(Transcript of Hot Copy No. 44, a podcast for The Student Operated Press). There is nothing like reading something you have written aloud for finding and correcting its infelicities. An article, maybe just a headline, may be perfectly grammatical and yet awkward. If it sounds smooth it will read well. But what is just as [...]
Read More...Sometimes I think the all news all day formula is traumatizing society. The news—if you can call that weird concoction of anchor bonhomie and drivel news—is surpassingly negative, and in the interest of ratings the media rarely lose an opportunity to exaggerate the negative side of the news. News or what passes for it is [...]
Read More...(This is the transcript of Hot Copy No. 42, my regular pod cast for The Student Operated Press). Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesman, has written a book confirming some of the public’s worst suspicions about the presidency of George W. Bush. McClellan (inset) says, among other things, the White House lied us into [...]
Read More...It’s interesting how eager both the left and the right wings are to pull the trigger on Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesman, who has written a book confirming many of our worst suspicions about the Bush Administration. If he knew his bosses were lying about Iraq and Valerie Plame, the CIA undercover agent [...]
Read More...(This is the transcript of Hot Copy No. 39, Del Marbrook’s podcasts for The Student Operated Press) Sometimes it’s hard to say just when the heyday of a great institution was. I had the privilege of working briefly for The Baltimore Sun in the mid-1960s. It might not have been The Sun’s noblest moment, but [...]
Read More...(Regular podcast to journalism students around the world for The Student Operated Press.) Strange as it might seem, silence is an important element in good journalism, and in these days of Botox journalism it’s in short supply. Just listen to the Sunday yak television shows. The people being interviewed can hardly get a word in [...]
Read More...Journalism has its canonical heroes, like Bob Woodward and Seymour Hersh—journalists the establishment makes room for—and then there are the non-canonical heroes who, by choice or by virtue of the poobahs they have disturbed, operate outside the mainstream. The canonical heroes have achieved what their bosses have allowed them to achieve, pushing the envelope and [...]
Read More...As I listened disapprovingly to my own voice answering the poet Martina Newberry’s questions I thought that asked such good questions even a doofus might say something interesting. Martina is the author of Running Like a Woman With Her Hair on Fire, released in 2005 by Red Hen Press. Her poems have been published widely. [...]
Read More...(Note: Many of today’s biggest stories go unreported or under-reported. This is partly because news organizations have been decimated by predatory media bosses. But it’s also because the toughest stories call for uncommon skills. I address this issue in this recent podcast for young journalists). If you think of the people who read what you [...]
Read More...Most of us don’t go to a restaurant just because the cuisine is good. We go because we like the help. We look forward to seeing them. We like to think they look forward to seeing us. But this has never been the case in journalism. Until now. News has always been a bought and [...]
Read More...