eChaser: August 2005 / p3

SPJ national update II: Have a cellphone camera? You, too, can be a TV journalist; Judith Miller, hero or hack; porn-fighting Republican in "raunch fest"; and more soldiers are getting divorced (but fewer are killing themselves). Anyone with an Internet connection can right now publish whatever he or she wants, fueling the growth of "citizen reporters." Media companies have begun backing these efforts, creating what some see as a more democratic press but muddying what it means to be a journalist and adding a dimension to debates on fairness, libel, protection of confidential sources and trust in the media. More here and here. ... For Judith Miller of The New York Times, controversy dogs her like a bad ad quarter, from criticism of her pro-administration stories leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, to her landing in a Virginia detention facility for refusing to reveal a source to federal investigators. Now the American Society of Journalists and Authors, a 50-year-old group of some 1,100 nonfiction independent writers, may not give Miller its Conscience in the Media award after all, following an outpouring of member opposition. The proposed award prompted at least one member of the group's First Amendment Committee to quit the panel. More here and here. Meanwhile, the Newspaper Guild is encouraging members to send Miller postcards "so she knows we support the stand she has taken on this issue." Her address: Attn: Judith Miller, Inmate No. 45570083, Alexandria Detention Center, 2001 Mill Road, Alexandria, Va. 22314. ... Arizona Sen. John McCain, who held hearings prior to the 2000 elections criticizing Hollywood for marketing R-rated movies to teenagers, has a cameo role in the summer-release "Wedding Crashers," an R-rated movie marketed to teenagers. McCain told Jay Leno that in Washington he "works with boobs every day." More here. ... The number of active-duty soldiers, especially officers, getting divorced has risen sharply. Last year, 3,325 Army officers' marriages ended in divorce -- up 78 percent from 2003, the year of the Iraq invasion, and more than 3 1/2 times the number in 2000, before the Afghan operation, Army figures show. For enlisted personnel, the 7,152 divorces last year were 28 percent more than in 2003 and up 53 percent from 2000. During this time, the number of soldiers has changed little. More here. Perhaps related, morale is low among U.S. personnel in Iraq, according to an Army report that finds particular psychological stress in National Guard and Reserve troops, but suicides have declined, from 24 in 2003 to nine last year. More here.

SPJ national update III: Shifting-standards White House has nothing to hide and nothing to say; press secretary caught in revolving dour; and PBS chief backs programming investigation. Nearly two years after stating that any administration official who leaked undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity would be fired -- and assuring that Karl Rove and other senior aides to President Bush didn't do it -- the White House on July 11 refused to answer questions about new evidence of Rove's involvement. More here and here and here and here and here and here. ... In a rare burst of follow-up questions and other behaviors associated with actual reporters, the White House press corps on July 12 peppered Scott McClellan. Did Rove commit a crime? Does the president still have confidence in Rove? Is McClellan concerned that he misrepresented facts about Rove? Has McClellan hired an attorney? McClellan, previously chatty on the topic, had little to say. More here and here. ... PBS president Pat Mitchell said she supports an investigation of what she called a "very troubling" use of federal money to track the political leaning of programming on public television. Mitchell declined to say whether Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, should lose his job over surveys he ordered of PBS programming. And is public broadcasting a nest of left-wing biases? No, according to the two ombudsmen Tomlinson hired to review NPR and PBS news segments. More here and here and here and here.

SPJ national update IV: Plain Dealer plain wrong?; Portland proves the president wrong; and administration wrong on war-related medical costs. Following the Cleveland Plain Dealer's withholding two articles based on leaked government documents for fear of criminal prosecution, several editors at major newspapers said they will not back off such stories. A number of the editors said they were baffled by the paper's move. More here and here and here and here. ... "Kyoto would have wrecked our economy," President Bush told a Danish interviewer recently, referring to the accord to curb carbon emissions. But Portland, Ore., has achieved stunning reductions in carbon emissions -- below 1990 levels, the benchmark for the Kyoto accord -- while booming economically. City officials say the emissions campaign has reaped benefits: less tax money spent on energy, more convenient transportation, a greener city and expertise in energy efficiency that's helping local businesses win contracts worldwide. More here. ... The Bush administration said June 28 that it vastly underestimated the number of service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan seeking medical treatment from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it warned of at least a $2.6 billion shortfall. In recent months, House and Senate Republicans repeatedly defeated Democratic amendments to boost VA medical funding. Following the disclosure, Senate Republicans announced plans to pass emergency legislation to add $1.5 billion to the fiscal 2005 appropriation. More here.

SPJ national update V: More censorship; more journalists dying; and more young journalists being trained, maybe. GOP lawmakers Ted Stevens, Alaska, and Joe Barton, Texas, chairmen of the Senate and House commerce committees, and FCC head Kevin Martin want to broaden federal broadcast indecency regulations to cover cable and satellite TV. A separate measure in the Senate would regulate "excessively violent" programming, not just in broadcasting but on cable and satellite service. More here. ... At least 85 journalists and other employees of news organizations, the vast majority of them Iraqis, have been killed in Iraq since March 2003, according to the International Federation of Journalists, which opened an office in Baghdad in April. More here. ... The leaders of five of the nation's most prominent j-programs are behind a three-year, $6 million effort to elevate journalism in academia with investigative reporting projects and by integrating their curriculum with other disciplines and providing a national platform on media-related issues. More here.

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