Yes, free speech is not consequence-free
By Chris Roberts It’s hard to think that $1 billion will actually ever be paid to victims of Alex Jones’ libelous speech about the parents whose children died in mass shootings, but it’s easy to recognize that our First Amendment right to free speech does not mean speech has no consequences. Here’s the FoxNews.com story […]
AppSumo and Michael J. Fox: An online marketer makes a solid apology
If you’re in mass media or sales or nearly any other activity involving humans, write this down: Don’t make fun of sick people. AppSumo, an online selling company that relies on emails and clever writing, learned that lesson this week. Its April 25 email peddling a product included a joke involving Michael J. Fox, who […]
Opelika-Auburn News: ‘Finding a way’ to anger nearly everybody
You’re working in The Opelika-Auburn News sports department late on a deadline Saturday night. You should be celebrating in your seat, even if you don’t care who won the big game your paper will blow out in Sunday’s paper. The Auburn Tigers, the team your paper cares about, has held on to beat another Top […]
If you publish mugshots and other arrest news, then you should follow up
It was a Gannett-owned newspaper that received near-universal condemnation in December 2012 when it built an online map that made it easy to find the addresses of people who had gun permits. The complaints came from all sides — gun owners and others worried about privacy, lawmakers who closed loopholes in New York and elsewhere, […]
Bad journalism, bad ethics, or both? Poynter’s list of biggest news mistakes and Gallup’s “ethics in professions” poll may or may not be related
Two disparate pieces of annual news–Poynter’s list of the year’s media errors, and Gallup’s “honesty in professions” report–come together this week for a journalism ethics lesson, on a Poynter page with links to both stories but no connection. Poynter’s Craig Silverman released his yearly list of funny, scary, awful and goofy media errors for 2013, […]
Washington Post column on Redskins name change uses different standards for in-print, online publication
By Caroline Meintzer On Oct. 7, 2013, The Washington Post ran an article in their printed newspaper that included an editorial by Dana Milbank. Milbank’s editorial called out the Washington Redskins’ team name for being racist, and he further illustrated his point by asking people to compare the Redskins name to other racial epithets. In […]
Knoxville News correctly balanced loyalties, matters of taste in coverage of deadly bus crash
By Anna Ramia Overview On October 2, 2013, a church bus traveling near Knoxville, Tenn. collided with an SUV and a tractor-trailer, killing eight people and injuring 14. The bus’s front-left tire blew out, sending the bus across the median, clipping a car before T-boning the semi-truck. The bus flipped over, and the semi caught […]
Protecting innocence or seeking truth: CNN, other media decide how much to show of Miriam Carey’s child in White House car case
By Sophia Jones The death of Miriam Carey and the Oct. 3, 2013, car chase she led capitol police on that resulted in her death, was newsworthy. The fact that Carey led the car chase, not with a weapon or any other illegal substances, but with a 14-month-old child in the backseat of her car, […]
New York Times’ ‘Vows’ column comes up short in its New Age-y glossing over of a child’s death
By Kelcey Sexton On Sept. 20, 2013, a column titled “Found, a Soul Mate” was published in the “Vows” section of the New York Times, chronicling the relationship of two yoga-lovers, Erika Halweil and Corey De Rosa, in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Halweil meets and begins regularly bumping into De Rosa, “an intense, thoughtful yoga teacher” […]