Ombudsman columns
Page 7 of 11
Blaming media for social ills: convenient excuse
Ombudsman There is a saying among lawyers that bad facts make bad law. In its $25 million verdict against a tabloid TV show on May 7, a Michigan jury added a corollary: "Bad television makes terrible law."
05.10.99
Tough choice: journalist or jailbird
Ombudsman It's one thing to defend journalistic freedom and independence with bombast and rhetoric; quite another to surrender personal freedom and independence in a jail cell.
05.03.99
Journalists can't be cops, too
Ombudsman Several Michigan newspapers and television stations aren't faring very well in a struggle to preserve their independence from law enforcement.
04.16.99
When privacy and press rights collide
Ombudsman The facts around it have grown fuzzy and faded with the passage of 30 years but the singular image is as sharp today as it was the night it was imprinted in my memory.
03.29.99
Honoring Madison's constitutional legacy
Ombudsman On the map, the road wending through Virginia's beautiful Piedmont region is Highway 20.
03.22.99
National FOI Day: Access is the key to good government
Ombudsman Tomorrow is the birthday of James Madison, who labored to embed the principle of an informed citizenry in our civic compact. That is why across this nation, in ways large and small, March 16 is observed as National Freedom of Information Day.
03.15.99
Why the Starr 'muzzle' on Monica telling the full story?
Ombudsman Something like 70 million people not yet afflicted with scandal fatigue tuned in to watch Barbara Walter's two-hour interview with Monica Lewinsky Wednesday. And as entertained and titillated as they may have been, they did not get the whole story.
03.08.99
Scandalmania: The press just can't help itself
Ombudsman How did Juanita Broaddrick's accusation that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her in a Little Rock hotel in the spring of 1978 wind up on the front pages of mainstream newspapers 21 years later?
03.01.99
'Broadcasters not tending to their free-speech interests'
Ombudsman Broadcasters not tending to their free-speech interests
02.25.99
Exorcising the demons of television
Ombudsman Our night terrors from things that go bump on the television screen continue. Recent dispatches from the cultural wars:
02.22.99
Page last updated: 10/2/2013 6:59:10 AM
