I was going to write about this last Friday, but my work schedule was rejiggered and college basketball was on. USA Today reporter Jack Kelley is the latest member of the journalism fraternity to have his fabrications detailed and put right. Kelley's fabrications go back at least seven (and possibly 11) years. That Kelley's behavior […]
Last week the Bush administration put out some positive ads which included brief glimpses of ground zero and 9/11. Unsurprisingly, some families of 9/11 victims screamed bloody murder at President Bush using images "for political gain." Well, it turns out that these individuals were part of a coordinated campaign by a liberal anti-war group. It […]
This isn't from the conservative Media Research Center (though I've never heard it charged that they fudge their data -- really, there's no need), so maybe Eric Alterman will consider MediaChannel.org's finding that the three major networks have been bashing President Bush and cheerleading for Sen. John "Flipper" Kerry. Mainstream news organizations may "filter" the […]
From the Chicago Sun-Times on kids covering John "Flipper" Kerry: Politics 101 As part of a nationwide team covering the presidential race for kid-oriented Scholastic News, 11-year-old Mitchel Hochberg of Northbrook queried John Kerry at an Evanston senior center this week. Hochberg, a fifth-grader, noted that President Bush and Kerry have exchanged unusually aggressive barbs […]
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gives a speech in Louisiana and two things about the report are notable. First, an illustration of what New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and his ilk have done to the judicial nomination process. He decried what he said he thinks is a politicizing of the judiciary. "Eighteen years ago I […]
You won't see it on March 15, but the original Dear Abby column sent over the wires for that date contained this letter: WIFE MEETS PERFECT MATCH AFTER HUSBAND STRIKES OUT DEAR ABBY: I am 34 and have three children. My husband, "Gene," and I have been married for 10 years. He is greedy, selfish, […]
New York Times Public Editor, responding to e-mail criticisms of an incident last month where a quote was recycled and the individuals party affiliation changed, has addressed the issue on his blog-type thingy. Birds hit with this single stone included the acknowledgment that both quotes came from one interview; that the two articles were about […]
I was sitting at my desk at the Union-Tribune when the news came in that the California Supreme Court refused to put a halt to the illegal gay "marriages" being conducted in San Francisco. I was first informed of the decision by an excited co-worker who yelled out "hooray!" at the news. The response by […]
Though I don't work as a copy editor now, I have in the past, so I look forward to getting my wings. A reporter dies and goes to journalist heaven, where St. Peter issues him a harp and a set of moderate-sized wings. "These seem kind of small," the reporter complains. "Well," says St. Peter, […]
I was going to rip into this Pioneer Press column by Brian Lambert, mainly because of this paragraph: One brave and skeptical line of discussion would have been to ask Gibson, "How do you know any of this actually happened?" Journalists are supposed to be in the business of asking impertinent, uncomfortable questions. But I […]