Journalism

The Pampered Press

"Reporters who cover political conventions are accustomed to tiny workspaces, often shoddy technical setups, and few, if any, luxuries," PR Week writes. "Last week, New York City and the GOP - with the help of GCI Group- went to great lengths to break the mold. Journalists covering the Republican National Convention ...

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Press Conference From Hell

"I don't know what the news is from the rest of Iraq or even what's going on with the governor of Najaf," writes Chris Albritton, a freelance journalist who has been covering the fighting in Iraq. "I do know what's happening with the police department, however. They're raiding the Sea of Najaf hotel and rounding the 100 or so journalists at gunpoint and subjecting them to mass arrest." Albritton describes his recent experience, when police "raided the hotel and forced all the journalists out onto the street. We were terrified. The cops yelled at us and pointed their weapons toward us.

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Media to Blame for Swift Boat Hype

While the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth may have a questionable grasp of the facts, it has been extraordinarily sophisticated in its manipulation of the media," observes the Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk weblog. "To understand why this campaign has been hijacked by a small group of veterans bearing a thirty-year old grudge, it's worth examining the institutional susceptibilities of a campaign press corps that allowed the SBVFT's accusations to take on a life of their own.

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Lower than Journalists

Among the professions "less popular than journalism," notes Bill Hagerty, the "furtive world of public relations" is considered by many people to be "a black art, inferior only to child slave-trading or body-snatching." He cites a recent survey showing that British journalists hold PR people in especially low esteem. Nevertheless, he notes, "indications are that PR and publicists are becoming increasingly more influential and powerful."

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Another Media Mea Culpa

An internal Washington Post review found that, before the invasion of Iraq, "Administration assertions were on the front page. Things that challenged the administration were on A18 on Sunday or A24 on Monday. There was an attitude among editors: Look, we're going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?" - in the words of the paper's Pentagon correspondent.

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Triumph of the Trivial

New York Times' columnist Paul Krugman looks into why Americans haven't heard much about John Kerry's proposal to extend health insurance to lower- and middle-income families. After "reading 60 days' worth" of transcripts from major cable and broadcast TV networks Krugman writes, "Never mind the details - I couldn't even find a clear statement that Mr. Kerry wants to roll back recent high-income tax cuts and use the money to cover most of the uninsured. When reports mentioned the Kerry plan at all, it was usually horse race analysis - how it's playing, not what's in it.

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Iraq's War on Unwarranted Criticism

"In a difficult security situation, we need to fight the terrorists by all means, and one of the main means is the media. We need them all to co-operate, even the private sector. It's for national security," said Ibrahim Janabi, a former Iraqi intelligence officer who Prime Minister Iyad Allawi just appointed as the head of the new Higher Media Commission.

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