NewsTrust - Ethics in Journalism - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Stewart Analyzes The Evolution Of Fox News' Gay Rights Coverage

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - May. 11 (Comedy News) - This issue is just racism 2.0 and it aligns perfectly with the GOP agenda of rich white males. Justtheobvious: This issue is just racism 2.0 and it aligns perfectly Bingo ! They already have the middle class and poor on their 'fiscal' oppression list. So

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Jon Stewart Rips Murdoch's Leveson Inquiry Hearings On "The Daily Show" (VIDEO)

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Apr. 27 (Comedy News) - News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch has been testifying before the Leveson Inquiry this week to determine whether he used his media entities to illegally influence the British government. Aside from admitting that he "failed" in handling the News of the World properly, Murdoch seems apt to deny all accountability in regards to the scandal, so on Thursday night's "Daily Show" Jon Stewart took a moment to put him in his place.

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Deciphering Right-Wing Code: What Conservatives Are Really Saying When They Seem to Spew Nonsense

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Sara Robinson - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - Even though right-wing narratives are often factually wrong, they are absolutely never content-free. Stories like this are always about something. And the weirder and more factually challenged they sound to liberal ears, the more important it probably is for us to know what that something is. Too often, our obsession with the gobsmacking wrongness of these statements deafens us to clues to the right's current motives and intentions that are frequently lurking in these strange declarations.

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Mike Daisey: Reports of my Death have been Greatly Exaggerated

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

mikedaisey.blogspot.com - By Mike Daisey - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - In the last forty-eight hours I have been equated with Stephen Glass, James Frey, and Greg Mortenson. Given the tenor of the condemnation, you would think I had concocted an elaborate, fanciful universe filled with furnaces in which babies are burned to make iPhone components, or that I never went to China, never stood outside the gates of Foxconn, never pretended to be a businessman to get inside of factories, never spoke to any workers. Especially galling is how many are gleefully eager to dance on my grave expressly so they can return to ignoring everything about the circumstances under which their devices are made. Given the tone, you would think I had fabulated an elaborate hoax, filled with astonishing horrors that no one had ever seen before. Except that we all know that isn’t true.

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Retraction

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

This American Life - By Ira Glass - Mar. 18 (Opinion) - Regrettably, we have discovered that one of our most popular episodes was partially fabricated. This week, we devote the entire hour to detailing the errors in "Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory," Mike Daisey’s story about visiting Foxconn, an Apple supplier factory in China.

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Jon Stewart Rips Fox News For Limbaugh Double Standard

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Mar. 14 (Comedy News) - Stewart brings a crucial argument to all of this. Clear Channel banned the Dixie Chicks because they disagreed with their clearly political speech in which they criticized President Bush for the war in Iraq. They had no problem banning them from their ai

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Rush Limbaugh backs child kidnappers

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

care2.com - By Paul Canning - Mar. 09 (Opinion) - The LRA have kidnapped thousands of children across central Africa, raped them and forced them to be soldiers. Their leader, Joseph Kony, was indited by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2005 for numerous atrocities. There are 33 charges, 12 counts of crimes against humanity, which include murder, enslavement, sexual enslavement and rape. There are another 21 counts of war crimes which include murder, cruel treatment of civilians, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, pillaging, inducing rape and forced enlisting of children into the rebel ranks. ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said that “Kony was abducting girls to offer them as rewards to his commanders.” Some of the children are forced to hide every night to avoid kidnapping. This is the ‘Christian’ Limbaugh is defending.

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Jon Stewart Slams Rush Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke Comments: 'He Is A Terrible Person' (VIDEO)

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Mar. 07 (Comedy News) - Unless you've been doing yourself a favor by not paying attention to Rush Limbaugh, you've probably heard about the conservative radio host calling Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" for supporting contraceptive insurance coverage -- and you're probably outraged.

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Cowards and Apologies That Aren't

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - By John Cory - Mar. 04 (Opinion) - Limbaugh's apology was not an apology; it was a lecture and a rationalization of the vile, mean-spirited invective that is his trademark.

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The 'Undue Weight' of Truth on Wikipedia

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Chronicle of Higher Education - By Timothy Messer-Kruse - Feb. 20 (Opinion) - For the past 10 years I've immersed myself in the details of one of the most famous events in American labor history, the Haymarket riot and trial of 1886. Along the way I've written two books and a couple of articles about the episode. In some circles that affords me a presumption of expertise on the subject. Not, however, on Wikipedia. The bomb thrown during an anarchist rally in Chicago sparked America's first Red Scare, a high-profile show trial, and a worldwide clemency movement for the seven condemned men. Today the martyrs' graves are a national historic site, the location of the bombing is marked by a public sculpture, and the event is recounted in most American history textbooks. Its Wikipedia entry is detailed and elaborate.

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"MyFacts"

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Doonesbury - By Gary Trudeau - Feb. 12 (Cartoon) - This week, the Doonesbury comic strip takes on "MyFacts", a fictional online service that packages "faux facts" to support anyone's ideology, from creationism to 9/11 conspiracy theories.

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Ex-FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on Media Consolidation, Broadband Expansion, Threats to Journalism

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 12 (Interview) - Michael Copps served two terms with the Federal Communications Commission. Now the staunch supporter of an open internet and opponent of media consolidation has retired. In a wide-ranging discussion, he examines the FCC's key accomplishments and failures of the past decade. Copps argues broadband is "the most opportunity-creating technology perhaps in the history of humankind," and laments that the United States still lacks a national broadband infrastructure. He says the FCC has yet to address a lack of diversity in media ownership, noting that "owning a station has a lot to do with the kind of programing that is going to be on that station." Regarding the future of journalism, Copps calls on the FCC to make access to quality journalism a "national priority," saying, "the future of our democracy hinges upon having an informed electorate."

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Fact-checking in the Echo Chamber Nation

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair - Dec. 23 (Opinion) - At a Republican campaign rally a few years ago, I asked one of the attendees how he got his news. "I listen to Rush and read NewsMax," he said. "And to make sure I'm getting a balanced view, I watch Fox." My liberal friends get their information from distinctly different sources — Huffington Post, Daily Kos and Rachel Maddow. To make sure they get a balanced view, they click Facebook links — from their liberal friends. This is life in our echo chamber nation. We protect ourselves from opinions we don't like and seek reinforcement from like-minded allies. The paradox ...

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The Hard Truth About Fact-Checking

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By Alec MacGillis - Dec. 21 (Opinion) - My colleague Jonathan Cohn and plenty of others have done yeoman's work today in challenging PolitiFact's awarding of its "lie of the year" award to the Democrats' claim that the Paul Ryan proposal approved by House Republican would "end Medicare." There's little more to say on the substance of the matter. But the moment does present a new opportunity to ask a larger question that has been nagging at me the past year or two: why do we need fact-checkers, anyway?

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When candidates lie, what's a political reporter to do?

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Nieman Journalism Lab - By Dan Froomkin - Nov. 30 (Opinion) - How journalists respond to intentional deception will be a defining feature of 2012 political coverage. Will they allow themselves to become accessories to deceptive politicians? Or will they aggressively and repeatedly expose misinformation and the people who traffic in it?

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True Or False? Automatic Fact-Checking Coming To The Web – Complications Follow

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

TechCrunch - By Devin Coldewey - Nov. 29 (Opinion) - The social layer has settled on the web like a dusting of multicolored snowflakes, gracing every story with a little menagerie of sharing counts and buttons. Once basic standards of content publishing were established, basic standards of sharing had to be as well, the internet being as it is a medium of information transmission. First you get the content, then you move it around. We’re still working on the moving around part.

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Ex-New York Times Freelancer Natasha Lennard on Quitting the Corporate Media in an Occupy Era

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 17 (Interview) - We speak with former freelancer at the New York Times, Natasha Lennard, who helped the newspaper cover the initial Occupy protests. She was arrested during the Brooklyn Bridge demonstration while reporting on the event. She no longer freelances for the Times and recently wrote a piece for Salon.com titled "Why I Quit the Mainstream Media." [includes rush transcript]

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Jon Stewart Rips Fox News For Defending Herman Cain (VIDEO)

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Nov. 08 (Comedy News) - If there's one thing Jon Stewart knows best, it's how to point out Fox News' follies. He played another round of "find the hypocritical reporting" with the conservative network on Monday night's "Daily Show," this time focusing on their defense of GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain.

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Our Politicians Are Money Launderers Not Too Different from Tony Soprano

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Bill Moyers - Nov. 04 (Speech) - journalism for me has been a continuing course in adult education, and I came early on to consider the work you do as part of the curriculum – an open seminar on how government works – and for whom. Your muckraking investigations – into money and politics, corporate behavior, lobbying, regulatory oversight, public health and safety, openness in government, and consumer protection, among others – are models of accuracy and integrity. They drive home to journalists that while it is important to cover the news, it is more important to uncover the news. As one of my mentors said, “News is what people want to keep hidden; everything else is publicity.”

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Steve Jobs: Fox News 'A Destructive Force In Our Society'

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Oct. 26 (Review) - Steve Jobs told Rupert Murdoch that Fox News was a "destructive force in our society," according to the blockbuster biography of the late Apple CEO. Poynter was the first to uncover Jobs' blunt words about the network in Walter Isaacson's new book.

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Colbert Nails Rush Limbaugh Over Obama Christian Killing Accusations (VIDEO)

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Stephen Colbert - Oct. 20 (Comedy News) - On Wednesday night's "Report," Stephen Colbert featured a segment on the inflammatory radio host's recent on-air claim that Obama is sending troops to Uganda for the purpose of "wiping out Christians." Explaining that the "Christian" group Lord's Resistance Army promotes an objective "to remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people," Limbaugh left out that the LRA has terrorized the people of Uganda and other countries for over 25 years by abducting children, brainwashing them and forcing them to become sex slaves as well as torturers and executioners.

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How Is Occupy Wall Street Not Like The Tea Party? (VIDEO)

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Oct. 06 (Comedy News) - "So, rage against duly elected government is patriotic -- quintessentially American -- whereas rage against multi-national shareholder-accountable corporations is anti-American. OK, gotcha," Stewart said.

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Jon Stewart Takes On Fox News' Reaction To Nancy Grace 'DWTS' Nip Slip vs. Chaz Bono (VIDEO)

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jon Stewart - Sep. 28 (Comedy News) - Stewart picked up where his fellow "Daily Show" correspondent Lewis Black left off, taking on the outrage over Chaz Bono's gig on "Dancing With The Stars" vs. that of Nancy Grace's recent wardrobe malfunction on the same show.

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Why Do They Do It?

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Sep. 16 (Opinion) - Why do politicians persist in peddling exaggerations, twisted facts and outright falsehoods? Here's a theory from a veteran political reporter. Jon Keller of WBZ in Boston offered up his explanation in his "Keller @ Large" commentary for Sept. 15. It was prompted by our coverage of the recent Republican presidential candidates' debate and our criticism of President Obama's jobs speech. We were flattered by the nice mention, of course. But what really caught our attention was Keller's conclusion: Jon Keller, Sept. 15: The president and all his allies and enemies have one thing in common — they frequently cite and repeat falsehoods that reflect, at best, sloppiness and carelessness, and, at worst, outright dishonesty. Why do they think they can get away with this reprehensible behavior? Because we do it all the time ourselves. We repeat gossip and rumor, forward garbage e-mails, and convince ourselves that falsehoods which fit our world view are actually the truth. So I’m wondering – why would we expect the people who represent us to not reflect us in this way as well? We see evidence of that every day at FactCheck.org. Readers forward to us an endless stream of chain emails they have received containing false claims. The emails come from family, friends or acquaintances who either don't know that they are repeating falsehoods, or don't care. Some of these messages have been circulating for years, despite being debunked by us and often by other myth-busting sites as well. So do we, the public, get the politicians we deserve? That's a question worth pondering before sending on that viral email that so perfectly confirms your opinions, but which you haven't really checked out for factual accuracy.

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Shouldn't All Stories be 'Fact-Check' Stories?

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Columbia Journalism Review - By Greg Marx - Sep. 09 (Opinion) - On the subject of fact-checking the presidential debates, it’s worth noting that while the proliferation of “fact-check” stories over the last few years is probably a step in the right direction, it does come with a risk—that by assigning “fact-checking” responsibility to a particular story or blog, we send a message that the vast majority of political news...

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