2005-2014

The sad but safe assumption about the Sago miners is that when their funerals are over, we will forget about them, their mourning families, and the working conditions that still threaten so many like them. We will forget and, with occasional exceptions in the pages of liberal magazines and daily newspapers, we won’t be reminded until the next mesmerizing catastrophe shows up on the cable channels...

It was the most heart-rending and humiliating botch of a life-and-death story in modern memory, yet most journalists, naturally, aren't blaming themselves. It was everyone else's fault, they say. We just published and broadcast what we were told, and it turned out to be wrong. Tragically wrong, as in the Washington Post headline in Wednesday's late editions: "12 Found Alive in W.Va. Coal Mine." Or...

Already I know what my biggest pet peeve of 2006 is going to be: media-about-media coverage that automatically celebrates, as a good and interesting development, the launch of yet more subscription and pay-per-use portable media options -- like last week’s announcement from Starz about its new Vongo service. What we’re supposed to be excited about is getting "Unlimited Starz Movie Downloads" for...

David E. Rosenbaum, a longtime editor and reporter in the Washington bureau of the New York Times, died yesterday after being beaten and robbed Friday night near his home in upper Northwest Washington. Rosenbaum, 63, died at 7:10 p.m. at Howard University Hospital, where he was treated for a head injury suffered during the attack on Gramercy Street NW, said Philip Taubman, chief of the Times's...

The son of a Georgian politician and a Ukrainian mother, Gongadze studied in Lviv before starting in journalism in Georgia. In April 2000, he co-founded the newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda ("Ukrainian Truth"), publishing it online in an effort to avoid pressure from the government and businessmen. The newspaper soon produced a range of investigative articles about Ukraine's oligarchs and commentaries...

Press freedom organisations have expressed alarm at the decision of the Paraguayan Supreme Court of Justice to uphold the criminal defamation conviction of Aldo Zuccolillo, director of the Paraguayan daily ABC Color. The Court ordered Zuccolillo on December 28, 2005 to pay a fine of 1.3 billion guaraníes (US$ 200,000), the Asunción-based ABC Color reported. Zuccolillo faces 18 lawsuits over

Every New Year, newspapers around the country borrow the old David Letterman routine to produce lists of the 10 "biggest" stories. But more than revealing what was significant about the past year, these summaries offer insight about journalists' news philosophy. The San Francisco Chronicle's Steve Rubenstein and the San Jose Mercury News' Scott Herhold agreed on only one story in their top 10: a...

NEW YORK: While doubtful at first, the sale of Knight Ridder seems to be very real. The San Jose Mercury News reports that this week, Knight Ridder executives begin meeting with potential buyers, a process that will take about three weeks. A final decision by the board is at least two months away. Since the possibility of a sale is growing stronger, the real question is how much Knight Ridder can...

Ads from Internet search leader Google Inc. now appear in the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, it was confirmed Monday, as the search giant continues to dip its toe into new advertising backwaters. Over the last few days, Google has been buying up space in the paper, and filling it with classified-style advertisements from Chicago-area businesses that also advertise on Google's Internet sites...

NEW YORK - The British Broadcasting Corp. will make about 40 video news clips available daily in the United States and Canada for Internet and cell phone subscribers through a deal with ABC News. BBC News producers will choose segments on top world and U.K. news, along with topical items such as entertainment, business and technology news. ABC did not say when it will begin offering the clips. Nor...