journalists and public discourse

Hey guys,

I found an article talking about what responsibility journalists have for the level of public discourse. The e-mail conversation between the Poynter faculty mentioned many cases we talked about in class, including Don Imus' racial comment, a story on NYT that some bloggers call for better manner on blogs, and the 2008 presidential election. They seem to agree that journalists should do something to promote a more civil public discourse. If so, besides suspending Imus for two weeks, what else can media organizations really do, especially on the virtual world?
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=67&aid=121124

Iraq: Why the Media Failed

I found a good article on the failure of the media before the Iraq War to disseminate information from the government. It's a good example of the media manipulation discussed in several of our texts for this week (Terkildsen et al., Manheim). If you don't have a Salon subscription, I think you can access it through the free access link.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/04/10/media_failure/index_np.html