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?

Matthew VanDyke, the self-styled "Arab Spring Freedom Fighter" from Baltimore, was a friend of the two American journalists who were beheaded by Islamic State militants. VanDyke met James Foley and Steven Sotloff during his travels in Libya, and it was Foley to whom he first confided what we all later came to learn - that VanDyke was neither a journalist nor a filmmaker when he was captured and held in a Libyan prison for six months in 2011. Instead, he had gone there to fight with the rebels who eventually overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Newspapers are in trouble. Not just because of the Internet and advertising and subscriptions. But because, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, only 28 percent of Americans think that journalists contribute a lot to society's well being. That's pretty bad considering that journalists like to think of themselves as guardians of democracy. In other business enterprises, such public disdain would be a cause for alarm. But newspapers are different. Criticize journalistic professionalism, and you're likely to hear a thing or two about the importance of the First Amendment, or my favorite catch-all self-justification: If people are unhappy with us, "we must be doing something right!"

In 1970, American blood was being shed on the killing fields of Vietnam. Congress lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. Richard Nixon's Oval Office conversations were being recorded. And in Annapolis, a cub reporter was hired by the Evening Capital. He was nearly 30 years old, borderline ancient for a beginning daily newspaper reporter. Unlike other Capital staffers, he was a Naval Academy graduate with a master's degree in journalism, and he was a Vietnam war combat veteran. And he could not type.

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.

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.

 With Amazon founder Jeff Bezos buying the Washington Post and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar putting up $250 milllion for a project featuring journalist Glenn Greenwald, it is starting to feel as tech billionaires might be just the folks to save journalism. But what kind of owners will they be? That's one of the questions discussed on Howard Kurtz's "Media Buzz" show Sunday on Fox News. Here's video (below) of Kurtz, me and Farhad Manjoo, tech columnist for the Wall Street Journal, talking about the roles tech money and expertise could play in the future of journalism.

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.

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.

George W. Collins, a pioneering Baltimore journalist who chronicled the civil rights movement and other significant events in Maryland history, died last week at age 88. Collins began his career as a reporter and then editor-in-chief for Baltimore's Afro-American in the 1950s, and joined the staff of WMAR-TV in 1968, later becoming an anchor and an associate editor. He also hosted a biweekly public-affairs show Thursday evenings on WEAA-FM, Morgan State University's public radio station.

Newspapers are in trouble. Not just because of the Internet and advertising and subscriptions. But because, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, only 28 percent of Americans think that journalists contribute a lot to society's well being. That's pretty bad considering that journalists like to think of themselves as guardians of democracy. In other business enterprises, such public disdain would be a cause for alarm. But newspapers are different. Criticize journalistic professionalism, and you're likely to hear a thing or two about the importance of the First Amendment, or my favorite catch-all self-justification: If people are unhappy with us, "we must be doing something right!"

Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein can add another educational accomplishment to his resume - a certificate of completion from the University of Maryland and the state attorney general's office for an online course on Maryland's Open Meetings Act. Sharfstein, a pediatrician who has a degree from Harvard Medical School, among others, volunteered for the extra schooling after the state's health exchange lawyers said someone on each...

Ralph Dawson Matthews Jr., a former managing editor of the Baltimore Afro-American who worked closely with Malcolm X in the early 1960s and once shared a house with a young Miles Davis, died April 3 at the Adelphi House assisted living facility in Adelphi, Prince George's County. Mr. Dawson died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD. He was 86. "Ralph was always very inquisitive," remembered Harry Peaker, a retired mathematician who grew up with Mr. Matthews in Northwest Baltimore.

Leland Yee, a Democratic state senator and candidate for secretary of state in California, has been a longtime champion of gun control. This week he was arrested on numerous charges, including conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and conspiracy to illegally transport firearms. Mr. Yee, a prominent foe of assault weapons, allegedly took bribes to set up a meeting between an undercover agent and an international arms dealer to broker the sale of automatic weapons and shoulder-fired missiles.

In the history of presidential campaign books, Theodore H. White's "The Making of the President" series in the 1960s set the standard for campaign books to follow. He combined unique access and a sweeping view of the process to help voters judge the candidates and understand the quadrennial exercise as well. Teddy White was a pleasant and avuncular figure who gained that access through a combination of fairness and sympathetic schmoozing. It was once said, disparagingly, that Mr. White was the kind of reporter who could always go back to his sources, meaning he never gave offense to them in what he wrote.

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.

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.

Audrey Barnes, a broadcast journalist most recently at Fox 5 News in Washington, has been named Laurel's new Director of Communications, Mayor Craig Moe announced Thursday morning. Barnes, a Laurel native and Laurel High graduate, will succeed Pete Piringer, who announced last week he was leaving the city after a year and a half to become the public information officer for the Montgomery County Department of Fire and Rescue Services. Piringer's last day will be March 24.  “Audrey is a natural to take Laurel's Government to the People program to the next level," Moe said in a statement released today.  Among Barnes duties will be overseeing the city's cable television station, Laurel Community Media Network, formerly known as the Laurel Cable Network; and increasing the city's presence on social media, Moe said in the statement.

After much criticism from conservative quarters, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided, at least for now, to withdraw plans for its proposed study of how media organizations gather and report news. The expressed goal of the survey was to determine if the "critical information needs" of the public are being met. In making the announcement, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated the survey would be "revised" and that the government agency had "no intention" of regulating political speech of journalists or other broadcasters.