NewsTrust - Ethics in Journalism - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Jon Stewart Catches Sean Hannity Falsifying Footage To Make GOP Protest Appear Bigger

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Daily Show - By Jon Stewart - Nov. 11 (Comedy News) - Sean Hannity and his team did more than cover the event. They not only inflated the number in attendance with their words, but actually used footage from a heavily-attended protest this summer to make this health care rally appear more popular. Hannity even pointed out that this was a huge crowd for a Thursday, when the protest footage they used was from a Saturday.

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Why Fox News Is Un-American

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Jacob Weisberg - Oct. 18 (Opinion) - That Rupert Murdoch may tilt the news rightward more for commercial than ideological reasons is beside the point. What matters is the way that Fox's model has invaded the bloodstream of the American media. By showing that ideologically distorted news can drive ratings, Ailes has provoked his rivals at CNN and MSNBC to develop a variety of populist and ideological takes on the news. In this way, Fox hasn't just corrupted its own coverage. Its example has made all of cable news unpleasant and unreliable.

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'Daily Show' Destroys CNN For Fact-Checking 'SNL' But Not Their Guests

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Show - By Jon Stewart - Oct. 13 (Comedy News) - Jon Stewart began his show last night by skewering CNN for fact-checking a "Saturday Night Live" skit in which Fred Armisen (playing Barack Obama) claimed to have done "nothing" since taking office. In this hard-hitting report, CNN found that while many of the president's initiatives have not moved forward, he has in fact done "something" since taking office. Take that, comedy show.

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Fox: a news source in name only

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Leonard Pitts Jr. - Oct. 04 (Opinion) - Fox is in a class by itself. In its epidemic inaccuracy, its ongoing disregard for basic journalistic standards of fairness, its demagogic appeals and its blatantly ideological promotions it is, indeed, unique — a news source in name only. That's not just an opinion: a 2003 study found Fox viewers more likely to be misinformed than those who get their news elsewhere.

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The Public Editor: Tuning in Too Late

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Clark Hoyt - Sep. 27 (Opinion) - By stressing the politics, the article irritated more readers. “A suspicious person might see an attempt to deflect criticism of Acorn by highlighting how those pesky conservatives are at it again,” said Albert Smith of Chatham, N.J.

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-- Yes Men Say No to Corporate Greed

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Jacques Servin, Igor Vamos - Sep. 25 (Opinion) - We are the Yes Men, two guys who dress up as powerful businessmen, propose horrible things to audiences of actual powerful businesspeople and film them cheerfully applauding our most outrageous -- and often illegal -- ideas.

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Banish the Cyber-Bigots

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Michael Gerson - Sep. 24 (Opinion) - The Internet could represent a flourishing of democracy. Instead it amplifies hate. The brutality of public debate on the Internet is due to one fact above all -- the option of anonymity

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The Pentagon's New Watchdog - Forbes.com

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Forbes - By Dirk Smillie - Sep. 05 (Interview) - For years, the military has been systematically bouncing reporters from their embed assignments in the middle of their tours simply because they didn't like a particular story a reporter did. The Pentagon established the embedding system to give reporters access to information about what America is fighting for.

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The Washington Post's Support For Torture

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Andrew Sullivan - Aug. 30 (Comment) - In the latest release from those in the Bush administration and CIA who authorized and supported America's torture of prisoners of war, we get the following story today in the Washington Post. It details that Khaled Sheikh Mohammed gave up a ...

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Pundits attacking government health insurance rely on it

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Daniel Gross - Aug. 21 (Opinion) - This is a something of a Churchillian moment. Never before have so many known so little about so much. The meme that my Slate colleague Timothy Noah has been tracking about Medicare not being a government program has two sources: ignorance and mendacity. Some people may really not know that Medicare is taxpayer-funded health care. That's ignorance. Many more people know it—and know the degree to which taxpayers are already funding lots of health care for them and their loved ones—and argue otherwise. That's mendacity.

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Sotomayor Sworn In, Becoming Supreme Court’s First Hispanic Justice

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Amy Goldstein - Aug. 08 (Press Release) - Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in Saturday morning as the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court in a brief ceremony that completed a remarkable ascent for a Puerto Rican girl from the South Bronx .

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How much editorial control do newspaper proprietors really exert?

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Roy Greenlade - Jul. 27 (Editorial) - The Desmond libel trial highlighted the tricky relationship between a newspaper owner and its editor. But how much editorial control do proprietors really exert? Roy Greenslade, who worked under Robert Maxwell, reports

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And That’s Not the Way It Is

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jul. 26 (Opinion) - What matters about Walter Cronkite is that he knew when to stop being reassuring Uncle Walt and to challenge those who betrayed his audience’s trust.

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Walter's choice -- Cronkite's lesson for today's journalists

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Philadelphia Inquirer - By Will Bunch - Jul. 20 (Opinion) - In the two days since we learned of Cronkite's death, so much has been written about the man, about his rare tone of authority, about the avuncularity and comfort offered to couch potatoes by their "Uncle Walter," about the incredible events that he reported from moon walks to the Kennedy assassination. All those things are true, but they also tend to miss how he was willing to risk all of that because he felt his responsibility to his country and to the truth was more important than his career. That he could make such a choice was the true meaning of Walter Cronkite.`

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The Stumbles That Led to an Ethics Blunder

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Andrew Alexander - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - The Washington Post's ill-fated plan to sell sponsorships of off-the-record "salons" was an ethical lapse of monumental proportions. Publisher Katharine Weymouth and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli have now taken full responsibility for what was envisioned as a series of 11 intimate dinners to discuss public policy issues. For a fee of up to $25,000, underwriters were guaranteed a seat at the table with lawmakers, administration officials, think tank experts, business leaders and the heads of associations. Promotional materials said Weymouth, Brauchli and at least one Post reporter would serve as "Hosts and Discussion Leaders" for an evening of spirited but civil dialogue. While Brauchli and Weymouth say they should have realized long ago that the plan was flawed, internal e-mails and interviews show questions about ethics were raised with both of them months ago. They also show that blame runs deeper. Beneath Brauchli and Weymouth, three of the most senior newsroom managers received an e-mail with details of the plan.

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Pay for Play Journalism

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Slate - By Jack Shafer - Jul. 09 (Opinion) - If paid off-the-record salons are charades, why oppose them? For one thing, I hate to see anybody defrauded, even AstraZeneca. For another, no journalist should serve as an accomplice to fraud. But most important, the off-the-record comfort zones run by Bradley for the benefit of his corporate clients corrupts the business of journalism in deep, fundamental ways. Every new off-the-record venue drives a measurable quantity of political discourse out of the public sphere and into the private. It's in the interests of journalists and the public, as the Omaha press corps demonstrated, to push the powerful onto the record. Establishing safe harbors for them - and charging them for the privilege of anchorage - is not what journalism is about. The erection of such salons says this to corporations and public officials: You owe your candor not to the public but to one another, and journalistic organizations such as the Atlantic and the Washington Post will gladly pocket the cash to help you keep your "secrets."

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A Publisher Stumbles Publicly at the Post

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Carr - Jul. 04 (Opinion) - Mrs. Graham bestowed legitimacy (Richard M. Nixon never made the cut, even as president). Ms. Weymouth decided to sell it, with her paper’s editorial integrity apparently thrown in as a parting gift.

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Thomas L. Friedman and the high cost of speaking

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By James Rainey - May. 13 (Opinion) - Without the Chronicle's dynamic reporting duo, the Bay Area air district would not be getting back its $75,000, money that could help cities expand bike paths or plant more trees. That's proof enough for me that we can start the disclosure on these speaking engagements right here and now.

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End the Watada case, discharge him

Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - May. 07 (Editorial) - Let the decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to allow the Obama administration to drop a pending appeal of a mistrial at Fort Lewis be the end of the Army case against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada. He refused to join his combat brigade in Iraq. Give him a general discharge and move on. Put the military's energy into the welfare of others.

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Cable Wars Are Killing Objectivity

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Carr - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - Apparently there is an ingredient in tea that causes hysteria when given to cable news anchors. How else to explain the coverage of the tax day tea parties on Wednesday, which was the day when we procrastinators finally mailed the check to the feds?

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The Public Editor - Behind a Byline, Family Ties

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Clark Hoyt - Apr. 12 (Opinion) - Merkin noted parenthetically, “I did not know Mr. Madoff nor did I invest with his firm, but have a sibling who did business with him.” True as far as it goes, but about as forthcoming as saying that Milton Eisenhower had a sibling in the United States Army in World War II.

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Newspapers' self-inflicted blows

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By David Sirota - Mar. 26 (Opinion) - financially strapped newspapers undermined their comparative advantage by replacing audience-attracting local exclusives with cheaper national content. Then, the providers of that national content diverted resources from tough-to-report investigative journalism that builds loyal readership and into paparazzi-like birdcage liner that unconvincingly portrays politicians, CEOs and their minions as celebrities. "In place of comprehensive, complex and idiosyncratic coverage, readers of even the most serious newspapers were offered celebrity and scandal, humor and light provocation,"

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Justice on Comedy Central

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Asia Times - By Julian Delasantellis - Mar. 17 (Opinion) - You might think that Americans, inheritors of an economy that has dominated the world for most of the last century, might take pride in the extent of their being up-to-date on current economics and business affairs, but that is not the case. They certainly don't get their news on finance from newspapers; those that are still existent lost the raison d'etre for their business pages about 40 years ago, when the large metropolitan dailies stopped publishing late-afternoon editions with closing Wall Street stock prices in them.

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Watching our language: Writing about the financial crisis

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Dean Wright - Mar. 16 (Opinion) - The global financial crisis may have drained the coffers of investors, businesses and nations, but it’s making our language a bit richer as we discover, revive, coin and develop words and phrases to help make sense of it all. Some take hold quickly and spread far and wide. “Bailout,” naturally, was voted Word of the Year for 2008 by the American Dialect Society and by Merriam-Webster and was No. 2 on Time’s “Top 10 Buzzwords” (a list that also included “staycation,” a frugal vacation spent close to home). Interestingly—and predictively, as it turned out—the dialect society’s 2007 Word of the Year was “subprime.” There is a blizzard of language that strives to describe—but sometimes obscures—the strange new financial world we’re in. Television shows, websites and talk radio have exhorted us to buy or sell, have faith or run for our lives, be calm and just trust CEOs or don’t believe a word they say. It’s enough to make you wonder if screenwriter William Goldman’s famous assessment of Hollywood—”Nobody knows anything”—applies here.

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High Noon on the Set: Cramer vs. Stewart

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Alessandra Stanley - Mar. 14 (Opinion) - The much-hyped showdown between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer, the mercurial host of “Mad Money” on CNBC, felt like a Senate subcommittee hearing. Mr. Stewart treated his guest like a C.E.O. subpoenaed to testify before Congress: his point was not to hear Mr. Cramer out, but to act out a cathartic ritual of indignation and castigation. “Listen, you knew what the banks were doing, yet were touting it for months and months,” the Democratic senator from Comedy Central said. “The entire network was. For now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy, once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst.”

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