Media

Missing: News Coverage of Communities of Color

"A survey released in July by the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Ball State University found that about 21 percent of journalists working in local TV were minorities, virtually unchanged from the year before. ... A study released in June by the John and James L. Knight Foundation found that 73 percent of the nation's 200 largest newspapers employ fewer minorities than they did at some year between 1990 and 2004," writes Eric Deggans. "Why does this matter?

You Can't Be Neutral on a Freedom Walk, Media Told

The Washington Post "is withdrawing its offer of free advertising for an organized event by the Defense Department," after its sponsorship drew criticism from peace groups and the Newspaper Guild, which represents 1,400 Post employees.

When Real News Dents The Fake News Business

There's good news for citizens and bad news for investors in the latest quarterly financial report of Medialink Worldwide, the biggest player in the fake news business.

Return of the Payola Pundit

Armstrong Williams, the conservative black pundit who entered into a $240,000 contract with the Bush administration to promote the No Child Left Behind Act, says he has (1) recognized the errors of his ways, and (2) resents the way he was criticized.

Confronting the Culture

"The culprit behind the recurring clusters of plagiarism and fabrication scandals isn’t just irresponsible youth or a few bad apples or the temptations of the Internet," writes Lori Robertson, managing editor of the American Journalism Review. "It may be the newsroom culture itself. ...

Al Jazeera International Enlists PR Help

Al Jazeera International has retained Brown Lloyd James (BLJ), a PR firm with offices in New York, Washington and London, as its agency of record. Set to launch in 2006, Al Jazeera International will be the 24-hour English-language news channel run by the Qatar-base company.

Top GOP Donor Favored As Next CPB Head

"A leading Republican donor who once suggested that public broadcasting journalists should be penalized for biased programs is the top candidate to succeed the controversial chairman at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting," the Washington Post reports. Bush-appointee Cheryl F. Halpern has sat on the CPB board for three years and is slated to replace Ken Tomlinson, a close ally, as the agency's head.

Doctored Health News

"Health reporters should not rely on prepackaged stories," writes Maria Dorfner, whose company NewsMD Communications produces health-related videos. "Physicians who migrate to television news may lack actual reporting or producing skills." According to Dorfner, this results in their "relying heavily on prepackaged content.

Surveying the Fake News Scene

What do you think about fake news? That's what the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has been asking our readers for the past two weeks.

We surveyed people about what the disclosure guidelines should be for video news releases (VNRs) and audio news releases (ANRs). (We do define "fake news" more broadly, as not just TV and radio segments provided by outside parties, but also pundit payola and any other media manipulation falsely presented as independent journalism. However, brevity is the soul of good survey response rates!)

Pirated Radio

"Tune into the power of radio," writes Betsy Goldberg in Tactics, the Public Relations Society of America's newsletter.

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