Journalism and Honor?

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Margaret Sullivan, 6/12/25

Headline:  “It’s Time for a New Look at Journalism Ethics”

Subhead:  “The first part in a series on the challenges facing the media industry today.”

“It might seem like conventional wisdom among journalists that while the world around us may change, our standards do not. And certainly our ethics should not change.

“We believe in accuracy. In being honest with the public. In declining favors or gifts intended to bring more favorable coverage. In protecting our sources. . .”

“Yet a fresh look at journalism’s standards and practices—yes, its ethics—seemed a worthwhile pursuit in this moment. Trust in the press has declined. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/new-journalism-ethics-today.php

Community Media Saved!


Article in Poynter by Sopie Endrud, 6/11/25

Headline: “Facing severe budget cuts, a local television station leaned on its community — and succeeded”

Subhead:  “Prince George’s Community Television in Maryland saw an impending 75% budget slash. Instead of capitulating, the station made its value known”

“The campaign to save Prince George’s Community Television culminated at a two-hour-long county budget hearing, where 37 people wearing ‘Save CTV’ pins implored their county council to save the station.

“Jaylan Sims stood at the lectern on April 28, his voice cracking as he held up his volunteer ID card from nine years ago.

“ ‘I kept it in my room because CTV meant that much to me,’ he told the council.

“ ‘They taught me things that no other news station teaches,’ he continued. He had been allowed to use CTV’s camera and teleprompter to complete class assignments at Bowie State University. Now, a recent graduate, he credited CTV for making that achievement possible. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/prince-georges-community-tv-saved-budget-hearing/

Rt. Wing Calls Protestors “Invaders”?


Article in The Guardian by Adam Gabbatt, 6/11/25

Headline:  “As military is deployed to LA, rightwing media decry protesters as ‘invaders’”

Subhead:  “From Newsmax to Charlie Kirk, outlets and podcasts are calling for ‘hard actions’, arrests and the Insurrection Act”

“There were unsavory scenes in Los Angeles over the weekend, as police used teargas and ‘less-lethal munitions’ on thousands of people gathered to protest against the arrest of undocumented immigrants.

The events playing out on rightwing TV channels and in the conservative podcasting realm were almost as miserable, as excitable media figures decried protesters as “invaders”, called for both the mass arrest of elected officials and the invocation of a two-century old laws and used the chaos to push racist conspiracy theories.

It came as the Trump administration said the military will remain on the ground in LA for two months . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/11/la-ice-protests-trump-rightwing-fox-charlie-kirk

Robot Journalists Need Chance?


Article in Poynter, 6/9/25

Headline:  “AI is giving local news a second chance. Will it be ready this time?”

Subhead:  “Journalism professor Tom Rosenstiel urges newsrooms to avoid the mistakes of the internet era and build smarter, more useful AI tools”

“In April 2024, the Local News Initiative, in conjunction with the Knight Lab at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Communications and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung USA, published a report titled, ‘Impact of AI on Local News Models: AI Is Disrupting the Local News Industry. Will It Unlock Growth or Be an Existential Threat?’

“Based on discussions with more than 25 local news and AI experts worldwide, the report explored the potential benefits and perils presented by this revolutionary technology. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2025/ai-impact-on-local-newsrooms/

Without Journalism, Corruption

Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Brad N. Greenwood, 6/9/25

Headline:  “When Local Newspapers Die, Corruption Festers”

Subhead:  “Our study also found that digital media sites didn’t make much of a difference.”

“In 2009, David Simon, the creator of HBO’s The Wire and a onetime crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun, told a Senate subcommittee that as America’s regional newspapers collapsed, corruption would flourish. ‘The next ten to fifteen years in this country are going to be a halcyon era for state and local political corruption,’ he said. ‘It is going to be one of the great times to be a corrupt politician.’ ”

“Sixteen years later, it seems like an opportune time to take stock of that prediction. After all, the decline of the local newspaper has continued relentlessly in the intervening years, with more than a quarter of American newspapers disappearing since 2004. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/local-newspapers-corruption.php

Enough Media Coverage?

Article in The Washington Post by Eric Wemple, 5/9/25

Headline:  “Did legacy media fail in its Biden coverage? Not if you ask them!”

Subhead:  “What the big-time players have to say about missing the story of the former president’s decline”

“In a recent interview with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly, CNN host Jake Tapper called for a reckoning over the coverage of former president Joe Biden’s age. ‘There should be a lot of soul searching,’ said Tapper, ‘not just among me, but among the legacy media . . .”

“Few souls are undergoing a pat-down. I asked 17 news outlets at the forefront of White House coverage whether they believe they had failed in any aspect of their coverage of Biden’s age.

“They do not. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/09/legacy-media-biden-age-coverage/

This Time – Could Need New Journalists


Article in The Washington Post by Larry Tye, 6/2/25

Headline:  “This journalist was the real hero behind Joe McCarthy’s takedown”

Subhead:  “Drew Pearson rebuked Sen. Joseph McCarthy early and often. History gives him little credit for it.”

“The mythology of Sen. Joseph McCarthy — in fresh focus as the Broadway version of George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck” smashes box-office records — gets it right that a legendary American journalist played a vital role in toppling the red-baiting Republican in the 1950s. But it casts the wrong journalist.

“It wasn’t, as most accounts suggest, crusading radio and TV personality Edward R. Murrow, although Murrow did broadcast two bare-knuckle takedowns of McCarthy. Rather, it was radio and newspaper commentator Drew Pearson, who went after “Low-Blow Joe” six years before Murrow, stayed on the story longer and uniquely ignited the senator’s wrath. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/02/mccarthy-murrow-pearson-clooney-broadway/

Newspapers and Polls

Article in Raw Story by Travis Gettys, 6/6/25

Headline:  ” ‘Corrupt as hell’: Trump wakes up seething about his polling in two newspapers “

Subhead:  “President Donald Trump lobbed another attack against the nation’s two leading newspapers over their polling.”

“The president started off Friday morning with a fresh complaint about his approval rating measured by the New York Times and the Washington Post, suggesting that ‘real polls’ showed he was actually more popular than ever.

” ‘The Failing New York Times and the Washington ComPost, two ‘papers’ that have ruthlessly fought me for years, have each done Polls where a vast majority of those sampled are Democrats,’ Trump posted on Truth Social at 7:20 a.m. EST . . .”

Read the full story at:

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-2672321734/

 

Preparing Journalism for the Future


Article in Poynter by Nicole Slaughter Graham, 6/5/25

Headline:  “ASU is launching a $14.5 million center to speed up journalism’s transformation”

Subhead:  “The Knight Center for the Future of News aims to help strengthen local and regional journalism by bringing educators, research and newsrooms together”

“Journalism’s many issues are longstanding and well-known, and with its new center, Arizona State University is ready to take sweeping action to implement solutions.

“On July 1, ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication will open the Knight Center for the Future of News thanks to a $10.5 million grant from the Knight Foundation and a $4 million investment from the university. . .

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2025/asu-knight-center-future-of-news/

Local Newspapers Important


Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Sarah Stonbely, 6/5/25

Headline:  “Analyzing news and information landscapes from the ground up”

“Lately when traveling anywhere new I find myself looking at the houses and buildings I pass, wondering what news is being produced at that moment, in that town, that might be missed if it doesn’t have a local news outlet. If it’s a less affluent or rural area, chances are good that there isn’t a journalist attending its school board or municipal meetings . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/analyzing-news-and-information-landscapes-from-the-ground-up.php