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Competitive journalism makes reporters take greater and greater risks in order to satisfy the public's appetite for more dramatic reality. Why do they do it? And how? Michael Nicholson, ITN's most prolific war reporter, considers the fears and ethical dilemmas that confront the war correspondent daily; Martha Gellhorn, the first American woman war reporter, speaks of the need to "keep a record"; Robert Fisk recalls the discredit that the coverage...
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This is the story of Fleet Street, once the physical and still the metaphorical home of Britain's newspaper industry. The program charts the 20th-century history of one of the most ferociously competitive industries in the world, focusing on the proprietors, editors, journalists, and printers who collectively perform the miracle of delivering a new product every day.
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With its principal focus on Boston's two giant newspapers, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, and with lesser glances at two smaller regional suburban papers, this program looks at the faces behind the bylines and examines the exhilaration and frustrations of the newspaper industry. The program talks with columnists, general assignment reporters, and beat reporters; examines the differences between the two major papers; and describes the competition...
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The rise of the Internet has meant that ordinary people can be both producers and distributors of information and opinions through the use of a Weblog (blog). But with more than eight million blogs already in existence, how many bloggers are really being heard? And is what they have to say serious, well-researched journalism, or just a rant - and should it matter? This program profiles the emergence of blogs, looks at their negatives and positives,...
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After being shot in the chest while embedded as a journalist in Afghanistan, John D. McHugh was determined to show what life is really like for the U.S. troops stationed there. From managing a dysfunctional Afghan army to the media blackout on showing wounded American soldiers to countering sophisticated Taliban attacks, this intimate documentary brings together a series of themes that have come to define the Afghan conflict.
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Journalism has become an integral feature of modern war, but during the Russian-Georgian conflict it was propaganda more than information that dominated the Russian press. This documentary exposes Russia's abuse of mass media in reporting on what really happened during the 2008 South Ossetia conflict. When channel CCTV let citizens know that "the military was forced to undertake police actions to keep order," it was Georgian civilians who were desperately...
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A&E's Investigative Reports investigates one of New York City's most prominent and controversial newspapers, the New York Post. Host Bill Kurtis takes us inside its offices and looks at the tabloid that covers the gamut from analytical business reporting to vicious celebrity gossip. This documentary interviews staff writers, crime photographer "Calamity" Sam Costanza, and gossip columnist Richard Johnson. Managing Editor Marc Kalech is quoted saying,...
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After receiving a flash drive from the WikiLeaks organization containing nearly 400,000 secret military reports, the producers of British current events show "Dispatches" teamed up with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism to analyze the raw data. This documentary presents the results of their collaboration - findings which strongly suggest that U.S. troops in Iraq were killing more civilians than insurgents at checkpoints, that they killed people...
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When Daniel Jones ignited his truck on the Los Angeles freeway, adult and child audiences saw what turned out to be a gruesome suicide, live and in color. Can real-time coverage of such spectacles truly be called journalism? In this program, ABC News correspondent John Donvan reprises the incident, after which anchor Chris Wallace, the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, and two TV news directors debate the responsibility of the...
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Publishing online to an immense audience is as fast as clicking a mouse, for high-profile columnist Matt Drudge-a self-styled Walter Winchell for the digital age and creator of the notorious yet popular Drudge Report, registering more than a million hits per month. But for Drudge, the price for posting insider gossip so quickly includes a
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Strategists call two fundamentals of battle chaos "fog" and "friction," referring to stress that can result in friendly-fire incidents and collateral damage. Does the involvement of the media in today's combats increase the likelihood of fog and friction? This documentary from seasoned war correspondent Dodge Billingsley examines fog and friction in the context of the hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, with a close look at the impact of a 24-hour...
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A brilliant program, this thoughtful and analytical quartet of videos probes the moral questions that plague journalists: What is the truth and whose truth is it? Is there such a thing as true objectivity? What does it mean when the same picture can be used to illustrate opposite points of view? What distortions are introduced by the journalist's own ego-to be first, best, most artistic, most insightful? These programs show how reporters have to contend...
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First published in South Africa during the 1950s, Drum magazine became a rallying point for black people as the anti-apartheid movement took shape. The publication, which featured liberal articles by such intellectuals as Lewis Nkosi, Can Themba, and Henry Nxumalo, gave voice to the movement, helping Nelson Mandela and his compatriots. Drum was more than a magazine - it was an expression of a new way of life. Among the highlights of this documentary...
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The photographer Jurgen Schadeberg captured a revolution. His images defined Drum, the first black magazine, and his life became the subject for a Hollywood film. As he returns to South Africa, his story casts a vivid light on the role of the artist, as well as on South Africa's troubled past and uneasy climate today. "In 1994, when Nelson Mandela came, we all believed in the rainbow nation. But apartheid is back. It's starting all over again. We...
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In the new world of tweets, blogs, and citizen journalism, what is the outlook for true investigative reporting? This program highlights the ways investigative journalism is changing, particularly in the context of digital and online media. Social media and globalization have changed the ways reporters connect with their readers. What are the advantages and disadvantages of nearly instantaneous access to news as it unfolds? A panel of heavy hitters...
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War journalism has become an increasingly lethal endeavor. Not only are correspondents viewed as targets, they are often subject to kidnapping, torture, and even beheading. This Peabody Award-winning documentary weaves together portraits of journalists and photographers who have survived the physical rigors of their assignments but succumbed emotionally to the trauma of what they experienced. Inspired by the work of Dr. Anthony Feinstein, a neuropsychiatrist...
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The father of television journalism and an exemplar of integrity, Fred Friendly was a war correspondent in World War II, the producer of Edward R. Murrow's popular documentary show "See It Now," and the maverick president of CBS News. In this program, ABC News anchor Ted Koppel examines the contributions of a man who helped radio news make its quantum leap to the TV screen in the early 1950s and who challenged decision-makers of all types to think-and...
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If the Clinton/Lewinsky affair-officially broken to the world by The Washington Post-did not actually destroy the Clinton administration, it certainly did injure its credibility. Did the news media unwittingly play judge and jury through the way in which the story was covered? In this program, ABC News anchors Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson and correspondent Cynthia McFadden assess the reportage on this sensational issue and consider the influence...
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The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was documented by hundreds of photographers. Some were professionals who were already working in the area; others were amateurs who felt compelled to head toward the scene of destruction and photograph it. This A&E Special looks at the World Trade Center tragedy through the eyes of the people who risked their lives to capture it on film. Interviews with some of these photographers combine with a sobering...
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According to investigative journalist Danny Schechter, the U.S. conducted two wars in Iraq in 2003: one was a military assault, and the other was a media assault on the American public, or what he calls "jingoism posing as journalism." In this carefully-researched documentary, Schechter argues that the Pentagon employed classic propaganda techniques to control media coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Schechter uses insider interviews and a wealth...