CBS will probably fire him

I say that because they did so about an hour ago.

I said on Wednesday that I thought the marketplace would and should work this thing out. It appears that it did, as advertisers couldn't get in line fast enough to drop him. Usually, I'm a fan of the philosophy that says, "If you don't like it, don't watch it (listen to it)." But this was beyond pale, and, what's worse, this is far from the first time he has done something like this.

The Imus story continues

MSNBC dumped his show last night over the racial slurs. What will CBS do? (Pic credit: Spencer Platt, Getty Images, through AOL News)

Your opinions on joke papers

With this post, I'd like to get all of your opinions on an ethical issue in journalism that I've been thinking about for some time. Many newspapers, especially college ones, publish some sort of "joke" editions - whether they be April Fools issues where all of the stories are satricial and false, or just highly tongue-in-cheek stories or editorials published ever once in awhile that students are not meant to take seriously.

There seems to have been a backlash against these kind of joke issues lately. A simple Google search on the topic brings up dozens of examples where college papers have apologized for offending readers due to stories that they published in joke issues. Some people believe that it's problematic for journalists to publish such issues because they blur the line between reporting and editorializing.

You all probably know that the State Press puts out the Stale Mess on the first day of finals each semester. As part of the staff that puts together that paper, I've usually only heard good things from students about the Stale Mess, but I'm wondering from a journalistic prospective, what do you all think of the State Press' fake issue? Do you think it's funny and tasteful? Borderline offensive? Is it warranted on a college campus or does it totally lack in journalistic integrity? I'm curious.

Here are a few stories about other fake or April Fools papers that have led to backlash:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/205926/college_paper_apologizes_for_gay_cardinal.html

https://www.daytondailynews.com/n/userreg/ursignup/signup.jsp?UrUsecase=800100&SendBackURL=%2Fn%2Fcontent%2Foh%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F2007%2F04%2F03%2Fsns040407torch.html

http://www.thetartan.org/2007/1/29/forum/yummyboarded

FIRED!

I can't give you a link to a story yet because I haven't seen one posted. Kristine No-Last-Name-Given, one of the last six candidates standing in the current season of Donald Trump's Apprentice, was canned tonight because she put the wrong phone number on a sales brochure. Ow! Now, if she had been a copy editor, she would have known to call the number before committing it to print, right?
:-)

Tim McGuire: What makes for good journalism

Professor McGuire judged the Virginia Press Association's public service award, its highest honor, this year. In this video, he explains the thinking behind the honor. A bit of a video backstory, as it were. The video was produced by Randy Jessee. (Note that while the video is uploaded to Google Video, it is unlisted and only available if you have the link. It's not included in searches. This is a relatively new feature for Google and is intended to provide more controlled privacy.)

No legs to stand on? Pic manipulation...

A Toledo Blade photograph ended up in print with a couple of legs Photoshopped out. Here's the story. Here's the start of the story: TOLEDO, OH (April 5, 2007) – New questions about news photo manipulation have come up after a high-profile Ohio sporting event that drew multiple photojournalists from large regional daily newspapers on Friday. When pictures by several photojournalists were published prominently on Saturday’s front pages, it was clear that one of the images differed significantly from the others, raising questions about whether the photograph had been digitally altered....

Well done

In light of the fact that Ohio State also lost to Florida earlier this year in the BCS National Title Game (football), I thought this was pretty clever. The hed and the picture basically tell the story.