News

In early 2004, Pat Robertson divined the outcome of the presidential election, then ten months away. "I think George Bush is going to win in a walk," he said on a broadcast of "The 700 Club." "I really believe I’m hearing from the Lord it’s going to be like a blowout election in 2004." God – or at least the fervent, all-justifying, "Christian soldier" belief in God, and of course God’s opposite...

A good way of getting a laugh in a room filled with business people is to utter the words: "Trust me, I'm a journalist." The ribaldry was good natured when I witnessed it a couple of weeks ago but it underscored a feeling that journalists languish somewhere in the realms of property salesmen when it comes to public esteem. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, there is cause for a better assessment and it...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Viacom has done it. Carl Icahn wants Time Warner to do it. And some think it could make sense for Disney, Sony and General Electric to do it too. Welcome to Splitsville. Now that Viacom has splintered off into two companies, other big media companies could find themselves facing increased pressure to break up or, at the very least, sell off assets. All the major media...

The safety of the Deputy Editor of Awareness Times Newspaper, Theophilus S. Gbenda, currently hangs in the balance following death threats issued against him by acting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Khrushchev Kargbo of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP). t all happened on Friday December 30, 2005 when Theophilus and myself were strolling along Siaka Stevens Street. Approaching the Law Court...

Two journalists who have been remanded in prison custody since December 23 2005, Klem Ofuokwu and Cleopatra Taiwo, have been released on bail. Judge of a High Court in Port Harcourt, Justice Adolphus Enebeli, who had earlier denied the Rhythm 93.7 F.M staff bail, ordered their release owing to the state government’s readiness to try them summarily. In his ruling on the bail application on Tuesday...

Mohamed Amir Ahmed (Fares Amir) was arrested by police at his home in Male’ yesterday, family sources stated. The reason for the detention is unknown. Family sources said that three men from the ‘Star Force’ unit of the police arrived at Amir’s house on Thursday and ordered him to accompany them to the police headquarters in the capital. Amir’s wife said that the police gave no reason for the...

The imperfections of the newsgathering craft were glaring this week when television viewers and newspaper readers across the country were given a joyously miraculous survival story regarding trapped West Virginia coal miners. Unfortunately, that euphoric good-news story turned out to be wrong and had to be replaced by the tragic reality that only one of the 13 miners was rescued alive. Some in our...

NEW YORK As newspapers conduct damage control after early Wednesday's error, in which most wrongly reported that 12 trapped miners had been rescued in West Virginia, many editors are defending their mistake by saying they were misled by various sources, including the state's governor. Yet, even after extensive follow-up coverage today, serious questions about the sourcing, and its use, remain. "AP...

RELATIVES of miners missing after an underground explosion in West Virginia were told they were alive – only to have their hopes dashed three hours later when it was discovered that only one of 13 men survived. Ben Hatfield, the chief executive of the International Coal Group, the mine's owners, said a "miscommunication" from inside the mine to the command centre was overheard and spread to the...

The owners of a mine in the United States say a "miscommunication" is responsible for families being told 11 dead miners had survived an explosion. The International Coal Group had announced that 12 of 13 missing miners had been found alive but the 13th man had died. However, hours later the company announced that just one miner had survived the explosion at the Sago mine in West Virginia. Ben...