PressEthic

After reading an article about the decline of black lawyers on The New York Times' website, it left me wondering if many large corporations or firms are hiring minorities on double standards. When I say double standards, I'm referring to the research that was presented in the article by Richard A. Sanders, law professor at the University of California. In sum, his research concluded that grades are a large determinent in the gap between black partners and white partners in large law firms; as such, many of the minority lawyers, according to Sanders, are being set up for failure because they're being hired to boost minority pools. I, myself, don't buy this scenario and agree largely with Professor James E.

Evidence of the shifting media landscape has become increasingly apparent recently, and the Pulitzer Prize has taken notice. An article on Editor and Publisher online reported that the Pulitzer Prize will now accept entries from newspapers that contain video and/or interactive graphics. The article states:

Allowing more online material "was the next logical step," said Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzers. "It emphasizes blended journalism and that's where newspapers are today."

Niche news sites like Slashdot.org seem to be catching on quickly in the world of online news. Could people be turning more and more to pages like this to get the news they want?

I just finished reading an article in The Daily News about a black man who was killed hours before his wedding by NYPD police officers. What was specifically interesting about the article was that it never really confirmed any details about the shooting. As I write this, I'm still pretty much assuming that it was accident because no mention of the usual details that lead to minority shootings by police: drugs, robbery, theft. However, this article, in many ways, let the police off the hook. The picture that went along with the article was also especially heartbreaking with the man's 3-year-old daughter sobbing the loss of her Father.

Nancy Haught of The Oregonian examines ethical questions when charity groups ask journalists to cover kids' medical conditions to help raise money.

Why do voting blunders keep occurring in Florida where Jeb Bush is conveniently a part of the Elections Canvassing Commission? And why is it that media outlets are not honing in on this obvious fact? It makes it really hard not to think about and consider those extremists who claim the government controls the media. If the entire point of the media is to deliver objective news to the public why do certain facts seem to be ignored or more importantly not investigated? Has our news media become lazy and not willing to challenge facts or is it a reflection of the public's ignorance? The media should serve as a checks and balances for the governments actions but in cases such as this I feel that the media just glosses over it.

"If the U.S. public can be trusted to watch Lou Dobbs and his nativist hate speech, why can't we see Al Jazeera English, which is far less polemical?"

In Kentucky a day before Thanksgiving, there were broadcasts on every five o'clock news station from our troops in Iraq. The area of Kentucky where I spent Thanksgiving is a small rural area where people live in the same house their entire lives, where people get married straight out of high school and where a lot of people send their children to join the army. I began to wonder whether residents in larger cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago and Phoenix had to endure continuous laborious broadcasts from the troops in Iraq. The troops looked as though they were reading a script and there wasn't an iota of sincerity in their voices as they repeated over and over how happy they were to be doing their jobs in Iraq. Yeah right. Now that Bush wants to up the efforts in Iraq, places like Kentucky, where people are more likely to run off and join the army, are being saturated with tales of heroism on the holidays. I really lost respect for the new media because of their stereotypical broadcasting and I knew that in other cities it was customary to hear from the troops in Iraq but what I saw in Kentucky was so far from normal. Then on Thanksgiving day I had to hear all day about Bush calling ten troops to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving and see the same tired picture of him grinning on the phone from his lazy chair at Camp David. It was advertising for the army like I've never seen. Forget the pop up ads on the internet and commericals on television- this was so blatant I wondered whether the army sponsored the news.

After spending time with four different officers during two different police ride alongs I got a different perspective of police officers in general. I never had much respect for police officers they seemed to cause more trouble than help but after spending time with them I started to feel differently. That sympathy was totally removed after reading that three officers fired their guns fifty something times at three unarmed men. It happened to be one of the victims' wedding day which is why the story has garnered so much attention. Why the police officers are suspended with pay for this act is beyond me.

Ever read an online article and hover over a link only to have an ad pop up that directs you to a different site or activates a flash application? David Kesmodel and Julia Angwin of the Wall Street Journal ask: is it news...or is it advertising?

How important is the location of an article in a newspaper to its authority? A recent article in the New York Times Fashion & Style section seems out of place.

In July, 2002, MSNBC, which is co-owned by Microsoft and General Electric, began to air a program called Donahue, featuring talk show host Phil Donahue. The program, which appeared in a primetime slot, lasted just a few months and was cancelled in February 2003. According to MSNBC, low viewership was the problem; according to the Nielsen ratings, Donahue was the highest rated show on the network in its final month.

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.

The Chicago Cubs baseball team and the Los Angeles Times are both owned by the Tribune Company. So how is it that the Cubs, who finished last in the National League this year, received millions of dollars for player salaries, while the Pulitzer Prize-winning LAT languished amid looming staff cuts that led to the recent departures of both the editor and publisher?

Jeff Cohen, a media critic and founder of Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, partly attributes the lack of strong left voices on cable news to "a fear of sponsor flight." He says networks are hesitant to air progressive perspectives because, "they know that genuine representatives of the left will often be critical of business."