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Is there any institution the American public loves to hate more than the news media? Depending on your point of view, the institutional press is either irredeemably liberal or cravenly conservative, a toothless watchdog or a godless traitor, willing to do anything to sell newspapers or raise viewership ratings. News consumers marvel at the media’s fixation on the latest peccadilloes of a drunken starlet or a straying senator at the sacrifice of stories that “matter.” Anyone who has been the object of media attention “knows” that reporters are sloppy, arrogant, imprecise, agenda-driven, fixated on the negative, and, of course, biased. How could they be anything else, when no minimum education requirements, no licensing system, no mandatory ethics code, no disciplinary body can be used to keep the incompetents and undesirables out? And that’s just the mainstream media. What about those bloggers – the infamous geeks in pajamas, spreading rumors throughout the Internet and railing at anything and everything in cozy anonymity from their shadowy basement lairs, accountable to no one?
The Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) accepted Major League Baseball’s credential agreement April 8, 2008 after nearly six weeks of negotiations concerning game photos and video clips posted on the Internet.
Two “sunshine” bills designed to make federal courts more open to the public by providing for cameras in courtrooms and reducing the number of sealed cases and settlements continued their journey through Congress when the Senate Committee on the Judiciary approved both bills on March 6, 2008.
A Los Angeles Times story published in March 2008 that purported to have new information about a 1994 attack that helped launch a bloody bicoastal war among high-profile rappers was found to be based on faked FBI documents and questionable sources, embarrassing the newspaper as it retracted and apologized for the story.
Media Critics Lambaste Networks for Lax Standards, Limited Response
An April 20, 2008 New York Times story revealed that the Pentagon encouraged so-called military analysts to put a positive spin on news coverage of the Iraq war. The story said that the retired military officers trumpeted administration talking points in appearances on network and cable news broadcasts and op-ed pieces in major newspapers in exchange for access to high-level military officers and Bush administration officials.
On March 17, 2008, a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a Minnesota federal district judge’s ruling that a Minnesota law banning minors from renting or purchasing violent video games is unconstitutional.
Communications Decency Act and Fair Housing Rules Clash in 7th, 9th Circuits
Two spring 2008 cases asked federal courts to interpret a law designed to limit the liability for Internet service providers when their users engage in prohibited speech online in the context of federal fair housing standards. The key difference in the contrasting decisions appears to be the degree to which the different Web sites actively seek particular information from users.
AP Photographer Freed in Iraq after Two Years
Iraqi Associated Press (AP) photographer Bilal Hussein was released by American military officials on April 14, 2008 after two years of imprisonment for allegedly working with insurgents in Iraq.
Controversy has flared during the prelude to the 2008 Beijing Olympic games as free press advocacy groups have criticized China’s human rights record on media and free speech restrictions. Meanwhile many Chinese have spoken out against international media coverage they have called biased and unfair.
Daily Nebraskan Clashes with Governor’s Office
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman’s office considered banning Daily Nebraskan reporters from his press conferences and excluding the student newspaper from a media e-mail list after it revealed in an April 3, 2008 story that a convicted murderer participating in a work-release program is a tour guide at the governor’s mansion.
The Court of Appeal for Northern Ireland overturned a £25,000 jury award March 10, 2008 for a Belfast restaurant owner who claimed he had been defamed by an unflattering restaurant review in the Irish News. The three-justice panel held that the trial court failed to properly instruct the jury on the defense of “fair comment” and ordered a new trial.
According to Edward Wasserman, rather than strive to act independently, journalists should find the “ethically permissible” conflicts of interest among contemporary journalism’s necessary dependencies and obligations.
