NEWS COUNCIL DIRECTOR A PANELIST
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18TH AT THE ASIAN
AMERICAN JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION
NATIONAL CONVENTION IN MINNEAPOLIS

Gary Gilson joins New York Times Public Editor Byron Calame and Pioneer Press Editor Vicki Gowler (a News Council member) on a panel discussing

TROUBLED TIMES FOR JOURNALISM:
WHY CAN’T WE STOP THE ETHICAL BLEEDING?

The program, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, runs from 8:30–10 a.m.

A group of Falun Gong practitioners in the Twin Cities has dropped its complaint against the Star Tribune after being provided space for a published commentary about an Associated Press news story that ran in the Minneapolis newspaper.

Falun Gong says its members in China are systematically persecuted by the government. The group objected to an AP story that reported on self-immolations of so-called Falun Gong defectors who renounced the group as subversive. Falun Gong members here said that much of the world’s press had established that the Chinese government had staged the self-immolations to manipulate public opinion.

The News Council facilitated settlement of the complaint.

The settlement left undiscussed the issue of whether a newspaper that subscribes to a wire service is responsible for errors or omissions in the wire report, and if the newspaper should be expected to check facts itself before publishing the story.

What do you think should be the standard? Please comment.

The death of Peter Jennings brings to mind a superb 1990 book, "Anchors," which describes the world of network television news by focusing on Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather working on high-profile stories.

The book, by Robert Goldberg, then the Wall Street Journal TV and media critic, and his father, Gerald Jay Goldberg, a college professor, was published by Carol Publishing Group, Secaucus, New Jersey:

It focuses on such events as the confrontation in Tiananmen Square and the most recent San Francisco earthquake disaster, and it vividly portrays the decision-making, economics, energy, internal politics, personalities and competitiveness that go into network coverage of major news stories.