| Top Stories in Journalism |
| "Nightly" facelift | | Date Created: Nov 09, 2004, 06:00 PM |
 BTW, great coverage from Iraq, particularly Kevin Sites' reporting.
His story tonight conveyed, to me at least, a measure of how terrifying it must be for our soldiers to be fighting in the streets of Fallujah right now. |
| J-School and statistics worth the bother? | | Date Created: Oct 26, 2004, 12:09 PM |
The long-running argument of whether journalism should be learned in school or on the job is taken up today in the Christian Science Monitor. Journalism schools are more popular that ever, the paper notes (see earlier post). But, the paper asks, is journalism education worth the bother?
Meanwhile, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern is reviewing whether to continue requiring students to take statistics. Journalists are notorious for being weak on math, even though most stories require some facility with numbers. The BYU journalism program is replacing its statistics program in Fall 2005 with a required Research in Journalism course. The class, which also replaces a general communications research class, is expected to concentrate on research and analytical skills, so-called Precision Journalism skills, computer-assisted reporting, and interviewing.
Check it out: Online statistics help for journalists |
| Poor O'Reilly | | Date Created: Oct 17, 2004, 08:29 PM |
 Bill O'Reilly has been on the air the past few days, defending himself in typical fashion: by blaming someone else. Just the sort of thing he'd accuse others of.
"This is the single most evil thing that has happened to me," he told his viewers. Which may be true if he had not said they things he's accused of saying to Andrea Mackris. But, have you noticed he has not yet denied saying them? Mackris' lawyer has cleverly hinted at the existence of tapes, putting O'Reilly in a corner.
But, if O'Reilly did talk dirty to Mackris, is that not evil?
How sadly ironic that his new book is for children. This is not going to help sales!
Related: Bill O'Reilly background
Earlier: It ain't the 'No Sin Zone' (October 14) |
| Must See TV: Jon Stewart on Crossfire | | Date Created: Oct 17, 2004, 08:00 PM |
 If you don't watch Crossfire you don't miss much -- normally, at least. But last Friday was a good one! Jon Stewart told Crossfire hosts how little he thinks of the CNN broadcast and implored Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson to "stop hurting the country."
In a particularly pointed exchange, Stewart told Carlson that Crossfire is theater posing as journalism:
STEWART: It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.
CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?
STEWART: Absolutely.
CARLSON: You've got to be kidding me. He comes on and you...
STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.
STEWART: What is wrong with you?
CARLSON: Well, I'm just saying, there's no reason for you -- when you have this marvelous opportunity not to be the guy's butt boy, to go ahead and be his butt boy. Come on. It's embarrassing.
STEWART: I was absolutely his butt boy. I was so far -- you would not believe what he ate two weeks ago.
STEWART: You know, the interesting thing I have is, you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.
CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think.
STEWART: You need to go to one.
The thing that I want to say is, when you have people on for just knee-jerk, reactionary talk...
CARLSON: Wait. I thought you were going to be funny. Come on. Be funny.
STEWART: No. No. I'm not going to be your monkey.
(LAUGHTER)
BEGALA: Go ahead. Go ahead.
STEWART: I watch your show every day. And it kills me.
CARLSON: I can tell you love it.
STEWART: It's so -- oh, it's so painful to watch.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: You know, because we need what you do. This is such a great opportunity you have here to actually get politicians off of their marketing and strategy.
CARLSON: Is this really Jon Stewart? What is this, anyway?
STEWART: Yes, it's someone who watches your show and cannot take it anymore.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: I just can't.
CARLSON: What's it like to have dinner with you? It must be excruciating. Do you like lecture people like this or do you come over to their house and sit and lecture them; they're not doing the right thing, that they're missing their opportunities, evading their responsibilities? STEWART: If I think they are.
(LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: I wouldn't want to eat with you, man. That's horrible.
STEWART: I know. And you won't. But the thing I want to get to...
BEGALA: We did promise naked pictures of the Supreme Court justices.
CARLSON: Yes, we did. Let's get to those.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: They're in this book, which is a very funny book.
STEWART: Why can't we just talk -- please, I beg of you guys, please.
CARLSON: I think you watch too much CROSSFIRE.
We're going to take a quick break.
STEWART: No, no, no, please.
CARLSON: No, no, hold on. We've got commercials.
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: Please. Please stop.
CARLSON: Next, Jon Stewart in the "Rapid Fire."
STEWART: Please stop.
CARLSON: Hopefully, he'll be here, we hope, we think.
Begala and Carlson must have been expecting Stewart to plug his book and skewer politicians. They even asked him to be funny. He was funny, but at their expense. When Tucker Carlson tried to turn the criticism back on Stewart, accusing the Daily Show host of being soft on John Kerry, Stewart told him, "You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show."
If you missed it, there are a couple of places on the web to see it:
Media Matters
IndyMedia
iFilm
Related:
Jon Stewart torches Crossfire hosts - New York Daily News (October 16, 2004)
Left Hooks and Right Jabs - Wash Post (October 16, 2004)
Earlier:
Bill Moyers on Jon Stewart - NOW (July 11, 2003)
What happened to Tucker? (May 13, 2004) |
| Articles in Journalism (Total Entries: 163) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
|
|
