Behind the Rahm Emanuel ‘conspiracy’
Readers sometimes suspect Post journalists of conspiring to boost or bash the reputations of people in public life. In reality, any large newsroom is so chaotic that there are days when you wonder if editors and reporters could organize a one-car caravan.
The myth and reality have been on display in recent weeks over The Post’s coverage of whether White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is helping or hurting President Obama.
Editorial, full-page ad reflect healthy disagreement
Some readers found it inconsistent when The Toledo Blade ran an editorial on Feb. 24 supporting President Obama’s efforts at health-care reform — and then ran a full-page ad denouncing it. They shouldn’t have been surprised. There’s room in the newspaper for a variety of opinions.
E-N criticized in this space, now for some praise
Any news ombudsman worth his salt must sometimes criticize reporters and editors, pointing out errors and taste issues. So it’s refreshing to praise journalists from time to time when they do exceptionally good work.
ONO president promotes ombudsmanship in U.K.
ONO President Stephen Pritchard participated in the annual meeting of the UK Branch of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, a panel of expert speakers on technological and commercial trends in both electronic and print journalism over the first decade of the 21st century.
He said that apart from his counterpart at The Guardian there are no other ombudspersons in the British press, where they were common in major U.S. newspapers and there were now over 70 world-wide. News accountability, he said, was essential to maintain credibility.
Saying, ‘Yes,’ to courage in journalism, compassion and imagination
Jacqui Banaszynski, Knight Chair Professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, delivered a eulogy at the Washington, D.C., memorial service for Deborah Howell, former ombudsman for The Washington Post.
“We in journalism have lost a guiding star, “Banaszynski said. “But Deborah’s star sparkled at the center of a constellation that continues to grow and shine. Stories beget stories beget stories, and live on.
“So if I look down to find the bottom of my grief, I am looking the wrong way. I need to look up, into a universe that is infinite and eternal. And in that universe, I see not cold ash, but…
Memorials scheduled for former Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell
Hanif represents ONO in Azerbaijan
C.B. Hanif is representing ONO in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he is consulting with journalists concerned about the accountability of the press in the former Soviet republic on the Caspian Sea.
“I am hearing these concerns and sharing the experiences of the Organization of New Ombudsmen in improving journalistic accuracy and fairness, accountability and transparency, independence and credibility at news organizations around the world,” Hanif reports in his blog, “Hanif on Media.”
“How Azeris choose to develop their news organizations obviously will be their decisions. The societal challenges are not to be taken lightly,” he wrote.
“I’m hopeful that, as elsewhere, Azeris from editors to…
Free press vital for transparent society, say journalists
Journalists always desire free, courageous, bold and independent journalism, and this leads to transparency in society, said the vice chairman of the International Organization of News Ombudsmen, or ONO, at a conference in Istanbul, entitled “Professional Standards and Self-Regulation in Media and the State of Play of …Media Policy in Southeast Europe.”
“Our main goal is to fight corruption, unfairness, injustice and crimes of humanity as well as moral and political values,” said Yavuz Baydar, who also works at daily Sabah. “Only clear and open press can contribute to an open and clear society. For media, it is vital to be…
How Google changed the role of news ombudsmen
Mercedes Bunz, media blogger for guardian.co.uk, considers the effect that the Internet has had on news ombudsmen.
An excerpt:
“Now, with newspapers archives online all the time, news doesn’t vanish after publication, and ombudsmen and women are confronted with a new problem: search.
“Today, news organisations gather a lo…t of online traffic through search engines. However, using Google to search for details about someone can damage their life if the wrong article comes up. ”
Self-control and dialogue in midst of controversy — lessons from Denmark
Good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for this opportunity to address the issue of public service broadcasting and ombudsmanship!
As we all know, news ombudsmen and readers editors are used at some of the best newspapers in the world. Washington Post was one of the innovators. Folha de Sao Paolo, Le Monde, The New York Times, The Guardian and many others have followed the example during the last decades.
This kind of ombudsmanship builds on a strong tradition. Every newspaper has its own way of doing it, but the basics are the same. In other words: Here you have a well…
Ombudsman: Self-criticism in newspapers
By Jairo Faria Mendes
Master of Arts in communication and culture
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Few people know what an ombudsman is, but various of the biggest newspapers in the world have the column, as Le Monde (France); El Pa¡s (Spain); Washington Post, Boston Globe e Philadelphia Inquirer (USA); The London Free Press, Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazete, Toronto Star e Halifax Cronicle-Herald (Canada) for instance; and even the Russian newspapers Izvestiya, known as an official organ of the communist party of the extinguished USSR. About half of the Japanese newspapers have an ombudsman, among which the one with the biggest circulation…
Fighting the enemy within
(Andrew Finkel was until recently a Reagan–Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington. He has also served as a correspondent based in Istanbul for a variety of international organisations including The Times, TIME, the Economist, and CNN. He is also one of the few foreigners to have written a regular column in the Turkish language media.)
By Andrew Finkel
IBI Global Journalist
Blaming the media when things go wrong may be an old political trick, but it is one that succeeded only too well in earning Turkey’s prime minister Tayyip Erdoðan an enthusiastic round of applause in a speech…
