Bob Collins
It’s not often one of the gods — perhaps the god — of public radio has to answer the critics in public radio, but that’s the territory Ira Glass of This American Life has found himself in the last week or so.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Media
Not answering questions can be a long-term land mine for a political candidate, but only if she’s not answering good questions. Read more →
Minnesota Orchestra’s appearance in Cuba has gotten plenty of well-deserved attention. But another facet of the concert tour in the Communist nation is getting some attention today. How is it that a certain public radio outlet is able to broadcast from the closed country?
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Stick a fork in the Labor Day telethon for Muscular Dystrophy. Read more →
A Madison, Wisc., family can no longer stay in their home because of death threats, and it’s a local TV station’s fault.
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We can live without Jon Stewart’s comedy when he gives up his gig on The Daily Show later this year. But his astounding grilling of New York Times reporter Judith Miller last night was a reminder that we’ll be hard-pressed to replace his journalistic chops when it comes to interviewing, or — more accurately — his refusal to be a megaphone for newsmakers peddling garbage. Read more →
After civil unrest in recent years, the spotlight has shown on the words that news reporters use to describe what’s happening.
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Norm Coleman recommended that a task force study why people become terrorists, hardly an innovative idea.
Here’s one: Stop writing offensive headlines when framing the issue. Read more →
Twin Cities writer David Brauer has been processing his past since the death of New York Times columnist David Carr, with whom Brauer worked. He poured it out in Minnesota Monthly. Read more →
The new NPR ombudsman is taking on an old complaint from some public radio listeners: the choice of what commercial interests to allow underwrite NPR programming.
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Every year around this time, journalists — especially ex-newspaper journalists — embrace the survey that shows that theirs is the worst job in America. It’s as good an example of the victim mentality as there is. Read more →
Yesterday’s gyrocopter flight into the heart of Washington, DC, which illuminated the incompetence of those entrusted to provide air defense over the nation’s capital, has also started a debate in journalism circles around this question: What duty — if any — did a newspaper have to alert authorities? Read more →
The latest entry in our collection of public marriage proposals comes from local TV today. Read more →
People don’t appreciate the value of local radio until it’s gone. And once gone, it never comes back. Read more →
Turning aside a request from the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that data from an agency created by the Minnesota Legislature to help high-risk doctors, hospitals and nursing homes get malpractice insurance can stay secret. Read more →