Category Archives: Joel’s J School

How many reporters does it take to count a lake?

Posted on May 29, 2008 by admin

After virtually drumming Detroit’s mayor out of office, you’d think the town’s vigilante press would let up once in a while. Nope. The ever watchful Detroit Free Press maybe thought they’d pound another nail in the coffin of this area … Continue reading →

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More equal than others

Posted on May 23, 2008 by admin

I was still trying to digest Eric Alterman’s long, thoughtful article in the March 31, 2008 New Yorker about the demise of American newspapers when I noticed the March 29, 2008 Detroit Free Press Page One story from Mackinac Island. … Continue reading →

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Ethics at the Detroit Free Press — again

Posted on April 30, 2008 by admin

This article about the arbitration case involving my donation in 2004 to the Democratic party in Michigan appeared in the newsletter of Newspaper Guild Detroit Local 22: Ethics Policy-Free Lance Work Focus of Free Press Arbitrations Arbitrator Paul Glendon heard … Continue reading →

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A lift for business

Posted on April 4, 2008 by admin

Boy, what a lift to business in the March 27 Detroit Free Press. The Chamber of Commerce must have loved the Page One story (“American Axle chief: Jobs can be moved; union warned of outsourcing”). Above the fold in lead … Continue reading →

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Hoyt on his own petard

Posted on March 30, 2008 by admin

Afraid I’m going to ask Clark Hoyt, public editor of the New York Times, for a correction to a Times story. But first, I have a question: How often has Columbia University bestowed its coveted Pulitzer Prize for national news … Continue reading →

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How many reporters does it take…

Posted on March 26, 2008 by admin

No, not to screw in a light bulb. I think most reporters are capable of accomplishing that chore without much help. But how many does it take to cover a political candidate? Let me put it differently — did we … Continue reading →

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A TRUE ethics policy

Posted on March 25, 2008 by admin

“Ride hard, shoot straight and speak the shining truth.” Why would I post a one-line, nine-word bromide that is open to a wide range of interpretation and claim it as my blog’s ethics policy? Because it contains three elements missing … Continue reading →

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Retirees of the world, unite…

Posted on March 22, 2008 by admin

I thought I’d heard every kind of low, sleazy corporate scheme for robbing workers, but then I opened my Saturday, March 22, 2008 Detroit Free Press and discovered a new angle on business banditry. Can you believe the gall of … Continue reading →

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A thimble-full

Posted on February 27, 2008 by admin

A couple decades ago, an editor at the Detroit Free Press was sent to a seminar on ethics in journalism. When he returned, someone remarked approvingly on the cause of his absence, journalistic ethics being a sacrosanct concept heavy on … Continue reading →

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A PAPER paper? How nuts is that?

Posted on February 24, 2008 by admin

Everybody knows newspapers are dead. Conventional wisdom says if the paper newspaper isn’t dead yet, it will be a goner soon, lying supine in the ultimate newspaper morgue. Who would deny it? Why, it’s well-known that newspaper circulation is down, … Continue reading →

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