Journalists play fast and loose with “truth.” That’s not a complaint from a loser in the November election. It comes instead after reviewing several journalism codes and statements of ethics. The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists calls upon its members to “Seek Truth and Report it.” The Radio Television News Directors [...]

Sifting through the 2008 presidential election, one lesson should be that its historical nature, in all probability, goes beyond the election of an African American to the presidency. My guess is that 2004 will turn out to be the last year that all four GOP and Democratic candidates for the presidency and vice presidency were [...]

A staple of so-called “gotcha” journalism — in which news reporters seem to celebrate the missteps of politicians — is the gaffe, the wrong words spoken at the wrong time, the off-base comment, the politically insensitive offhand remark. So it is that talkative people like Sen. Joe Biden are called gaffe-prone by the news media, [...]

Boy, that was a close call wasn’t it? What with Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama selecting Sen. Joe Biden as a running mate, and Mitt Romney and Sen. Joe Lieberman in the wings — awaiting a nod from Republican nominee Sen. John McCain — it looked like the news media might have to knuckle down [...]

GOOD NBC COVERAGE: NBC-TV commentators and analysts did their homework. The informed commentary, particularly in track and field and gymnastics, was reminiscent of how the late Jim Duncan prepared for his stints as the “voice of the Drake Relays.” He knew what was supposed to happen in a race, what might happen and what might [...]

I may have been the only person watching NBC network news the night Tim Russert misspelled Iraq. At least I never saw any mention of it in the press at the time, nor in the obituaries and tributes that were published after his death on June 13. The misspelling was months before Russert’s death. On [...]

Sometimes our journalism makes it difficult to tell the sharpshooter from the target. That observation came to mind as I looked at how The Des Moines Register covers the Olympic adventures of hometown gymnast Shawn Johnson, the delightful 16-year-old with the refreshing ways and astounding talent. The way we do things in America put Ms. [...]

The saving grace of news coverage and commentary on the Beijing Olympics is the muscular young man on the rings or the graceful young woman on the balance beam or – take your pick of any of the astounding performances of strength, agility or endurance that come tumbling, splashing,  riding or racing your way in [...]

Here are four lunacies the news media tried to foist off on me recently, four of many, I fear. 1. A local television station was bursting with pride because one of its employees had donated 77 gallons of blood last year to the Blood Center of Iowa. In addition to the breathless on-air report, the [...]

Shhhhhhh! Let’s keep it a secret! Presidents are mortal! Consider Wednesday’s USA Today in which Don Campbell was rather dismissive of the vice presidency, noting: “Let’s get serious. Unless you’re making morbid calculations, the vice-presidential nomination and the vice presidency itself are among the least reliable routes imaginable to reach the Oval Office.” “Let’s get [...]