Who Covers the Team? The Coach Will Decide.

DEREK DOOLEY, THE University of Tennessee football coach, told journalists last week that only certain reporters would be given access to a mock game the team played. The journalists selected were allowed in, he said, as "a simple reward for exemplary performance."Should a coach be allowed to decide who gets to cover his te...

Should Journalists Rate the Teachers?

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES recently examined every third through fifth grade teacher in LA schools and measured them for effectiveness using a controversial method. Then they created a searchable database and published it online.The teachers freaked out."It is the height of journalistic irresponsibility to make public these deeply flawed judgments about a teacher's effectiveness," the LA teachers' union wrote in a statement. "The database will cause chaos...

How Far Would You Go to Get a Story?

BARRY LEVINE, A TEMPLE grad, executive editor of the National Enquirer and friend of J1111, recently recounted to New York magazine his fondest memories of life in tabloid journalism:When his helicopter was blasted with shotgun pellets over Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith’s wedding; when Mike Tyson dragged him into a hotel stairwell and threatened to kill him after Levine asked if he was gay; when his news team was “attacked” by a swarm of tarantulas...

By Explaining the Details of the Proposed Mosque, Are Journalists Showing Their Bias?

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS issued a memo to staffers last week regarding how the proposed Lower Manhattan mosque should be referenced in their coverage. Among the directives was a change in what the mosque would be called - rather than simply the "ground zero mosque," the AP told staffers to refer to it as the mosque "near" ground zero."The nearness of the mosque to the WTC site is, of course, at the root of the whole controversy," wrote AP standards editor...

How Did You Spend Your Summer Vacation?

FOR SIX WEEKS, 18 Temple University students documented London as part of the School of Communications & Theater's study abroad program.Our focus was on London's massive and diverse music scene but we also learned about the food, fashion, lifestyles and various cultures of the city.We interviewed countless people, including producers and a correspondent from the London office of NBC News, the publishers of STATION magazine and the operators of...