SHOULD TV REPORTERS HAVE INTERVIEWED KIDS AT NEWTOWN SHOOTING?

TV reporters — especially those working for the cable news networks — were being bombarded with criticism on Friday for interviewing children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. In an interview with Dylan Byers of Politico.com, Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, suggested that the coverage represented “irresponsible journalism.” […]

AFTER 9-MONTH PROBE, LEVESON ISSUES MILD REPORT ON UK MEDIA

For an investigation that was triggered by the alleged misdeeds of News Corp’s British subsidiary, News International, whose tabloids, the now-defunct News of the World and The Sun, were accused of hacking the voicemail of thousands of citizens and paying bribes to police and other officials for information, there was surprisingly scant criticism of Rupert […]

FORMER LONDON TIMES EDITOR: MURDOCH RESPONSIBLE FOR SCANDAL

The former editor of the London Times and the Sunday Times has disputed Rupert Murdoch’s claim that he has never tried to influence the editorial direction of his newspapers. Appearing before the Leveson inquiry into journalistic ethics in the U.K., Harry Evans said that Murdoch had forced the British press into a “Faustian bargain” by […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT

In 2012 a movie with a title like The Five-Year Engagement hardly seems as provocative as one with a title like The 40-Year-Old Virgin but, despite the innocuous title, the movie is picking up some decent reviews, and even those that aren’t overwhelmingly positive aren’t exactly caustic. “Perhaps the tale of a couple who love […]

ABC TO AIR INTERVIEW WITH GINGRICH’S EX-WIFE

Once again raising the question of how far a news organization should go in revealing the personal foibles of a presidential candidate, ABC is planning to broadcast an interview with one of the ex-wives of Newt Gingrich tonight (Thursday), just two days before the South Carolina primary. Various reports had indicated that ABC executives had […]

WHO HIRED PRIVATE EYE TO HACK INTO CELEBRITIES’ VOICEMAILS?

Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective who is accused of hacking into the voicemails of hundreds, if not thousands, of celebrities, politicians, and others, has filed an appeal against a court ruling that he cannot rely on his self-incrimination privilege when he testifies in a civil lawsuit brought by two alleged victims. The plaintiffs, British comedian […]

REPORT: NBC NEWS PRODUCER AIMS TO LAND CASEY ANTHONY INTERVIEW

An NBC News producer has approached literary agents, advising them that if he could land a book deal for Casey Anthony, she would agree to give the network a one-hour interview that would run during primetime on NBC and be excerpted for the network’s Today show, according to gossip website TMZ, which cited no sources. […]

JOURNALISM PROFS SCORE TV PAYMENTS FOR INTERVIEWS

Following the acknowledgement by Chris Cuomo, co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20 that he paid $15,000 for Meagan Broussard’s sexting exchanges with New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, members of the faculty at Florida’s Poynter Institute have warned about the growing practice of checkbook journalism. Al Tompkins, who heads the broadcast faculty at the journalism institute, has warned […]

CNN’S PHOTO EDITING RAISES ETHICS CONTROVERSY

The decision by CNN to alter a photograph showing CBS correspondent Lara Logan taken moments before she was grabbed by a mob of Egyptians in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and sexually assaulted has touched off controversy among journalists over whether the cable news network had unethically tampered with a historic photographic record. The photograph, released by […]

CBS ACCUSED OF USING LOCAL NEWSCASTS TO HYPE NEW SERIES

CBS-owned stations in major markets last Monday devoted part of their early-evening newscasts to promoting the premiere of the new Hawaii Five-0 that night in what veteran TV critic Robert Feder called “a well-coordinated plan to prostitute the newscasts of CBS-owned stations nationwide.” On his blog at Vocalo.org, Feder, who for 28 years was the […]

Next Page »