News Gathering

NYT still has the power to alter the facts of the very story on which it is reporting.

Long gone are the days when major newspapers and network news operations had the power, through their selection of stories, to set the political agenda. That’s a change for the better, to be sure. But the best of the ancien media regime are still peerless in their ability to compel change in the actions of the people and institutions they report on. Take for example an article in the business section of Sunday’s New York

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Fox News reporter faces jail or betrayal of source

A reporter for Fox News says she won’t reveal her source or sources for a story that Aurora, Colo., mass-shooting suspect James Holmes had sent a notebook to a psychiatrist indicating intent to kill people. According to Courthouse News Service, Jana Winter has vowed to appeal the order to testify. Her attorney says Winter would go to jail rather than identify a confidential source, Fox News reported. Full story and links

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News gathering: Meaningful quotes on campaign trail slow to a trickle

As the Obama and Romney campaigns insist on reviewing quotes with attributions, they edit some, remove attribution from others and approve few for publication leaving the press with denuded content. The campaigns are afraid that some stray quote will cause unwanted notoriety. -db From The New York Times, July 15, 2012, by Jeremy W. Peters. Full story    

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Judge in Sandusky trial reverses self to ban live tweets from courtroom

After first ruling that reporters covering the former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky’s child abuse trial could tweet from within the courtroom so long as there were no verbatim quotes, the trial judge took the path of least resistance and banned all live testing, tweeting and blogging. The judge made his new ruling after news organizations said reporters could not tweet accurately without direct quotes. -db From NPR, June  4, 2012, by Mark Nootbaar.

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