more on confidential sources

The Obama administration and key Democrats have reached a tentative agreement on a proposed law to provide greater protections to reporters against being fined or imprisoned if they refuse to identify confidential sources.

video critique of fox coverage of obama

Here’s a short clip from film-maker Robert Greenwald, who has specialized in monitoring Fox News.  Consider it for background for our discussion about the partisan media tomorrow.  

dan rather in austin

Dan Rather has always aspired to the legacy of Edward R. Murrow, which is why he was so dogged in pursuing his case against CBS News–once the cream of the crop among broadcast news organizations. See previous blog posts on his court case. He’ll be speaking Thursday at 4:00 in the Union Ballroom, and we’ll attend instead of holding class.  Click here for more details.

class guest clifford krauss’s front-page story

I saw this story this morning on the front page, but didn’t notice the byline of our guest this afternoon. Interesting story on gas emissions into the atmosphere.  By ANDREW C. REVKIN and CLIFFORD KRAUSS

To the naked eye, there was nothing to be seen at a natural gas well in eastern Texas but beige pipes and tanks baking in the sun.

the false and vacuous “balance” of American journalism

False balance and the agnostic perspective on “reality” by American journalism is skewered beautifully by the Daily Show last night.  Once again, Jon Stewart provides a revealing critique of the empty analysis in the name of “objectivity” that particularly cable news is guilty of hiding behind.

American power, visually

The power of photography, as depicted by Mitch Epstein in Saturday’s Times.

school of journalism watchdog project

The School of Journalism has launched a project with the Law School and the Actual Innocence initiative to investigate whether prisoners may have been convicted wrongly.  Read about it in the Daily Texan.  As the School director explains:

“In a time of some confusion and turmoil in the news media industry, I think there’s no more important time to get back to the sort of fundamentals of journalism and think about what it’s supposed to do for us in a democratic society,” said Tracy Dahlby, director of the School of Journalism. “One of those things is to play the role of the watchdog. There’s no better example than journalists studying cases where wrongful conviction might be a possibility.”

the thin fabric of a civil society

If you wonder why we should emphasize the importance of civility and the vital role of the journalistic forum, read Thomas Friedman’s important column this week.  He compares the delegitimizing of our political leaders to the atmosphere leading up to the assassination of Israel’s prime minister Rabin.

Again, hack away at the man’s policies and even his character all you want. I know politics is a tough business. But if we destroy the legitimacy of another president to lead or to pull the country together for what most Americans want most right now — nation-building at home — we are in serious trouble. We can’t go 24 years without a legitimate president — not without being swamped by the problems that we will end up postponing because we can’t address them rationally.

how local newspapers succeed

Local papers are doing well by being “local.” Another piece takes a traditionalist view of how newspapers lost their way, arguing that quality reporting doesn’t come cheap.

news values $$

Thomas Hackett sent me this link about the salary issues at the networks from Columbia Journalism Review.  We don’t hear much about anchor salaries anymore but it does give an indication about what is valued in a challenging economic environment.

Interestingly, in July, after the death of Walter Cronkite, Kurtz, in one of his regular online Q & A sessions with readers, fielded the following: “Cronkite did not start out as a celebrity, he became one and was likely the last anchor to do so after the Barbara Walters/Dan Rather era started. Do the high salaries of top TV anchors damage the connection with the public that Cronkite seemed to have?”