mother’s presidential bid.
She has also closed herself off from the media on several occassions – including recently brushing off a 9-year-old reporter and most recently striking down a student reporter’s question about the Lewinsky scandal’s effect on Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The question here: is Chelsea Clinton [...]

Iraq War lost in the news shuffle

Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton. Eliot Spitzer. Soaring oil prices. $4/gallon gas looming. Worries of a possible recession. The murder of a UNC student body president. The death of William F. Buckley.
But a new Pew Research study finds that the Iraq War has quietly faded into the background noise, lost amid a new torrent of news headlines.
The [...]

Becoming a part of the solution …

Journalists, take heart: Continue to fight the good fight.
Be a voice of dissent. If a reporter’s conduct or practices do not sit well with your journalistic integrity, then follow what your gut tells you is inherently wrong.
Challenge old methods. Reconcile the age-old journalistic principles with changing times.
Don’t allow newsroom ‘groupthink’ quash what you firmly believe [...]

‘The bow tie is out’

Tucker Carlson is off the MSNBC roster.
He’ll be replaced by a hour-long Campaign 2008 program hosted by David Gregory.
The MSNBC afternoon lineup of Tucker, Hardball and Countdown was a little heavy on the ‘op/ed’ side – this move is solid because it brings a focused (and relevant) news program to MSNBC’s lineup.
The move to bring [...]

Report Shocker: People don’t trust the media

The Harris results reflect the findings of a recent Harvard University study conducted last year, which found “nearly two-thirds of Americans do not trust campaign coverage by the news media.” A few other recent surveys offer some explanation for the distrust:
– Two thirds of Americans – 67 percent – believe traditional journalism is out of [...]

More on ‘Prince Harry-Afghanistan’ media embargo

Here’s some more points of view on the ‘Prince Harry in Afghanistan’ embargo:
“Prince Harry blackout sets a bad media precedent” – Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman: “The argument goes that it was in Britain’s national interest to keep Prince Harry’s whereabouts hidden. What bollocks! Sorry, but this doesn’t seem like a case of national security. I don’t [...]

FCC considers probe into possible ‘60 Minutes’ blackout

Technical glitch, or an orchestrated blackout of a politically-charged story in Alabama?
‘60 Minutes’ ran a piece that examined the bribery prosecution of a democratic Alabama governor. The report presents a possible plot to take down ex-Gov. Don Siegelman, a democrat, spearheaded by republicans – and Bush’s former adviser Karl Rove.
‘The Prosecution of Governor Siegelman’ segment [...]

Media attempts cover up – fails miserably

Front and center of the Web site for The Society of Editors – a membership of British journalists – is the following pledge:
“The Society of Editors works to protect the freedom of all sectors of the media to report on behalf of the public.”
Among the Society’s four ‘values that matter’: “The promotion of press and [...]

Pres. Bush live on ABC, CBS – but not NBC

ABC and CBS broke into their regularly scheduled Thursday morning programming to broadcast President Bush’s news conference.
NBC, however, did not follow suit. Instead, it diverted conference coverage to NBC’s cable network MSNBC.
NBC News senior vice president Phil Griffin said it was part of a decision to make MSNBC a more prominent news destination.
(For what it’s [...]

SHARK ATTACK!!

Yahoo, MSN and other Web portals are not exactly established, respected and revered news outlets – but boy-o-boy a lot of people click through those sites on a daily basis.
That’s what makes a recent headlining story on Yahoo so discouraging. Its headline read: ‘Shark Attacks on the Rise.’
This was the featured story that prominently ran [...]