Bob Collins
If the notion of talking with each other catches on, and if we move beyond the civil war mentality that’s paralyzing the nation, one might suggest that a journalist with a point of view is one reason why. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: journalism
We’re three episodes in to Ken Burns’ outstanding series, The Vietnam War, and among the more compelling debates to come from its airing is the question of whether there really is no such thing as a ‘single truth’ in war. Read more →
This picture, from Saturday’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, has started a mini-debate that is as old as journalism itself: When should journalists step in to help the subject of a story or photograph?
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NPR has been reluctant to use the word ‘lie’ when describing misstatements from the Trump administration. So it didn’t escape notice this week when an NPR reporter used it. Read more →
If data collected by Minnesota’s state and local government is public, why do we have to pay so much to get it?
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Can the media exercise restraint when keeping in mind that whatever is embarrassing to the Wetterlings, it had nothing to do with why their son is dead? Read more →
The role of an internship at a news organization is to learn the business and a Sioux Falls intern may be about to learn an important lesson: Don’t make up quotes.
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Perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect financially strapped news organizations to pay someone to publicize its flaws. But even if trust in newsrooms weren’t eroding, it would still be true that readers and listeners deserve someone on their side in a position of power. Read more →
The Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has had its squabbles with KSTP TV over the years, but the group is standing foursquare with KSTP in the face of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents search for the anonymous leaker of information to the TV station. Read more →
The National Press Club is filing an objection over what it says is the ‘manhandling’ of a reporter who tried to ask a question of a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission.
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Alex Tizon, who wrote an essay about is family’s slave, lied to the reporter who had to write her obituary. Today, she apologized for what she didn’t know. Read more →
South Dakota is one of only 10 states that don’t shield reporters from being called to testify in court about stories they cover. So a Sioux Falls Argus Leader reporter has been subpoenaed amid criticism from free-press advocates. Read more →
The American news media doesn’t cover war on the front line much anymore. But when it did, Anne Morrissy Merick fought her own country for the right to be there. Read more →
In the latest list, the newspaper reporter job retains its title, while ‘broadcaster’ leapfrogs over ‘logger” into second place. But are these really the worst jobs? Not likely. Read more →
It’s not at all surprising that emails obtained after a university fired a reporter revealed that an “ethical lapse” of not identifying herself to politicians who were embarrassed by her accurate reporting wasn’t really the sole reason she lost her job.
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