Herb Strentz
herb.strentz@drake.edu
Herb Strentz is professor emeritus of journalism at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. He was a founder of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and served as its executive secretary from 1975 to 2000. In 2004 he was named to the "Heroes of the 50 States, The Open Government Hall of Fame" of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Society of Professional Journalists.
He also is the only person to be named to the Iowa Broadcasters Hall of Fame and to receive the Distiguished Service Award from the Iowa Newspaper
Association, primarily for his work in First Amendment and FOI concerns. His PhD is from Northwestern University and he taught at Bakersfield College, the University Kentucky, and the University of North Dakota before going to Drake where he served as dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Cmmunication from 1975 to 1988.
Strentz also worked as a reporter for The Fresno Bee and the Associated
Press in Albany, NY, and worked part time and during the summers for The Minneapollis Tribune and the Des Moines Register and Tribune Company. He is the author of "News Reporters and News Sources," which was published by the United States information Agency in Spanish, Chinese and Arabic.
|
Contributions
Cameras in the U.S. Supreme Court: Does S. 1768 make sense?
ASK THIS | August 29, 2006
“The First Amendment principles for broadcast presence in the courts are as strong as ever,” writes Herb Strentz, “but to suggest that today’s television content and priorities are well suited for better educating the public about the judicial system is a dubious proposition.” 
The Iowa caucuses: Hope and hokum in the heartland
COMMENTARY | June 07, 2007
It’s crisis time: Millions may pick their presidential preferences very early next year--before the Iowa caucuses and thus without the wisdom of a handful of Iowans to guide them. Will the media be able to handle that?
By dropping out, McCain, Giuliani bring a little sanity to Iowa 'straw poll'
COMMENTARY | June 07, 2007
Pity the poor pollsters working in Iowa, and analysts trying to make sense of their numbers. Romney leads in one Iowa poll but is third in another; Clinton leads in one and is last in another.
For Democrats in Iowa, spin counts a lot more than the actual numbers
COMMENTARY | August 07, 2007
No one may ever know what the actual popular vote is in the Iowa Democratic caucuses—and traditionally, no one much cares. The press will still contrive to tell us who the winners and losers are. (One in an occasional series)
In the Iowa straw poll, candidates got exactly what they paid for
COMMENTARY | August 12, 2007
Romney got 32% of the votes -- but he kicked in 32% of the funding. That's fun and games and democracy at work. (One in a series on the Iowa caucuses.)
How Iowans are looking at Grassley
COMMENTARY | September 01, 2009
Back home, the five-term senator is regarded as a hard worker, likeable, and a person of integrity. But his actions and statements on health care reform are drawing sharp rebukes.
Cheap shots and scurrilous comments on the Internet, as seen from the heartland
COMMENTARY | April 26, 2010
Some old Des Moines newspaper hands wade into the argument over anonymous postings on websites. One is reminded of a country song, "I'm Ashamed To Be Here (But Not Ashamed Enough To Leave)."
Which is more bizarre: The Iowa GOP platform or the failure of the press to report it?
ASK THIS | July 09, 2010
The platform, claiming to promote moderation, would allow concealed guns in schools, end minimum wage and abortion laws, teach creationism, and impeach ‘activist judges.’ Anybody paying attention? The Iowa press sure doesn't seem to be.
|
If voters are to go into the midterm elections with any understanding at all, the press needs to get away from he-said, she-said reporting and look into the positions that candidates and the two parties are taking. Martin Lobel offers some vital questions. 
Our correspondent in Australia has ideas on how to improve things a little. But he’s not optimistic that anyone on Capitol Hill will be interested.
Columnist and author Steven Greenhut looks at the ongoing pension issue, including abuses of it, and deals with some of the key questions.
|
Cleaning up in the wake of the 2010 Iowa State Fair will be daunting this year. In addition to the mess left by nearly 1 million visitors and thousands of farm animals, we have a continuing saga of news coverage that told of possible racial assaults and then, in Saturday Night Live fashion, appears [...] 
(Editor’s note: The incidents described here have become part of a developing story, as this Google link shows.)
The Des Moines Register’s reluctance to identify criminal suspects or victims by race has turned into an outright refusal to do so.
The closing night of the Iowa State Fair was marked by an observance not exactly on the [...]
I got this note from a friend and colleague a little while after Roger Clemens was indicted by a federal grand jury on Aug. 19th:
“And meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, CIA officials and others who lied to Congress in sworn testimony about Iraq go free. If we can ‘look forward, not backward’ on torture, perjury, [...]
Blog main page >>
|
| Leading journalism sites, blogs... |
|
|
|
TWITTER
Follow Nieman Watchdog on Twitter.
(Nieman Watchdog)
Telecoms charging more to do nothing
It's getting more expensive to have an unlisted phone number. What's the logic behind that?
(Center for Media and Democracy)
Prosecute those leaks
The Obama administration has indicted another alleged leaker, this time for reportedly passing along to Fox News an intelligence assessment that North Korea was likely to respond to U.N. sanctions by conducting another nuclear test.
(Secrecy News/Federation of American Scientists)
A broad array of massive financial crimes
As PRWatch.org shows, court-imposed settlements have only skimmed the surface of big banks' wrongdoing in the financial crisis.
(Center for Media and Democracy)
More Spotlights >>
|
 |
