Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Cooperating With the Government

I didn't cheat! I found the case study after I turned in my final paper.

This has been a great class and I've enjoyed the lively discussion and thought provoking case studies like this one. This has also been my first experience with blogging and I think I'm hooked! Thank you all and Happy Holidays!

Nuance Updates Dragon Dictation App To Let You Keep Your Contacts Secret

Well known Dragon software maker has created an application for the iPhone that allows users to speak emails, texts and such that are transcribed for you. Great idea, right? They made one minor mistake -- users were not aware that the contacts were uploaded to the Dragon servers. Dragon says they were doing this to improve accuracy, but they never asked for users consent!

Police Looking for Serial Rapist

October 31, 2009 another rape occurred, this time in Prince William county VA. There have been a string of rapes in states up and down the east coast, and dna at all crime scenes point to the same man that has so far eluded the police.

The first rape was in June 1999 in Virginia. In 2006 and 2007 there were reported rapes in new Haven, Connecticut
.

Descriptions of the attacker vary slightly, but he's described as a black male, between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-10, with a medium to muscular build. In the New Haven attacks, some victims said he spoke with an accent that sounded as though he may have been from the West Indies.

Roy E. Disney, a Power at His Uncle Walt’s Studio, Dies at 79

Roy Disney, nephew of Walt Disney died after a year of battling stomach cancer. He is cited as the reason Michael Eisner departed Disney and the reason for the animation divisions success. He worked on "True-Life Adventures” features, “The Living Desert” and “The Vanishing Prairie” which went on to win Academy Awards.

Uninvited tourists attend White House breakfast, meet Obama

Dumb luck, or is the Secret Service not paying attention? On Veteran's Day the Darden's of Hogansville, GA came to the White House to attend a tour. To their surprise they were led into the East Room where breakfast was being served for veterans.

Harvey Darden approached a White House staffer and told him they thought they were in the wrong place, the White House staffer asked Harvey if he was a veteran and when Harvey told him he was the White House staffer told him to go with the flow!!

The Darden's stayed put and got to meet the President, First Lady and the Vice President! Turns out the tour was the next day, the Darden's had the wrong day. When the Secret Service was questioned they said the Darden's passed the security checks and did not "crash" the event. Instead White House staff said occasionally they take members of the public to attend such events.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Celebrate with the SPJ

As we are rounding out our final exam and our great Ethics & Journalism course, I thought it would be nice to end the semester with this article by the SPJ:
SPJ celebrates passage of shield law bill from committee

Woohoo!

Thank you classmates for a wonderful dialogue, thanks to our instructors and most importantly - thanks Jeanne for the blog!

Have a great break and an even better new year!

-Crystal

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The Standards of a Columnist

This is a piece published by the New York Times ombudsman, Clark Hoyt. He touches on how the expectations held for a columnist is different than that of a journalist. The specific areas of expressing opinion, endorsing political ideas, taking stances, and utilizing more casual language are explored within.

Letters to the Public - the Columnist's Voice

I always wonder just how far a columnist can take expressing their views if said views are unorthodox or somewhat taboo. What if a columnist begins talking about some of the ideas of Brian Moore, the 2008 Socialist Party of America presidential candidate? Certainly within the bounds of free speech, but just how far can they bend?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Glen Beck's Conflict of Interest


Glen Beck's Conflict of Interest.

I have no words for this. It is simply self explanatory in my opinion. However, my one question is: How does he get away with this? He makes the entire journalism community look bad, despite, in my opinion, him not being a journalist himself. In fact, I'm not sure exactly what you could refer to Glen Beck as, a pundit perhaps? But do pundits misrepresent themselves as much as he does? Also, with the FTC cracking down on full disclosure for bloggers, I think Glen Beck should watch his step. Maybe they will add him to the list of no-no's.

Tiger and the Media


I have an observation. After Tiger Woods' accident the media seems to have become obsessed with him. First, they want him to speak about what happened. Great. I get that. When he releases a statement on his website and refuses to go public and the police don't press criminal charges, the media go bonkers with anger. Now, it seems, out of revenge, they are obsessed with bringing him down completely by chasing after mistresses from his past having decided they were the reason he landed himself in a tree.

Is this right for the media to make assumptions and then run with them without having the entire story? Is Tiger Woods' "extra-curriculars" really that important that we need to interview mistresses on just about every news network--- making sure that they support the running theory created by the media that Tiger was a big cheater and his wife had enough, and so he wrecked his car???

I just don't get it. Then the media wonders why people don't trust them. Right now they are being way too nosy for comfort. It's not like he's an elected official.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

When do we cross the line from cartoon to hurtful?


Aunt Jemima Cartoon angers Ohio lawmakers backers.

Would you run an editorial cartoon that depicts an African American lawmaker as Aunt Jemima? Is doing so, really racist or it fair game since she is a politician and in the limelight voluntarily? What is acceptable in this type of circumstance? What does this say about the editors that decided to run something like this without thinking about the double meaning or implications of it?

I realize lawmakers have to have tougher skin when it comes to criticism, but where is the line drawn between fair game and just plain rude/vengeful? I am not even sure where the parallel between Aunt Jemima and a lawmaker is, other than both are African American. According to the editor, it was not meant to be harmful, however, if it was meant to be funny or imply something about this lawmaker, I seemed to have missed the punch line and don't understand the parallel meaning.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Disclosures and the Salehi's: the drama continues



In NBC interview, a Failure to Note Network Ties

If NBC and Today did nothing wrong as they claim by having the Salehi's on the Today show, how come they did not adhere to THEIR OWN standard practice and disclose the Salehi's connection to their network?

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Swiss Authorities to Place Roman Polanski Under House Arrest Friday

Since Feb 1, 1978 famed director Roman Polanski has lived in France and has avoided extradition for the rape he committed against a then 13 year old girl. He had apparently given her champagne and a Quaalude to rape her. Polanski was indicted on 6 felony charges, but only plead guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse. The judge dropped all other charges, sent Polanski to jail for a 90 day psychiatric evaluation but released him after just 42 days!!

Polanski was supposed to go back to jail to serve out the rest of his time, but instead fled the US to France (which does not extradite) and since not paid for his crime. Was this because of his social status? Why did the authorities not press harder to extradite him?

31 years later Polanski was arrested again when he flew to Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award. Though he's been in jail since Sept 26, 2009 he will be placed under house arrest Dec 4, 2009 where he will remain with an electronic ankle bracelet while the authorities decide what to do.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Can the law keep up with technology?

Should a person be sued for something they tweet? Courtney Love is being sued by fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir for just that. Dawn alleges that Love made derogatory comments about her..

The laws were not set up to cover such a thing as technology changes and evolves quicker than the laws in the US. Amanda Bonnen tweeted about her former landlord " Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon Realty things it's okay." Horizon management sued Bonnen for libel and wants $50K in damages. Is this ok, are we in the US becoming too litigious? What about free speech? Is anyone really harmed by such comments?

The article brings up a good question -- is the web a unique space or an extension of real space? Which laws apply?

Amanda Knox lawyer makes emotional plea for acquittal

A US student studying in Italy has been accused of murder and held in Italian prison since earlier this year. Initially the US media was covering the story and false allegations have surrounded the case from the start.

Knox's Italian attorney blames the news media for tainting public opinion and committing character assassination.
" Calling Knox a victim herself, Carlo della Vedova said the police had rushed to judgment following the murder, leaving Knox to fend off a myriad of false media reports regarding the crime."

Spate of suicides by foreign maids in Lebanon sheds light on abuse

Since 2008 about 1 foreign worker has died each week. These women are mistreated-- denied time off, work in excess of 10 hours daily and in some instances are denied food and physically abused. Upon arrival their passports are confiscated leaving these women with no way out.

The absence of government regulation and labor laws in the Middle East leaves these women more vulnerable. Recently however the Lebanese government issued a uniform contract for all maids which calls for 1 day off per week. Even with this contract, enforcement is difficult as racism against the poor and darker skinned population is rampant.



Transgender obituaries, he, she, or both?

I came across Mike Penners (late Los Angeles Times Sports writer) obituary (a.k.a Christine Daniels) on Stinky Journalism. The ethical question is whether or not we should refer to transgender individuals by their sex before or after their sex-change surgery in their obituaries.

Some journalists referred to Mike Penner as he and some called her she in her obituary. I think this case raises a serious question because it is unethical to call afamily or friends after the loss of their loved one and ask "What is Mike or Christines gender?" But how do we know, how the transgender individual, their family, friends, and colleagues want their loved one to be remembered?

Personally if I were assigned to write Mike Penner's obituary, I would have referred to him as Mike because he was born male and wrote his sports articles in the LA Times using his name Mike Penner in 2008. Unless I was told otherwise to refer to her as Christine Daniels. Further I would be much more remorseful if I released an erroneous obituary. Anyway I have never written an obituary. If you were assigned to write a transgender persons obituary, what ethical precautions would you or could you take before releasing it? And how would make your final decision?

The above photos show the late former LA Times sports journalist, Mike Penner on right. His transformation into Christine Daniels, is on left. (Credit: Gawker)

Couple didn't crash White House dinner, husband says

In the DC Area, and perhaps in some of the larger cities in the US the hottest story is the now infamous couple that crashed the first White House State dinner hosted for the Indian Prime Minister.

Tareq Salahi and his wife Michaele Salahi state that they showed up to the dinner, to check in and see if their names were placed on the attendee list and the Secret Service let them in. They assumed they had succeeded in receiving an invitation through a contact at the Department of Defense.

But, Department of Defense employee Michele Jones released a statement that she did not try to get the Salahi's into the State dinner, since then several emails have surfaced indicating the contrary -- she was trying to get the Salahi's invitations but appears was not successful.

If in fact she wasn't successful how did they get in? How could the Secret Service cause such a security breach? Someone isn't being honest here, it remains to be seen who that is.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Can Adobe and Apple Play Nicely When–And If–The Tablet Shows Up?

This is in line with a discussion we had at our last class of online publishing using tablets. Both Apple and Conde Naste are reported to be producing a tablet device that will allow publishers (assuming magazines and newspapers and not just books?) to deliver content to users easily.

Apple's is so secretive and won't acknowledge a tablet exists, won't open their platform so Adobe can develop content for it and could potentially miss out on this burgeoning market!

MA police question newsman who saw checkpoint arrest


Here is an interesting article that happened where I live in North Andover. I see the picture posted but what I'm not sure of is what really happened. For instance, is this photographer keeping quiet because he doesn't want to get involved or is it something else? If he did see something, should he report to the very police that are in question?

MA cops question newsman who saw checkpoint arrest