The Quill articles from May 2002

The Quill archives from May 2002

Definition of 'journalism' is a sticky question: and an even stickier question - do we need a definition? (From the Editor).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... What is a journalist? It's funny that such a simple question is so difficult to answer - or to even talk about. After all, we do journalism every day, right? Surely we should be able to define what we do. But what makes someone a...

FOI contributions deserve recognition: California SPJ chapter doles out awards to those working for access. (From the President).(freedom of information)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... One of the best things about being president of SPJ is the opportunity to meet exemplary journalists all over the nation and hear their stories. Most of these folks are not well-known reporters, photographers, editors or commentators. No,...

NBC reverses decision to run liquor ads. (Odds & Ends).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Just three months after NBC broke a decades-old ban on televised liquor advertisements, the network reversed its decision in March after a barrage of criticism from lawmakers and advocacy groups. NBC said leaders of both parties in...

E.W. Scripps to offer free political air time. (Odds & Ends).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... E.W. Scripps Co. said its television stations would offer free air time to political candidates prior to primary and general elections again this year. During the national elections in 2000, the Scripps stations had a similar policy. In...

Newspapers not replacing jobs. (Odds & Ends).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... Despite reports of an improving economy, publishers are not replacing positions that were cut during the past year. While an advertising recovery still maybe months away, it's almost certain that - barring another economic or political...

Atlantic Monthly to run 60,000-word series. (Odds & Ends).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Atlantic Monthly plans to run the longest piece of journalism it has ever published, and one of the longest in magazine history, The New York Times reported. The article, "American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center," by staff...

Papers drop financial listings. (Odds & Ends).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... It's a new kind of stock split, The Wall Street Journal reported in March: Financial tables are disappearing from a number of newspapers. As the industry's ad slump continues, large and small papers are cutting back or eliminating the...

Court strikes down cross-ownership ban. (Odds & Ends).(cable-system and local broadcast station in the same market)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... In a long-awaited decision, a federal appeals court in February struck down the cable-broadcast cross-ownership ban. The ban has prohibited companies from owning a cable-system and local broadcast station in the same market. However, the...

Book destroyed after libel suit threat. (Odds & Ends).(Trading With the Enemy)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Publisher HarperCollins has taken the rare step of destroying its inventory of a new book, fearing a potential libel suit. James A. Fox, vice president and general counsel of HarperCollins, conceded in a letter to James J. Cramer's lawyer...

Some criminal cases available online. (Odds & Ends).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Responding to nationwide interest in cases such as U.S. vs. Moussaoui, the federal case in Virginia involving a man accused of contributing to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Judicial Conference voted in March to allow access to...

Judge grants rights to non-pro newsgatherest. (Odds & Ends).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A federal court in Boston ruled in February that nonprofessional news gatherers have the same rights as professionals. The court's decision supported Patricia Demarest, who said a public access cable company, in effect, muzzled her. It...

GAG orders issued in Georgia, California. (Odds & Ends).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A Georgia judge in March modified a gag order he issued a month earlier in the case of a man charged in relation to the disposal of roughly 300 corpses at his crematorium in northwest Georgia. However, Walker County Superior Court Judge...

FCC halts satellite merger review. (Odds & Ends).(EchoStar Communications Corp. and Hughes Electronics)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Federal Communications Commission in March halted a review of satellite television company EchoStar Communications Corp.'s proposed $26 billion merger with Hughes Electronics. The FCC has asked EchoStar to provide more records and...

Pentagon closes propaganda office. (Odds & Ends).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Pentagon closed down its new "war on terrorism" propaganda office in February before it even opened. In a rare airing of disagreement within the Bush administration, officials said White House aides were furious about the Pentagon's...

What is a jour.na.list? Despite problems surfacing from the ambiguity of 'journalism,' many professionals are reluctant to specifically define what we do.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Webster's New World Dictionary (Third College Edition) defines a journalist this way: "A person whose occupation is journalism; reporter, news editor, etc." OK, then, what is journalism? The same dictionary gives this answer: "The work...

Do classes make a journalist? Many journalists say education is important, but not required.
May 1, 2002... Several years ago -- before the war on terrorism sparked concern over border security -- the American and Canadian governments tried to come up with an agreement that would make things easier for people who crossed regularly from one country...

Looking for online dollars: news providers are finding ways to make their Web sites profitable.
May 1, 2002... The Internet boom brought with it a set of buzzwords for the online news industry - "page views," "eyeballs," "site visitors." Back in those heady days of the year 2000, the goal was to get as many visitors as possible. Those publishers who...

SPJ reps pay visit to the capitol: society expressed concerns about access legislation. (Collecting Information).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Signs of early spring in Washington, D.C.: the first hints of blossoms on cherry trees. Irish pubs sprucing up for St. Patrick's Day. SPJ leaders in congressional offices. On March 7 and 8, 2002, SPJ visited the nation's capital to call...

Agencies re-examme records proetection. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The White House has ordered federal agencies to re-examine how they safeguard information that could be exploited by terrorists. The order came in a memorandum dated March 19 from Andrew Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, according...

Judge orders release of energy records. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A federal judge has ordered a half-dozen federal agencies to release by mid-May records of their involvement in an energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. Ruling in a case filed a year ago, U.S. District Judge Paul...

New Giuliani records plan may be illegal. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A revised plan for handling former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's records is still inconsistent with New York's Freedom of Information law, the state's top open-records official said in late February. Robert Freeman, director of the state...

Code changes spark lively debate: should the Code of Ethics be updated to address war coverage? (Weighing the Impacts).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... There has been a lively debate among members of the Ethics Committee about whether the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists needs to be amended to address the ethical issues that swirl around coverage of war and...

Networks dispute ABC'S 'exclusive'. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... CBS and NBC's news divisions accused ABC's "Good Morning America" of unseemly behavior in February over the program's handling of the first TV interviews with Mariane Pearl following confirmation of the killing of her husband, Wall Street...

NY times free-lancer uses composite. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Free-lancer Michael Finkel has admitted that his Youssouf Male character -- featured in a Nov. 18, 2001 New York Times Magazine article -- was a composite of several boys, including one by that name. The story focused on the experience of...

'Nonprofit groupie' looks to new mission: Martinez leaves CIIJ after 12 years of diversifying journalism. (Varying the Voice).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Eva Martinez moved back to her native San Francisco in 1989, four years after moving to Los Angeles with her new husband, a labor organizer. The marriage hadn't worked out, so she and her 14-year-old son, Dionisio, were on their own again....

Report: blacks get less air time. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... For the first time in five years, no black reporter was among the top 25 on the network evening news programs in 2001, as measured by the amount of stories they reported, according to a study released in February. Tied for 28th place...

ABC ties evaluations to use of diverse sources. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... ABC News has compiled a database of 480 people -- all minorities -- to turn to for on-air or taped comments. And employees have been told twice that evaluations will be based in part on how many of these sources they call, USA Today reported....

Tampa gets Spanish cable news channel. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Because of the Tampa area's growing Hispanic community and its long history of Hispanic newsmakers, Bay News 9 has launched what it is calling the nation's first all local news cable channel in Spanish. Bay News 9 en Espanol debuted with...

'We're taught to document history': students from Western Kentucky University showcase their work from the Sept. 11 attacks. (Developing Minds).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... When Cathi Boerder heard about the attacks on the morning of Sept. 11, she had two thoughts: "How could terrorists do this?" and "I'm going" As most Americans sat transfixed in front of the TV struggling to process the enormity of the...

Student journalist suspended after prank. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The editor of a high school newspaper in Indiana was suspended after taking photographs of and laughing at a senior prank involving 26 students who jumped into the school pool with their clothes on. All but one of those students was...

Principal to begin pre-publication review. (In-Brief).(Wenatchee (Wash.) High School's Mike Franza)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Articles on teen-age sexuality in the Wenatchee (Wash.) High School newspaper violated School Board policy, and the principal plans to exercise his right to review the paper before it is published in the future. Principal Mike Franza...

Some college papers oppose free 'USA Today'. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A campaign by Gannett Co. newspapers to attract new readers on college campuses has run into an unlikely adversary -- college journalists. For several years, the nation's largest newspaper company, through its USA Today and several...

Telling the tales of terror: responsible reporting involves investigating the factors -- economic, political and human rights -- behind terrorist acts. (Covering the Globe).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The terrorism story, complex in nature and global in scope, challenges all of us to revisit the elements of responsible reporting -- principles it might be easy to forget as we deploy staff, computers and cameras for the next act in the...

Indonesia bans Australian journalist. (In-Brief).(Lindsay Murdoch)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Indonesia has banned a senior foreign journalist from working in the country, the first such move since the downfall of the former authoritarian ruler, President Suharto, almost four years ago. Authorities have refused to renew the visa...

Zimbabwe to license, limit journalists. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Just days after his re-election, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe signed into law sweeping controls requiring all journalists to be licensed by the government and imposing severe limits on foreign correspondents. The March 15 action...

Saudi editor apologizes for anti-Semitism. (In-Brief).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A Saudi editor said that his newspaper should not have published an article that disparaged Jews and perpetuated anti-Semitic myths about their holidays and customs. The March 10 article depicted the Jewish holiday of Purim, which...

Controversy surrounds Russian network bid. (In-Brief).(Russian journalists start new television network)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A team of journalists thrown off the air in January won the right to start a new television network in a deal blessed by President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to eliminate criticism from Russia's independent media. The government...

Russian broadcasters quit over interference. (In-Brief).(Alexei Venediktov)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The editor of Russia's most influential radio station said in February that he and dozens of other journalists are quitting rather than work for a news outlet that he said is becoming another voice of the state. Alexei Venediktov, editor...

A very dangerous crutch: unnecessary qualifiers weaken writing. (Mastering the Art).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Am I the only one who'd be pleased never again to hear or see the word very? It's the most rampant four-letter word in English -- yes, even considering other rampant four-letter words. Very drains life and vigor from otherwise robust...

Daniel Pearl Memorial Trust. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Now that it's held two memorial services for Daniel Pearl, The Wall Street Journal is planning a more permanent tribute to its slain journalist. This summer, The Journal, in conjunction with the Free Press publishing house, will release an...

The New York Times. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... R.W. Apple Jr., 67, who has covered wars, revolutions, presidential elections and other world and national events for The New York Times for nearly 40 years, has been appointed associate editor at The Times. Executive Editor Howell Raines...

Columbia University. (People & Places).(John Carroll)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... John Carroll, editor and executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times, has been elected chairman of the Pulitzer Prize board. Carroll, 60, first joined the 18-member board in 1994. As the new chairman, he succeeds Louis Boccardi,...

The Wall Street Journal. (People & Places).(The New York Times)(Roger Cohen )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The New York Times in March named Roger Cohen as its foreign editor, formalizing a position Cohen has held since he became the acting editor in September. Cohen, 46, joined The Times in 1990 after working as a foreign correspondent for The...

Florida House. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Florida House Speaker Tom Feeney has banned a Palm Beach (Fla.) Post reporter from the House floor for what he called disruptive behavior. The newspaper criticized the decision as punishment for a negative story Feeney said the reporter,...

The Home Front in World War II. (People & Places).(Doris Kearns Goodwin)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who admitted copying passages from other works in one of her best-selling books, has withdrawn from judging the Pulitzer Prizes, The Associated Press reported. Pulitzer board administrator Seymour Topping said...

Ernie Harwell. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Hall of Fame announcer Ernie Harwell, 84, whose voice has been synonymous with the Detroit Tigers for more than four decades, will leave the booth after this season. "I love my job. I love baseball. I enjoy being with the players," he said at...

Nightline. (People & Places).(David Letterman remains at CBS Inc.; future uncertain for American Broadcasting Companies Inc.'s Ted Koppel)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Late-night talk show host David Letterman said he would remain at CBS, after being courted by ABC this spring. The critically acclaimed "Nightline" is in the same time period and could have been canceled or moved if Letterman had jumped to...

Fox Sports. (People & Places).(John Madden)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... John Madden is joining "Monday Night Football" on ABC, replacing comedian Dennis Miner after his two-year stint. Madden agreed to a four-year deal with ABC and will team with veteran play-by-play announcer Al Michaels, ABC announced in...

Alan Murray. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... After nine years as Washington bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, Alan Murray, 47, is moving into television. Murray has accepted a position at CNBC, which offered him a bureau chief title, a chance to provide regular Beltway updates...

Maryland Public Television. (People & Places).(Louis Rukeyser leaves)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Louis Rukeyser era at Maryland Public Television is coming to a bitter end after 32 years, as the pioneering financial journalist is being forced out of the anchor's chair of the program that bears his name. Starting in the fall, MPT's...

Los Angeles Times. (People & Places).(Michael Parks, appointed director of the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Michael Parks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent and former Los Angeles Times editor, has been named director of the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication, Dean Geoffrey...

Frank Sesno. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno has joined the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., as a professor of public policy and communications. Sesno will teach an undergraduate communications course and a graduate...

Michigan's Plymouth-Canton Community Crier Inc. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Edward Wendover, a Michigan editor and adjunct journalism instructor at Michigan State University since 1983, was named general manager at the Columbia Missourian, the student newspaper at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He replaces...

Richard Wilson. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Richard Wilson, a former reporter for The Courier-Journal of Louisville, was named interim director of the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications. Wilson, 64, will head the journalism school until June 30, 2003. A...

CNN's headline news. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Andrea Thompson, the actress-turned-anchor, has resigned from CNN's Headline News less than a year after her controversial hiring. CNN executives say she wasn't forced Out. Thompson announced her decision to network officials in March, they...

Financial Times. (People & Places).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Robert Thomson, the Financial Times' managing editor in the United States, has been named the new editor of London's Times newspaper, officials announced in late February. Thomson, 40, who was born in Australia, replaced Peter Stothard, who...

Deaths.(Obituary)
May 1, 2002... Raffaele Ciriello, 42, an Italian free-lance photographer, was killed by Israeli tank fire in the West Bank town of Ramallah March 13, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said. Ciriello was on assignment for the Italian daily...

Chapter fights city press credentials. (SPJ Report).(Column)
May 1, 2002... The Headline Club is girding for what could be its biggest access battle in many years, and it involves the most basic of media rights: the right to cover stories. After sitting ignored among city statutes for years, the Chicago Police...

SPJ seeks leaders to run for national office this fall. (SPJ Report).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... SPJ's national officers and board of directors play a key role in determining the future of the Society. The leaders help determine how best to manage SPJ's finances, grow its membership, and execute its missions of professional...

Member input needed! Help SPJ focus on future initiatives. (SPJ Report).(Column)
May 1, 2002... As I write this column, I have occupied the executive director's chair of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation for a grand total of 32 days. In that brief time, I tagged along with SPJ's leadership on...

Society asks members to remember Pearl, others who have lost their lives. (SPJ Headlines: International Journalism Risks).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... INDIANAPOLIS -- - The Society of Professional Journalists called on its members and others to find ways to honor the life and service of Daniel Pearl and other murdered journalists, including public ways that serve as a reminder of the...

Eastern Kentucky University SPJ chapter pays tribute to slain journalists with candlelight vigil. (SPJ Headlines: International Journalism Risks).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... RICHMOND, Ky. -- The SPJ student chapter of Eastern Kentucky University stood in a silent circle as the campus bells rang signaling the journalists who lost their lives in 2001. The EKU chapter hosted a candlelight vigil March 13 at the...