PressEthic

In the same week that Yahoo admitted to its complicity with the Chinese government in incriminating and jailing journalist Shi Tao (see Ryan McConnell's blog), it also announced its intention to begin work on a multi-faceted online news source at the end of September. The show is called Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone and will feature journalist Kevin Sites reporting from varying parts of the world experiencing conflict.

Yahoo has said that part of their intent with this is to garner a younger audience's attention. According to Yahoo's media group director, Lloyd Braun, "There is a strong desire among that generation to feel like there is transparency, that they themselves have a voice they can express." The irony here is that the same company who believes that young people want to feel that they have freedom to express their own voice played a large part in incriminating a journalist for expressing the truth, and these events happened in the news almost simultaneously. One quick way to alienate that generation Yahoo is trying to capture? Violate a person's right to privacy. Kids usually hate that sort of thing, if they ever even hear about it. Maybe Sites' travels will bring him to China, where he can explore this topic on the front line. Now that would be enlightening.