Naming the Civil War...
Posted by Marcus O'Donnell in Uncategorized on 11 30th, 2006 | No Comments
As GWB steadfastly resists calling the conflict in Iraq a “civil war” despite the pronouncements of many of his own current and ex-military advisers, media outlets also grapple with the nomenclature. E&P reports that starting Monday The Los Angeles Times, NBC and MSNBC, will all be using that...
The Greatest Story Ever Sold - By Frank ...
Posted by Marcus O'Donnell in Uncategorized on 09 17th, 2006 | No Comments
In a review of NYT Columnist Frank Rich’s new book, The Greatest Story Never Told, writer and now Bard professor Ian Buruma sums up some of the general problems with current journalism - not startlingly original but neatly expressed:
THERE may be one other reason for the fumbling (over WMD...
Fundamentally adversarial...
Posted by Marcus O'Donnell in Uncategorized on 04 25th, 2006 | No Comments
Maybe my post yesterday was too pessimistic. Perhaps the controversy over the Pulitzers will round support for a press that is taking itself more seriously. As the NYT reports:
Some observers on the press side saw the awards as a recognition that the split between the government and the press, which...
Treasonable journalism...
Posted by Marcus O'Donnell in Uncategorized on 04 24th, 2006 | No Comments
There has been quite bit written about Pulitzers for Treason by right wing columnists in the US, following the Times‘ award for breaking the story about the NSA domestic wiretaps. But MarketWatch media columnist Jon Friedman got a shock when all of the reader responses to a recent column were...
The ghost of Judy Miller...
Posted by Marcus O'Donnell in Uncategorized on 04 19th, 2006 | No Comments
Arianna Huffington has been one of the most trenchant critics of Judith Miller throughtout the whole Plamegate affair, sometimes hysterically so, but her latest post is all sense. She suggests that a recent Times editorial on Scooter Libby which commented that the latest round of “this messy...
Creating Neutral Experts...
Posted by Marcus O'Donnell in Uncategorized on 01 3rd, 2006 | No Comments
The Revealer has a good critique of newspaper sourcing practices when quoting “experts” from think tanks. The NYT acknowledge in a story today that they were caught out in their earlier reporting of The Lincoln Group’s activities in Iraq. The Lincoln Group a PR outfit with ten million...
Answering back...
Posted by Marcus O'Donnell in Journalism & blogging on 01 2nd, 2006 | No Comments
Great article in the NYT by Katherine Seelye on the way the internet is changing the relationships between sources and journalists, between the writers and those being written about. It is a great article because it does what good journalism does, it provides a range of points of view while still being...