MetaFilter posts tagged with journalism and press

Times Archive,

languagehat — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:50:55 -0800

Every issue of The Times published between 1785-1985, digitally scanned and fully searchable. (Via Wordorigins.org.)

Downgrading the Fourth Estate

digaman — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:58:04 -0800

Rollback. Media critic Jay Rosen rises above the McClellan/"shake-up" foofaraw to put several pieces of the puzzle together and show how the Bush administration has significantly altered the long-standing relationship of the press to the White House. (More from Rosen here.) Another piece that fits: Donald Rumsfeld's bold, frequent, and rarely-challenged assertions that the American press is being expertly "manipulated" by Al Qaeda "media committees" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Is the News Media in Iraq practicing "compensatory criticism"?

Skygazer — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:10:57 -0800

The big payback in Iraq. Last night on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer, ROBERT LICHTER, President, Center for Media and Public Affairs put forth the following: You know, Charlie Peter, a great Washington journalist, once said, "The message of Watergate was dig, dig, dig, but journalists thought the message was act tough." And so I think you're getting negative coverage that may be kind of compensatory criticism.

Should the news focus more on the optimistic elements or is it reflecting public opinion. Is "compensatory criticism" justified for what it might wrongly perceive as possible White House manipulation during the run up to the war?

Pentagon bribery scandal -- Iraqi journalists bought out.

insomnia_lj — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 11:12:58 -0800

Pentagon bribery scandal -- Iraqi journalists bought out. Officials in Washington have admitted that the US military has bribed Iraqi journalists with under-the-table payoffs of up to $200 a month -- twice the average Iraqi monthly income -- for producing upbeat newspaper, radio and television reports about the war in Iraq. This follows a similar report yesterday that the military secretly paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of pro-American articles written by the US Information Operations Task Force in Baghdad. A Pentagon spokesman described the report as "troubling". "This article raises some questions as to whether or not some of the practices that are described in there are consistent with the principles of this department."

Pressing Freedom

Jon-o — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 07:44:56 -0800

Judith Miller Goes to Jail...for not revealing her source. Opinions seem to differ on Miller's personal credibility and reporting history. But is that the issue?

White House "reporter" outed

sacre_bleu — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 10:39:55 -0800

Fake "reporter" flees before bloggers. How did a man with no known journalism experience get repeated White House press room access, where he denounced Democratic leaders at press conferences and loudly supported President Bush? It's a question asked here before. But now, in an example of citizen journalism, bloggers have apparently exposed "Jeff Gannon," whose other activities may lend a new definition to the label "Republican tool."

Bush Press Conference

zarq — Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:16:37 -0800

President Bush gave a Press Conference yesterday, and it was only his 17th to date. According to Editor & Publisher, this compares to 43 for Bill Clinton, 84 for George H.W. Bush, and 26 for Ronald Reagan at similar points in their presidencies. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post has an analysis of yesterday's rare event, calling him "elusive". (Milbank was the same reporter who shredded Dubya a couple of years ago for granting an exclusive interview to Rupert Murdoch's trashy UK Sun while snubbing reputable US newspapers that would have been more likely to ask hard-hitting questions.) (The WashPost links require registration, which can be bypassed with BugMeNot.) Don't want to read the entire transcript? Try the poem "Man Date", instead. RudePundit took text from Bush's statements and turned 'em into poetry.

Fourth Estate Failure

fold_and_mutilate — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 13:08:12 -0800

"There was an attitude among editors: Look, we're going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?'' "Editors at The Washington Post acknowledge they underplayed stories questioning President Bush's claims of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the months leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq." The weblog Lunaville notes that The Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland found that "since September 11, 2001, the Bush administration has been especially successful at getting the American media to confirm its political and diplomatic agenda. Media reporting on the President amplified the administration s voice: when Bush said to the country that Americans are vulnerable to WMD in the hands of terrorists, the media effectively magnified those fears." Lawrence Lessig says: "As media becomes more concentrated, competition to curry favor with politicians only increases... Concentrated media and expansive copyright are the perfect storm not just for stifling debate but, increasingly, for weakening democracy as well." Can we make the media democratic?

I meant to just bitch to Cheney about it.

soyjoy — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 18:57:41 -0800

"Frankly, part of our problem is a lot of the press are afraid to travel very much, so they sit in Baghdad and they publish rumors," Paul Wolfowitz declared Tuesday - a slur that didn't sit well with a lot of journalists risking their lives in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. After callouts from Howard Kurtz, Maureen Dowd and Editor & Publisher's new rabble-rousing chief, Greg Mitchell, Wolfowitz has submitted an apology. (PDF version.) Ever helpful, Wonkette supplies a translation. (mostly via Romenesko)

Press Going Too Easy on Bush

stbalbach — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 23:18:51 -0800

Bottom-Line Business Pressures Hurting Press Coverage, Say Journalists. "Press Going Too Easy on Bush" survey finds. This and more in the annual State of the News Media report, paid for and sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts (non profit established by the children of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew).

Welcome to America, please sheath your pens and close your notebooks

dejah420 — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 10:14:14 -0800

British journalist strip searched and tossed in the pokey for the crime of not knowing about a never enforced 1952 law requiring "special" journalist visas. And she's not alone...according to Reporters with out Borders, the US has deported 15 reporters, 10 of those from LAX. Reporters must now provide a letter from their employer detailing their assignment, and the INS gets to decide who is allowed to report, and who isn't.

Heathers

McBain — Sat, 08 May 2004 09:02:36 -0800

David Neiwert writes a thoughtful piece about how utterly corrupt the press is and adds to the long running mefi discussion about why "framing" works for conservatives: "But even beyond the bias is the way this framing really corrupts and trivializes the national debate, so that we find ourselves constantly arguing about the "morality" or "character" of politicians, an issue that is by nature a product of spin and propagandizing. This has never been more clear than in the current election, when the "character" of a pampered fraternity party boy who couldn't be bothered to serve out his term in the National Guard and who went on to fail miserably at every business venture he touched is successfully depicted as that of a sincere and patriotic regular guy, while that of a three-time Purple Heart winner who voluntarily left Yale to serve in Vietnam, and whose ensuing three decades of public service have been a model of principle and consistency, is somehow depicted as belonging to a spineless elitist."

The ultimate censorship: journalist deaths in 2003

madamjujujive — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 05:46:55 -0800

Journalism is an increasingly deadly profession. Statistics vary. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports 36 deaths in 2003 while the International Press Institute documents 64 deaths. Iraq was the most life-threatening country, but the Philippines and Columbia remain some of of the most dangerous places to be a reporter. Four media deaths at the hands of US military in Iraq continue to spark controversy, and a Global Day of Mourning and Protest over the U.S. "abject failure" to probe the Palestinian Hotel deaths is scheduled for April 8. This year, Haiti appears to be another hotspot. The International News Safety Institute offers safety tips and member advice on how to stay alive.

New World Freedom of Press Rankings

fold_and_mutilate — Wed, 22 Oct 2003 13:41:54 -0800

Reporters Sans Frontières has released its 2003 world press freedom rankings: "Cuba second from last, just ahead of North Korea. United States and Israel singled out for actions beyond their borders....The ranking distinguishes behaviour at home and abroad in the cases of the United States and Israel. They are ranked in 31st and 44th positions respectively as regards respect for freedom of expression on their own territory, but they fall to the 135th and 146th positions as regards behaviour beyond their borders." In related news, "In Baghdad, official control over the news is getting tighter. Journalists used to walk freely into the city’s hospitals and the morgue to keep count of the day’s dead and wounded. Now the hospitals have been declared off-limits and morgue officials turn away reporters who aren’t accompanied by a Coalition escort. Iraqi police refer reporters’ questions to American forces; the Americans refer them back to the Iraqis";"Curtains Ordered for Media Coverage of Returning Coffins"; and it looks like we may have been using the word "casualties" incorrectly all this time.

You report, we kill you

Ignatius J. Reilly — Sun, 15 Jun 2003 11:01:54 -0800

Turning the tanks on the reporters The Observer's Phillip Knightley writes that Iraq will go down as the war when journalists seemed to become a target. Predicted here, discussed "in progress" here. The BBC, Al-Jazeera, and the US Committee to Protect Journalists thought it prudent to find out from the Pentagon what steps they could take to protect their correspondents if war came to Iraq... All three organisations concluded that the Pentagon was determined to deter western correspondents from reporting any war from the 'enemy' side; would view such journalism in Iraq as activity of 'military significance', and might well bomb the area.

The Grey Lady Falters

hhc5 — Sat, 10 May 2003 10:14:23 -0800

Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception The New York Times runs a long article detailing its preliminary findings in the matter of Jayson Blair, The Times' young staff reporter who made up sources, facts, and anecdotes in potentially hundreds of stories. Does this investigation help the Times avoid permanent disgrace? Or does this just confirm what you've always thought about the Times? Slate magazine is attributing part of the problem to affirmative action (Blair is black). Is AA relevant here?

GriffX — Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:54:02 -0800

Matt Taibbi, co-founder of the eXile, Moscow's most caustic and painfully funny newspaper, has relocated to Buffalo, NY (?) to work his journalistic mojo there. That is, if he's not arrested over this editorial.

laukf — Wed, 15 May 2002 15:33:31 -0800

Boycott France? An American Jewish Congress trade ad placed in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter compares anti-Semitic violence to that experienced during WWII. Some groups are also calling for a boycott of the Cannes Film Festival. Woody Allen doesn't agree. Can the actions of an idiotic minority really justify a boycott?

frednorman — Sun, 08 Jul 2001 02:20:26 -0800

Americans less supportive of 1st amendment. Roughly four in 10 people (41%) said the media have too much freedom. Four in 10 respondents (39%) believed the First Amendment goes too far in guaranteeing rights. 71% said it was "very" or "somewhat" important for the government to hold the media in check.

logovisual — Wed, 28 Mar 2001 21:16:12 -0800

Bush will apparently stop holding formal press conferences , instead opting for "informal conversations" with reporters. He promises to be "accessible," but I for one wouldn't be surprised if "informal" began to translate as "ceases to tell the country what he's up to"...