The ethics of reporting on China’s Olympic games are increasingly muddy. The International Olympic Committee has admitted it is allowing China to censor what foreign journalists can read while in China (in fact, the IOC has no choice). This is contrary to repeated promises by the IOC and China. Chinese censors block reporters at Olympic…
Reports the New York Times: ”Almost two-thirds of American newspapers publish less foreign news than they did just three years ago, nearly as many print less national news, and despite new demands on newsrooms like blogs and video, most of them have smaller news staffs, according to a new study.” (So much for globalization…. or…
Tony Snow, best-known as a one-time White House spokesman for U.S. President George W. Bush and also a conservative editorialist, commentator and a host on a Fox cable show in the U.S., has died of cancer, age 53. Excerpts from an Associated Press story in the Globe and Mail: Said Bush, “It was a joy…
A Globe and Mail piece by Sinclair Stewart summarizes the kerfuffle involving Fox News vs the New York Times, which has been making American media news lately. The focus is on photographs of two Times reporters allegedly doctored by Fox. As Stewart said, they “have stirred a froth about journalistic ethics in media circles here,…
A one-year report card from PEN (the pdf is here) noted that seven months ago, the freedom of expression group called on the Chinese government to: • release all writers and journalists currently imprisoned and stop detaining, harassing, and censoring writers and journalists in China; • end Internet censorship and reform laws used to imprison…
The title of a Wired piece revealed the ambition of Wikileaks, the document-leaking site: “Immune to Critics, Secret-Spilling Wikileaks Plans to Save Journalism … and the World” Said Editor’s Weblog: “Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, says his document-leaking site is helping journalists change the world … “For investigative journalists, this powerful new resource has the…
I expect journalists have always felt like ink-stained wretches at times — and especially now, with the Internet having devoured not only tens of thousands of our jobs, our hopes for financial security, and even the ink. The Poynter Institute’s Butch Ward offers some words of solace: “Remember how talented you are: You can write.…
Critics of a New York Times investigative story about a CIA interrogator, whom it named, say it “has made him a marked man.” Scott Shane, the reporter, and his editors said that using the name was necessary for credibility. The Times’ Public Editor Clark Hoyt weighs the issues, and concludes: “I understand how readers can…
Christopher Hitchens, a Washington-based journalist known for his support of the Iraq war and the U.S. war on terror, has subjected himself to waterboarding. The experiment was done in answer to critics who challenged him to try it after he defended U.S. treatment of Muslim prisoners, reported CBC News, which interviewed Hitchens about his upcoming…
Former Wall Street Journal editor Marcus Brauchli has been named executive editor of The Washington Post, stepping into the large shoes of the legendary Leonard Downie, Jr. Brauchli was briefly the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, but resigned shortly after Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought WSJ owner Dow Jones. Brauchli’s resignation — and…