DEBATE OVER JAILED PHOTOG

”The U.S. military’s imprisonment of an Associated Press photographer in Iraq has spurred a new round of debate about the role of journalists in a war zone, especially those covering insurgents and terrorists.

Internet critics of the news media said the AP’s announcement on Sunday that Bilal Hussein, who covered the war in Fallujah and Ramadi, was in a U.S. military prison as a security threat was vindication of their accusations that he was aiding the enemy.

But advocates of the press coverage questioned whether the critics wanted to block any coverage that doesn’t portray the U.S. policy in the best light. An independent press must fully and accurately cover a conflict from all sides, they said. [emphasis added]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003124699

STUDY: IRAQ IS MOST DANGEROUS FOR JOURNOS

Journalists are being killed at a pace of more than three a month worldwide, with Iraq the deadliest place for media to work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday.

A new CPJ study showed that 580 journalists have been killed over the last 15 years primarily because of their work, with government and military officials believed to be responsible for many of those deaths.

The deadliest countries for journalists over the past 15 years have been Iraq, which tallied 78 deaths, Algeria with 60 killed, Russia with 42 dead and Colombia with 37 dead, according to CPJ, a New York-based non-profit organisation that promotes press freedom.

So far in 2006, 31 journalists have been killed - a rate of better than three a month through mid-September - with 20 of those deaths occurring in Iraq, CPJ said on its website. In 2005, there were 47 confirmed deaths, 22 of which were Iraqi journalists covering the current war. According to the CPJ, 60 Iraqi journalists have been killed since the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N19426779.htm

VIDEO of forum on the media held at Camp Democracy, with Jeff Cohen, Ray McGovern, and Robert Taicher.
http://campdemocracy.org/node/483

WAPO:” HP CEO Allowed ‘Sting’ of Reporter
http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W8RT03A37201F1484F27F3399042A0

NON PARTISANS NEED NOT APPLY

Brendan Nyhan quits American Prospect after being told to aim at conservatives. He writes in part:

Everybody Has One: Bloggers and the Death of Opinion Journalism by Brendan Nyhan

Not that long ago, many people thought the Internet would break down partisan boundaries and improve the quality of political debate in this country — a prediction that sounds as silly today as previous hype about the educational potential of television and radio.

Today, online politics has come to be dominated by two warring camps, just like offline politics. And while many critics complain about the polarization of the blogosphere and its effect on elections, how blogs will affect the economics of opinion journalism is less well understood. In particular, partisan blogs have become so popular that they are threatening the business model — and the independence — of center-left opinion magazines, which may be forced to toe the party line to ensure their survival.

I learned this lesson the hard way after I signed on as a contributor to The American Prospect’s media criticism blog a few weeks ago. It seemed like a bit of an awkward fit — the Prospect is a liberal magazine, and I had previously co-founded Spinsanity, a non-partisan watchdog of online spin — but I assumed they knew who they were hiring. I was wrong.”‘

FAIR ACTIVISM UPDATE: FCC To Investigate Suppressed Reports

Following pressure from FAIR and others, Federal Communications Commission Chair Kevin Martin has ordered an inspector general investigation (AP, 9/19/06) into the suppression of two FCC media ownership reports.

One report, highlighted in FAIR’s September 15 Action Alert, found in 2004 that local television ownership increases local news content by nearly five-and-a-half minutes and total news content by six minutes in a 30-minute broadcast. In response to reports that the FCC had ordered all copies of this report destroyed, FAIR called on activists to urge the FCC’s inspector general to launch an investigation.

The second report, dated 2003 but only revealed on September 18 after being leaked to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), showed that following the loosening of ownership rules in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the number of commercial stations had increased by nearly 6 percent, but the number of radio station owners had fallen 35 percent (AP, 9/18/06)…

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2962

IPTV broadcast regulation threatens operator plans.

Fixed and mobile telcos are up in arms over proposals to apply broadcasting regulation to their new IPTV services.

Next month the European Commission will update the Television Without Frontiers directive, first published in 1989. The new version could extend to IPTV rules that currently only apply to television broadcasting.

Operators say the initiative would place greater restrictions on how they distribute content and sell advertising, which analysts say could “cripple” IPTV launches.”

Issue: 43

Journalist/spy from Vietnam War has died

http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?e647181374&e=6421
USA Today

REUTERS BACKS JAY ROSEN PROJECT

$100,000 to NYU’s NewAssignment.Net program.

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO

Yahoo, Current TV to Unveil Video Network

Yahoo plans to launch a new online-video network with Al Gore’s Current TV that will add channels of advertising-supported video programming to the Internet company’s Web video service. The venture aims to create programming designed to appeal to younger audiences.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115871223404568329-T60BpzK8sDRghClcf6GNeMovBnM_20060927.html

Bush Admin Controls Climate Change Message

In February, there were several press reports about the Bush administration exercising message control on the subject of climate change. The New Republic cited numerous instances in which top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and scientists at the National Hurricane Center sought to downplay links between more-intense hurricanes and global warming. NOAA scientist Thomas Knutson told the Wall Street Journal he’d been barred from speaking to CNBC because his research suggested just such a link.

At the time, Bush administration officials denied that they did any micromanaging of media requests for interviews. But a large batch of e-mails obtained by Salon through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that the White House was, in fact, controlling access to scientists and vetting reporters. (The e-mails were provided to several members of Congress for comment; Rep. Henry Waxman’s office has now published them here.

http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1107>)

NEW YORK TIMES REDSIGN UNDERWAY

Just when you think it had gotten as silly as possible, The NY Times takes it one step further:

“As of Sept. 20 … *The Times* has instituted a sweeping but subtle redesign, to emphasize the difference between objective and subjective journalism. Straight news will remain, well, straight: laid out in justified columns, with even margins on the left and right. Stories that have been colored by analysis, commentary or authorial whimsy will all receive the layout previously reserved for columns: a straight left margin and a ragged right one.

“It sort of grew out the concern that we hear from some readers that feel that our coverage isn’t necessarily objective,” said *Times* design director Tom Bodkin. “Our sense is that they may get confused as to what stories are meant to have an individual voice, and which ones are straight news stories.”

http://observer.com/20060925/20060925_Tom_Scocca_pageone_offtherec.asp