Freedom of the Prez

Looking forward to the sunshine in he Sunshine state

DaveAeikens — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:50:00 GMT

The latest travel venture for this SPJ president is a trip to Florida Saturday night to speak to the Reporter's Institute, which is meeting at the Poynter Insititute in St. Petersburg. I am looking forward to meeting what appears to be a great group of journalists from across the country set to get three days of training. I will be making a few remarks over lunch Monday about the state of the industry. Believe it or not, I found some bright spots while prepearing for my talk. The number of people...(read more)

Standing up for the LA Times

DaveAeikens — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:19:00 GMT

The Los Angeles Times has been catching flack from Senator McCain and his supporters because it refuses to release a video of Senator Obama at a party for Rashid Khalidi, an Israeli critic among other things. The Times did an extensive piece in April on the relationship. It based the story on a video but did not put it on its web site because its source made it a condition of getting the video. The Times is doing the right thing. A promise to a source must be...(read more)

A few words about alleged media bias

DaveAeikens — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:57:00 GMT

Much is being made of a recent Pew-led study Project for Journalism Excellence on how much negative coverage the presidential candidates get. According to the report, John McCain is getting more negative coverage than Barack Obama in the most recent reporting period. Partisans are using it as clear evidence of reporters slanting their coverage to elect Obama. I say not so fast. If you read deeper into the report, you find that much of the so called "negative" coverage is driven...(read more)

Fort Worth's newest member

DaveAeikens — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:47:00 GMT

Traditions are important in life and in organziations such as SPJ. With the 100th anniversary coming up, it's a great time to talk about traditions and history. On Friday, I upheld one in SPJ that I can't seem to track its origin. The tradition says the the SPJ national president will make his or her first visit to Fort Worth, Texas. Before I left, someone said it goes back 60 years. One Fort Worth member said that Phil Record, who served in 1983-1984, started the annual trip to Fort...(read more)

Minnesota program on RNC arrests

DaveAeikens — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:29:00 GMT

The Minnesota Pro chapter wasted little time arranging a program to talk about what happened between journalists and law enforcement while covering the protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The event is planned for Sept. 22 at the University of Minnesota and features a big-name moderator. Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute will lead the discussion about journalists and law enforcement officials....(read more)

No clue at QU

DaveAeikens — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:34:00 GMT

At Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, university officials have threatened the student SPJ chapter because its members had the temerity to assist a group of students running a new college news Web site. The New Haven paper has an account here. The university has suggested the SPJ chapter would no longer continue as an official school orgnaization because it shared its space at a campus fair with the Web site. Neil Ralston, SPJ's vice president of campus chapter affiars, is the guy...(read more)

Finding one's voice

DaveAeikens — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:02:00 GMT

One of the responsbilities of this position is to be the face of the organization. Today, I think I was actually its voice. I spent on hour on a Portsmouth, New Hampshire community radio show called "Portside." The audio runs about an hour and it takes five minutes to get to the interview. I'm not sure how large the audience was and former New Hampshire state lawmaker turned talk show host Burt Cohen was a friendly questioner. I have now done four interviews about the arrest of jounalists...(read more)

RNC arrests still top of mind

DaveAeikens — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:39:00 GMT

I have spent part of my day talking to reporters covering the story about the journalists arrested covering the protests at the Republican National Convention. It's a story that continues because the charges are still pending and there are some folks looking into how this was all handled. That's good. The Minnesota Independent has the best list I have seen so far of the names the the reporters who were swept up in the arrests. This, of course, is unacceptable. We had hoped the police...(read more)

Ethical journalism is not lost; let me help you find it

ClintBrewer — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:33:00 GMT

We’re journalists and we’re here to help you. Trust us.That is essentially the line American media companies have been using since the dawn of television. Each year, however, that message is received with increasing skepticism from news consumers.The studies detailing the American public’s distrust of the media — and of journalists — are too numerous to count. But instead of heeding that warning, many traditional news entities bend to pressing market forces. With each passing year, they blend in...(read more)

Shield Law Slam Dunk

ClintBrewer — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 07:25:00 GMT

What a day. What an amazing day for journalism and democracy. In a historic, landslide victory, the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 sailed through the U.S. House of Representatives on a 398 to 21 vote Tuesday, enjoying clear bipartisan support. It was a long day of political maneuvering and some drama brought on by a move to see the bill sent back to committee. SPJ Communications staff and our attorneys from Baker Hostetler monitored the debate live from the floor and via C-Span...(read more)

Tatum's random thoughts on her way out the door

christinetatum — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 01:48:00 GMT

If you missed SPJ's 2007 national conference, you missed what very well could be the best wingding this great organization has staged in years. As USA Today Editor Ken Paulson put it Saturday night, "The star power was here in full force." It was a glorious end to a wonderful year packed -- absolutely packed -- with accomplishment. Very soon, you'll find my annual report on SPJ.org. Please take a look at it because I think you, too, will be mightily impressed with the ground covered since August...(read more)

Shield Law progresses -- and SPJ was there!

christinetatum — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:43:00 GMT

This morning, a proposed federal shield law that would help journalists protect confidential sources sailed out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 15-2. One of the dissenters: Sen. Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican SPJ members also known as "Senator Secrecy." The other? Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. Some things to note: Several people deserve credit for this important legislation. I have been referring to this Senate version of the shield bill as the Specter...(read more)

Come to terms with the trouble we're in

christinetatum — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 17:38:00 GMT

MarketWatch's John Dvorak's Sept. 22 column is a must-read. It's harsh, but his assessment of the newspaper industry is dead on. These are snippets I particularly appreciate: "As more newspapers make the mistake of eliminating reporting jobs, they fall into the pit of redundancy with nothing special to offer." "The only papers or news organizations that can expect to survive will be those with lots of original content available only at their individual sites. The operations that rely more on universally...(read more)

Free speech, Responsible journalism NOT synonymous

christinetatum — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 07:04:00 GMT

I have watched with great interest two controversies spinning in the last week out of college campuses. One is practically in my backyard -- Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. -- and the other is at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn. Obviously, different publications, different students and different journalism are involved -- but both conflicts illustrate why I firmly believe that free speech and responsible journalism are not synonymous. I’ll be explaining...(read more)

Still laughing at FOX lawsuit ...

christinetatum — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:04:00 GMT

The next time you need a video MP3 player to help wile away all those hours you anticipate being stuck in the car, on the train or in the airport, you must download "The First Amendment Project." This 2004 production from the Sundance documentary collection (and co-produced by Court TV) is priceless if for no other reason than the 20-minutes-or-so segment titled, "Fox vs. Franken." Some quick background: Fox network filed suit against Al Franken after network commentator Bill O'Reilly's angry-looking...(read more)