Controversies & Scandals

Counts of plagiarism and fabrication of news in the United States were higher in 2006 than in the previous year, according to Regret The Error. Regret The Error, which reports on corrections, retractions, clarifications and trends regarding accuracy and honesty in the US media, says in its annual roundup of 2006, “There's more scrutiny than ever before and Google has made it easier to catch a...

The story of the gay sheep is an example of the distortion that can result when science meets the global news cycle. Charles Roselli set out to discover what makes some sheep gay. Then the news media and the blogosphere got hold of the story. Dr. Roselli, a researcher at the Oregon Health and Science University, has searched for the past five years for physiological factors that might explain why...

BRUSSELS, (AFP) - After taking action against Microsoft and Google, Belgium's French-speaking newspapers are seeking redress from another Internet search engine, Yahoo, their lawyer has said. "We sent a letter of formal notice to Yahoo yesterday" so that it will stop publishing articles from Belgian newspapers on its search engine without prior authorisation, said Bernard Magrez, lawyer for the...

Refusing to grant a stay on sealing of the premises of Indian Express newspaper, the Delhi High Court today asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the land owning agency, to file a status report on the lease deed and land use tomorrow. Adjourning the matter till tomorrow, the bench of acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma asked the DDA to file the status report. Counsel...

The head of news at the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been accused of acting arbitrarily in unofficially blacklisting eight journalists and commentators. Among the banned journalists is Israel-based freelancer Paula Slier, a Jerusalem Post contributor, who has been barred from reporting because she is a Jew. SABC management set up a commission under former SABC head...

It took 31 years, but Newsweek magazine admitted it was incorrect about climate change. In a nearly 1,000-word correction, Senior Editor Jerry Adler finally agreed that a 1975 piece on global cooling “was so spectacularly wrong about the near-term future.” Even then, Adler wasn’t quite willing to blame Newsweek for the incredible failure. “In fact, the story wasn't ‘wrong’ in the journalistic...

MIAMI - The Miami Herald's publisher resigned Tuesday, saying "ambiguously communicated" personnel policies resulted in the firings of three journalists at its Spanish-language paper who were paid to appear on U.S.-government broadcasts aimed at promoting democracy in Cuba. Jesus Diaz Jr., the papers' publisher since July 2005, had dismissed two El Nuevo Herald reporters and a freelance...

CELEBRITY photographer Jamie Fawcett has won round one in a legal battle against Fairfax newspapers, with a jury finding yesterday he was defamed by a gossip columnist over the alleged bugging of Nicole Kidman's Sydney home. The former private detective sued over a January 20 article by Annette Sharp in The Sun-Herald's entertainment section. In what Fawcett's barrister Bruce McClintock described...

Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has for the first time been linked to an elaborate sting operation targeting a CNET News.com reporter that lies at the heart of the company's attempts to determine the source of a boardroom leak. The Washington Post reported on its Web site late Wednesday night that an internal e-mail sent by HP Chairman Patricia Dunn indicated that Hurd approved of an e-mail ruse...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has asked the agency's inspector general to investigate why two draft reports on television and radio ownership never saw the light of day until now. Martin, a Republican, said Monday evening he sought the review after Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer questioned whether the agency suppressed the reports, dated 2003...