PressEthic

The New York Times is going to distinguish straight news reporting from analysis and opinion in a marginally helpful way.

Ever found a photograph in the street? Maybe the people pictured are somehow responsible for a gruesome murder!

As some Muslims protest remarks made by the Pope photographs are helping to tell the story. Which do it best?

Bernard Goldberg says CBS News biased its coverage of Steve Forbes and his flat tax plan because they took their cues from the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Was the New York Times flat tax coverage back in 1996 actually biased? Let's ask Lexis Nexis.

I've got two nominees:

1) Nancy Grace interviewing Elizabeth Smart.

2) Connie Chung's swan song.

Sure, the Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair and Jack Kelley scandals were disgraceful... but I've seldom felt the awful emotion of embarassment for others more powerfully than when watching the clips linked above.

Should an off-duty journalist, confronted with evidence of corruption, always investigate? Or is it sometimes appropriate to look the other way, as I did this summer?

On another blog I took the Poynter Institute to task for writing ethical guidelines that are poorly conceived, vague and badly written. Even so, their list is useful as a jumping off point for a conversation about press ethics, and today I'd like to address one of their recommendations: "Embrace the relationship between journalism and democracy."

Is their any issue in journalism as fraught with controversy?