PROJECT ON EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM REPORTS

The worsening U.S. economy was overwhelmingly the top story on the press agenda the week of Jan. 26-Feb.1, according to a report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

President Obama’s push for his $800 billion stimulus package drove coverage of the financial crisis last week. Filling 45% of the newshole, attention to the nation’s economic problems increased three-fold over the previous week, marking its highest level of coverage since the week of Sept. 29-Oct. 5 when Congress passed the first $700 billion bailout plan. The huge burst of economic coverage came only a week after the dominant story (45% of the newshole) was Obama’s move to the White House, a sign of how quickly the media narrative pivoted from ceremony and celebration to policy and politics.

The second-biggest story of the week—the Rod Blagojevich scandal—trailed far behind at 8% of the newshole. Coverage of the ongoing saga focused on the Illinois Senate’s 59-0 vote to remove the Governor from office and his somewhat bizarre media tour.

These findings are part of PEJ’s running content analysis of media coverage, called the News Coverage Index, which studies 48 outlets from the five main media sectors.

EJC: Media group says 109 journalists killed in 2008

The International Federation of Journalists says at least 109 reporters and media workers were killed last year while on assignment. The press freedom group urges governments to ‘step up’ efforts to stop the killing of journalists. The group says Iraq remains the most dangerous country to work in as a journalist, followed by Mexico and India. Aidan White, general secretary of the IFJ, says another 10 media workers were killed in January this year. He says many democratic countries are ‘showing callous indifference’ to the threats posed by attacks on journalists. The IFJ presented its annual report on Wednesday. The group represents over 600,000 journalists in 123 countries.

SUSPECT ISRAELI PRESSURE TO BAR ALJAZEERA FROM GAZA

Egypt prevents Al Jazeera journalists from entering Gaza Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

Egypt on Tuesday prevented two senior Al Jazeera journalists from entering the Gaza Strip through Rafah border, the London-based Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi reported on Wednesday.

The two, Ahmad Mansour and Ghassan Bin Jido, said that the Egyptian authorities did not provide an explanation for their decision, and that employees of other media outlets were allowed to cross into the besieged territory without delay.

During Operation Cast Lead last month, the network’s coverage of the events in Gaza was critical of Egypt’s opposition to Hamas. Mansour and Bin Jido are known for their favorable attitude toward the Palestinian “resistance movement,” as Hamas is known in the Arab world. They said they’d stay put until Egypt provides a “reasonable” explanation for their detention at the border.

Ben Jido, the head of Al Jazeera’s Lebanon office, interviewed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the wake of the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and held a special program in honor of the convicted terrorist Samir Kuntar upon his release in a prisoner swap deal last year.

On Tuesday, it was reported that the Israeli government is set to impose sanctions on Israel-based employees Al Jazeera in response to the closure last month of the Israeli trade office in Qatar, which hosts and funds the network. Qatar had closed the office in opposition to Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

NY Times May Charge For Online Access

EJC: NYT’ editor reveals ‘deadly serious’ discussions on charging for online

The editor of The New York Times has hinted that the newspaper might charge again for access to some of its online offerings, less than two years after abandoning fees to boost advertising revenue. Executive Editor Bill Keller gave no specifics or timetable, and company officials characterized the internal discussions as general and ongoing. In an online question-and-answer exchange with readers this week, Keller said that although advertising generates the bulk of online revenue, ‘a lively, deadly serious discussion continues within The Times about ways to get consumers to pay for what we make.’ Possibility include charging for full-access subscriptions, developing a micro-payment model in which readers pay a few pennies each time they click on a page and selling news to be distributed on reading devices, as the Times already does with Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle. Keller said the Times already makes a modest amount of money from Kindle owners who download an electronic version of the newspaper and from subscribers to TimesReader software for displaying newspapers on computers. Newspaper publishers everywhere have been grappling with how to generate more revenue from their growing online audiences, because Internet advertising still sells for far less than a comparable print ad.(Editor and Publisher)

New Progressive Station in DC Gone

Washington, DC’s only progressive talk radio station is going out of business. OBAMA 1260 — which features syndicated hosts such as Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, and Bill Press — will be switching to financial news starting next week. The program director said he “thought the station could work because of enthusiasm over Obama, but that ratings collapsed to a level that could not be measured after the election.”

Daily Variety: Time Warner reports $16 billion loss

February 4, 2009 Time Warner reported a loss of $16 billion for the fourth quarter. The massive hit was caused by a $24.2 billion writedown of cable and other assets.

TED2009: How Dare We Be Optomistic?

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

A favorite: Sir Ken Robinson

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we’re educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.

What We Don’t Know WILL Hurt Us

NEW SURVEY SHOWS TAXPAYERS UNAWARE OF REFUND ANTICIPATION LOANS (RALs) and THEIR ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATES OF UP TO 1300%

After Learning Facts, Consumers Call For Congressional Regulation of RALs

(February 4, 2009) Americans for Fairness in Lending (AFFIL) released results of an online survey today showing that nearly half of respondents had never heard of Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs). Over half think that interest rates on these loans do not exceed 36%, when the actual range is 50%—1300%. After learning more about RALs, consumers came to view such products as predatory and as disproportionately targeted to low-income taxpayers. Respondents overwhelmingly believe that Congress should pass a law to regulate RALs.

With the tax season upon us, AFFIL sent a survey to its 10,000 members to assess the level of awareness of RALs among consumers already concerned about predatory lending, and to provide facts on the dangers of these high-cost short-term loans secured by taxpayers’ expected tax refunds. In 2007, nearly nine million taxpayers, mostly lower-income beneficiaries of the federal government’s Earned Income Tax Credit program, paid $900 million for RALs. The only benefit they received was to get their own money only about ten days earlier than if they had opted to have the IRS deposit the refund directly into their own bank or credit union accounts.

Take Action To Abolish Predatory Refund Anticipation Loans — According to the most recent data, 8.7 million Refund Anticipation Loans are issued each year – costing taxpayers $900 million dollars.

Despite recent media coverage about RALs—sometimes called “rapid refunds,” “fast cash refunds,” or “express money”—the lack of awareness that AFFIL found in the survey is alarming. These “rapid refunds” were depicted in “action” in my film In Debt We Trust