Crowdsourcing Verified Double Lightning Strike Photo
I was walking past the Trump Tower in downtown Chicago on Saturday with Adrian Holovaty when he described a photo shot earlier that week of two lightning bolts simultaneously striking the spires of two...
View ArticleHow to Report on Quran Burning and Other Hate Speech
By now it’s clear that the Rev. Terry Jones is a lone voice with a tiny following. On any given Sunday he has 50 worshipers, according to reporters who have attended his services. Far… Read more
View ArticleLive Blogging Holovaty, Steiger & Cohen at Kent State Ethics Workshop
By Jeremy Gilbertand Jan Leach The “NEXT Ethics?” Poynter Kent State Media Ethics Workshop, hosted by the Kent State University school of Journalism and Mass Communication, will bring together...
View Article5 Takeaways From ‘Next Ethics?’ Workshop at Kent State
By Jeremy Gilbert and Jan Leach Journalism values are no doubt changing, but it’s not professionals who are driving these changes. Last week’s “Next Ethics?” workshop, hosted by Kent State University...
View ArticleNPR not the only news org in need of modern, realistic ethics guidelines for...
Ellen Weiss’ resignation wasn’t about Juan Williams and it wasn’t about NPR. It was about a news organization trying to keep a star in orbit by bending its standards. And there are plenty of other...
View ArticleWashington Post plagiarism case challenges educators who tell students not to...
“We’ll deal with it on a case-by-case basis.” For many of us that approach was the guiding force on how to handle breaking news in the early years of Web journalism at The Washington Post. It was one...
View ArticleRoundup of plagiarism & fabrication cases
When it comes to deciding how to handle a plagiarism or fabrication case, there are a variety of factors that news organizations might consider. We don’t have enough data to identify trends in...
View ArticlePeter Perl: ‘I haven’t been fired or suspended or fined’ for keeping Vargas...
The Washington Post will reassign some of Peter Perl’s duties, but won’t demote or suspend the assistant managing editor, who knew that Jose Vargas was an undocumented immigrant, but kept it a secret...
View ArticleFeldman’s ESPN non-suspension follows bad decision-making
The recent flap over Bruce Feldman’s non-suspension for writing a book on behalf of a guy now suing ESPN for libel has been characterized as (a) a Twitter revolution, (b) an ESPN house of cards, (c)...
View ArticleWhy did journalists act as a pack in withholding names of Herman Cain’s...
Until today, media covering allegations of sexual harassment leveled against Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain have universally withheld the identities of the women, who did not voluntarily...
View ArticleYale Daily News, New York Times both make wrong call on Patrick Witt sexual...
As the story of Yale University quarterback Patrick Witt (and his Rhodes scholarship that wasn’t) got more convoluted last week, both The New York Times and the Yale Daily News came under significant...
View ArticleHow ESPN published “Chink in the Armor” Jeremy Lin headline & what’s happened...
The rise of Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks’ Asian-American star, has been one of 2012’s feel-good sports stories. But it’s come with an unwelcome undercurrent: racial references by fans, columnists...
View ArticleESPN should find ways to cover the Trayvon Martin story rather than become...
ESPN.com‘s Jemele Hill did a very nice, tight column this week explaining how the lives of professional athletes are connected to the life and death of Trayvon Martin. Contrast that to ESPN’s bouncing...
View ArticleWhat’s wrong with Jonah Lehrer plagiarizing himself (at least 13 times)
Here’s why Jonah Lehrer was wrong to recycle his words and ideas in at least 13 instances uncovered by three different people (make that four) and then by The New Yorker, which is adding Editor’s...
View ArticleThe questions we wish CNN and FOX would answer
Having deconstructed many bad decisions with newsrooms across the country, I’ve been trying to analyze what we can learn from what went wrong Thursday at both Fox and CNN, which initially...
View ArticleHow to cover the Freeh Report on Penn State, child sexual abuse
Louis Freeh’s powerful condemnation of Penn State officials is bound to set off a barrage of equally powerful reactions among those who live with the scars of childhood sex abuse. And there are a lot...
View ArticleQuestions to consider before publishing autopsy reports
Ever since Dale Earnhardt crashed and died on the final lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001, autopsy results have been tricky material for journalists. Florida journalists sued the state to release photos...
View Article‘Patchwriting’ is more common than plagiarism, just as dishonest
The Columbia Spectator writer fired for plagiarizing from The New York Times earlier this month was actually employing a dishonest writing technique that is common on college campuses and among...
View ArticleDirty Politics: View live stream of Poynter Kent State ethics workshop
Poynter’s eighth annual ethics workshop with Kent State University begins at 9:15 a.m. This year’s theme is “dirty politics.” Speakers include: 9:15: Poynter’s Kelly McBride and Ellyn Angelotti 10:...
View ArticleJournalism has an originality problem, not a plagiarism problem
Professional journalism isn’t facing a plagiarism problem. It’s facing an originality failure. And you can’t blame the Internet. Our originality breakdown results from many pressures — the overwhelming...
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