Just when I thought I finished covering high school cheating, I received word from former Washington Post columnist, current high school teacher Colman McCarthy about the latest scandal taking place at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland. According to the Post (Feb. 5) disciplinary action will be taken “…against seven students who were allegedly involved in a computer-hacking scheme in which grades were changed,  » Read...

“There are two kinds of celebrity crash,” Time Magazine’s James Poniewozik writes (Dec.14). “The first, like Tiger Woods’ on Nov. 27, is accidental… The second is intentional.  You crash a President’s State dinner…” Due respect, Jim, you missed a third: when the mainstream media drives us to distraction with non-stop coverage of notorious, celebrity events. In describing the White House State Dinner crashers,...

If you watched the opening of Good Morning, AmericaThursday you found stories covering President Obama’s Afghanistan speech, unemployment, health care, Salahi-Gate; and then there was this: Golf Superstar Tiger Woods apology for his “transgressions.” The Today Show, Early Show, same thing. All this in the first half hour of what used to be reserved for serious news of the world and the nation.  » Read more...

Should a newspaper print a story from a confidential report concerning ethics investigations, in which members of Congress are named, if the story was obtained as a result of an accidental release? Late Thursday night (Oct. 29) The Washington Post released the following two stories as “Breaking News”:  Confidential House report reveals details of investigations into lawmakers, aides; Seven members of House defense subcommittee...

By the time you read this, there will have been many tributes to CBS newsman Walter Cronkite who died Friday at the age of 92.  Most, if not all, of those tributes will mention the word “trust” in describing both his approach and integrity to the news. With 24/7 cable news service today, it’s hard to imagine what it was...

“Jump the shark” – The moment when a TV show, actor or public figure has gone downhill.  Refers to an episode from Happy Days where Fonzi jumped a shark on water skis; labeled the lowest point of the series. – Urban Dictionary Genius can be staggering.  Sadly, in the case of Michael Jackson, it can also be tragically fragile. Jackson...

According to today’s Wall Street Journal, in 2008, “Shellee Hale of Bellevue, Wash., posted in several online forums about a hacker attack on a company that makes software used to track sales for adult-entertainment Web sites. She claimed that personal information of the sites’ customers was compromised. “About three months later,” the Journal wrote, “the software company — which contends that no consumer...

There’s always a debate about journalistic ethics when the media goes too far.  But there are journalists who stand by their own standards even when pressured by others. Charles Lewis founded the Center for Public Integrity after eleven years as an investigative reporter at ABC News and CBS News, as well as a producer for 60 Minutes. The following is a story Lewis shared with me...

It’s easy to criticize reporters when they go too far, but what about the times when reporters are pressured to go farther… and they don’t. Charles Lewis founded the Center for Public Integrity after eleven years as an investigative reporter at ABC News and CBS News, as well as a producer for 60 Minutes. The following story comes from my...

It’s interesting to see the direction these commentaries take.  I never have a preconceived plan.  I go where the story and the ethical issue take me. In Monday’s post (June 10) I had strong feelings that “Vanity Fair” editor Todd Purdum’s use of anonymous sources to insinuate that former President Bill Clinton’s “…appearances of impropriety” on the road campaigning for...