Reluare duminică, 17 iulie 1994

THE MEDIA BUSINESS: Press; His Daily News career cut short, Earl Caldwell sees a disturbing racial divide in journalism.

Date: 18 July 1994

By William Glaberson

William Glaberson

IT has been three months since Earl Caldwell, who was once one of the country's better-known black journalists, either resigned or was dismissed from his job as a columnist at The Daily News. And even he seems not quite sure how to explain what happened. "There was a time I had nothing but affection for people in the news business," he said over lunch the other day. "But everything has become so racial now. It has put people in hard places."

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The Big City; FALLING FOR IT

Date: 17 July 1994

By John Tierney

John Tierney

Each of these letters to dog shelters across America bears the logo of a nonexistent Korean company, Kea So Joo, which means Dog Meat Soup. The company offers 10 cents a pound for dogs that will be cooked and canned for sale to Asians fond of this traditional dish. "Dog is good food. Dog is good medicine," the letter explains. "Our business getting very big. Need more dog." It offers free pickup and a promise: "Dog no suffer. We have quick death for dog." This is the first stage of a genre that Skaggs has been developing since the 1960s. Now 48 years old, he began as a conventional artist in Greenwich Village: painter, sculptor, organizer of political protests. He carried a cross up Fifth Avenue on Easter, built a Vietnamese nativity scene in Central Park and gradually got annoyed at the way the press covered him. Like everyone else in America, he resented having the world explained by journalists in midtown Manhattan. He realized that many of New York's media know-it-alls are just moderately educated folks churning out information obtained from press releases and from phone conversations with strangers. They're paid to sit in windowless rooms and pretend they can see the political situation in Prague or the best place to rock climb in Arizona. Skaggs saw an opportunity for what he calls conceptual performance art or media pieces. He has staged dozens of media hoaxes that have fooled hundreds of newspapers and television shows ranging from network news programs to "Geraldo."

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TELEVISION; Not Necessarily What the Spin Doctor Ordered

Date: 17 July 1994

By Jeff Macgregor

Jeff Macgregor

Tommy, Sorry you had to miss the weekend retreat. I trust the Lincoln Bedroom was as you remember it. In addition to crafting some incredible soft sculpture and a day of very cathartic role playing, R. & D. really jammed on some new ideation that is just too hot! Briefly:

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Abroad at Home; Where Power Lies

Date: 18 July 1994

By Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

When Robert B. Fiske Jr., the independent counsel on Whitewater, reported that there was nothing to the horror stories about the death of Vincent Foster, that Mr. Foster had indeed committed suicide, I expected that those who had spread the stories would be called to account. The Rev. Pat Robertson, for example, the leader of the Christian coalition, had luridly suggested that Mr. Foster, deputy White House counsel, was murdered and the crime covered up by the Clinton Administration. Rush Limbaugh, the talk-show host, broadcast a report that Mr. Foster died in an Administration "safe house" and his body was then spirited to the park where it was found.

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JUDITH REGAN

Date: 17 July 1994

"Judith Regan," SHE SAYS IN HER CLIPPED VOICE, returning my first phone call from her office at Simon & Schuster in November. "Judith, hi. How are you?" I ask.

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Westchester Q&A;: Dr. Paul Thaler; Justice and Television's Unblinking Eye

Date: 17 July 1994

By Donna Greene

Donna Greene

LIKE millions of others, Dr. Paul Thaler watched the O. J. Simpson pretrial hearing. But he did so with a special eye to see if the hearing supported what he concluded after six years of research -- that television coverage of trials interferes with the process of justice. Dr. Thaler, a former newspaper reporter and now the director of journalism and media at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, is the author of "The Watchful Eye: American Justice in the Age of the Television Trial" (Praeger). In that book, he focuses on the history and consequences of still cameras and television equipment in the courtroom.

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National Media Corp. Woes

Date: 18 July 1994

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The National Media Corporation said today that its auditors had questioned the survival prospects of the company, which produces infomercials for television. The auditors, in a Federal filing by the company, cited National Media's full-year loss of $8.7 million and negative cash flow. They also said that continuing litigation over several issues added to concerns about the company's ability to stay in business.

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TALKING ABOUT THE MEDIA CIRCUS

Date: 17 July 1994

The most significant statement in your article "Talking About the Media Circus" (June 26) was Jeff Greenfield's admission that probably 80 percent of those in the press voted for Clinton. That's almost double the vote the public gave him. This disproportionate ratio of liberals in the news media makes a mockery of its stated attempt to "work harder at being balanced."

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TALKING ABOUT THE MEDIA CIRCUS

Date: 17 July 1994

Your panelists overlook the purpose of the news media in a democracy: to provide information for a self-governing people to make decisions about matters that affect their lives. ALEXANDER GREENFELD Washington

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TALKING ABOUT THE MEDIA CIRCUS

Date: 17 July 1994

I see far too much time being spent on television and in newspapers on less and less important events. I feel I am being condescended to. You should run an article about what we, the great unwashed, think of the news media. AMY L. CONNOR Sunnyvale, Calif.

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