PressEthic

The Hartford CBS affiliate WFSB-TV has barred reporters from all other news outlets from the upcoming debate among the candidates in Connecticut's hotly contested Senate race. Moreover, the debate will be "embargoed" for 27 hours before being broadcast to viewers, leaving time for candidates to formulate more effective post-debate spin strategies. This begs the question: what's more important -- the content of the debate itself, or the way in which the media broadcasts it to viewers/voters?

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller says the media let the country down in the lead-up to war in Iraq by not fully investigating and questioning the reasoning for war.

We've discussed various papers' positions on Wal-mart and whether or not the corporation receives biased coverage. In today's Times, John Tierney writes a remarkably pro-Walmart op-ed, asking, "Has any organization in the world lifted more people out of poverty than Wal-Mart?"

The Center for Public Integrity relaunched today its Media Tracker, a database that identifies the range of media available by zip code, a tool that can help get perspective on who controls the information where you live.

Don't worry about the decreasing number of embedded journalists in Iraq, they're putting more of us in the depths of muckracking journalism territory: virtual reality.

Recent discussion over internet mediums like facebook, myspace and youtube has confirmed that the entire concept of so-called “fifteen minutes of fame” is beginning to fade into history. Most of us have built up an internet legacy by now, whether it be through personal sites, videos, or publicly accessible photo albums. The ability to reach to a wide audience is no longer confined to the small elite of journalists, authors, filmmakers and broadcasters.

As far as the expansion of public rhetoric goes, myspace and facebook are relatively unthreatening concepts; thousands of simple web pages that list each individual’s favorite bands, relationship status and number of friends contribute more into the creation of masses than the discovery of new voices. It is blog sites and youtube, however, that give each of us an opportunity to join the ranks of the media. Instead of gathering programming based on secondhand ratings, youtube is created directly by the viewers themselves. Rather than simply an information box, television is on its way to becoming, literally, a public forum.

No White House press secretary had ever raised money for political candidates -- until Tony Snow entered the GOP fundraising circuit. What are the ethical implications of this bold move?

A big big question that I just can't answer

In a time when the White House is getting more and aggressive in countering what reporters are asserting about Bush and his reasons for the Iraqi war, it is nice to see a journalist finally put the White House on the spot.

Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader defends its investigation of Sen. Mitch McConnell's fundraising machine, but new owner McClatchy returns the grant money that enabled the research.

Consumers at numerous Chinese restaurants in Austin, Texas will get a surprise when they crack open their fortune cookies to discover, in addition to the expected prophecy, a political advertisement, explained an article in the Washington Post Sunday.

On CNN.com there is an article about a Dekalb County (Georgia) nurse who is suing the county because a police officer have her a $100 ticket for having a sticker that read "I'm tired of all the BUSH**". Even though Georgia did used to have a law in its books that prohibited lewd or profane sticker or decals on vehicles this law was deemed unconstitutional in 1990. I'm sure that the police officer knew this and still decided to harass the woman for her difference of opinion regarding President Bush

Is it possible for a journalist to comment on controversial issues outside of their journalistic arena and still maintain their credibility? This week, a bay area news anchor's future was compromised when he went on his radio talk show and talked about the controversial topic of a gay man and lesbian woman's child. An article in Inside Bay Area covers it:

Journalists embedded with US troops in Iraq have reached their lowest numbers since the 2003 war began, according to an Oct. 15 Associated Press article. I’m still unclear as to whether this is a good or bad thing.

In Time Magazine's October 23, 2006 issue, Barack Obama is featured on the cover with the headline "Why Barack Obama could be the Next President" written by Joe Klein. After reading the shorter version on CNN.com I began to wonder about some of the issues raised in the article and the manner in which it was written.