Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Times Co. told investors Thursday that its fourth quarter and full-year earnings would come in below Wall Street estimates on weaker-than-expected advertising in the fourth quarter and higher costs for promotion, printing, distribution and newsprint. The company also said it would begin expensing the cost of stock options and its employee stock purchase plan. It also said that it would no longer provide estimates for full-year earnings, focusing instead on quarterly estimates, due to the greater uncertainty in the current environment for media companies. The company, which also publishes The Boston Globe and...

By now, you know the broadcast media stories involving Dan Rather and broadcast peers at CBS, but nowhere is media bias more pronounced at the newspaper of record, "The New York Times." Notice how, unlike most of those claiming the existence of media bias, I do not put the Times' description in quotation marks. That's because the Times is America's paper of record, and what they write impacts the world. Maybe that's why news observers like myself are concerned when liberal bias escapes the Times' editorial page and makes it to the front page in the form of a headline...

Public's cynicism about media has become a pressing concern By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff, 4/14/2004 At a time when public distrust of the news media appears to be at a dangerously high level, there is evidence of a deep and fundamental disagreement between those who produce news and those who consume it. Although most journalists believe quality and values are vital elements of their work and see themselves as providing an important civic function, the reading and viewing public seems to think of journalism as a bottom-line-driven enterprise populated by the ethically challenged. Last month, the Washington-based Project for Excellence...

NEW YORK On Monday morning, E&P Editor Greg Mitchell and Senior Editor Joe Strupp sat down with Jayson Blair at the E&P office in Manhattan to talk about the ethics scandal that rocked The New York Times last spring and whether anyone should believe a word Blair says about it in his new book, "Burning Down My Masters' House." E&P had solicited questions from readers, and as the interview rolled along, many of them were put to Blair. A transcript of the interview follows. Along the way, Blair reveals, among other things, that when he started the book he thought...

Mike Barnicle, the hard-hitting veteran journalist whose lively commentary has engaged and informed New Englanders for almost 30 years, is returning to the Boston newspaper scene as a columnist for the Boston Herald, Publisher Patrick J. Purcell announced today. Purcell said that Barnicle, who has been a columnist for the New York Daily News for the past five years, serves as a commentator on national and local news programs and hosts his own radio talk show, will join the Boston Herald as a featured columnist every Tuesday and Thursday, beginning tomorrow. ``It's not every day that you have an opportunity...

<p>Blair has written a freelance piece for Jane magazine's "It Happened to Me" column: a first-person narrative about the affair that eventually forced the resignation of Blair and the paper's two top editors. . . .</p> <p>He mentions some of the problems that led to his downfall and advises people not to do likewise. For instance? "If you take the company car from New York to Maryland for a personal trip, you might not want to get a speeding ticket and then throw it in the trash--only to have the business administrator discover it when a late notice arrives."</p>

Randy Richardson was a hotshot criminal-defense lawyer. Now he needs one.[Another 'Jason Blair' type of story. Please hit the full story Link. It is truly great report !] Take a look at the photo above. It captures someone of confidence. A self-assuredness that approaches arrogance. It's the kind of photo you could imagine being shot at a graduation party, or after a big promotion. It certainly doesn't look like a guy who has just been booked on charges of menacing and choking his ex-girlfriend in front of their 4-year-old son. It's easy to read too much into the mug shot...

Diversity used as a pretense When I was a very young man, I was fortunate. I grew up in a time and a place where bad things rarely happened – at least, they weren't reported. I watched "Ozzie And Harriet" and "Leave It To Beaver" and I could relate; the Nelsons and the Cleavers weren't all that different from my family. I had my heroes: the real ones like the "Lone Ranger" and "Sky King" and "Superman" – and the fantastic ones like "Mighty Mouse" and "Popeye," and my very greatest hero of all, "Bugs Bunny." Those were the days....