PressEthic

Writing books criticizing the Bush administration's approaches to Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and 9/11 seems to be what journalists are doing these days to keep busy, as if deadlines aren't enough. While Bob Woodward's book was number one on the AP's list of USA Today's top sellers, New York Times reporter Frank Rich's new book, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina" was number 48. Hopefully, Rich's appearance on Oprah yesterday will boost sales. If not, it certainly made for an interesting conversation about media and the Bush administration.

In Iraq, freedom of speech would appear to be nonexistent these days. An editorial in the New York Times said that laws in Iraq now forbid anyone from insulting the government. These journalists most certainly cannot carry out their duty as government watchdogs.

I recently read an article in the Washington Square News about candidates using the website facebook.com to campaign themselves. I went to the facebook site to see for myself what kind of resources it offered.

The so-called "conservative" Wall Street Journal wrote a surprising piece about "Yoduk Story," a South Korean musical about a North Korean prison camp. This is probably my own bias speaking, but I was surprised and refreshed to see something other than raw politics and economics in the Wall Street Journal.

With the release of Bob Woodward's book about the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, I was hesitant to read the Washington Post's coverage of it considering Woodward's affiliation as a Post journalist.

In the midst of a war with Iraq, the New York Times is more focused on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's squash game than his defense policies. I couldn't help reading this article and laughing. Is this newsworthy?

A recent study done by the Knight Foundation finds that teenagers are becoming increasingly interested in the news. An article on Poynter discusses it:

When it comes to using the Internet, high school students not only pay attention to the news, they like traditional news sources more than most might think.

In a YouTube featured video, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts voices his support for Net Neutrality. He talks about the importance of the internet, and gives his reasons as to why it should be free.

As I’ve been reading all the different stories about the Iraqi trenches, I still have no clarity about what we should be taking out of it. All the papers and news sources have covered it very differently, but does this mean they have different agendas? Everyone has a different idea about the most important aspects of the story.

As Callahan thoroughly discusses in "The Cheating Culture," a big part of cheating in America takes place in High Schools. He argues that the pressures of getting into a top school can instigate cheating on exams. In light of all this, I was refreshed to find an article on the front page of the Times about how Harvard University is doing away with its early acceptance program.

I was walking home the other day through my neighborhood in the Gramercy Park area, when I saw a poster endorsing Brian Kavanagh for Assemblyman. The interesting part about it is the fact that the endorsement was made by the New York Times.