Author: William A. Babcock

What J-school Closures at Top Universities Portend

University of Michigan Ohio State University University of California, Los Angeles Stanford University Rutgers University University of Arizona University of Wisconsin University of Washington University of Colorado (in progress) This is an impressive group of American universities. Its members span the continent and these schools frequently set the scholarship bar for generations in a variety

Press, police, politicians – and public – all to blame

I’ve been waiting to hear “the word” ever since News Corp’s phone-hacking scandal erupted.  And I finally heard it on a National Public Radio broadcast just a few days ago. Someone uttered the “E” word.  That’s “E,” as in ethics – specifically media ethics. That the media – in particular Rupert Murdoch’s News of the

Where to draw the ethical line on hacking?

I’m shocked, shocked there’s hacking going on in Britain’s tabloid News of the World.  Who would ever imagine that Rupert Murdoch’s journalists could sink so low?  Imagine, hacking attempts by the paper into cell phones belonging to relatives of victims of criminal and terrorist attacks. There seems wide-spread agreement that such hacking of murder victims

More Grover Cleveland controversy

It seems as if former President Grover Cleveland is in the news once more. Recently, as GJR reported [See History or His Story?], how a journalist/author revised history of Cleveland’s supposed fathering of a child out of wedlock. (It’s unclear whether or not former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took note of this issue.) Now,

Is more opinion right for the Gray Lady?

New York Times Public Editor Arthur S. Brisbane has recently commented on the New York Times’ decision to replace its Sunday Week in Review section with a new Sunday Review section. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/opinion/sunday/03pubed.html?_r=1&ref=thepubliceditor While Brisbane says the new section is “a work in progress and will evolve,” it seems the Times apparently is defining more opinion