PressEthic

Last night a young woman asked me what I did for a living. When I replied that I was studying journalism, she practically sneered at me. Sure, the field encompasses the celebrity-stalking paparazzi and tabloid writers. On the other hand, there are reporters risking their lives around the world to get the story.

On October 5, Neil Brown, Executive Editor of the St. Petersburg Times, printed an op-ed on why his newspaper chose not to break the Mark Foley scandal. The paper had some of Foleys strange emails, and rumors were already flying in the capital. Shouldn’t they have ‘gotten the goods’?

It’s not everyday that a New York Times article reads more like a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream than a statement of fact. So after coming across the piece, I knew I had to blog about it.

I learned that I was inherently evil. I learned that anyone who appeared good was a hypocrite, and if I strove for goodness, everything would just fall apart. Hmm. Why was this in The New York Times again?

This election season The San Francisco Chronicle has decided to shake things up a bit. Instead of printing traditional one-on-one interviews with candidates and then endorsing one of them, the newspaper will host hour-long candidate debates before the paper’s editorial board. The newspaper’s broadcast partner CBS 5 will then broadcast these debates live through streaming video.

The first story that popped up was titled ‘Hugo Chavez, Latino Male Oprah?’ and appeared to be more of a diatribe than a liberal bias expose.

"Of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center, with CBS' "Evening News," The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ranking second, third and fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal. Only Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and The Washington Times scored right of the average U.S. voter."

Does The New York Times, even after the Jayson Blair scandal, really need to reiterate its credibility, relevance and high standards of reporting? Could the Times, revered among journalists and journalism students, feel the heat to compete more effectively in new media markets?

Barbara Ehrenreich “has started an organization called United Professionals to help white collar workers, be they unemployed, uninsured, downsized, stressed out or merely anxious.”

Rising like a phoenix in defiance of mainstream media, independent (and often free) presses frequently cover the stories and print the perspectives that can make the corporate giants decidedly uncomfortable. This week they were awarded a measure of protection and even validation through the passing of a very strange bit of California legislation.

Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped on her way to school when she was only ten years old. For eight-and-a-half years her captor held her prisoner in his cellar. Her recent escape led to an international media blitz with reporters clamoring for answers to some very personal questions.