Remember the Kremlin

"What I like most about it is that the committee recommends moves that will bring the paper and its readers into more of a conversation. I said Sunday that journalists blathering on at ethereal heights about journalistic ethics can be too self-centered. But journalists talking with citizens about the news and how it is covered in present tense can be useful and compelling. It's not just about defending the paper -- though I agree that's proper and necessary. And it's not just about journalistic standards. It's about bringing out different perspectives and more information about the news we cover and care about."

Jarvis particularly likes this suggestion: "Consider creating a Times blog that promotes interaction with readers."

In the Chicago Tribune, Douglas MacKinnon, a former Bob Dole spokesman, addresses the racial aspect of runaway-bride-type stories:

"Note to the news media--with an emphasis on the cable networks: Enough is enough. Your continual focus on, and reporting of, missing, young, attractive white women not only demeans your profession but is a televised slap in the face to minority mothers and parents the nation over who search for their own missing children with little or no assistance or notice from anyone.

"The latest missing woman to dominate the airtime of the cable networks was Jennifer Wilbanks, from Duluth, Ga. Like Dru Sjodin, Chandra Levy and Elizabeth Smart all before her, Wilbanks is young, white and attractive. Wilbanks, as it turned out, ran away of her own volition from her impending marriage. . . .

"One could certainly make the argument that the cable networks that continually focus on these missing white women, to the virtual exclusion of minority women, are practicing a form of racism. The racism in this case, however, while predicated on color, does not concern itself with the color of one's skin. Rather, it is based on the color of money, ratings points and competition. Would an African-American woman who went missing days before her wedding receive the same (or any) coverage as that of Wilbanks? Not likely."

USA Today, you may recall, forced out reporter Tom Squitieri for lifting quotes from other publications without attribution. The most prominent example-- Brian Hart, who lost his son in Iraq and was first quoted last year by the Indianapolis Star, writes to Romenesko to say that Squitieri should be praised, not dumped:

"As I told the USA Today editors, I was both happy with the quote and discussed the matter extensively with Tom. In fact a review of my notes indicates over 30 days of discussion. One of the last emails I got from him was that the Pentagon was going nuts over his story [about the lack of armored Humvees in Iraq].

"So is accuracy or attribution more important? Of the many times I've been misquoted by reporters, not once has an editor volunteered to fire the reporter. Yet here is a quote I endorsed which evidently has gotten a reporter fired because he didn't attribute it to a reporter I also worked with at a sister publication of his! Madness."

David Shaw of the LAT tackles the issue I tried to wrestle with last week: Are more journalists unethical these days, or are more just getting caught?

"Journalism has given me a decent living -- and it now gives many big-city journalists, especially television news anchors and correspondents and some syndicated columnists -- a far-more-than-decent living. And many are able to parlay the success and celebrity born of these jobs into even more lucrative careers writing books and going on the lecture circuit.

"Overweening ambition -- the appeal, the irresistible lure of this fame and fortune -- must be at least partly responsible for some of the journalistic malfeasance we've seen of late. I'm no psychiatrist, but I certainly think it played a role in the serial fabrications committed by Stephen Glass at the New Republic and Jayson Blair at the New York Times, to name just two."