Satire and the Race for the Oval Office.

WHILE JOURNALISTS hold on to the old ideal of objectivity, entertainment television runs with the political satire (like the SNL clip above).

Is it fair for folks like Tina Fey to mock Sarah Palin? Should David Letterman be punished for spending more than half of a recent show making fun of John McCain?

By the way, the real Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin is below:

Is It Good Journalism Or Ugly Racism?

FOX29 INVESTIGATED a tip that an aide to city councilman Wilson Goode was abusing her position. The tipster said that the aide regularly arrived hours late to work, and frequently left early.

When the FOX29 reporter asked the aide - who earns $90,000 per year - about the allegations, the aide said that the reporter was a racist. The aide actually held up signs during council session accusing the Fox reporter of being in the KKK.

Watch the video by clicking here. Then answer the question: is this good investigative journalism or is this a nonsense story with racial undertones?

Does This Offend You?

THIS COVER was recently honored as one of the best mag covers of the year by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Since the majority of you weren't offended by the "Douchebag" headline, I doubt you guys would be bothered by a line pointing to the former New York governor's crotch with BRAIN in bold caps.

Anyone? Is this good journalism?

(Click here to see this year's top cover finalists).

Are You Offended by "Douchebag?"

THE BALTIMORE SUN'S free daily paper featured a cover story about "Douchebags," with 56 ways to tell if you are one.

Apparently, some people were upset to see the word displayed so large and prominent on the page, which was fronted in newspaper boxes all around Baltimore.

Is there anything wrong with running the word on the cover in 48 point, bold type like this?

Can Photographs Have Influence?

FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER Jill Greenberg was hired to shoot images of John McCain for the Atlantic Monthly magazine.

Greenberg, a hard-core Democrat, decided to create images of McCain that portrayed him as old and sinister. She lit him with a harsh light, and shot the image from low, creating deep shadows and intensity.

Is that wrong? Should she have made him look good, maybe retouched his red eyes? Or is it her job of the photojournalist to present the subject as the photographer believes is most fitting?

That's Crazy ... But Is It News?

A 22-YEAR OLD WOMAN was driving the wrong way down interstate 476 in Delaware County and she crashed into oncoming traffic. A 63-year old woman was killed.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's story included these details:

O'Neill (the 22-year old driver) is the sister of Sean Owen O'Neill Jr., who was released from juvenile detention in June after being held in the August 2006 shooting death of his friend. O'Neill Jr. hosted a party without adult supervision at his family's home and accidentally shot Scott Sheridan, 17, of West Chester.

Her father, Sean O'Neill Sr., was arrested in June by federal agents who said he had lied about his membership in what authorities called an Irish terrorist organization to obtain a green card. He also faces weapons charges.

Is the legal information about the family necessary? Does it reveal a feeling of suspicion from the journalist?

Or is this good background information for the piece?

A look at the Delaware County Times' story offers insight on how the reporters gathered their information: the police issued a press release.

That raises another question: just because the police provide that information, should you report it?

In Lieu of Newspapers, Use Craigslist?

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE censored a paid obit that ran in the paper.

The family of Ken Swanborn submitted an obit with the final line, "In lieu of flowers, please vote Democratic."

The paper refused to run that line. A woman on the paper's paid-death-notice desk told the Chicago Reader, "If it's considered discriminatory or offensive, they take the line out."

Do they have the right to do that?