California Supreme Court to hear case on fitness of lying journalist to practice law

The California Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether Stephen Glass, formerly of The New Republic, is fit to be admitted to the State Bar. Glass’ articles were widely acclaimed before it became clear that 27 of his 41 stories contained fabrications. -db From The Recorder, November 17, 2011, by Cheryl Miller. Full story  

A&A: Do trade publications have same speech protections as other journalists?

Q: My company owns a website and private news source for a trade Industry. We are having concerns about our First Amendment protections. The website and news company is a business operation of our parent company. I would like to inquire about whether our direct ownership of the site conflicts with any First Amendment or [...]

Opinion: Google and others can perform a great public service by identifying online ‘journalism’

Writing in ZDNet, Sam Diaz says that Google, Facebook and Twitter have the information that could enable them with the help of the analysis of real journalists to identify which blog sites, tweets and news outlets should be labeled “journalism.” Diaz says “news” is different from “journalism” and the latter must be identified and labeled [...]

Political patisans load up on deceit largely discarded by reporters

As the recent assaults on NPR, Planned Parenthood and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker show, deceit is thriving as a tactic in the political arena as reporters in disguise are becoming rare. Politicians are wary of the tactics but like the benefits. Journalists are finding little public tolerance of deceit in news gathering New York Times’ [...]

Proposals for Greater Media Access Released for Public Comment

A California report with a series of proposals to improve media and public access to court records and state proceedings has been released for “public comment” by the Judicial Council. First Amendment Coalition September 22, 2010 By Susana Montes The draft report includes 11 recommendations from the Bench-Bar-Media Committee, appointed by the California Supreme Court. [...]

New Law Shields Online Media from Foreign Judgments

With passage of the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act, or theSPEECH Act, media companies will be protected against U.S. enforcement of foreign libel judgments when such judgments would conflict with First Amendment protections. Television and Broadcast August 5, 2010 WASHINGTON: The bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) [...]

Judge bars LA Times from publishing photos

A judge took the unusual and possibly unconstitutional step of barring a Los Angeles Times photographer from publishing images she allowed him to snap at a hearing for a man charged with murdering a Hollywood family. News August 5, 2010 By The Associated Press LOS ANGELES— Lawyers for the Times planned to ask the judge [...]

Pentagon refuses embed for Rolling Stone writer

The author of the Rolling Stone article that ended the military career of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander in Afghanistan, has been denied permission to join U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said yesterday. News August 4, 2010 By The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Defense Department spokesman Col. David Lapan told reporters [...]

Wall Street Journal reporter handcuffed at courthouse

A Wall Street Journal reporter was handcuffed and carted away today after repeatedly ignoring a U.S. marshal’s request to leave Sam Adam Sr. alone as the veteran attorney tried to exit the federal courthouse. Chicago Breaking News Center July 21, 2010 By Stacie St. Clair Doug Belkin was outside the boundaries dedicated for media interviews [...]

Are documentary filmmakers journalists?

The question emerged at a federal appeals court after oil giant Chevron asked Joe Berlinger, the filmmaker behind the documentary Crude,  for all 600 hours of footage of his film. -SMD Fortune Magazine July 14, 2010 By Alex Konrad A federal appeals judge in New York will hear arguments today in what’s shaping up to [...]

Key US Senate panel backs ‘libel tourism’ bill

The libel tourism measure would prevent US federal courts from recognizing or enforcing  foreign judgments for defamation, inconsistent with the first amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech. -SMD News By AFP WASHINGTON — A key US Senate panel on Tuesday approved a bill to shield US journalists, authors, and publishers from [...]

Court battle for filmmaker’s footage spurs national debate [VIDEO]

Joe Berlinger’s fight against big oil giant Chevron Corporation seeking raw documentary footage collected for his film Crude: The Real Price of Oil, has spurred a national debate on the reporter’s privilege. The breadth of the protection given to unpublished newsgathering materials is at stake.  -SMD First Amendment Citizen Media Law Project By Itai Maytal [...]

US slams Azerbaijan over jailed journalist

After an Azerbaijani journalist was convicted to 2.5 additional years in prison for “drug possession,”  US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the US is concerned by the ex-Soviet republic’s ruling. -SMD Open Government, Foreign Affairs July 8, 2010 By AFP via World News Australia The United States Wednesday voiced concern at the new criminal [...]

At Yahoo, Using Searches to Steer News Coverage

With the rise of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) protocols to drive traffic to news websites,  journalist are now becoming curators of information. A new model has emerged: the public decides what is “newsworthy,” and editors feed that back to the public. How does this model impact investigative reporting projects in the long-run? -SMD New York [...]

Hard truth: Traditional journalism must innovate to survive in changing information climate

A fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society argues that the internet has killed off the mass media with many important benefits to a thriving democratic society. -DB Center for Internet and Society Commentary September 8, 2009 By Sarah Hinchliff Pearson Sometimes changes are so basic and world-changing that they can be difficult to [...]