Media = People = Democracy

IN AN ATTEMPT TO QUELL protesters, the reigning junta in the Honduras clamped down on the media. Television and radio stations were shut down by the military.

They were trying to eliminate the voice of the opposition, the New York Times reported.

Once word spread to the international community, the leaders in the Honduras backed down. The stations will resume at the end of the week, they said.

There is no question here. Just recognize that freedom of speech is a right that not everyone has. While we may be divided by politics in America, we have the right to gather and speak and debate.

(The photo is by the Associated Press via the New York Times).

WashPo: No "Jackass" Moments, Please.

THE WASHINGTON POST, among the most respected newspapers in the world, recently issued guidelines to their staffers saying they had to be careful about posting opinions on their facebook and twitter feeds.

Here is a snippet:

"Post journalists must refrain from writing, tweeting or posting anything – including photographs or video – that could be perceived as reflecting political racial, sexist, religious or other bias or favoritism that could be used to tarnish our journalistic credibility."

In an era of branding journalists and journalists providing behind the scenes looks at the news, is it a smart thing to water down the attitude? Is this old school thinking? Could it lose audience for the Post?

Or are the Post bigshots right in keeping opinions away from the public, even in the form of informal social media?

Are you over facebook and twitter?

Are First Daughters Fair Game?

THE SPANISH MEDIA are legally barred from running images of their prime minister's teenage daughters. The rationale is that the daughters are not public figures and, therefore, they have a right to privacy.

Well, the Spanish delegation came to the United Nations, kids in tow, and they met President Obama. Then they had their picture taken with Obama by a State Department photographer. The images were put on the State Department's flickr site. The Spanish media found the images and ran the above, distorted version in some newspapers.

Should the Spanish media have withheld the images (which are the first ever public images of the two girls)? Are the children of sitting United States presidents fair game for the media? Or should the media refrain from running or airing images of politicians' children?

Is No Comment Worse Than One Repeated Comment?

THE HOMETOWN OF Glenn Beck, the Fox News host, is honoring Beck on Saturday. The native of Mt. Vernon, Washington will receive a key to the city and the day will officially be proclaimed as "Glenn Beck Day."

The celebration has caused a controversy as Beck called President Obama a racist over the summer.

So, when the officials in Mt. Vernon announced that the press were not welcome to cover "Glenn Beck Day," the press went into a huff.

My question is this: Is keeping the media away from Beck any different from Obama spinning his message to the network news last week? Aren't they both, in effect, controlling the message?

Or is the Beck case different? As a news person, is he expected to speak to the media?

Cogito Ergo Sum: I Think, Therefore I Sam.

Doctoral candidate and J1111 teaching assistant Sam Srauy spoke to the class today about epistemology, entological judgment, economic theory and other big ideas, ultimately leading up to the HUGE question: Does media ownership matter?

What do you think?

Are you surprised to learn that the six largest media producers are all either Western European or North American? Is that a problem?

And what about Sam's other questions:

- How do you know what is the truth?
- Is knowledge a right or a commodity?
- How do you know who to trust?

Can you have an original thought? Or have you been previously influenced by the world around you?

If the President Speaks, Is It News?

PRESIDENT OBAMA SPOKE to five national networks on Friday, apparently talking about the same thing each time - his health care initiative. He did not talk about the ACORN scandal, and he did not allow Fox News, whose employees were recently busted inciting a partisan crowd, to participate in the series of one-on-one interviews.

Do you give the president air time to speak when he is so overtly controlling the message (and the media)? As always, this is not about politics - we are journalists, and we're skeptical of anyone in charge, regardless of political persuasion.

Just because the president speaks, is it news?

(The photo above is a composite created by the New York Times, cobbled together from images supplied by the White House)

Of Noisy Journos and Chicken Love ...

HOW WOULD YOU have handled this situation if you were the reporter?

Listen closely to the video below. Should the anchor be punished for what he said?

Jim McKairnes: "Content Is King."

WHAT DID YOU THINK of today's guest, Jim McKairnes of CBS Studios?

Here are a few things that stood out for me:

- You need talent and ability, but you also need to be in the right place at the right time.
- He recognized his passions while he was still a student at Temple, and then found a way to incorporate his passions into his work.
- Even when he had a job, he was thinking about his next step.
- He used his journalism writing gigs as excuses to meet powerful people.
- When he first moved to Los Angeles, he knew few people, and he made little money.
- He lived at home with his folks, using his old bunk bed, until he was 22.
- He believes that the media have a social responsibility, and he's concerned about the portrayal of women on television.
- His concerns about women dying in sexual ways on prime time shows were dismissed by executives.
- If you open the hatch of your car in Los Angeles, day laborers will jump in.
- Networks are becoming more and more irrelevant as TiVo, DVR, Hulu, Fancast and other non-traditional programming options become available.
- There is still a demand for content producers.

Please share your thoughts by adding comments below.

Inquirer: Old White Guys Are Dying!

ACCORDING TO TODAY'S Philadelphia Inquirer, the major recent local deaths have all been old white dudes. Of the five obituaries they ran, all are white men, and none was younger than 78.

Is there anything wrong with that?

The Daily News today has three obits - a white woman (77), a white man (59) and an African-American man (72).

Should the obituaries reflect the readership? Should diversity be enforced?

A little perspective: the New York Times began running gay wedding announcements in 2002. Some other publications followed suit. Some didn't. To this day, the practice remains controversial to some readers.

How should media outlets decide who gets covered in the news?

Yo Kanye! What Were You Thinking?

KANYE WEST JUMPED ON stage during the MTV Video Awards and interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech for best female artist video. West believed the award should have gone to Beyonce.

Barack Obama commented on the event. But is it news?

UPDATE: More info about Obama's calling Kanye a jackass - it was tweeted by an ABC News reporter who was in front of the president while the president was being miked for an interview.

(The image comes from Reuters via USA Today)

Are You a Mirror or a Puppet?

FIRST OFF, LET me say that this post is not about politics. As journalists, we neither support nor attack politicians and/ or their policies. We simply report what we learn.

My question to you is this: is it responsible to publish the image on the right? It was taken by the Associated Press and run in various outlets, including the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The image was created at an Obama health care plan protest in Washington, DC on Saturday. The event was sponsored by the conservative Tea Party Patriots and hyped by conservative talk show hosts like Glenn Beck.

Should journalists refrain from showing disrespectful protest signs? Should the media report what people say, even if their comments are incorrect and inflammatory? For instance, Bloomberg News reported this:

Jeremy Batterson, 40, from Baltimore passed out pamphlets with a picture of Obama sprouting a Hitler-like mustache. He said Obama was trying to insert a provision into the health-care bill to perform euthanasia on the terminally ill and senior citizens.

“He’s insisting we do the same thing here to reduce health-care costs and we have to stop him,” Batterson said.

It's what the man said, but what the man said has been denied repeatedly by the president. So, do you run it? Do you balance it by repeating the president's denials?

Can you separate your politics from your reporting in a story like this?

The Eternal Question: Is Oprah a Journalist?

OPRAH WINFREY CELEBRATED THE start of the 24th season of her show by shutting down Michigan Avenue and throwing a party for the city of Chicago. An estimated 20,000 people showed up.

The question I have for you is this: Is Oprah, a celebrated host of a program where she interviews people, an actual, real-live journalist? (Go ahead and factor in her magazine).

Or is Oprah, who frequently interviews movie stars around the time they have new films out, simply an entertainer?

Can she be both, an entertainer and a journalist?

(BTW, the image above is from the Chicago Tribune. If you're interested, they have 77 other pictures online, plus video).

Dude, That's My Ass in The Newspaper!

AS A JOURNALIST, HOW DO you handle an event like the Philly Naked Bike Ride?

Can you shoot video of them and run it on air? Can you run their pictures in the newspaper? Should the media show full-frontal if that is actually what was happening? Do the naked people have the right to be upset if their goodies are shown on television or published in print (or run on the Internet for the whole world to see)?

(The photo above is by David Maialetti, a TU grad, adjunct TU professor and photojournalist with the Philadelphia Daily News).

Death in The Afternoon (But Not in Print).

AN AMERICAN SOLDIER killed in Afghanistan was photographed by an Associated Press photographer in the moments after grenades bombarded American troops.

The Associated Press distributed the image around the world, accompanied by a story about the incident.

Few media outlets chose to publish the image, however. The argument: some outlets said that it was disrespectful to the military, and to that particular soldier's family specifically.

Would you have run the image?

(By the way, the image above is by Robert Capa. It is of a Republican soldier killed during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Capa, considered among the greatest war photographers, once said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, then you're not close enough.")

I'll Take the Phillies to Win for $1,000.

A PENN STATE UNIVERSITY study found that forty percent of the 285 sports reporters they interviewed gambled on sports. Five percent gambled on sports they covered.

Is there anything wrong with sports reporters gambling on sports? Does that sacrifice their credibility? Does that make you question the information they put in their stories?

More than $380 billion gets wagered on illegal sports betting every year, so it's not like these sports reporters are the only ones placing bets.

Should they be held to different standards?

Blatant Self-Promotion: Your Teacher Is A Journalist.

LIKE I SAID, you should investigate all of your professors. Learn about them so you can mine them for information. That's why you're here.

In the journalism department, many of the faculty have had long careers in the business. And some of us continue to produce journalistic work on a regular basis. For instance, your Journalism & Society professor wrote the cover story of the new Philadelphia Weekly. Check it out.