Janesdiggo's List: Journalism

• Fairness means pursuing the truth with both vigor and compassion and reporting information without favoritism, self-interest or prejudice.

• • The main problem with this story is the way it was written;
    all the negative information about the donor was lumped
    at the end of the article, as if it was an afterthought. If it
    had been introduced earlier, in a more sympathetic manner,
    with some compassion for all stakeholders it would undoubtedly have been received differently

• • I choose to air an edited version of the tape. I found what was ignored in the CBS and Fox examples was the assumptions made by the police that the dispatcher was trying to help the girl get out of the car; they appeared oblivious to the reality that she only had a few minutes...no help could possibly reach her that fast.
    CBS stated the family had asked them not to run the tape; FOX said the family had released it. Who was telling the truth?

• Just watch the hyperbolic promotions some stations run for their "sweeps stories"
• viewers in the survey believe strongly that a station's quest for ratings "unduly influences" local news coverage.

• McLaughlin gave Franklin's story the green light because it passed his two requirements of undercover work:
    1. There are no other means by which the story can be reported.
    2. The information in the story is politically vital to the readers, with important public policy ramifications.
• Craig McLaughlin's two criteria outlined in the case above provide  a meaningful process for determining when it might be appropriate to be deceptive.
• There is another important criterion
• If a journalist uses deception  in the news-gathering process, that deception must be disclosed to the  public when the story is published.

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• Since we are in the business of pursuing truth, there is more than a hint of hypocrisy when we use some form of deceit to pursue the truth.
• To justify deception we must be pursuing exceptionally important information. It must be of vital public interest, such as preventing profound harm to individuals or revealing great system failure.
• Too many hidden cameras stories stop with the video of the store clerk, the mechanic, the teaching assistant or the nurses aide. Too few stories get to the owners, top-level officials and administrators generally most responsible for the wrongdoing.

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• Any time you remove or destroy visual content -- in the background or foreground -- you have crossed the line.
• "There is always some sort of interpretation involved with reporting. A good photographer is just like a good reporter; he (or she) wants to get you to the dramatic point. Good reporting does not meander about, it gets to the point with the lead and nut graphs. [With photography] you go right to the dramatic element -- you make the eye go to the center of what is in the frame (composition)."

• By identifying competing perspectives, we avoid advancing just one viewpoint. Doing so helps us find fresh frames we can use to address and understand issues.
• "The greater knowledge you have, the more independence you have in doing your journalism."
• "treat sources, subjects, and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect, not merely as a means to your journalistic ends."
• Diversity is clearly a part of accuracy and fairness, whether it relates to avoiding stereotypes or redefining news to better reflect a multicultural society.

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• • The term 'civil union' is also used

  • Note the avoidance of the word 'marriage'; instead they use 'commitment' or 'partnership'
• A newspaper is obligated to truthfully reflect the reality of what is happening in the communities and society it covers.
• "Our news columns will remain impartial in that debate [about the legal and religious definitions of marriage], reporting fully on all points of view."
• running an announcement under a banner of "civil union" on the page opposite short items on traditional opposite-sex weddings.
  

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• a key responsibility of a blogger is to be clear with the audience about the standards and protocols guiding his or her blog. And then the blogger must hold himself or herself accountable to measuring up to those standards.

• All political parties -- from the right and the left -- choose loaded words that suit their propaganda purposes. Such words appeal to emotions rather than to reason. At their worst they become a substitute for thinking.
  

  • Looking at the way language is used to control how a hot-topic is discussed or even how a topic is turned into a 'hot' topic
• A diligent writer must be aware of the denotation of a word and its connotations as well, associations that may unfairly load what is supposedly a neutral text with all kinds of disguised opinion.

• The concept grew out of discussions between Sebastian and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad,
• This is no half-baked pet project of the first lady of an Arab petro-state. It’s a multi-billion dollar investment that has drawn top U.S. educational institutions (Cornell University, Texas A&M, Virginia Commonwealth University and Carnegie Mellon at last count) to Qatar.

• A well-known television personality on Thursday used the occasion of an awards ceremony to deliver a blistering critique of Russian television
• “The highest authorities are beginning to look like the dear departed, of whom one says good things or nothing at all,” said Mr. Parfyonov
• A prominent blogger, Rustam Adagamov, called it “an epitaph for modern Russian television.”
• Mr. Parfyonov sketched out the recent history of Russian broadcasting, starting with Mr. Putin’s ousting of media moguls whose channels were critical of the government and the demand for national unity that came in the wake of terrorist attacks. Journalists in Russia saw their work shearing into two categories: suitable for television, or not suitable for television.
• Russians are increasingly contemptuous of journalism in general and shrug their shoulders when journalists are beaten for their work
• “People do not understand that journalists take risks because of their audience,” he said. “They do not attack journalists because they wrote something, or said something, or filmed something, but because people read it, or heard it, or saw it.”
• “It’s not as much criticism of television as criticism of what the government has done to television,” Mr. Pozner said. “Everyone knows that’s the way things stand. Ever since Putin came in, the big channels have been tightly controlled, and everyone knows what you can say or not say.” But, he added, they do not say so in public.

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• Iran’s proxy militia

  • Huh? Who says Hezbollah is an Iranian 'proxy militia'??

• Director Judd ascribed an "Alice in Wonderland" worldview to Canadians and their courts, whose judges have tied CSIS "in knots," making it ever more difficult to detect and prevent terror attacks in Canada and abroad.
• Judd said CSIS had responded to recent, non-specific intelligence on possible terror operations by "vigorously harassing" known Hezbollah members in Canada.
• These judgments posit that Canadian authorities cannot use information that "may have been" derived from torture, and that any Canadian public official who conveys such information may be subject to criminal prosecution.

  • subject to criminal prosecution for criminal acts, what a novel idea :roll:

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• The United States Embassy initially told the army where Mr. Beltrán Leyva was hiding out, but the army did not act. The embassy then told the navy, and an elite American-trained unit moved into action. Mr. Beltrán Leyva escaped the first navy raid, but the embassy several days later located him in a apartment complex in Cuernavaca, about 50 miles south of Mexico City. The navy unit moved in and killed him when he refused to surrender.

  • No surprise here at the US spying on Mexicans and directing the Mexican army and navy? WTF

• “I am worried about the Americans spying; they have always been very interfering,” said President Felipe Calderón of Mexico.
• Al Akhbar, a Lebanese newspaper that supports the Shiite militant and political group Hezbollah, has been posting documents from eight Arab countries, including Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Libya.
• Helmut Metzner, the chief of staff to Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of Germany.
• resigned late Thursday
• “young, up-and-coming party loyalist” who provided American Embassy officials in Berlin with an account of what were supposed to be confidential negotiations last year to form a new German coalition.

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• Mr. Medvedev said on Friday. “However, these leaks are revealing. They show the full measure of cynicism behind the assessments and judgments which prevail in the foreign policy of various nations, in this case the United States.”
• Oddly, though, in two places where the leaked cables seemed to have raised some of the most unsettling questions, the response has been muted.
• In the Arab world, much of the press is owned by members of the Saudi royal family and tends to avoid topics that could embarrass the kingdom.

  • No mention of the 'muted' response in the US and elsewhere; that the media is owned by few people and criicism of US policy in mainstream media is almost non-existant

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• In The War You Don't See, Pilger interviews leading broadcast journalists including Dan Rather and Rageh Omaar, who agree that journalists failed in their basic duties during the build-up to the Iraq conflict.

• Every story is a puzzle to be constructed. Your editor can help you find the right people to interview or call for information. Then it’s just a matter of organizing.
• the most important thing is to write clearly and accurately
• be sure all the information you are working with is credible.
• writing a news story, put the most essential information into the first sentence of the story, otherwise known as your lead.
• who, what, where, when and why.
• conveys the essence of the story
• The next paragraph is often called the nut graf
• The nut graf can often be followed with the best quote pertaining to the story that you’ve got in your notes.
• The rest of the story should be an explanation of the pertinent events
• Don't fall into the trap of writing the story chronologically
• Always identify by name and title everyone that you quote
• Tell readers where you got data you used or quoted.
• never inject your own opinion into the story unless it has been assigned as a review or an opinion piece

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