Now that the Karl Rove scandal and the Bush Supreme Court controvery have calmed down a bit, and the shuttle Discovery has launched successfully with no apparent deadly flaws, we can safely turn to a bit of blogging about the state of American journalism.

Over at my favorite blog on the press, NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen has launched another succussful discussion about the state of “the business,” or alternatively “the craft” of journalism.

To read my contribution to the discussion, just hit this permalink.

And since it is Tuesday, we are getting ready for more Locust Fork Radio action on Wednesday.

What will the Professor and the Doc come up with next?

We are stocking up on batteries and oil for the lamps around here as Hurricane Dennis, sure to be a menace, heads this way. We may lose power on Sunday night or Monday, so the site could well not be updated much for the next couple of days, although I will try to post a Sunday column at some point before the wind and rain get here.

But if you find yourself lurking here on Saturday, which is usually our slowest day of the week, check out my recent post to the Press Think blog on what’s going on at the New York Times in the case of Judith Miller – who went to jail this week to protect a source. It’s just a theory, but hey, that’s what it’s all about, right? Posit a theory and test it with proof.

You do not have to be a “liberal” to recognize a bad president when you see one. Make no mistake about it. George W. Bush is a bad president.

Now that the Downing Street memos are gaining the national press attention bloggers have been calling for since the story first broke in the London Sunday Times May 1, it is time to revisit my reporting for the New York Times on the run up to war in Iraq from January through March of 2003 – and to connect some dog dang dots.

The eight memos – all labeled “secret” or “confidential” – were first obtained by British reporter Michael Smith, who has written about them in The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times.

Since then, after a number of bloggers wondered why the issue did not seem to be covered by the U.S. news media, the New York Times ran this story:

Leaked British Memo Shows Bush Misled Public on War Plans

The AP did these:
Read the rest of this entry »

When I’m Reporting, I am a Citizen of the World?

That the question from Jay Rosen at Press Think, who sets it up this way.

“That’s a quote from CNN’s Bob Franken. A tour through his press think shows why I ask the Big Journalism Deans: if schools like yours are supposed to spread the gospel, how do they know they have the religion right?”

Here are the links to a portion of my comments:

Comment 1: “Journalists should be biased against liars, cheats and bad presidents – no matter which party they represent. That also goes for bad generals, agents and soldiers who lie – or shoot journalists.”

Comment 2: “Even a patriotic journalism could consider it a duty to report the corruption.”