Apparently people get drunk on the public lawns at the Melbourne Cup. Who knew? There is no news in this, just a ritualised annual tabloid photo-gallery parade of shame, vulnerability and intrusion. But try telling that to the Hun.
Journalistic ethics
Wankley Awards: Photo galleries of drunk people at the Melbourne Cup
Keating on the stairs: beating or beat up?
Insiders say a Sunday Telegraph alleging Paul Keating’s daughter kicked and threatened to kill one of its photographers was at best a beat-up, and at-worst a total fabrication.
Keane: Glenn Milne is a grub
In the weekend’s Sunday Telegraph, Glenn Milne reported a relationship between two MPs. This isn’t even news to Canberra insiders, says Bernard Keane, and it shouldn’t be news for anyone: there is no public interest.
Why is the media siding with Fox against Obama?
Fox News isn’t generally on great terms with the rest of the mainstream media, but since coming under attack from the White House, journalists are suddenly siding with their own — even if that means sticking up for the very people who routinely attack them.
When online journalists moonlight as copy-writersrumour 
Which high-profile war correspondent is also a spy?
Three anonymous military sources have separately claimed that a high-profile journalist currently working in a war zone is also a secret agent, according to Gawker.
Ethics on holiday for NYT and Newsweek writers’ Jamaica junket
Writers from the NY Times and Newsweek have been caught out skirting their companies’ ethics policies on an all-expenses-paid “swag orgy” junket to Jamaica , courtesy of Thrillist.
Reading between the lines on the NRL-Howard coverage
Once again, Piers Akerman has written a story about a News Ltd investment without once mentioning that his employer has a deep involvement in the issue.
Political snippets: Bloggers beware — here comes the FTC
America’s Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on bloggers taking cash for comment, and how the global recession may have reduced carbon emissions.
In tourism, even libel can be a world away
Libel tourism has been catapulted into the headlines after aviation writer Joe Sharkey was served a writ for defamatory statements he says he didn’t make in Brazil after surviving a mid-air collision in 2006.
Who mops up when news sources leak?busted 
Fox producer caught prodding protesters
A Fox News producer has been caught out coaching a crowd of Tea Party protesters, encouraging them to scream and shout for the camera while an anchor reported from the scene.
The cut-and-paste ethics of photojournalism
Photographer David Hume Kennerly recently had a photo he took of Dick Cheney published in Newsweek, but the image was heavily cropped and totally out of context — a move, he says, discredited both him and his profession.
LEAKED: How the US press became Blago’s best friend
After he was arrested for corruption last year, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich took a hammering in the US press as a dodgy slimeball. But behind the scenes, emails leaked to Gawker reveal the press-pack engaged in some serious brown-nosing to score an interview.
Censorship and cowardice at Conde Nast
Publisher Conde Nast has buried a story from GQ on possible connections between Vladimir Putin, the KGB and a series of 1999 bombings officially blamed on Chechen terrorists, keeping the piece off the web and out of Russia, for fear of reprisals.
Was the AP right to publish a soldier’s dying hours?
The AP has come under some heavy fire for publishing a photo of a deceased US soldier shortly after he was fatally wounded by a grenade in Afghanistan. The NYT’s Lens blog looks at the ethics and precedent of going public with such a private moment.
Media says “Nyet!” to self-censorship
While magazine publisher Conde Nast’s attempts — and initial success — in censoring a story in GQ magazine are troubling, but it’s at least reassuring that GQ’s editors didn’t take it lying down, says Julian Sanchez.
When sports pundits are also punters
In a recent survey of sports writers, 40% of those polled admitted to betting on sports — though only 5% fessed up to taking a punt on the specific sport they cover. Are they gambling with their objectivity?
Video of the Day: Can the media be trusted to tell the truth?
Can we trust the press to choose facts over finances? Julian Burnside, John Fairfax, Jonathan Holmes, Simon Longstaff, Catharine Lumby, Stephen Mayne and Mark Scott debate the issue of truth in media.
The five ballsiest lies ever told in journalism
When it comes to lies in the media, there’s the warrants-five-minutes-on-Media-Watch stuff, and then there are these tall tales. Cracked wraps some of the biggest, ballsiest bits of BS to ever hit the front pages.
Crikey Says: Ethics aside, a big day for The Oz
Two giant exclusives on the front page of The Australian today are worthy of applaud, but what happened to ethics in journalism?
Grech interview raises an ethical red flag
If you have to write “… speaking from a psychiatric ward in Canberra last night…”, there may be an ethical concern, proposes Tobias Ziegler. Is Godwin Grech capable of giving informed consent to an interview?
Gossip Cops to patrol celebrity news
The folks behind Mediaite have just launched GossipCop.com, a watchdog for celebrity news and gossip sites. “Think of it as TMZ meets Smoking Gun. Or maybe Perez Hilton meets Columbia Journalism Review” says the creator.
Reduce, reuse, recycle: women’s mag déjà vu
Ever browse a woman’s mag and get that distinct feeling you’ve read it all before? You probably have. Jezebel lifts the lid on how glossy editors devise fill-in-the-blank articles on the same formulaic stereotypes and cliches to farm out to writers, again and again.
The West Australian’s ethics beggar belief
Last Friday, two cadet reporters masqueraded as beggars on the streets of Perth to obtain information for articles published in The West Australian. Is this deception?
