Journalism Glance
At the height of the health care reform debate last fall, Bill Sammon, Fox News' controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network's journalists not to use the phrase "public option." Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox's reporters should use "government option" and similar phrases -- wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats' reform efforts.
Journalists on the network's flagship news program, Special Report with Bret Baier, appear to have followed Sammon's directive in reporting on health care reform that evening.
LEAKED EMAIL: Fox boss caught slanting news reporting
FCC push to regulate news draws fire
He said outlets should be mandated to do the following: prove they have made a meaningful commitment to public affairs and news programming, prove they are committed to diversity programming (for instance, by showing that they depict women and minorities), report more to the government about which shows they plan to air, require greater disclosure about who funds political ads and devote 25 percent of their prime-time coverage to local news.
Mich. school yanks Helen Thomas diversity award
Wayne State University says it'll no longer offer the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award, citing recent comments made by the longtime journalist. In a statement Friday, the Detroit school says it "encourages free speech and open dialogue," but strongly condemns what it says are "anti-Semitic remarks" made by Thomas on Thursday.
According to The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, the Wayne State alumna said during a speech in Dearborn that Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are owned by "Zionists."
PayPal freezes WikiLeaks account
PayPal, owned by the auction website eBay, said the account had been frozen because it was being used for "illegal" activity.
This week Amazon withdrew its cloud hosting of WikiLeaks' cables site and the WikiLeaks.org domain was taken offline. It has since moved to other domains based outside America.
US Government seizure of the internet has begun; DHS takes over 76 websites
As part of a new expansion of government power over information, the Department of Homeland Security has begun seizing and shutting down internet websites (web domains) without due process or a proper trial. DHS simply seizes web domains that it wants to and posts an ominous "Department of Justice" logo on the web site. See an example at http://torrent-finder.com.
Sarkozy's war on journalism
France's Nicolas Sarkozy is not known for his self-control, but calling journalists paedophiles is, arguably, a new low.
The comments, reported by the magazine L'Express on Monday, were an apparent attempt at irony by the French president, in response to a journalist who had asked about his role in allegedly overseeing illegal kickbacks in the Karachi affair. He was criticising the media's use of secret sources and what he sees as a willingness to report on political scandals without proper verification:
Fox Reporter Claims CEO Roger Ailes Sought To 'Silence Me'
A Fox News reporter who has filed a federal claim of retaliation for an age and gender discrimination suit against Fox contends that CEO Roger Ailes sought to silence her in 2008 with a staff-wide e-mail urging employees not to complain.
The portion of the Ailes' e-mail cited in the court filing:
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