The New York Times has raised the issue of he-said-she-said journalism. It should be discussed here, too, but it’s more complicated than media critics think.
Media ethics
The really dangerous idea — it’s all the media’s fault
Of all the dangerous ideas raised at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney over the weekend, the organisers seemed to miss one pertinent topic: is the media to blame for everything that’s wrong with our society?
A media inquiry sparks a media debate
Crikey media wrap: An independent inquiry will examine print and online media, focusing on ethics, regulation and the Australian Press Council, announced Communications Minister Stephen Conroy yesterday.
Simons: another lesson in the importance of a code of conduct
No media organisation can regard itself as having covered off on ethics merely by proclaiming that it follows a code – no matter how good that code might be.
Hunger for a story v right to privacy: can the media balance both?
Am I wrong in thinking that there is a change coming in attitudes to the thing that so many in the community regard as an oxymoron: journalism ethics? Paul Keating offered an unassailable argument for sensible privacy legislation.
How PepsiCo met its blogosphere match
An internationally respected science blogging network has canned plans for a PepsiCo-sponsored blog. The fracas has focused attention on the financial constraints and ethics of new media and raises questions for public health advocates, writes Melissa Sweet.
Journalists are overly precious
Many professions face public criticism, yet journalists seem to take personal offence when their own work is called into question. How can they dish it daily but not take it themselves?
Holmes: Getting to the source of it
Jonathan Holmes tells the story of his trip to Argentina in 1978 to report on government’s killings and kidnappings. A key witness appeared, but who could guarantee a source’s safety?
Beecher: Tabloid media laughing all the way to the pub on Campbell
The latest “debate” about media and privacy, triggered by last week’s television expose of NSW Minister David Campbell leaving a gay club, is a sham conducted by people who are paid extremely well to legitimise something that is nasty and indefensible.
Was The Age right to sack Deveny?
The Age’s sacking of outspoken columnist Catherine Deveny for remarks she made about the Logies on her personal Twitter feed over the weekend is gutless, says Jeremy Sear.
Killing the ETS was a team effort
Rudd and Wong can’t take all the credit for killing the ETS: every news outlet that ran dodgy polluter-commissioned modelling and op-eds from climate denialists and wingnuts can also take a bow.
How many news photographers are too many?
News photographers naturally descend on disaster areas and conflict zones like moths to a flame. But do we really need hundreds of images of the same tragedy? Some of the world’s top photojournalists weigh in.
The Newspoll numbers The Australian won’t print
The Australian appears to have decided to not publish the results of an opinion poll on voting intention in the wake of last week’s outlier that had Malcolm Turnbull gaining ground on Kevin Rudd.
News Ltd blurs the line between ads and editorial
Several News Ltd publications are treading a very thin line between advertising and editorial by offering special product spruiks for high-paying advertisers — including an endorsement from the editor themselves.
Provoking public figures for publicity
The Tele’s Katherine Keating story is part of an old media game, says Margaret Simons: provoke a public figure, then make their reaction the news
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.
rumour 
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.
Crikey Says: No neutral territory between Mike Rann and the media
The murky controversy surrounding SA premier Mike Rann is now a public, not a private, matter. The demilitarised zone between Rann, the media and the voters has been well and truly breached.
For the West it’s no story without Stokes
You can’t keep a good media proprietor down, writes Perth paper watcher Skink. Kerry Stokes has been gracious enough to appear in his own TV studio, and on the front page of his own paper.
Who mops up when news sources leak?Twitter’s unethical, according to the AFR’s new code
Staff at the Australian Financial Review are being asked to sign up to an ethics policy under which they could be disciplined — even sacked — for taking part in political debates.
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.
