Free Press

Seems there's some confusion about the role of a free press in a democratic society. President Bush lauds the concept as an American tradition he hopes new governments such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan will emulate. But as he and his supporters watch a free press function as intended here at home, they don't like what they see - and charge that the press is out of line. Most offensive to them, and this may apply particularly to Vice President Dick Cheney, is that the press is, well, free.

Now comes the Baltimore Sun editorial staff that just recently blasted the Second Amendment rights to gun ownership ("Ban assault weapons," March 22) raising the roof that the press' First Amendment Rights have been trumped on because of the gathering of AP phone records by the Obama administration's attorney general ("An assault on press freedom," May 15). Either the Sun editorial staff thinks their readers are too stupid to know the hypocrisy of their positions on these two issues, or they actually believe supporting the Constitution is a menu of pick and choose.

CASABLANCA, Morocco -- More than 500 years before Alexis de Tocqueville memorialized his impressions of American society in his celebrated Democracy in America, a Berber traveler from Morocco set off from Tangier on a pilgrimage to Mecca that would last 30 years. Thereafter known as the "Traveler of Islam," Ibn Battuta authored a travel chronicle that would have a profound effect on Islam for centuries. Unlike Democracy in America, which was concerned with demystifying American life for a French audience, Mr. Battuta orchestrated his own cultural exchange program, taking tidbits from the lands he visited during his trek and sharing them with his rapturous Islamic audience.

I fervently believe in a free press, in media free to expose wrong-doing no matter whose. But dare I invoke the concept of limits? From the moment of that horrific Boston marathon bombing, the incessant speculations and suppositions - all preceding any actual facts - began. I do understand that reporting necessarily requires filling space, but providing a veritable manual on building a more effective bomb (this was a relatively "unsophisticated" bomb and specifics on why) and CNN's detailed report of April 25 enumerating each mistake made (how the brothers "goofed" by wearing a cap backward or not wearing sunglasses made them more identifiable, how the cell phone seized from the hijacked vehicle was traceable, etc.)

IN RUSSIA, yet again, a news organization that just happens to offer a courageous alternative to the Kremlin's line just happens to fall into severe financial difficulties. The first to go, last year, was the NTV television station, which offered news reports that were by no means impartial or balanced but were pointed and sometimes devastating. When its debts were called in by the state-controlled Gazprom company, the NTV crew decamped to TV-6. But soon - wouldn't you know it - the giant Lukoil company was using its shareholdings in that station to shut it down.

Mitch Albom, one of Detroit's most prominent figures, is a one-man multimedia entity as a nationally known sports columnist, radio and TV personality, best-selling author and playwright. He added another role last week, one no journalist wants. Albom is making news rather than reporting it, under suspension from the Detroit Free Press until the paper completes an investigation of a fabrication in a column by Albom that ran last Sunday. Reaction in the journalism community, from columnist peers to college instructors, ranged from harsh to empathetic.

Now comes the Baltimore Sun editorial staff that just recently blasted the Second Amendment rights to gun ownership ("Ban assault weapons," March 22) raising the roof that the press' First Amendment Rights have been trumped on because of the gathering of AP phone records by the Obama administration's attorney general ("An assault on press freedom," May 15). Either the Sun editorial staff thinks their readers are too stupid to know the hypocrisy of their positions on these two issues, or they actually believe supporting the Constitution is a menu of pick and choose.

DETROIT -- When Ford Motor Co. handed out bonuses for 2006 this month, the checks that high-level managers got were a lot more than the $300 to $800 most workers throughout the company received. About 6,000 high-level managers at Ford operations around the world were eligible to receive bonuses that ranged from several thousand dollars to $15,000 or more, employees with knowledge of the bonuses told the Detroit Free Press. This month, Ford said it would pay what it called "modest bonuses" to all of its hourly and salaried workers below the rank of manager despite having posted a record $12.7 billion loss last year and having missed important market share goals.

Mark Twain: A Life Ron Powers Free Press / 736 pages / $16 Powers' majestic biography of America's beloved 19th-century literary giant puts flesh on a figure who was in danger of deification, a fate Twain hoped to avert. Powers succeeds, our reviewer, Michael Shelden, wrote last year, restoring "the faded splendor of an epic life."

Joe Seneca, an actor known for his work in movies about slavery, black leaders and human dignity, died Thursday in New York from an asthma attack. He never revealed his age, but his agent estimated he was in his late 70s.Mr. Seneca's last movie was "A Time to Kill," the courtroom thriller based on John Grisham's novel. His first big film was "The Verdict," in which he played a medical expert. He also appeared in "Silverado," "Crossroads" and "Mississippi Masala."Camilla Horn, 93, femme fatale in the heyday of the German screen, died Wednesday in Gilching, Germany.

It is not often that I find myself in agreement with former governor turned columnist Robert Ehrlich, or in sympathy with the four Republican contenders in this year's GOP presidential primary. However, I must support Governor Ehrlich's comment about cutting the candidates some slack on the stump ("Give pols a pass for verbal miscues," March 18). The risks of making embarrassing verbal mistakes while campaigning in a free society with a free press put exceptional pressure on those in the limelight.

In its editorial "Police and fire fighters' misguided protest" (Feb. 2), The Sun calls on police and fire fighters to refrain from picketing the June 2011 U.S. Conference of Mayors convention because it could hurt city business. The irony of that suggestion is impossible to overlook. The Baltimore Sun, once a grand institution of the free press in America, is urging the city's police and fire fighters to refrain from exercising their rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

On the day the last newspaper is published, I expect no sympathy card from Kwame Kilpatrick. Were it not for a newspaper - The Detroit Free Press - his use of public funds to cover up his affair with one of his aides would be unrevealed, and he might still be mayor of Detroit. Nor will I expect flowers from Larry Craig. Were it not for a newspaper - The Idaho Statesman - we would not know of his propensity for taking a "wide stance" in airport men's rooms and he might still be serving in the U.S. Senate.

Ask the man who owns one," which became one of the automotive industry's most enduring slogans, was unveiled by the Packard Motor Car Co. in 1901. The story goes that a potential buyer called one day and asked for a sales brochure. When a secretary related the request, James Packard, who founded the company with his brother William in 1899, replied that such literature didn't exist and is reputed to have said: "Tell him to ask the man who owns one." Now, as the Big Three automakers patiently wait with upturned palms for White House intervention and a slice of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund to save their troubled industry, it's a moment to recall the halcyon days when automakers wooed buyers with snappy advertising slogans and jingles cooked up by Tin Pan Alley and Madison Avenue.

Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years By David Talbot Free Press / 479 pages / $15 Published in paperback to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, the book focuses on the relationship between Bobby and John F. Kennedy. The book is based on interviews with more than 150 people as well as government documents, and tells, among other things, of JFK's efforts to prevent war with the Soviet Union and Bobby Kennedy's secret quest to solve his brother's murder.

DETROIT -- When Ford Motor Co. handed out bonuses for 2006 this month, the checks that high-level managers got were a lot more than the $300 to $800 most workers throughout the company received. About 6,000 high-level managers at Ford operations around the world were eligible to receive bonuses that ranged from several thousand dollars to $15,000 or more, employees with knowledge of the bonuses told the Detroit Free Press. This month, Ford said it would pay what it called "modest bonuses" to all of its hourly and salaried workers below the rank of manager despite having posted a record $12.7 billion loss last year and having missed important market share goals.

I fervently believe in a free press, in media free to expose wrong-doing no matter whose. But dare I invoke the concept of limits? From the moment of that horrific Boston marathon bombing, the incessant speculations and suppositions - all preceding any actual facts - began. I do understand that reporting necessarily requires filling space, but providing a veritable manual on building a more effective bomb (this was a relatively "unsophisticated" bomb and specifics on why) and CNN's detailed report of April 25 enumerating each mistake made (how the brothers "goofed" by wearing a cap backward or not wearing sunglasses made them more identifiable, how the cell phone seized from the hijacked vehicle was traceable, etc.)

Kathy Huffhines, 48, movie critic for the Detroit Free Press, died Thursday of head injuries received when a tree fell onto the car in which she was riding in Philadelphia. She joined the Free Press in 1987 after stints with the Boston Herald and two alternative Boston publications, the Real Paper and the Boston Phoenix.Arthur Raymond Brooks, a World War I ace who shot down six German Fokkers and whose Spad XIII fighter is on display at the Smithsonian Institution, died Wednesday at his home in Summit, N.J. He was 95. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Silver Medal of the City of Paris.

From the pecan cabinetry to the flagstone patio, no detail about the Roland Park charmer featured in The Examiner's real estate section goes unnoticed, but for this: The guy trying to sell the place, Examiner Publisher Michael Phelps. Phelps has been trying to unload his home at 620 W. University Parkway since Dec. 6, when it was listed for $606,000. It was back in December that Phelps, who'd been publisher of the Baltimore paper since its launch last April, was named chief executive officer of the Baltimore-Washington Examiner Group, meaning he would oversee the Examiner in both towns.

CASABLANCA, Morocco -- More than 500 years before Alexis de Tocqueville memorialized his impressions of American society in his celebrated Democracy in America, a Berber traveler from Morocco set off from Tangier on a pilgrimage to Mecca that would last 30 years. Thereafter known as the "Traveler of Islam," Ibn Battuta authored a travel chronicle that would have a profound effect on Islam for centuries. Unlike Democracy in America, which was concerned with demystifying American life for a French audience, Mr. Battuta orchestrated his own cultural exchange program, taking tidbits from the lands he visited during his trek and sharing them with his rapturous Islamic audience.