I'd like the panel to discuss the conflict of interest re: the New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Ethan Bronner. Bronner's son serves in the Israeli Defense Forces and readers alerted the New...
Archives for July 2009
The Birthers: Why is the media paying attention?
posted on July 31, 2009
Despite a birth certificate proving Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, a group of conspiracy theorists remain convinced the President was foreign-born and his presidency is illegitimate. Why is the media playing along?
Alaska journalism students embed in Iraq
posted on July 31, 2009
The University of Alaska plans to send three journalism students and a professor to Iraq to embed with the U.S. Army Stryker Brigade Combat Team for nearly a month. Is this a once in-a-lifetime opportunity? Or is the assignment too dangerous for inexperienced reporters?
Henry Gates' arrest: Why the media got the facts wrong
posted on July 31, 2009
The release of the 9-1-1 tapes from the Henry Louis Gates arrest absolved caller Lucia Whalen as a racist and changed the story line. But the tapes revealed more about the media's reporting of the Gates arrest story.
Tags:
7 comments
New York Times names David Ortitz as a steroid user
posted on July 31, 2009
The New York Times reported that Red Sox sluggers David Ortitz and Manny Ramirez tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. Was it fair for the Times to report information that was supposed to be court-sealed?
Tags:
13 comments
Video is on its way
posted by Ralph Ranalli on July 31, 2009
The video segments are on their way. Ace BTP tech guy Sanjay Salomon says the ETA is a little after 6 p.m.
After you watch, either here or on the tube, don't forget to come back and comment.
Tags:
Topic No. 4: Big Papi, the Juice, and the media
posted by Ralph Ranalli on July 31, 2009
Congratulations to registered BTP.com user "Steve Stein" for proving great minds think alike.
As Steve was recommending a segment on the coverage of David "Big Papi" Ortiz's alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs, the BTP brain trust was having the same idea.
2:19 p.m.: UPDATE: I inadvertently failed to mention that unregistered user "DaveH" also suggested the Big Papi story. Sorry, Dave.
Our fourth segment will indeed be examining how the New York Times broke the news that the popular Red Sox slugger was on the infamous secret list of 104 Major League players who tested positive in 2003. Your thoughts are appreciated.
The Globe and non-profit journalism
posted by Dan Kennedy on July 31, 2009
One of the groups seeking to buy the Boston Globe from the New York Times Co. is considering a non-profit ownership arrangement, according to a report by the Globe's Beth Healy.
The group — headed by Partners HealthCare chairman Jack Connors and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca — has "proposed a 'civic approach' that would involve a nonprofit foundation to help fund and run the news operation," writes Healy, citing an unnamed source.
The other bidder is a group headed by Stephen Taylor, a prominent member of the family that sold the Globe to the New York Times Co. in 1993.
What Healy does not specify (and perhaps Connors and Pagliuca themselves haven't decided at this point) is whether we're talking about a pure non-profit or a hybrid model.
(Click "continue" to read more.)
Was the New Yorker too easy on Michael Savage?
posted by Adam Reilly on July 30, 2009
This week's New Yorker includes a profile, written by Kelefa Sanneh, of right-wing-radio star Michael Savage. It's a great read--but is it too easy on its subject?
Generally speaking, Sanneh seems to have a sort of bemused affection for Savage, who he casts as a heterodox conservative with an endearing melancholic streak and a penchant for highly entertaining, free-associative riffs. In Sanneh's words [paragraphing added]:
[W]hen Savage talks about his chief influences he is most likely to mention the old-timers he listened to as a kid in New York: Symphony Sid, the beloved jazz d.j.; Mel Allen, the old Yankees play-by-play man; Jean Shepherd; the pioneering monologist.
This week's Beat the Press topics: A call to action
posted by Ralph Ranalli on July 30, 2009
The BTP brain trust came out of its morning meeting with a 75 percent success rate: We've chosen three of the four segments for this week's show.
Soooo ... we need your help coming up with a fourth segment and want your feedback on what issues should be discussed in the other three.
First, the panel: Emily hosting, Joe, Dan, Kara sitting in for Callie (scheduling conflict), and Globe film critic Wesley Morris in the guest panelist chair.
The topics:
Birthers: Congratulations and thanks to registered BTP.org user "CestWhat," who provided us this conversation piece via the "Suggest a Topic" feature on the site. In a nutshell, CestWhat wants to know why a supposedly mainstream news outlet like CNN has allowed Lou Dobbs to keep alive the story of the "birthers" (the fringe movement of people who insist Barack Obama was born outside the US) even though they have been widely and thoroughly discredited. We'll take a wider look at why the birthers story keeps popping up.
(Click "continue" to read more.)
Tags:
10 comments
Media should keep pushing on Crowley
posted by Dan Kennedy on July 30, 2009
Even many of us who think the Cambridge Police overreacted by arresting Henry Louis Gates in his own home have assumed — for the sake of argument if nothing else — that Sgt. James Crowley's report was accurate.
I've contended from the beginning that Crowley's mistake was in failing to recognize why Gates would think he'd been racially profiled. Noted civil-rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate and Slate columnist Christopher Hitchens have both written that the issue wasn't race, but Gates' constitutional right to throw a nutty in his own home. I agree.
But with Crowley, Gates and President Obama settling in for an awkward beer later today, let's not forget that there is an enormous discrepancy between Crowley's report and the statements of Lucia Whalen, the woman who called 911 and then waited at the scene until police had arrived.
(Click "continue" to read more)
Tags:
29 comments
