Mainstream media misses critical details of Greek debt crisis
When the Greek debt crisis began more than three years ago, those writing and broadcasting about it needed victims and villains for their narratives. At first, those roles were blurred.
Tag: media
Radio station dons kid gloves for Sinquefield
Perhaps no media outlet gives Rex Sinquefield better treatment than KTRS radio in St. Louis. Not only does the station regularly feature one of Sinquefield’s “experts” to talk about tax policy, when Sinquefield was interviewed on a “McGraw in the Morning” program, the person asking the questions was an employee of one of Sinquefield’s enterprises.
The hero-whore discrepancy
The sports section of the New York Times’ “Today’s Headlines” email update was full of stories about fallen heroes. “Dispassionate End to a Crumbled American Romance” is one of the articles about Lance Armstrong’s overdue confession to using performance-enhancing drugs. “Image Becomes a Puzzle as Theories on Te’o Swirl” is an article about the odd case of Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o and his fake, dead girlfriend. Many people are talking about these two stories as isolated events of deception. To me, these are just current examples of how easily men (especially male athletes) can – and do – fool the public and the media. Both want to idolize men and make them larger than life. Even when red flags are present, most media don’t do the work because they don’t want to dethrone a hero. Women, however, frequently are doubted and questioned by the public and the media. Women frequently are shamed, blamed and dragged through the mud by the media, especially in stories dealing with sexual assault.
GJR Winter 2013 issue spotlights First Amendment issues
By happy coincidence rather than clever planning, the Winter 2013 issue of Gateway Journalism Review is filled with stories about the full range of First Amendment issues in the news. This focus on free speech is fitting, because GJR just celebrated the First Amendment at its annual fundraiser in St. Louis.
Massacres in the media: Journalists discuss challenges of covering mass death
Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton walked into the Kirkwood (Mo.) City Council one night in February 2008 and opened fire on city officials. Police who arrived on scene within minutes shot and killed Thornton, but not before he had killed six people and wounded two others. One of those wounded was Todd Smith, a reporter covering the City Council meeting for the Suburban Journal, a St. Louis-area publication. Smith, who was shot in the right hand, found himself catapulted from his reporting beat into the spotlight of national media. Smith recalled the events of the night for a group of 40 who attended a recent News at Noon event titled “Massacres in the Media” that was sponsored by the St. Louis-area Society of Professional Journalists.