Is an American photojournalist embedded with U.S. troops in a war zone first and foremost a journalist or an American? Is it clear-cut? Ever? How does one decide? Ah, questions, questions. But what about being a photojournalist or a human being? And what about running a page-one photo of a man about to be run over by a subway? These questions would seem much easier to answer.
Bob Hoemeke was every journalist’s favorite lawyer. He tried to get information into the newspaper instead of keeping out. Hoemeke, the most prominent media lawyer in Missouri during the last decades of the last century, died Nov. 28 of the effects of Parkinson’s disease. He was 77.
“Absence of accountability, leads to an absence of credibility,” said John Seigenthaler Thursday evening at the First Amendment Celebration hosted by St. Louis and Gateway Journalism Review supporters. Seigenthaler, a longtime advocate and activist for free speech, stressed the importance of traditional journalism values in the digital age.
Illinois’ toughest in the nation eavesdropping law is partly unenforceable now that a Chicago prosecutor failed to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to revive the law. Citizens now can make an audio tape of Chicago police making a stop without fear of prosecution. The taping of police stops is part of an ACLU of Illinois program scrutinizing police conduct.
It seems the Plain Dealer, Cleveland’s only remaining daily, is in danger of going the way of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, also owned by the NOLA Media Group, and publishing only three days a week. This is not good news.