How involved reporters should become in a story is one of journalism's age-old ethical dilemmas. But the question was anything but hypothetical in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Rachel Smolkin, managing editor of the American Journalism Review, describes to Brooke how some major journalists reassessed their codes of conduct in ...

When Supreme Court Justice Scalia spoke recently at Time Warner headquarters, he insisted it be "off the record." And so gossip columnist Lloyd Grove, who attended the event, published a "hypothetical" account, describing what Scalia "might have said." Bob and Lloyd discuss his end-run around the rules.

Ten years ago, the philosophy known as neo-conservatism was on the outs among Republicans in D.C. But these days, the "neocon" agenda is reflected in much of the Bush Administration's foreign policy. What changed? For one, there was 9/11. But there was also the rise of a certain forum for ...

Last week, the British tabloid The Daily Mirror alleged that in the spring of 2004, President Bush suggested bombing the Qatar headquarters of al-Jazeera. The U.S. press has trod lightly on the story, which was based on a leaked memo that has not yet been published. But the rest of ...

There are journalism's stars, who consume most of the ink and the air time, and there are its grunts, who do most of the legwork and barely get a byline. Mark Stamey, formerly of The New York Post, was one of the latter. He walked the "bad-luck" beat, gathering facts ...

One year ago, the world witnessed what appeared to be a spontaneous uprising by angry voters in the streets of Kiev. But for months, Ukrainian activists had been carefully honing their message and tactics. They did it with the help of American-backed "uprising consultants" - veterans of opposition movements in ...

The Washington saga that has gripped journalism watchers for many months has taken another unexpected turn. Seems that storied scribe Bob Woodward may have been the first journalist contacted by the notorious Valerie Plame leaker. And he kept mum until this week. Brooke reflects on the transformation of Watergate Bob ...

The White House tinkers with official transcripts of a press briefing.

If you believe the coverage, Americans are using crystal meth at epidemic rates. Stories depict a killer drug that is instantly addictive, easy to cook up at home, and poised to tear apart families and communities. But Reason editor-in-chief Nick Gillespie is among the critics who say that the media ...

Many activists are keenly aware that all the talking in the world may never succeed in opening the world's eyes to their causes. Seeing is believing, and pictures can make all the difference. Witness is an international human rights organization that provides video equipment and training to advocacy campaigns around ...

Nick Sophocleous was staying at his girlfriend's flat in North Kensington last month when he realized that a full-scale bust of the London bombing suspects was in progress across the way. He captured the arrest on video, and sold it to the media for 60 thousand pounds. Now, you too ...

Ten years ago this month, a pocket of hot air settled over Chicago. By the end of the week, 739 people had succumbed to the heat. And yet, the Chicago heat wave of '95 remains one of the most overlooked disasters in American history. Why do heat waves get so ...

This week, Ukraine's President Victor Yushchenko chewed out a reporter for asking questions about his son's incongruously lavish lifestyle. In response, some 200 Ukrainian journalists signed a strongly-worded letter protesting the reporter's treatment. And Yushchenko responded with a letter of his own. A sign of tough times ahead for journalism ...

Ever since the prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leak investigation started targeting journalists, many have worried about a resulting chilling effect that would shackle investigative reporters and gag would-be whistleblowers. Two weeks ago, it appeared the chill had arrived, in the form of a column by the editor of the ...

A new study conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press shows that the people do, by and large, support the press - under certain circumstances. At the same time, there's been a falloff in the percentage of Americans who find their daily newspaper believable, who ...

The big concern with saturation media coverage of trials is that juries will be unduly swayed by that which happens outside the courtroom. But that’s not necessarily what the data show. Communications scholar William Loges argues that press hype has no discernible effect on trial outcome. Loges makes his case ...

The New York Observer recently took note of an odd political flirtation developing between none other than the junior senator from New York and the News Corp. mogul from Australia. Ben Smith wrote the piece, “The Odd Couple ’08,” and joins Brooke to discuss how a Clinton/Murdoch alliance could benefit ...

Recent deportation cases in U.S. courts have some litigants concerned about what they call the latest tool in the war on terror: journalism. Immigration lawyers say that since 9/11, the Feds have increasingly relied on independent reportage as evidence against those it accuses of having ties with terrorist organizations. Does ...

In a trade that insists on truth and integrity, journalists who confuse fact and fiction have a tough row to hoe on the long path to reportorial atonement. Brooke follows fallen New York Times reporter Michael Finkel’s bizarre discovery that a suspected murderer had co-opted his identity in Mexico – ...

You listen to public radio, so you probably know that public broadcasting’s federal funding came under the ax, again. Half of the $200 million dollar proposed cut was restored by a House amendment on Thursday, though the exercise itself was instructive. The cut was put forth partly as an austerity ...