PressEthic

What will happen when Megan McArdle, successful independent blogger, starts penning a staff blog for the Economist?

Libya has been much in the news recently as the trial, in Tripoli, of five foreign health workers accused of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV is coming to a close.

From CNN

The medics were found guilty in a first trial in 2004 and sentenced to death by firing squad. But the supreme court overturned the ruling last year and ordered the case returned to a lower court.

The medics have denied the charges in both their first and second trials and have repeatedly testified that they were tortured to make them confess.

In Racine, Wisconsin, a local newspaper squares off against a local business leader over the language contained in a headline.

After years of hearing how the newspaper industry is on a steady trajectory all the way down, with readerships declining, circulations in the toilet, and staffs being slashed, there is hope. According to a Nov. 3rd article in Newsweek, newspapers are still profitable.

When The Spokane Spokesman-Review publicly aired internal deliberations on whether or not to cover a controversial story about an Idaho public figure's sexual orientation, the paper effectively publicized the story before it had even been officially reported. Is this ethical and responsible? And anyway -- since when is sexual orientation newsworthy?

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.

The launch of the al-Jazeera English-language satellite TV channel could make understanding the Arab news organisation a reality for non-Arab speaking audiences.

Fellow NYU-ers, I need your help. The following is a dilemma. Is it an ethial dilemma or just a question of propriety?

In an article published in Monday’s USA Today, minority enrollment into colleges and universities still seems to lag behind their Asian and Caucasian couterparts. Being a minority, and a product of a HBCU (Historically Black College or University), the article pointed out extremely important factors as to why the growth has been ‘incremental and not transformational.’ According to the article, Beverly Daniel Tatum of Spelman College attributed the slow progression to limited guidance and encouragement in elementary and high schools. I completely agree with her statement. My gripe about the article is that it provided some insight on what could be factors that cause the issue, but never really expanded on it.

It seems as if ‘un-healthy’ Americans may be able to still indulge in their fast-food habits with healthier effects on their body, as confirmed by an article in USA Today. Ironically enough, fast-food chain KFC will be switching to a new soybean oil from a partially hydrogenated oil by April. In a country where obesity is a constantly growing issue, I was extremely impressed and shocked that a chain such as KFC would seek to eliminate the artery-clogging trans fat in its fried chicken. Similarly to KFC, The New York City Board of Health seems to agree with KFC's efforts confirming that they will be hosting a public hearing to consider a citywide ban on the sale of all foods with trans fats.

Up until recently, the citizens of Providence, Rhode Island could depend on the editorial pages of their newspaper, The Providence Journal, to support a critical and oppositional view a proposed Harrah’s Entertainment-Narragansett Indian casino in West Warwick, Rhode Island.

An internal ABC Radio Networks instructs affiliates not to air commercials from about ninety advertisers during its Air America programming. ABC says the advertisers asked to have their commercials removed from the Air America spots, but now one company has said that it did no such thing.

To Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the media circus around them - and the very fact that Maureen Dowd has been sent to write a cover story about them - only reinforces their main point: that the press asleep at the wheel while the government drags the country down into hell.

In an article by Editor and Publisher yesterday, AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll gave an interview about the fact that an AP photographer, Bilal Hussein, is being detained by the U.S. military in Iraq and has been for six months. Apparently, Hussein has not been charged for any crime, but the Pentagon says vaguely that he is not being held for his work as a journalist, but rather because he poses as a threat. The Pentagon spokesman does not explain who Hussein might be a threat to and how or why. Hussein's detainment could represent the government and military's attempt to limit freedom of the press. However, Carroll's "call to arms" may not be entirely ethical.

Has everyone seen the latest annual press freedom index released by Reporters Without Borders? The result is, well, startling.