First Amendment: ABC Journalist Ordered To Disclose Sources

By Joseph Goldstein (The New York Sun, 2007-09-28)

A federal judge in New York has ordered a journalist at ABC News, Brian Ross, to disclose the identities of the government sources he relied upon when reporting about the anthrax attacks of 2001.

Mr. Ross is now the sixth reporter to have been ordered to give up sources to assist with a civil lawsuit brought by a former Army scientist, Steven Hatfill, whom the government named as a "person of interest" in the investigation into the deadly anthrax mailings. Mr. Hatfill, who was never charged with the mailings, is suing the federal government for invading his privacy.

The rest of the story: The New York Sun

Beat the Press: Smirking Ahmadinejad Suckers U.S. Media

Politicians, pundits, journalists, diplomats, talk-show bookers, historians and social scientists all paid rapt attention to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to the U.S. this week. I suspect some shrewd crisis-management experts were watching the proceedings, too.

The despot gave an enlightening lesson in how to manage the U.S. media: Be vague. Obfuscate. Smile mindlessly -- a lot. Be friendly. Nod wisely instead of speaking foolishly. Say absolutely nothing threatening or menacing. Turn their image of you on its head. And, for God's sake, man, say nothing of substance.

Maybe, instead, the lesson was how to sucker the U.S. media. The man played us for suckers -- just like any PR-hungry celebrity who spins reporters and editors. The bottom line was that he knew more about how the American media works than they knew about him.

The rest of the story: MarketWatch
Related commentary: President Bush Could Never Handle Columbia University Crowd

Foreign Intelligence: Iraqi TV reflects sectarian strife

Most channels linked to partisan power blocs

By Bryan Pearson (Variety, 2007-09-21)

BAGHDAD -- With more than 30 satellite and terrestrial channels operating in Iraq, a far cry from the two that existed under Saddam Hussein's rigid rule, the television industry should by now be celebrating its new-found freedom.

Instead, it has turned inward, becoming a mish-mash of sectarianized channels linked directly or loosely with partisan power blocs and reflecting the country's highly fractured political reality.

While nine or 10 core satellite channels and as many regional stations have survived the turmoil of the past four years, others have started up or closed down at irregular intervals mainly for commercial reasons.

An unfortunate few have been shut down by the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Tellingly, the two most-watched channels, as rated by research group Ipsos-Stat, have been booted out of the country -- Saudi newscaster Al-Arabiya for a while, and Dubai-based Al-Sharqiya permanently.

Both offended Maliki's government. Al-Arabiya was accused of attempting to stoke sectarian tensions in the country with its gory coverage of the ongoing Iraqi carnage -- charges channel execs denied -- while Al-Sharqiya served up political parody bound to offend.

The end for the channel came after one Al-Sharqiya presenter appeared on air shortly after the execution of Saddam Hussein wearing black as a sign of mourning.

The shutting of its offices in Baghdad had little effect, however, and despite what many perceive as a pro-Sunni bias it remains highly popular in Iraq with its mix of skeins and satirical laffers that poke fun at life in the troubled country.

But while Al-Sharqiya is at least discreet about the line it toes, other channels are more blatant about their political proclivities.

The rest of the story: Variety

Our Errant Media: Former ABC News Consultant Charged With More Faked Interviews in French Publication

It wasn't just Barack Obama

Former President Bill Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan say they were the subjects of fake interviews published in a French foreign affairs journal under the name of Alexis Debat, a former ABC News consultant. NYT: ABC News will begin a second investigation into more than five years of news reports that relied on information from a consultant, Alexis Debat, who has been revealed to be the author of faked interviews. WashPo: The prestigious French journal, Politique Internationale, has removed all of Debat's work from its website. "This guy is just sick," Patrick Wajsman, the magazine's editor, told ABC, adding: "I was a victim of this man. I had no reason to suspect someone like him could lie."

The rest of the story: ABC News

Intelligence: Bush and bin Laden

Far From Declining, Al Qaeda Has Rebuilt, With Fresh Faces and a Vigorous Media Arm

by Hal Brown (Capital Hill Blue, 2007-09-09)

Is it too much to hope that Bush will read the long Washington Post front page article about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda? Would spending ten - okay 30 - minutes reading about this most dangerous of world leaders and his mercurial country (aka al Qaeda) be too much of an effort for him? If Bush really believes "we are fighting them there (Iraq) so we don't have to fight them here," he needs a stiff dose of reality.

The rest of the story:

The New Al Qaeda Central by Craig Whitlock (The Washington Post, 2007-09-09)
Hal Brown's commentary (Capital Hill Blue 2007-09-10)

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me hundreds and hundreds of times, shame on me.

White House reporters still in the president's thrall.

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley had a good question for the White House press corps Monday, when the President -- surprise! -- flew to Iraq. Reporters on the plane wanted to know if they were trailing along for what was essentially a photo op. "Would you guys like us to come without you?" said Hadley.

"Good idea!" says HuffPost blogger Jay Rosen. It's way past time for the Washington press corps to show some spine.

The rest of the story: "Would you guys like us to come without you?" (The Huffington Post, 2007-09-05)

NPR reporter stays with Baghdad beat

By Randy Doringa (North County Times, 2007-09-05)

Not too long ago, National Public Radio correspondent Jamie Tarabay visited the home of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and saw a man look at her and whisper into Talabani's ear. The president laughed.

Tarabay, who was attending a political meeting, asked why and got an answer: They were discussing how much she might be worth if she were kidnapped. The best guess: $100,000.

In a phone conversation last week during a brief break from her duties as NPR's Iraq correspondent, Tarabay managed to actually find some humor in her price tag.

"Part of me was horrified that he was even articulating that," Tarabay recalled. "And part of me was horrified that I was only going for so little. It's a Catch-22. You don't want to give anyone any ideas, but you want to think, 'Just $100,000? Come on!' "

On a more serious note, "it made me sick to my stomach," she said. "If I was going to a political gathering and politicians were talking like that, what were the average Iraqis thinking? It's getting harder to do any real reporting. People just see you as dollar signs."

The rest of the story: NCTimes.com

In dealings with media, Hamas resorts to brutality

Hamas seems confused about how to quash Fatah protests and simultaneously deal with the media. Trying to nurture a reputation for honesty and legal behavior, its leaders promise journalists freedom of action, but the police intimidate the journalists. The result is a kind of self-censorship, local journalists say, that goes beyond what they traditionally practiced under Fatah.

The rest of the story: The International Herald Tribune (2007-09-09)

Secrets: Bush Iraq Trip Latest Surprise Event Missed By White House Press Corps

by Joe Strupp (Editor & Publisher, 2007-09-04)

President Bush's surprise trip to Iraq on Monday, which included just five White House reporters, marks the fourth time in the past month or so that Bush has made surprise news in one location while the White House press corps was en route to another.

And that has at least a few veteran reporters perturbed.

The rest of the story: Editor & Publisher