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Posts under ‘Ethics’

Off the Record? Not Unless You Agree Ahead of Time

Glenn Greenwald (Salon) writes: The most interesting part of the controversy over Obama advisor Samantha Power’s referring to Hillary Clinton as a “monster” — one might say the only interesting part — is that immediately after Power said it, she tried to proclaim that it was “off the record.” Here was Power’s exact quote: “She […]

The Net Remembers, for Good and Bad

I have a column running on the Guardian’s website today. It’s entitled “Freedom of information” — and is reprinted below: What does a Swiss bank that does business in the Cayman Islands have in common with a Hong Kong actor who jets around the globe? They are object lessons this month in a reality that […]

WSJ Finds Scandal Only When It's Trial Lawyers in Bed with Pols

Hilariously, but unintentionally so as always, an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal entitled “Lawsuit Inc.” wails over connections between trial lawyers and state politicians: Should state Attorneys General be able to outsource their legal work to for-profit tort lawyers, who then funnel a share of their winnings back to the AGs? That’s become a […]

Capturing a Moment, but Not a Life

NY TImes: Putting Candidates Under the Videoscope. (T)he embeds have changed the dynamic of this year’s election, making every unplugged and unscripted moment on the campaign trail available for all to see. One particular video shot of American flags tilting over behind Hillary Rodham Clinton last November has been viewed more than 300,000 times on […]

Needed: Regulation to Prevent Journalists-Turned-Professors from Embarrassing Themselves

It’s hard to know where to begin in responding to David Hazinski’s “Unfettered ‘citizen journalism’ too risky,” an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he calls for regulation of citizen journalism: Supporters of “citizen journalism” argue it provides independent, accurate, reliable information that the traditional media don’t provide. While it has its place, the reality […]

Confirming a Lie

I want to come full circle on a posting last July, when a London newspaper, commenting on the likely move of a senior News Corp. editor to the Wall Street Journal should — as has happened — Rupert Murdoch’s company buy Dow Jones. The paper wrote: Robert Thomson, the present editor of The (London) Times, […]

Sleuthing the Many (Logo) Lives of the Cheney Video

Jon Garfunkel has done prodigious homework on how a variety of online video posters used (and abused) the attribution principle in “Internet Slash-Ups: Even the pros rip off C-SPAN.

Michael Moore Should Be Ashamed

Jonathan Weber at New West Network asks, “Michael Moore, Why Are You Stealing Our Content?” Pretty shabby…

Fake Steve Jobs: Hypocrite or New Believer?

Anil Dash: Fake Steve Jobs and the Triumph of Blogs. Daniel Lyons, author of the heretofore-anonymous Fake Steve Jobs blog, which comments extensively on companies in the technology industry, was also the author of Forbes’ November 2005 cover story “Attack of the Blogs”, a 3000-word screed vilifying anonymous bloggers who comment on companies in the […]

Lies from Top Media People: Ho Hum?

The media column in the British Independent newspaper this week contains this remarkable passage, near the top: Robert Thomson, the present editor of The (London) Times, nonetheless seems quite likely to exchange his once great office for a job on The Wall Street Journal. This depends on Rupert Murdoch acquiring the American business title, which […]