Author: George Salamon

What journalists aren’t – but could be – debating

By Media

BY GEORGE SALAMON / The debate between former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller and NSA revelations celebrated journalist Glenn Greenwald on the pages of the New York Times October 27th received much coverage, including on this site (“Can Greenwald be trusted with journalism’s future?” by William Freivogel on Nov. 1). The debate skidded to a highbrow conclusion when heavyweight-thinking journalist John Judis (Ph.D. in philosophy from UC Berkeley) contributed his thoughts in the pages of The New Republic, where the headline to his Nov. 6 piece proclaimed: “Glenn Greenwald and Bill Keller Are Wrong about Objectivity in Journalism.” Many commentators agreed that the either-or nature of the debate—Keller’s impartiality vs. Greenwald’s advocacy—did indeed render both positions “wrong,” or were at least based on assumptions easily rejected.

Journalism’s Never-Ending Debate on Anonymous Sources: Enough Already!

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BY GEORGE SALAMON / Just this past Sunday journalism’s unceasing debate on anonymous sources reared its head again. In the October 13 Sunday Review section of The New York Times Margaret Sullivan, the paper’s fifth public editor, wrote about “The Disconnect on Anonymous Sources.” Dan Okrent, first public editor from 2003 to 2005, confronted the same issue during his tenure. Even then, novelist and New York magazine columnist Kurt Andersen had already had enough: “…the customary righteousness, disingenuousness, futility and wonky tedium of such debates are for me almost unbearable.”

Anybody here seen America’s far left? The New York Times has!

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BY GEORGE SALAMON / What an enticing headline the New York Times featured on Page 1 Sept. 30: “Warren is Now Hot Ticket On the Far Left.” The story, written by Jonathan Martin, told readers how Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has become the darling and favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 among America’s “far left,” and thus a threat to the party’s centrist front-runner, Hillary Clinton.

Trouble understanding Obama’s position on Syria? Forbes puts him on the couch

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BY GEORGE SALAMON / Many journalists were as puzzled by President Obama’s zigzagging on Syria as were their readers or viewers. The words used to describe his changing positions heard most often in both camps were “confused, confusing, muddled.” Detractors described his stance as “incoherent incompetence.” No one offered a compelling view of the forces within the president that might have shaped so perplexing a path his positions took.

That is, until Erica Ariel Fox explained it all to us in “Understanding Obama’s Syria Negotiation – With Himself,” published Sept. 4 on the Forbes magazine website.

Murder less foul: The Duncan shooting in the New York Times

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BY GEORGE SALAMON / How would the paper of record treat the Aug. 16 shooting of the Australian college baseball player by three teenagers in Duncan, Oklahoma? As of Aug. 22, it hasn’t touched the story. Unless you count a seven-line item from the Associated Press it ran Aug. 20, under the heading “Sports Briefing/Baseball.” Say it ain’t so, Jill Abramson, or anyone at the Times, please. The paper’s printing of this abysmal little piece about the horrific shooting and death of the 23-year-old Chris Lane, “Charges in Fatal Shooting in Oklahoma,” and placement of it in the “Sports Briefing” section cry out for explanation and an expression of regret.