Category Archives: newspapers

Media need to establish clear ethics codes on using, posting tweets

Posted on April 11, 2012 by jerrylanson

Don’t retweet this yet. Don’t post it on your news site. Not until you check to see if I am who I claim to be. That I’m a professor and not a charlatan. That my links are real. That I didn’t make up this … Continue reading →

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Why do 99 percent of journalists cover 1 percent of the news?

Posted on January 30, 2012 by jerrylanson

In 2006, Columbia University professor and New York Times columnist Samuel Freedman published “letters to a young journalist,” an inspirational entreaty that among other things calls on would-be reporters to “accept the burden of independent thought.” It is as if … Continue reading →

Posted in Brewer, news, news and speed, news media, newspapers, Obama, tarmac dust-up, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The words used in news can report — or distort: Part II

Posted on October 15, 2011 by jerrylanson

The lead headline in at washingtonpost.com this afternoon reads: “‘Occupy’ demonstrations turn violent, go global.” To me that implies that the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States turned violent today.  From what I read, it did not. The … Continue reading →

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Why newspapers still matter

Posted on August 22, 2011 by jerrylanson

Like many of you, I suspect, I spend an inordinate amount of time scrolling the news online. These days, as I wait to have a cataract removed from my right eye, the computer comes in particularly handy: I can bump … Continue reading →

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A case of double vision at The New York Times

Posted on August 21, 2011 by jerrylanson

Perhaps all the top editors were partying in the Hamptons, too. It is the end of August. Whatever the reason, someone at The New York Times seems to have forgotten to read all the Sunday paper’s section fronts before rolling … Continue reading →

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Why traditional news reports are fast becoming irrelevant

Posted on July 30, 2011 by jerrylanson

By recounting vanilla “facts” in a contextual vacuum, American news reports too often distort political debate and mislead the public. It is a point columnist Paul Krugman made eloquently Friday in a column titled “The Centrist Cop-Out.” “The cult of … Continue reading →

Posted in debt ceiling, debt default, deficit, fair and balanced, new york times, news media, newspapers, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

A champion of the dispossessed leaves a hole at The Times

Posted on April 3, 2011 by jerrylanson

First Frank Rich left The New Times for a new gig at New York magazine.  I consider him the master of casting light on cultural interconnections, at giving new perspectives on the place of politics in the weird melange called … Continue reading →

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Is this what will kill newspapers?

Posted on February 9, 2011 by jerrylanson

Forget the cutbacks, the layoffs, the shrinking news hole, the growing reliance on free-lancers.  What will kill newspapers is incompetent delivery. No matter how many times I’ve called The Boston Globe, my paper lands every day at the end of … Continue reading →

Posted in lifestyle, newspapers, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments