How should students be informed was a regular concern as the tsunamic gloom and doom, amply supported by waves of anecdotes about the demise of this or the death of that or  the whatever tradition, swept forward. Now this, from Michael Mandel, a former chief economist at Business Week: The Evolution Of The Journalism Job Market: We May Be Headed Into A Golden Age.

First, the next jobs expansion is likely to be driven by a communications boom (see this paper I did for the Progressive Policy Institute).  Second, we may be headed into a Golden Age of Journalism, where the combination of the falling cost of communications and the high demand for news just opens up all sorts of possibilities for doing journalism in different ways.
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Read the rest of the article here.

*Posted: August 4, 2010 09:21 A.M. — I know this isn’t exactly news but … neither is Fox. If the FTC could theoretically apply deceptive advertising laws to television content, there would be an hourly disclaimer on Murdoch’s network, “Video ads brought to you by the RNC” (e.g., Palin, Gingrich, Huckabee are employees). For professional reasons, I watch a lot of Fox News. And it’s not easy to fully convey its nightly mendacity.

Read entire column here.

* Playing catchup but catching up is happening.

*Posted: June 14, 2010 11:01 P.M. — I have heard a number of false allegations leveled against President Barack Obama – socialist, communist, illegal immigrant, terrorist sympathizer, etc. Iowa Congressman Steve King (R-Limbaugh/Coulter/Palin) took things to a new level when he said on G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show that “the President has demonstrated that he has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race – on the side that favors the black person.”

Read entire column here.

*Yes, June 14 is a long time ago but it’s been a busy summer for other matters and this writer is playing catchup.

This is a really great article about how news organizations can’t get their facts straight or refuse to report them accurately. Sometimes, it’s difficult to know which one is in play, even if they’ve had years to get the facts correct.

By Julie Hollar, FAIR, August 25, 2010
Dateline NBC (8/22/10) did a special look back at Hurricane Katrina last weekend in anticipation of the disaster’s five-year anniversary. Watching the collage of 2005 footage and Brian Williams’ present-day commentary, I was struck by his characterization of the violence:

You know, I’ve been around a lot of guns and a lot of dead bodies, and a lot of people shooting at people to make dead bodies. But you put them all together and you put it in the United States of America and boy, it gets your attention. You can’t shake that….

It was clear already there weren’t going to be enough cops. Everywhere we went, every satellite shot, every camera shot, we were at the height of the violence and the looting and the–all the reports of gunplay downtown. Well, who’s bathed in the only lights in town? It was us.

Read the entire article here to learn how Williams fell off the precipice that separates truth from the unreality that masquerades as serious news reporting.

Hundreds of thousands were expected but early news reports, though not providing estimates that made sense, reported that tens of thousands had shown up or were showing up for not only Beck’s but one organized by The Reverend Al Sharpton.

A NY Times’ Caucus headline: Parallel Rallies by Beck and Sharpton. Not much interest engendered. Beck has a passionate, pathological animus about people of color. And Sharpton, well, one of my students published an article a while back – Reverend Sharpton Should Read This Article – indicating  great distance between him and the students he was trying to reach at Hunter during that period when he was visiting college campuses.

So, it was decided to publish an opine by Ed Kent, a professor emeritus, philosophy, Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He blogs and posts at a number of yahoo groups.

I spent an incredibly boring 3 hours or so watching Glenn Beck's
"Restoring Honor" on C-Span.  Most channels had switched to other
things.  What seemed to be the content was a series of 20 or more
fundamentalist Protestant sermons given by various invitees -- which
looked to be be boring the Lincoln Center audience as much as me.  The
things not included or mentioned while I listened were Roman Catholics,
traditional Protestant denominations or their leadership, Muslims, or
political issues.

This was Beck the nice guy heading up a fundamentalist Christian event
with some kind words thrown in now and again about our battered military
heroes out there.  The only recognizable speakers were Beck and, and, of
course, Sarah Palin. The implicit attack on Obama and Democrats lay in
the title of the event.

Traditional Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorators on the King dream
speech were meeting elsewhere and plan to hike to meet Beck's crew at
Lincoln Center when they finish their own event.

What a waste of time!

*I have a mild basketball jones: All-Ivy, MVP, captain, Cornell; Assistant B-Ball Coach, one year; one year, schizophrenic, semi-pro and one year playing for the Sporting Club of Lisbon.

By Peter Hart August 24, 2010
Washington Post ombud Andy Alexander devoted his August 22 piece to lauding how the paper handles stories about its parent company and its various business entanglements – which, as he explains, are rather extensive. The Washington Post Co. owns Newsweek, several television stations, and the Kaplan company, which runs the for-profit Kaplan University, the subject of recent critical media reports.

At the end his piece, the FAIR Blogger Hart suggests that there is a better way for the Post to be slapped on the back. Read the rest here.

LONDON — Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blower Web site WikiLeaks who has been embroiled in a fight with the Pentagon over the recent release of classified documents, briefly became the focus of new attention on Saturday when Swedish prosecutors sought him for questioning on rape allegations — then quickly said the accusations were unfounded. — Full story here.

Wikileaks said in a blog post earlier than the Times’ breaking story:

On Saturday 21st of August, we have been made aware of rape allegations made against Julian Assange, founder of this project and one of our spokespeople.

We are deeply concerned about the seriousness of these allegations. We the people behind WikiLeaks think highly of Julian and and he has our full support.

While Julian is focusing on his defenses and clearing his name, WikiLeaks will be continuing its regular operations.

The WORD to Wikileaks: Release the Kracken, all 15,000 tenacles.