Posts Tagged ‘journalism’
A cost of doing business – celebrity as meat
Good to read that Murdoch’s The News of the World has admitted hacking Sienna Miller’s phone message system and repeatedly violating her privacy … and news today that they’ve ‘apologised’ and are paying £100,000 in damages and costs to her. Big deal. Callous so-and-sos. It was purely business to them, the journalists, the editors, the […]
Sarah Palin … who’s taking who for a ride?
This put it nicely. No one is fooled, really. But the conventions and protocols of “reporting” requires pretending otherwise. Contrary to a lot of our readers, I don’t think the answer is for the media to ignore Palin. Pointing out her ridiculousness doesn’t build her up and doesn’t give her oxygen without which she would […]
Inconsistency: hoist on our own petard?
This article The Other Torture Debate by Arthur Brisbane is worth reading to help understand how a journalistic ‘aspiration’ for an appearance of impartiality can lead to very poor decisions. In what I saw at the time as a prime example of the thin end of the wedge, the NY Times seemed to adopt the […]
Keeping your distance
“The only way a reporter should ever look at a politician is down.” — David Broder That’s a pretty harsh line from veteran US political journalist/columnist David Broder, widely regarded as ‘the dean of the Washington press corps’. It’s quoted in a pretty good opinion piece from The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank on how journalists […]
Don Brash’s ACT will cannibalise National
I like (agree with) John Armstong’s analysis of the nothing-if-not-brazen Don Brash takeover of ACT. And I agree with his take on whose political problem his ascendancy is… “With Labour down to its core support, the only source where Brash can realistically pick up votes is from National”. Yup. Ruthless Brash now National’s problem … […]
The stain never leaves you
Just saw Terry Pratchett say in a TV interview: “… I still am a journalist because the stain never leaves you.” Yup. I know just what he means. He also said he declared his Alzheimer’s because as a former journalist he “believes in the truth”. All cynicism aside for a moment: Ditto. – P
Unjust enrichment? Well, yeah, maybe.
Remember when Arianna Huffington and her co-owners sold The Huffington Post to AOL for $315 million? And remember how some of those who blogged and contributed to the site out of a sort of collective, we’re a left-wing blog in a world of right-wing media altrusim felt a bit let down? Like the last thing they […]
Is it worth dishonestly defending a reputation? No.
‘Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.’ – Oscar Wilde . Reputations — good and bad — are a topic we discuss here at thePaepae.com from time to time. I’m interested in hearing what you think about it (…if anything). Watching the chickens coming home to roost on some of the […]
Reliable sources. And not-so-reliable
After my comments this week about the need usefulness for ‘new media’ operators to have or develop a ‘traditional’ media sensibility, I pulled out my copy of Salisbury’s Without Fear or Favor and reacquainted myself with this great book about the NY Times. It’s like everything: Where you put your focus is where you produce […]
Honest opinion
A brief extract from Bevan Marten’s thesis ‘A FAIRLY GENUINE COMMENT ON HONEST OPINION IN NEW ZEALAND’ … (Victoria University) [PDF 400k] III UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES Common to all such jurisdictions is the major tension in the law of defamation between freedom of expression and the individual’s right to reputation. The defence of honest opinion holds […]
Linking to sources — why it’s vital for credibility (Case study: property spruiker Sean Wood)
I read a really interesting article I read this morning on The Guardian’s Comment is free website: ‘A case of never letting the source spoil a good story’ subtitle: Perhaps it’s too embarrassing for some writers to risk linking to primary sources that readers can check for themselves Wherein Ben Goldacre concludes: But more than […]
Anyone could be a critic …
In the spirit of my recent post ‘Why am I doing this? Muckraking?‘ is this very worthwhile and thoughtful piece in the NY Times from Frank Rich: Confessions of a Recovering Op-Ed Columnist … For me, anyway, the point of opinion writing is less to try to shape events, a presumptuous and foolhardy ambition at […]
Julian Assange on 60 Minutes
A decent length 60 Minutes interview with Assange. Worth watching. Still with the ‘oooh Julian Assange is soooo paranoid’ shtick. (What a disrespectful, unrealistic angle, that is.) And then there’s this ‘not one of us’ arse-covering comment (… an editorial line from CBS? You decide.) : “Some have argued that he’s [Assange] not really a […]
