Ethics

That Liberal Media

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Alex Irvine reports: "The Portland Press Herald, after several years of getting its nerve up, has fired reporter Ted Cohen, who in July 2000 unearthed the story of George W. Bush's 1976 DWI arrest in Kennebunkport. Cohen's editor promptly spiked the story, with the result that it didn't get out into the national media until just before the 2000 election. The discovery that the Press Herald sat on the story embarrassed executive editor Jeannine Guttman and made the paper an object of ridicule among journalists.

No
Main Source: 
Portland Phoenix
Topics: 
Journalism
Ethics

Thanks for the Opportunity

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Leslie Green at Stapleton Communications has a bachelor's degree in Marketing Communications from California Polytechnic State University, which must be where she learned how to stonewall reporters while still sounding upbeat. A detailed new investigative report charges her client, AXT Inc., with poisoning its workers with gallium arsenide, a potent carcinogen used to make semiconductors.

No
Main Source: 
East Bay Express, April 7, 2004
Topics: 
Corporations
Ethics
Health
Labor
Public Relations
Science

Why Karen Ryan Deserved What She Got

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Journalism professor Jay Rosen has written a commentary about Karen Ryan, the public relations consultant who got caught posing as a reporter in a video news release produced for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to praise the Bush administration's controversial new Medicare bill.

No
Main Source: 
PressThink, March 31, 2004
Topics: 
Video News Releases
Ethics

Campaign Finance Deform

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

"With corporate and union donations banned by a new law, lawmakers are pressing lobbyists to raise campaign money," reports AP. Lobbyist-organized fundraisers must raise at least $10,000 "to lure a freshman lawmaker to one of their events," at least $15,000 for veteran members, and $50,000 for committee chairs.

No
Main Source: 
The Associated Press, March 26, 2004
Topics: 
Ethics
Lobbying

When FOX Attacks...

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

Shortly before former counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke's testimony to the September 11th commission, "the White House violated its long-standing rules by authorizing Fox News to air remarks favorable to Bush that Clarke had made anonymously at an administration briefing in 2002.

No
Main Source: 
Washington Post, March 25, 2004
Topics: 
Right Wing
Corporations
Ethics
Media
U.S. Government

Jason Blair's Scandal Pales Compared to the VNR Scandal

Submitted by John Stauber on

Web journalist and novelist Daniel Price points out that here at the Center for Media & Democracy we have been sounding the alarm on Video News Releases for over a decade. Price writes that "thanks to the Medicare fake news flap (see 3/22 'spin of the day' below) America has been formally introduced to the Video News Release. Except they've been around for twenty years and we've already seen thousands of them. You know life is getting strange when even Jon Stewart can't handle the irony.

No
Main Source: 
Abused By the News, March 22, 2004
Topics: 
Video News Releases
Ethics

One Person's Propaganda Is Another's News

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

The General Accounting Office is investigating whether the Department of Health and Human Services' video news releases touting the new Medicare law constitute illegal "covert propaganda." Some PR pros think it's much ado about nothing: "VNRs have been around since the dawn of TV," said the

No
Main Source: 
PR Week, March 22, 2004
Topics: 
Video News Releases
Ethics
Propaganda
U.S. Government

Not a Real Journalist, but Playing One on TV

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

Since the December passage of the Medicare bill, "there have been a lot of questions about how the law will help older Americans and people with disabilities. Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details." This is the suggested lead in for local stations running new video news releases prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services.

No
Main Source: 
The New York Times, March 15, 2004
Topics: 
Video News Releases
Ethics

Pages

Subscribe to Ethics