New York University
Jay Rosen is Associate Professor and former Chair of the Department of Journalism at New York University, and Director of NewAssignment.net, which experiments with new models for journalism. A former co-publisher of the Huffington Post's Off the Bus campaign reporting project, he is the author of the book What Are Journalists For? and PressThink, a weblog about journalism and its ordeals.
Covering the White House when the media is the 'enemy' On Saturday, President Trump started to make nice with agents at CIA headquarters, but quickly turned to insulting the news media as "among the most dishonest human beings on Earth." Press Secretary Sean Spicer followed up with a bitter attack of his own. But yesterday — at his first official White House news briefing — Spicer gave a kinder, gentler account of his position. Jay Rosen, media critic, writer and Professor of Journalism at New York University, provides some perspective.
Should The Media Call Trump Racist? Republican Donald Trump has said that the federal judge overseeing the fraud case against Trump University, Gonzalo Curiel, isn’t qualified to hear the case because of his Mexican heritage. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Thursday , Trump said, “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest.” His position, and his continuous divisive rhetoric, raises the question: at what point is it okay for the media to report his statements as “racist”, rather than using terms like “racially charged” or “controversial”? And how else is Trump challenging conventional campaign coverage?
Scandal Time in Washington Steven Miller has been fired as Acting Director of the Internal Revenue Service, but he was back on Capitol Hill today, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee , in one of three unrelated "scandals" that could threaten Barack Obama's second-term agenda. In addition to the IRS, there's the Tea Party, the Justice Department and reporters' phone records, and talking points about the killing of diplomats in Benghazi. With the President's approval ratings over 50 percent and holding, many questions remain to be answered. Does the public care? Is there evidence of wrong-doing? Will Republicans overplay their hand? What's the role of the news media? Will there be an impact on action on Obamacare, the minimum wage, sequester or immigration reform?
WikiLeaks and the War in Afghanistan WikiLeaks reportedly has 91,000 secret reports , which it has shared with the New York Times, Britain's Guardian and Der Spiegel in Germany. But not all of them have been released to the Internet. On MSNBC today, WikiLeaks' editor in chief, Julien Assange, was asked about the Pentagon's claim that American lives could be put at risk .
WikiLeaks and the War in Afghanistan The White House, the Pentagon, national security think-tanks and some reporters say all those formerly secret documents released by WikiLeaks don’t contain anything new . But civilian casualties, Afghan corruption and Pakistan’s mixed loyalties are not what the American people have heard about from two presidents and their military commanders. Will public perceptions be changed? Will Congress start backing away? Will 92,000 raw reports from the battlefield provide new understanding of America’s longest war or more confusion than ever?
Does News Have a Future? Magazines are cutting their staffs as are news broadcasters, both commercial and listener supported. Newspapers have more readers than ever, but they're downsizing and going bankrupt, threatening not just providers of news but the news itself. Major American cities may soon have no papers at all. The problem is that they're giving their product away for free on the Internet, a business model that can't be sustained. Will a new generation of news consumers be willing to pay? We hear different ideas about keeping traditional journalism alive. Is it time to develop new methods for keeping the public informed?
The LA Times Apologizes for Tupac Story Last Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times ran a story that first appeared on its website two days before. It implied that hip hop artist Sean "Diddy" Combs was behind the shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur —an even that triggered a deadly feud. Ultimately, Shakur and another rapper, Notorious B.I.G. , were killed.
Trump's 'America First' goes missing abroad In the Middle East, President Trump is changing some policies of the Obama Administration—and reversing his own campaign attacks on Islam as a religion that "hates us." We hear about his visit to Saudi Arabia and what's at stake for the rest of his foreign excursion.
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.