Journalists

Letter writer John Bonn's accusation that former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and the GOP are out of touch with reality as related to the journalistic elitist left is a pure example of self-delusion ("The GOP lost because it's out of touch," Nov. 28). If Mr. Bonn's lofty opinion of reality is shaped by today's journalistic credentials then he needs to re-examine the reality of the left's agenda without the arrogance of a card-carrying liberal. Since when do Democrats have the sole pulse of "real world" politics or societal challenges?

A group of journalists and freedom of information campaigners are suing in federal court in Baltimore to get greater access to proceedings in the military trial of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning who is accused of leaking thousands of classified documents. The suit was brought by Julian Assange, the organizer behind WikiLeaks, Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, The Nation opinion journal and other organizations. It asks for access to filings in the case, orders of the court and transcripts or audio recordings of the proceedings.

The cryptic email went out this week to some of the region's news media — including WMAR-TV and The Baltimore Sun — asking journalists to appear before the city's grand jury, which plans to spend the next few months analyzing the impact of crime coverage on efforts to end violence. It's a sort of term project squeezed in between criminal indictments, and a decades-old tradition for the panel. In addition to evaluating state's evidence, the 23 grand jurors in the city also examine a social issue during their four-month tenure and make recommendations for change.

You will find no tears here for the cancellation of Brian Williams' "Rock Center," which was first reported Friday by the New York Times. It was one of the sorriest excuses for a newsmagazine that I have seen in 30 years of reporting on network television. I wrote that as many times in as many ways as I could since its debut. From the hiring of the Chelsea Clinton as special correspondent, to the quotes from Williams comparing his team to the baseball Hall of Famers in Cooperstown, never has such journalistic bankruptcy been promoted with such self-important bluster.

I agree with The Sun's recent position on the relevance of Governor Romney's experience at Bain Capital to the presidential race that's already underway ("The Bain of Romney's campaign," May 22), but the methodology is curious. Asking Mr. Romney to give us his version of how Bain helped create jobs and save companies is like asking the fox how it protected the henhouse - or asking David Plouffe how President Barack Obama's stimulus package saved us from an even deeper recession. We'll get an answer, but it will have been vetted, cooked, skewed, and totally useless as a guide to making an informed decision about whose economic vision should guide the country as we begin to creep out of a long recession.

What ever happened to paying your dues? Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps? Rags to riches? Those quintessential elements of the American dream have been replaced by a "child of" meritocracy in which your birth certificate means more than your resume. Chelsea Clinton has been added to NBC's stable of reporters, and the sound you hear is that of thousands of unemployed journalists weeping over their Starbucks applications. She is the latest in a growing list of children famous because their parents are famous becoming high profile broadcasters.

There was a time when the lines between the practices of politics and journalism were clear-cut. Professional politicians did their thing, which was getting elected and getting others elected. Professional journalists did theirs, writing and telling how the politicians did what they did. Seldom did the two meet in public opinion forums Today, political operatives are regular commentators and analysts on radio, television and the Internet, and journalists of all political persuasions run for public office, sometimes getting elected.

A FEW RECENT headlines tell the tale: "News is bad all around for journalists;" "The Forecast: Overheated, Gusty and Increasingly Bloggy;" and "Fear and Favor: Why is everyone mad at the mainstream media." They make the case that fear and self-loathing - R.I.P. Hunter S. Thompson - are rampant among journalists. The stories describe constant challenges of the media's credibility and accuracy; note how judicial decisions are weakening media rights; and assess the public's increasingly negative view of newspapers and other media.

The trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, and recent disclosures about the relationship of CNBC's Maria Bartiromo with a banking executive are shining a harsh light on the sometimes overly symbiotic relationships between reporters and their sources. In the Libby trial, some of Washington's highest-profile journalists -- including NBC's Tim Russert, host of Meet the Press, and Judith Miller, formerly with The New York Times -- have been forced to explain under oath the intricacies of their off-the-record dealings with White House officials, something that normally stays well hidden.

At the end of a wild week that saw more than 100 attacks on journalists and press facilities in Egypt, TV news executives were left shaking their heads at the volatility and violence, but vowing to continue to find ways to cover the tumult in days ahead. "I think yesterday was as dangerous a day as I've known," Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International, said late Friday. "I cannot recall a day in which that many TV crews and reporters got threatened, beaten up, had gear stolen and cars attacked," said Maddox, who has overseen coverage in such war zones as Iraq and Afghanistan.

A source in Maryland Republican Party circles provided the Maryland Politics blog with the following memo being distributed by party leaders. It seems curious that an organization that struggles to get media attention in a Democratic-dominated state would try to limit coverage in any way, but, hey, those bloggers are in some cases renegade Republicans who have the temerity to think the party could be run a bit better. Anyway, here's the memo. We'll leave it to readers to specualte on the psychology behind the all-caps in each reference to the MARYLAND REPUBLICAN PARTY.

Barbara Walters will retire in May of next year, a source familiar with her plans told Reuters on Thursday . (Deadline Hollywood broke the story; Read it here .) The 83-year-old executive producer and co-host of "The View" has struggled with health issues in recent months. A slip and fall sent her to the hospital earlier this year. That was followed by a bout with chicken pox. "The View," one of the most successful daytime talk shows on television, is in the process of a radical overhaul with several of the original co-hosts gone or about to go. Walters was the first female co-anchor of a network morning show at NBC's "Today" in 1974.

Robert P. Slaff, a former marine-supply vendor and journalist who wrote widely on Chesapeake Bay maritime and environmental matters, died March 8 of congestive heart failure at Crofton Care and Rehabilitation Center. The Epping Forest resident was 89. The son of a newspaper distributor and a homemaker, Robert Paul Slaff was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and raised in Kingston, Pa., near Wilkes-Barre. After graduating in 1940 from Wyoming Seminary Preparatory School in Kingston, Mr. Slaff began studies at the University of Michigan, where he also was a member of the Navy ROTC.

The head of online news at the Annapolis Capital has been arrested after investigators in Pennsylvania said he tried to meet for sex with an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old girl, the paper reported. George Lundskow, 55, faces six charges including two of unlawful contact with a minor for alleged offenses committed last November, court records in Pennsylvania show. Lundskow was taken into custody Friday night, according to Anne Arundel County police, and court records show he is being held without bond.

Remember when Chelsea Clinton and NBC News launched this misadventure featuring her as a "special correspondent" on "Rock Center" with a fanfare of hype and outright lies about what she and the journalistically-challenged NBC News were up to? Steve Capus, the recently deposed president of NBC News, said "it was as if she had been preparing her whole life" for the job. Clinton herself told "Rock Center" host Brian Williams as part of her first appearance that she took the TV job to lead a more "purposefully public life" highlighting people who are "making a difference.

There was a time when the lines between the practices of politics and journalism were clear-cut. Professional politicians did their thing, which was getting elected and getting others elected. Professional journalists did theirs, writing and telling how the politicians did what they did. Seldom did the two meet in public opinion forums Today, political operatives are regular commentators and analysts on radio, television and the Internet, and journalists of all political persuasions run for public office, sometimes getting elected.

NEW YORK -- Quaff free beer. Play pool. Stretch out for a complimentary massage. Though political conventions may conjure up images of delegates being wined and dined by lobbyists or attending wild parties thrown by special interest groups, there were plenty of perks last week at the Republican National Convention just for journalists -- at least those unhampered by ethical concerns. For the thousands of reporters in town to cover the Republican National Convention, free stuff from food to facials was only a short stroll away.

Journalism is a weird trade. It plays a role at the center of democracy, but resides in a chaos of perceptions, at once reviled and revered, misrepresented and romanticized. Janet Malcolm took journalists to task in the New Yorker, calling them seducers of their sources who massage and corrupt the raw material of life for the sake of The Story. No doubt many readers of that august magazine believed every word Malcolm wrote. Fiction writing ought to be able to help here. Novelists, after all, like to think of themselves as hotly pursuing greater truths.

Ending a tenure marked by the costly decline of the 'Today' show, the failure of the newsmagazine 'Rock Center'  and an erosion of journalistic values, Steve Capus Friday resigned as president of NBC News after almost eight years on the job. While NBC once had the number one morning and evening news shows on his watch, the last two years have been a story of failure for Capus and the network's news division. Morning shows are the engines that drive news division profits, and in the last 18 months, "Today" has managed to blow what seemed line an insurmountable lead to ABC's "Good Morning America" -- a development that has already cost the network hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue and promotional platforms.

Letter writer John Bonn's accusation that former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and the GOP are out of touch with reality as related to the journalistic elitist left is a pure example of self-delusion ("The GOP lost because it's out of touch," Nov. 28). If Mr. Bonn's lofty opinion of reality is shaped by today's journalistic credentials then he needs to re-examine the reality of the left's agenda without the arrogance of a card-carrying liberal. Since when do Democrats have the sole pulse of "real world" politics or societal challenges?