Media views
New York Times: An Immigrant Segment by Radio’s ‘Jersey Guys’ Draws Fire (3/23/07) by Andrew Jacobs
The New York daily finally notices the latest racist stunt from shock jocks just over the border. Among quoted condemnations of a "La Cuca Gotcha" feature—encouraging the persecution of perceived undocumented immigrants—as “dehumanizing,” “poisonous” and “idiotic,” Jacobs also inadvertently condemns the role profit motive plays in commercial radio's airing of personalities who "blame illegal immigrants for...violent crime [and] hint... that illegal immigrants were more likely to become terrorists":
Seeking to profit from the recently ignited firestorm, the Jersey Guys... gleefully refused to back down.... Considering the...lack of contrition and the anger among Latino advocates, “La Cucha Gotcha” is likely to spark an even larger backlash. That may or may not be a bad thing for the station.
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Editor & Publisher: Many Get Edwards 'Scoop' Wrong—Based on Single Source (3/22/07)
"The Story May Have Been Incorrect, But We Had It First" is how one blogger lampooned the plentiful news outlets that rushed to beat each other to the erroneous "scoop" that "former Sen. John Edwards would be suspending his campaign for president due to his wife's new bout with cancer."
Outlets falling for it ranged from MSNBC to the Washington Times, which headlined its story "Report: Edwards Suspending Campaigning." This appeared shortly before his scheduled noon announcement. The Los Angeles Times and Newsday were among many others which also headlined the "suspension" on their sites. The source for many of the reports was a blog item on Politico.com. The author, Ben Smith, later admitted it was based on a single source and he apologized.
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Time: Scandal, Power and the President (3/22/07) by Massimo Calabresi & Jay Carney
Commenting on the politicized U.S. attorney firing scandal, columnists argue that
Washington scandals metastasize, growing and changing until we can't remember what they were about in the beginning.... When it's over, we'll be hard-pressed to remember how it began.
But it's clear the general public are pretty aware that the Watergate started with a break-in and the Lewinsky scandal began with a blowjob—despite the sorry performance of those who's job it is to keep the story straight.
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Boston Phoenix: Off-Color TV Party (3/21/07) by Phillipe and Jorge
Noting that "a lot of cash is a requirement for an FCC broadcast license, but there are a few other hurdles. One calls for the owner to be 'of good character,'" two columnists introduce us to an aspiring owner of Boston's WLNE-TV station:
According to reports by the Associated Press and other news organizations, [Kevin] O'Brien also made his share of racially insensitive remarks, including, "We can't right all the wrongs of the Civil War; we've got to quit hiring all these black people." Here's another: "I've never seen a minority broadcast enterprise work in my entire life, especially if they have control."... According to court documents, [he has] "stated on numerous occasions that 'my father always told me, you can't trust those Indians.'"... O'Brien reportedly said, "These Jewish holidays—I've always thought those existed just so those people either wouldn't have to work or take the day and do inventory."
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Salon: ACLU Defeats COPA, Again (3/22/07) by Joan Walsh
The online magazine's editor in chief celebrates "another big victory for free speech on the Internet" in
word that the ACLU won its latest attempt to beat back the Child Online Protection Act, which would have imposed steep fines and potential prison terms on anyone who published material deemed "harmful" to minors and failed to use an age-verification system to keep minors out.
The ACLU has long argued that "Congress does not have the right to censor information on the Internet" and that COPA threatens "draconian criminal sanctions" while it does "not provide effective protection" for children because it is technologically unable to "be enforced on the more than 50 percent of speech posted overseas." (Ad-viewing required.)
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Honolulu Weekly: Ka Leo Victorious Over Viacom (3/21/07) by Ian Lind
A Hawai'i campus newspaper's battle "against one of the world’s largest media corporations has ended with a victory for freedom of the press," including the "more than 500 college and university newspapers" using websites managed by a Viacom subsidiary.
College Publisher, a division of media giant Viacom, announced late last week it would no longer require college and university newspapers to avoid stories critical of the company or its many corporate affiliates in order to get free access to its exclusive online publishing system.... The controversial contract detail came to light after Ka Leo O Hawai‘i balked at signing a new contract warranting that none of its contents would be “damaging or injurious to [College Publisher], Content Partners or any of its respective affiliates, related entities, licensees or assignees.”
Curiously, while the Viacom subsidiary "denied any intent to limit what its affiliated college newspapers can print or display on their websites," they simultaneously "said the clause was intended to prevent student newspapers from gaining leverage during contract negotiations from their ability to write about unresolved issues."
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