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News Meeting

  1. November 17, 2009 01:48 PM

    Newsweek, API, and Ethics

    What guidelines should govern advertiser-sponsored events?

    By The Editors

    Last week, news reports revealed that, since 2007, Newsweek has sold advertising packages to the American Petroleum Industry--the oil and gas industry’s largest trade group--“that included the right to co-host forums on energy issues, including two where members of Congress sat side-by-side on panels with the association’s president.”

    “Newsweek and API have teamed on four forums so...

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  2. November 10, 2009 01:47 PM

    The Link Economy

    What are the ethical issues involved in paying for traffic?

    By The Editors

    In a recent entry at his Web site, soundbitten.com, the journalist Greg Beato writes about what he calls the “bizarre love triangle” between Andrew Breitbart, the Drudge Report, and the newswire Reuters. According to Beato, in October 2005 Reuters approached Breitbart with a proposal: rather than charging him to publish their stories at his eponymous news portal, Breitbart.com,...

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  3. November 03, 2009 01:48 PM

    A Bushel and a Beck

    For news organizations, where’s the line between reporting the news and deciding what’s news?

    By The Editors

    Appearing on WAMU's The Kojo Nnamdi Show a couple weeks ago, NPR ombud Alicia Shepard engaged in a practice that’s becoming increasingly popular among media watchers: she talked about Glenn Beck. “When Glenn Beck is on NPR,” she said, “I can be assured there will be a lot of emails. I feel like, 'Hey you should hear...

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  4. October 27, 2009 02:06 PM

    Quote Machines

    Help us name the "experts" most often quoted in the press

    By The Editors

    If you spend enough time following the news, you may begin to feel like you’ve made some unexpected friends. Like Norm Ornstein, the oft-quoted watcher of all things Congress; or Mark Zandi, the widely cited economist; or Larry Sabato, University of Virginia political scientist and, according to The Wall Street Journal, "the most-quoted college professor in the land."

    Call them...

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  5. October 20, 2009 12:15 PM

    The Reconstruction of American Journalism

    What do you think of the report?

    By The Editors

    There’s no shortage of takes on the news industry’s ills, and on the possible strategies that could preserve and sustain costly reporting. Yesterday, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism released one such report by Michael Schudson, a communications professor at the school, and Len Downie, the former longtime editor of The Washington Post.

    Downie and Schudson’s report, available as...

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  6. October 13, 2009 01:17 PM

    Fox and Enemies

    Is the Obama administration right about Fox News?

    By The Editors

    The Obama administration hasn’t made much of a secret of its displeasure with Fox News. In June, the president said that there was “one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my
    administration,” a claim so obvious in its target he needn’t name names. And in September, Obama skipped an appearance on Fox Sunday Morning, on the same...

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  7. October 06, 2009 02:05 PM

    Diamonds in the Rough

    Can large journalistic salaries be justified in the current business climate?

    By The Editors

    The end of September brought two startling revelations that hefty salaries still exist in journalism despite the industry’s steep financial decline. CJR’s Michael Massing pointed out that Katie Couric’s $15 million CBS News salary “is more than the entire annual budgets of NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered combined.” As shocking as that information was, however, exorbitant...

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  8. October 01, 2009 03:29 PM

    A Whole New Ballgame

    What are the pros and cons of the "self-reporter" approach?

    By The Editors

    Last week, the Los Angeles Kings hockey team hired Los Angeles Daily News sports reporter Rich Hammond away from his ten-year stint at the paper to write for the Kings’ Web site. The Kings, who hired Hammond because of declining news coverage of the team, say they are giving him “complete autonomy” to cover the team as he...

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  9. September 22, 2009 03:42 PM

    Whose Line Is It, Anyway?

    When it comes to journalistic ethics, do definitions matter?

    By The Editors

    Earlier this month, New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt trained his gaze on the conflict-of-interest questions surrounding the popular technology columnist David Pogue. Calling attention to a recent conflict--in which Pogue recommended a Mac operating system in whose success he had a financial stake--Clark noted that, overall, Pogue's "multiple interests and loyalties raise interesting ethical issues in...

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  10. September 15, 2009 12:16 PM

    The Too-Fleet Tweet

    Should news organizations editorially monitor their employees' Twitter accounts?

    By The Editors

    On Monday, ABC News reporter Terry Moran broadcast President Obama’s off-the-record assessment of Kanye West’s MTV Video Music Award antics (“jackass”) to the world, via Twitter, before quickly deleting his tweet.

    According to The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, Moran learned of the remark via a CNBC interview feed that was available to other news outlets; other...

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  11. August 25, 2009 01:35 PM

    Back to School, for Some Reason

    Does journalism school still make sense these days?

    By The Editors

    It’s late August and, among other things, that means back-to-school--including here at the Columbia Graduae School of Journalism, where the latest crop of journalism students showed up last week. And there’ are a lot of them. Applications were up 38 percent for the class of 2010. That, despite widespread layoffs in the journalism industry — and Columbia wasn’t alone in...

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  12. August 18, 2009 02:52 PM

    Vacation Mode

    What, if any, media sources do you still check while on vacation?

    By The Editors

    With half the world and all of Washington D.C. on vacation--including the commander-in-chief, who will be summering on Martha’s Vineyard for a week starting on Sunday--we want to know if you plugged-in, media-addicted types welcome a chance to power down and disconnect from your various electronic devices, social networking sites, digital feeds and cable television loops...

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  13. August 11, 2009 12:28 PM

    Truth or Consequences

    How should the press sort fact from fiction in a rumor-ridden world?

    By The Editors

    Mandated abortions. Dying on a wait list. Death panels. The healthcare debate teems with rumors, innuendo, and flat-out lies--ranging from the troubling to the full-on ridiculous. In the past, perhaps, the press could counter such misinformation with the blanket declaration of "we're not going to dignify that with coverage"; as the platforms for rumor-mongering have increased, however, news purveyors no...

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  14. August 04, 2009 01:00 PM

    Drunk and Disorderly

    Is it OK for papers to "disappear" controversial online content?

    By The Editors

    It all started with a really bad idea, a bottle of beer, and a still of our Secretary of State. And it ended with The Washington Post pulling down a video featuring two of its star staffers.

    In between, the newspaper drew wide fire (from CJR and others) for Dana Milbank’s suggestion, in an attempt at humor, that Hillary...

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