Cronkite 'Spoke for the Nation'

Woman ordered to pay $2.5M for online defamation

(NEWSER) - In what could end up being very bad news for outspoken bloggers across America, a federal judge has decided that a blogger was not acting as a journalist when she accused an Oregon lawyer of acting unethically and illegally as a trustee in a bankruptcy hearing. The judge denied Crystal Cox's request for legal protections customarily offered to journalists, and a jury subsequently ordered her to pay $2.5 million for defaming lawyer Kevin Padrick and his company. More»

Couric anchors CBS Evening News for last time

(NEWSER) - Katie Couric, the first woman to be solo anchor of an evening network news show, has officially signed off on her 5-year stint at CBS. Couric's final CBS Evening News broadcast included an interview with Hillary Clinton and a "5 years in 5 minutes" retrospective of her time as anchor, Reuters reports. More»

Calling a lie a 'lie' isn't the same as 'taking sides': Glenn Greenwald

(NEWSER) - Anderson Cooper has been using the word “lie” a lot in recent days while describing statements made by Mubarak and his regime. Despite the fact that the statements he’s describing are “factually false,” his liberal use of the word “lie” has gotten Cooper mocked and questioned by fellow journalists, writes Glenn Greenwald on Salon . Those critics have ultimately acknowledged that the statements he’s calling “lies” are, in fact, lies—but even so, they question Cooper’s “opinion-making” and wonder whether or not he should be “taking sides.” More»

A former Guardian editor shares some advice

(USER SUBMITTED) - Some 15 years ago, a British writer drummed up a list of "commandments" for journalists. Tim Radford, former science, arts, and literature editor at the Guardian, pulled together 25 thoughts in response to a question he asked himself: "What is the most important thing to remember about writing a story?" Answer: "To make someone read it." The Guardian shares his still-sage advice to would-be scribes. A sampling:

• The most important person in your life is your reader.

Role in 9/11 health bill points to journalism's greats

(NEWSER) - By taking up a cause—the 9/11 health bill—and getting quick results, Jon Stewart is following in the footsteps of news greats and "advocacy journalists" Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, professor of television Robert Thompson tells the New York Times . Murrow helped shift public opinion on the Sen. Joseph McCarthy hearings; Cronkite’s views on the stalemate in Vietnam influenced Lyndon Johnson's decision not to run for reelection. Though Thompson acknowledges the fact that Stewart's impact doesn't yet measure up to Murrow and Cronkite's, he argues that the comparison is a valid one, because barring Stewart’s help, the bill would likely have floundered. More»