Author: William A. Babcock

Embattled L.A. Clippers owner has a right to privacy, too

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By WILLIAM A. BABCOCK / For anyone spending the past few days in a cave, the person in the eye of the latest media storm is Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. Sterling ignited the race card, and the media suddenly have diverted their eyes from the Ukraine, a missing airplane and a South Korean ferry. Race is America’s trump card. It’s the nation’s third rail: touch it and you die. Sterling’s racist comments recently were recorded by his girlfriend, V. Stiviano, and released by TMZ on Saturday. Three days later, NBA commissioner Adam Silver called for NBA owners to force Sterling to sell the Clippers, banned him for life from any association with the league and fined him $2.5 million. Now Sterling’s remarks were inappropriate, racist, odious, vulgar and hurtful. But they were made in the privacy of his own home, and recorded without his knowledge or consent.

Ombudsmen in decline: An ominous trend for American press

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One year ago, Rem Rieder in USA TODAY wrote about ombudsmen, the individuals (often called “readers’ representatives” or “public editors”) employed by newspapers to keep a vigilant eye on the paper’s journalism and report the findings to readers. Rieder painted a discouraging picture, noting that just half as many ombudsmen were working in U.S. news organizations as was the case a decade ago – and that more than a dozen media organizations axed the position following the 2008 recession. This, Rieder reported, even though a handful of new ombudsmen positions were being created in newsrooms in other nations.

Media report on shootings but miss many gun-related stories

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BY WILLIAM A. BABCOCK / According to the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, the three stories constituting news for that paper’s “The Nation” section on pages A 10 and 11 were all shooting related. This is not to say these three stories were neither of national importance, nor that they failed to constitute the most significant news of the day. What seems odd, though, is in the midst of so much well-documented news of horrific shootings across the United States, the media carry so few gun-related items

Well-worn phrases set journalists’ teeth on edge

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BY WILLIAM A. BABCOCK / Family traditions die hard. When I was in college in the Dark Ages, my mother would send me a few business-size envelopes each week – often with a letter, and always stuffed with newspaper and magazine clippings. There were Cleveland Plain Dealer clippings about the Indians baseball and Browns football teams, clippings from the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram about news from northern Ohio, Avon Lake Press community updates on which high school girlfriends were getting married and to whom, Newsweek clippings about politics and world events – the works.