KC's News Meeting

What's in the news this week? 3 thoughts to get you started. I'll pull quiz questions from the items you add as comments.
- Bloomberg's hopes as mayor of NYC
- OPEC prices
- new UW chancellor speaks

Young at heart

A post from a 202er:

Katy,

Joe here, one of your 202 students. I came across this article on msnbc.com.

This article doesn't have much of a connection to media ethics. On the other hand, this man is a "semi-retired journalist," as the article states.

Perhaps nothing embodies the Teddy Roosevelt quote I have below in all my e-mails more than this story. This is what life is about. This guy's a testament to the human spirit.

Just thought it was interesting. Take a gander.

Joe :-)

http://beyondthearc.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/22/1582620.aspx

What do you think about your journalism education?

Check this out from New Hampshire:

http://media.www.tnhonline.com/media/storage/paper674/news/2008/10/21/Commentary/A.Wake.Up.Call.To.Journalism.Students-3496916.shtml

Student journalist jailed

Hi Katy,

I was looking at PerezHilton (guilty pleasure!) and an article was posted about a journalism student who was sentenced to prison for asking questions about 'women's rights under Islam.' Thought you may find it interesting!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27297183/

(Follow links back, as well, for coverage of a claim of torture.)

Hitler talk

What should be the penalty for inappropriate references? What's inappropriate? Who defines that?

http://thebiglead.com/?p=8527

Hate and the election

This story raises points worth reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/us/politics/21whites.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Tell me what you think about hate speech. Should we allow people to spout racist views? The Secret Service is investigating at least one threat against Obama yelled at a Palin campaign rally. Should their intervention go beyond threats? I, for one, am surprised that race has not been a more vitriolic issue in this campaign (aside, of course, from last week's food stamp debacle). Do you agree? Why?

Opinion online

I was intrigued by this new idea raised on a listserv I subscribe to. What do you think of this idea?

Hello,

We’ve embarked on a different path from many of our newspaper.com counterparts today on our opinion channel:

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/

Rather than headlining our own editorials and links to content from our newspaper, the editorial staff has decided to centerpiece on the page the best of the Web – changing out links throughout the day in real time based on an editor’s sense of what the key conversation is online. While I know this is SOP for places like the Drudge Report or Digg, this is not the norm for a traditional news organization. Most news organizations relegate outside links to secondary spots on a channel front.

The team that is leading this charge, under the direction of editorial page editor Keven Willey, includes columnist Rod Dreher and assistant editorial page editor Mike Hashimoto. Rod and Mike conceived of this idea, learned how to use our outdated production tools, and began applying them today in the service of opinion journalism.

Anthony

Anthony Moor
Deputy Managing Editor/Interactive
The Dallas Morning News
508 Young St.
Dallas, TX 75202
(214) 977-8981

www.dallasnews.com

SNL and elections

Anyone watch Sarah Palin on SNL last night, as played by both Tiny Fey and Palin herself?

Check out this post from a 202er:

So I was the last group to do our ethics media analysis. We did ours on humor and politics dealing with Daily Show and SNL. Then this morning at the serf, CNN played this story on one of their news cast.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/17/snl.politics/index.html

This could be interesting to share with the other class members.

Political advertising

J-School affiliated faculty member Ken Goldstein has interesting followup to the debate and assertions about the negativity of political ads:

http://www.news.wisc.edu/releases/14838

I also found this perspective intriguing:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/163476

Communication beyond all reason

I'm going to let this one speak for itself.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_buck16.3d67d4a.html

Great video

OK, I'm posting this one just for fun:

http://www.theexplodingwhale.com/evidence/the-video/

Liberal Media Bias?

Got this submission from a 202er:

This story was sent from JSOnline.com: http://www.jsonline.com.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you think this photo from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel shows a liberal media bias? I would argue it does because Obama's red tie is shown (indicating importance) and his torso is turned toward the camera. In addition, the handshake gesture shows equality/neutrality, but the fact that Obama is grasping McCain with his other hand incicates authority. A professor of mine said that asymmetrical touch indicates authority so whenever one political candidate places their hand on the other, the other will usually try to do the same. Then there's the close proximity of the candidates which shows Obama is taller, another (abeit false) idicator of authority. In this instance, I think the photo makes Obama look much more authoritative than McCain. What are your thoughts? Can a photo show bias? Do photographers have the same standards as writers? Are they required to take unbias photos or portray both candidates in the same way?

http://www.jsonline.com/multimedia/graphic.asp?graphic=/graphics/news/img/oct08/debateJ1101608.jpg

What do you think? Post your comments and let's discuss when we talk about design Monday.

Fact-checking Joe the Plumber

Good post from a 202er:

As much as I wanted to believe in Joe it looks like the Times did some serious background checking. His name isn't even JOE! seems like a good example of our fact finding lecture last week with checking for his licenses and taxes, I bet he's wishing he just kept his mouth shut.

U.S. | October 16, 2008
The Caucus: Joe in the Spotlight
By Larry Rohter and Liz Robbins
When "Joe the Plumber" stopped Senator Barack Obama during a visit to his block this weekend to ask about his taxes, he set himself on a path to being the newest media celebrity — and, like other celebrities, found himself under scrutiny.

Privacy and ethics

I'm tardy in posting this great submission from a 202-er.

Hey Katy,

After talking yesterday about how digging through someone's garbage can constitute invasion of privacy, I remembered this story from the Village Voice about how the author happened to find some of Harvey Weinstein's mail in a public trash can. I thought it was interesting enough to pass on.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-07-02/news/trash-talking-with-harvey-weinstein/

What do you think of this?

Medicine and statistics

A new post from a 202er:

Hi Prof. Culver,

My dad emailed me this article a few weeks ago. It was in the New York Times so you might have already read it (you seem to have the all-seeing eye of mass media). I thought it would pique your interest as it covers both the ideas of interpreting numbers and statistics but also the medical world and studies. My dad was particularly thrilled because as a doctor he said he rarely finds medical articles that are both factually significant but also would make sense to a regular person. I wasn't sure if it was blog worthy because we've sort of moved on from interpreting data but I thought you might like to read it anyway.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/health/30stud.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

Ad controversy

When should student publications accept and reject advertising that prompts controversy? Conservative commentator David Horowitz has stirred the pot yet again, this time at UCSB.
What responsibilities do student publishers face? What's the role of free speech here? What's Horowitz's obligation in placing the ad?
This sort of communication reared its head here at the UW a few years back. Then some administrators chimed in. Then still more defended the students.

Debate formats

The upcoming (and final) debate moderator offers some comments about what he hopes to achieve. What have you thought of the formats to date? Fair? Productive? Informative?

Pulling aside the curtain

Check out this fascinating piece about the slate of rumors that Barack Obama is secretly Muslim, and the man behind the ideas. Think about credibility and sources, as we've been discussing.
What is Martin's personal obligation to be accurate and truthful? Did Fox News have an obligation to vet his credibility before inviting him as a guest? Did other media outlets have an obligation to look into his background?

Weekly Ethics Roundup

Let's wrap up the weekly ethics discussions by returning to some of the central ethical values in journalism and strat comm:
- what are our new means of debate fact-checking? (accuracy)
- what should your profs get to say during elections? (skepticism)
- what is the line between journalism and non-journalism? (idealism)
- should we air interviews when a candidate needs to restart? (fairness)
- should consumers help define what is and is not reliable information? (transparency)
- when should advertisers avoid offense and rescind creative work? (independence)
- what happens when subjects fight back (courage)
- what stories and images are bigger than us? (humility)

KC's News Meeting

In the news this week:
- international coordinated rate cut
- Detroit auto industry
- Palin investigation results
- power-sharing in Zimbabwe
- UW band
What are you reading about?

Magazine retouching

Great submission from a 202er (who blushes a bit in confessing to reading Perez Hilton).

Hi there,

I know I came upon this via Perez Hilton (guilty), but I thought it was really interesting. The Republican anchor is angry because Sarah Palin's photo in Newsweek wasn't touched up. Thought you may find this intriguing!

Best,

http://perezhilton.com/2008-10-09-republicans-are-in-a-tizzy

I want to know what you think. Many complain that magazine covers ARE retouched. What do we think when they AREN'T?

U.S. vs International publications

A 202er send this for your thoughts.

What's the difference between publication standards here vs. abroad?

Weekly Ethics Roundup

Let's get into opinion in this week's ethics discussions. Specifically, when is it OK to have them, how are they manipulated and when is it not OK to express them?
- Campbell Brown asserts herself
- how do marketing efforts affect doctors' opinions of prescription drugs?
- Gwen Ifill has a book coming up
- what's the difference between asking hard questions and being out to get an interviewee?
- how does the framing of words affect our opinions (scroll to chapter titled "Giving Us What We Want" and watch segment)
- when should people disclose their agendas (read segment on "embedded blogger" after Palin poll)
- how do our personal relationships affect our opinions and actions?

KC's News Meeting

In the news:
- OJ Simpson verdict
- UW Marching Band
- bailout vote
- veep debate
- Brewers win
- Cubs lose
- financial firm mergers
Add your ideas via comments.