Live Blogging: David Cay Johnston

Minute by minute coverage with David Cay Johnston during his visit to Ithaca College's Independent Media class.

2:40 p.m. "The only degree I have is night high school... but I never stayed at any college for more than 30 units."

• Has enough credits for a masters, went to 8 colleges, but never got a degree from any of them

2:45 p.m. "Before I came along, the LAPD was treated like a god like institution from the LA Times."

2:48 p.m. "I took the LA Times places where they never intended to go."

• referring to LAPD political spying and abuses
• the intelligence unit was not being controlled

2:57 p.m. "A few days after this blind date, I went to this police social function...No matter how mad Gates was he would always talk to me... because he wanted to know what I was doing and that what Henry Kissinger's way."

• Johnston's bind date was spyed on, tried to use intimidation factors on him
• that first date, blind date is now Johnston's wife

3:03 p.m. "I have to manage my editors and figure out how to get things into the paper"

• Editors jobs would be on the line so the LA Times did not want this story covered 

3:12 p.m. "You will have the same work, but not the same benefits and that's not all due to the economics facing all news organizations."

• IRE has gone down 16%, but journalists 30% decrease

3:14 p.m. Take law, public communications courses, learn numbers because you will be able to turn them into useful things

3:17 p.m. "My head is kind of a spreadsheet."

• this is a way Johnston makes numbers easy to understand for his readers

3:18 p.m. "The CIA Factbook is a trove of information."

3:20 p.m. "You'll have bad editors, you'll have good ones. You'll have bad producers and you'll have good ones. But you'll also have people who make you look better than you deserve."

3:22 p.m. "Editors: they have real power."

• They have the power to put a huge investigative piece on page 87 

3:24 p.m. "There are no rules in journalism they there are only judgement but because you sign your name to everything you write you have to live with those judgements." 

3:25 p.m.  "George W. Bush was sold to the American people as a product."

3:30 p.m. "Once you tell me what the bar is and I hit the bar you got to put it in the paper."

3:36 p.m. "Disclosure is the best disinfectant," Professor Jeff Cohen said.

3:35 p.m. "If you are just Joe-Schmo and I am interviewing you, I will give you a tremendous amount of leeway...If you are Bill Clinton I am not going to cut you any slack under and circumstances." 

Is IC's New Media Policy Censorship?

I closed my laptop, dumbfounded at the email I had just read. Effective immediately, Ithaca College changed their media policy for student media on campus. A list of 84 faculty members now must be contacted via the media relations department, specifically David Maley, if a reporter would like an interview with them involving Ithaca College or their policies. In an email, President Tom Rochon said:

"Note that this policy is strictly limited to the administrators listed here AND to instances where you want to interview them about IC policies or college developments.  The procedure for speaking with all faculty, all students, all third parties and all staff not listed in this document is unchanged -- you simply contact them. The procedure for speaking with anyone on this list about any topic not related to IC policies or college developments is also unchanged -- simply contact us."

This is the first problem I have with this new policy. One of the reasonings for the change is to not distract faculty bombarded with requests from their work. Yet, they specify the type of requests that have to go through Media Relations and which ones do not. Journalists are supposed to be the watchdogs to their government. Bringing the scale down to the college level, shouldn't we student journalists then be acting as the watchdogs for the college and its administration?

This reminds me of the CNN/war general controversy we discussed in class. CNN boasted they spoke directly with the White House and got all of their sources for commentary on the war approved by the governemnt. CNN was under direct fire by many journalists, especially those in the independent media field, because the government could coach the sources on exactly the perspective on the war they wanted spread to the masses. Isn't this exactly what can happen now when sourcing must go through the media relations department? Why else would interviews involving IC policies be the only interviews they care about setting up? All other interview requests that do not have to do with Ithaca College policies can go directly to the administrator without the middle man. Is this a form of censorship?

President Rochon continued in the email to say this would not effect the quality of student reporting.

"It is explicitly NOT the intention of this policy to limit access to IC administrators, to prevent you from pursuing certain stories, or to cause an unwarranted time delay in completing your interviews. The practice of working through Media Relations is long established at IC for all independent media external to the college, and it works well.  In applying this policy also to media affiliated with IC (in the varying extent each of you are), we are simply applying a common professional standard and procedure on media access generally." 

Problem No.2: We are taught in all of our journalism classes that news is 24/7. Even in this Independent Media class, we are always talking about timeliness and the importence of putting news and spreading ideas on the internet-- the great part of the web being the instantanious aspect of it. But according to the policy, there must be at least 24 hours notice for any type of commentary. Doesn't this then inhibit our abilities to be professional journalists and thrive in an age of instant news?

To me, I see this policy as a setback for student journalists initiated by our school-- a school that is supposed to be extremely supportive of media and the fourth estate it represents. To me it seems that Ithaca College wants us to be critical reporters, just not critical of the college itself or its policies. 

Society of Professional Journalists and Indy Media: My Time in the Sunshine State

Here in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Society of Professional Journalists is having their annual national conference. Here, journalists of popular and independent media alike have come together to discuss the field of journalism and the ethics behind it. 

In preparation for the conference, I was so preoccupied with my campaign for student representative on the national board that I had not really given much thought to the type of media that would be represented through these programs. I am shocked at how well independent media is being represented here. 

The first program I went to, Crisis U, was about covering breaking news on a college campus. The editor for Penn State’s newspaper The Daily Collegian, Lexie Belulfine, spoke of the coverage of the Sandusky/Paterno controversy. One thing that really struck me was how she stressed being an independent paper from the university was extremely important to the coverage of this case. They had no restrictions or ties, enabling them to phenomenally cover the scandal. 

At my second program about following the money in political campaigns, we learned 5 tools and websites all reporters should know. Most of these tools were independent organizations, such as Propublica, who do in depth reporting. The question “where is your funding coming from?” is very familiar, and an important one to ask when covering politics or even when questioning media. 

The highlight of this conference for me, however, was meeting News 21 Media Editor Brandon Quester. The cantaloupe story in Guatemala? All him. It was fascinating discussing the ins and outs surrounding the interactive and in depth reporting that News 21, student reporters, produce.

Even the Society of Professional Journalists realizes the importance of independent media and its growing presence. It has been out of this world to meet and discuss these organizations with the top people in their field. Now I am off to enjoy the beach for the rest of my stay in the sunshine state!