PressEthic

"I'm a journalism grad student at a pretty good j-school, but I feel more and more like I've made a huge mistake.

The thing is, I'm shy. Or rather, I'm deeply afraid of people -- of talking to them, of asking them nosy questions about their lives. Left to my own devices, I'd stay in my room, do nothing and never go out," writes Scared Scribbler in a Salon piece.

Normally, two gay woman having a child together would not register a blip on media's radar -- unless the woman happened to be in Hollywood, ala Melissa Etheridge. But in this case, the pregnant woman happens to be Mary Cheney, daughter of Vice-President Dick Cheney. With Cheney's allegiance to the family values platform of conservatism, leftwing and rightwing groups quickly seized on the announcement.

Euphemisms are common place in military jargon. Collateral damage and peacekeeping force are two examples of the softened, hollow language used to manipulate public opinions. In Iraq, the Bush administration is fighting vehemently over whether Iraq classifies as a civil war.

Gerald Boyd died yesterday at the age of 56. Boyd was known for breaking barriers at The New York Times, becoming the first black metro and managing editor. For all of the accolades, his career at The Times was undone in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal.

Religion is imbued in society. Faith is a factor in presidential elections. School prayer divides communities, religious leaders fight for their symbols to adorn public buildings during holidays, and it influences Biology courses in high schools.

At the same time Senior Brian Stelter juggles papers and projects for his Mass Communication classes, he takes phone calls from media executives at NBC, CNN and the like, while blogging about it at TVNewser. Barely able to drink, the Towson University student created a maelstrom from a blog packed with insider information on the television news industry.

With the midterm elections over and Democrats winning back the majority in the House and Senate – pending previously scorned Joe Lieberman – the purported liberal media should be dancing in the streets. Just ask Howard Kurtz.

In a book review for The Times by David Sirota, Lou Dobbs reveals a new side, one that possibly panders to the audience at CNN and conjures questions disingenuousness, as the anchor was never a champion of the little man until recently.

What would the world be like without the op-ed pages that influence America? Would it be a barren place bereft of political endorsements and criticisms of public policy? In an opinion column -- of all places -- for The Nation, Eric Alterman argues that the press and public would benefit from such a change.

A cursory glance at the Senate race between Jim Webb and George Allen echoed Florida 2000, as Virginia – a longtime bastion of Republicanism – was swept under in the wave of Democratic advances during the midterm elections.

An evangelical minister stepped down from one of the largest congregations in the country after a male prostitute went public alleging the two had had a long-term affair.

When asked about Iraq last week, President Bush replied, "Absolutely, we are winning," as quoted in The Times. In the same speech, Mr. Bush asked the American public for patience and to disregard negative press regarding the war. But once more it appears he is not being forthright with Americans.

The war in Iraq rages on and America troops continue to make the ultimate sacrifice. In this milieu a multitude of reasons have forced The Chicago Tribune to forgo profiles of dead soldiers, causing the paper flak from all sides.

The Iraq War took a major turn in the American press this morning, blazing across the front page of The New York Times was the very real possibility that the U.S. could lose the war, allowing Iraq to spiral into a chaotic abyss.

In the past few years the delivery of news has changed radically. Also, what is defined as news has changed. Documentaries or agitprops such as "Loose Change" and "Fahrenheit 9/11," though presented as news, are often vehicles of propaganda. Love or hate their message, their power is undeniable, as Moore’s movie grossed over $200 million and was a force in the 2004 election, while "Loose Change" has thousands of daily hits on the Internet. In The New Yorker, Nicholas Lemann’s "Paranoid style: How conspiracy theories become news," examines the power these films project and how their wild theories seep into mainstream media.