2005-2014

Perhaps because there has been so little real news to report – before the earthquake, of course – over the last several weeks, the media themselves have become the story. Nearly everywhere I go people are discussing the media, arguing about our ethics and lamenting the trend towards sensationalising news. The most influential of the critics, of course, has been the Prime Minister. Angered by...

Would you be reading this story if it were displayed on a 2-by-2-inch screen on your BlackBerry? How about if it were electronically printed on a video scroll that spooled a few inches out of the side of your cell phone? Could you tell what was in the tiny picture? Now. Would you read this story if it were electronically printed on a paper-thin video screen the size of a tabloid newspaper, or...

Was there ever an industry that took such a morbid relish in predicting its own demise as the newspaper business? Newspaper people are chronically, maybe even genetically, committed to brooding about the day -- and it's usually soon -- their institutions will be gone. Predictions of our demise come in two forms, the general and the specific. Of the former, Eric Black writes in the Minneapolis Star...

Alexandria, VA–A new study released today by the Media Research Center, TV’s Bad News Brigade, reveals the three commercial network nightly news broadcasts have been overwhelmingly biased in their coverage of Iraq. The MRC analyzed all broadcasts of ABC’s World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, and the CBS Evening News from January 1 through September 30 and found 61 percent of the stories were...

A fresh spat has erupted between India and Nepal with a minister here taking exception to a statement issued by New Delhi on fresh media curbs in the Himalayan kingdom. Radhakrishna Mainali, the minister for sports an education who was nominated by King Gyanendra after the monarch grabbed power earlier this year, came down heavily on India's ministry of external affairs, saying it was "nakedly...

KATHMANDU, Oct 15 - Education Minister Radha Krishna Mainali on Saturday criticized the Indian government's statement against the newly introduced Press Ordinance. "Indian government should not intervene in the internal matters of Nepal," he said, while speaking at the Reporters' Club Nepal. "It should not be India's concern what the Nepal government does." He also criticized the recent visit of...

Kathmandu, Oct. 15: Some people always tend to look at the darker side of everything, and this has also happened in the newly announced ordinance to amend some provisions of the Communication Act. There is no denying that the press should be free, fair and responsible. But even those who advocate for unbridled freedom agree that accountability has been the weakest point of journalism in Nepal. It...

I’ve been blogging for almost two weeks now. Only a few people, mostly those I know and have bribed with coffee, have commented. But I’m out there. Web-logging to my heart’s content about all kinds of topics – obituaries for pets, objectivity, mistakes in stories, multi-tasking media maniacs, mucking horse stalls. Mucking stalls? You’ll have to read the blog’s archives. Later this month when I go...

Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq - news - research - Cramer's Take) has joined the whirlwind Internet industry courtship of AOL, sources say. The news comes as AOL, whose core dial-up business has been long viewed as an albatross for parent Time Warner (TWX:NYSE - news - research - Cramer's Take), has suddenly emerged as a hot property on the fast-changing Internet landscape. Talks among Time Warner, Google...

PANAJI: The hearing of the anticipatory bail application filed before the sessions court in Panaji by Arun Sinha, the editor of Navhind Times, Goa's largest circulated daily, after being charged with molestation by his 11-year-old domestic help, has been postponed to Saturday. Sinha reportedly remained underground in Vasco for the second straight day since the child fled to his neighbours on...