CyberJournalist.net: TV news stations air incorrectly identified ferry video from YouTube. A number of Canadian television news broadcasts aired a user-submitted video clip falsely labelled as a ferry battling rough seas in the Cabot Strait, reviving questions about how news organizations handle user-submitted content. The reports prompted some passengers to cancel their bookings. One or […]
Posts under ‘News’
The Camera Phone Exposes Wrongdoing
The BBC reports that a patient in Russian hospital has captured chilling images of gagged babies with a camera phone. Quite rightly, the pictures are creating a huge, angry stir around the world. And once again, we’re seeing the power of the citizen journalist to force things into the open that institutions don’t want to […]
'Raise More Hell'
Molly Ivins, one of the great journalists of our era, has died, the Texas Observer reports “In Loving Memory of Molly Ivins, 1944-2007.” Key quote: Molly’s enduring message is, “Raise more hell.”
Apple's Just Desserts a Big Win for Online Journalism
Mac News Network: Apple pays $700,000 for bloggers’ legal fees. In total, Apple was ordered to pay nearly $700,000 — a small amount for a company that reported nearly $1 billion in profit in the December quarter, but a large moral victory for bloggers, journalists and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which helped defend against […]
Plea Deal Keeps Reporters Out of Court
AP: Watada Agreement Means Journos Won’t Have to Testify in ‘Antiwar’ Case. Watada’s attorney Eric Seitz agreed that two subpoenaed reporters will not have to testify. They are Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s Gregg Kakesako and freelance reporter Sarah Olson. “We will stipulate and agree to the testimony that the reporters would have otherwise provided and the accuracy […]
Sleaze by Any Standard
NY Times: Feeding Frenzy for a Big Story, Even if It’s False. To most journalists, the notion of anonymous reporters relying on anonymous sources is a red flag. “If you want to talk about a business model that is designed to manufacture mischief in large volume, that would be it,” said Ralph Whitehead Jr., a […]
Newspapers in Education: Modern Oxymoron
Editor & Publisher: Major Survey Finds ‘Need to Rethink’ Newpaper in Education Programs. Teachers are using more online sources to discuss news-related issues in the classroom, with less use of newspapers — particularly local daily publications — according to a new survey from the Carnegie Knight Task Force at Harvard University. So, teachers are following […]
Running for President? "Announce" on the Web
Hilary Clinton is — gasp with surprise — running for president, and made it official on her HillaryClinton.com website. Not in a crowded hall, packed with supporters and TV cameras, but on the website. Of course, it was not exactly news. She’s been making public and semi-public moves in this direction for a long time […]
When Pigs Fly
LA Times: Tribune board’s difficult choice. An offer for Tribune Co. by two Los Angeles billionaires would not require significant cuts at the company’s newspapers, contrary to initial criticism of the debt-heavy proposal, people close to the transaction said Thursday. This is such transparently empty spin that the reporters should be ashamed to have their […]
Progress in Global Net Freedom
Rebecca MacKinnon: Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Vodaphone display some cojones. Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, Cisco and others have been getting a lot of heat over the past year for colluding with human rights violations and state censorship in countries like China. Fortunately, three of those four companies have found the wherewithal to do more than just […]