Media

When reporters and editorial writers live in different worlds: The New York Times confronts the IRS scandal

New York Times reporters did not mince words when they described how the Internal Revenue Service had, during the last two years “singled out dozens of Tea Party-inspired groups that had applied for IRS recognition” as nonprofits and therefore tax-exempt organizations for special scrutiny, including rounds of questioning about their political activities. The federal agency did not apply similar treatment to liberal groups and the big spenders on either side of the political fence. While President Obama denounced the IRS conduct as “outrageous,” an editorial in the Times May 14 described it as “the stumble by the IRS,” and so arrived at its very own moment of Clintonian linguistics. You remember the testimony about his platonic relationship with Monica Lewinsky when Bill Clinton said the hilarious line: “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

Media

The courage of one columnist

“We still don’t know the first thing about terrorists.” That was the title of last week’s column in Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper now available in English and Hebrew on the Internet, by American-born (Los Angeles) and educated (UC Berkeley) Bradley Burston. I have not read or heard an American journalist or TV host make a similar comment, but I wish I had.

Media

Ohio alternative newspaper bought, then shut down by Dispatch Printing Co.

The Jan. 7 press release was short and to the point: “Alternative weekly publication The Other Paper will cease publication at the end of the month, the Dispatch Printing Company announced today. The last issue is set for distribution on Jan. 31.” People reacted to the news with anger but not a lot of surprise, according to Richard Ades, who worked at The Other Paper, a weekly alternative newspaper in Columbus, Ohio, for all of its 22 years – first as a theater critic, then as the arts editor from 2008 to 2013. “Most people who knew who we were and were familiar with the Dispatch were surprised that they kept us around that long,” he said.

Media

Iowa’s media/non-media distinction in libel law could be trouble for bloggers

In mid-January, the Iowa Supreme Court decided to maintain the distinction in Iowa state law between “media” and “non-media” defendants in defamation cases, with the latter easier to sue for some types of libel. In Bierman v. Weier, the court said the distinction is “a well-established component of Iowa’s defamation law.” The decision raises the question of whether bloggers would get the greater protection of media companies or the lesser protection of non-media defendants.

Media

Chicago murder coverage isn’t stopping the bullets

CHICAGO – Back in the early ’70s, as a cub working off the overnight city desk at the Chicago Tribune, you learned fast that all murders were not equal. Sure, all were listed methodically on the deputy superintendent’s logbook at the old police headquarters at 11th and State streets. But while killings on the city’s predominantly white North Side were almost always pursued by our small band of nocturnal newsmen, the more numerous homicides in the black neighborhoods of the South and West Sides most often were ignored. There was even a winking code word for the latter category. They were “blue.” Blue, as in “cheap domestic,” where a drunken live-in boyfriend kills his common-law mate. Blue, as in someone shot in the face after a street-corner dice game gone awry. Judging by how the other four daily newspapers (yes, four!) covered and displayed their homicides, it’s safe to assume the same double standard applied.