Can a Journalist Also Do Promotion?

A news anchor in Ohio posted a series of videos about what happens during commercial breaks in newscasts.

They are meant to be amusing, I believe, and at times they are.

Should a journalist be creating humorous videos about the news team? Is this good promotion for the station or is it stepping over the line from journalist to entertainer?

Should Journalists Report On Suicides?

Last week, a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania freshman on the track team commit suicide in Center City. Her death has become news around the world, as the understanding is that her actions were caused by the stress of the academic setting.

The reality is that no one knows with any certainty why she jumped off a parking garage.

A Philly Mag writer questioned why this situation has become such a large story, when the media generally shun suicides as personal situations that are therefore not deemed relevant to the public at large.

Last fall, when a Temple student threatened to commit suicide and police evacuated a city block near campus, news outlets covered the story but never released the distressed student's name. Once the block was reopened to the residents, the story pretty much disappeared from the news.

Do the circumstances of the more recent situation deem it to be newsworthy? It's an Ivy League school and she was an attractive young woman. Her actions were in a very public place, and there have been other suicides at Penn over the past few years.

Should journalists change their longstanding policy of not covering suicides and report on them when needed? Or should we allow these families to deal with the situation in private?

Justin Bieber is a Vandal (Maybe). News at 11.

Justin Bieber was almost busted after allegedly throwing eggs at his neighbor's house in California.

Most of the local Los Angeles stations covered the story on their newscasts. One outlet even aired the police press conference about the event live as it was going on. It even made news in the United Kingdom (above).

Is this a news story? Should journalists cover such relatively minor events as a pop singer's alleged vandalism?

Or, is this such goofy, fun stuff that you have to run it on the news?