Censorship by Any Other Name

  Since Title IX’s inclusion in the federal Education Amendments of 1972 , participation in sports among school-age girls has increased from one in 27 to one in three. This has led to increased enrollment by women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and greater career opportunities . Media coverage, however, has not kept up. As any fan knows, ESPN is the powerhouse of sports coverage, yet a study by Purdue’s Cheryl Cooky found that Sports Center coverage of women’s athletics increased to a mere 5.4% of airtime in 2019 from 5% in 1989. Lack of coverage, in turn, has accompanied  lower pay for female athletes , compared to their male counterparts. This has happened despite a growing number of female role models in sports, which according to a BBC study helps in the development of women’s attitudes toward personal health. Fortunately, we have such brave souls as Megan Rapinoe and her teammates, who in a landmark decision, won an equal pay settlement in t...

  Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.  - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Cyberbullying , digital plagiarism and online cheating are among the most talked-about ethical issues in media today. Sadly, much of this discussion unfairly blames new technologies, conflates morality with ethics and proposes tired old collectivist “solutions,” ignoring the real drivers of ethical blind spots and disconnects. It's easy to pin all this on the internet, with so many recent accounts of unacceptable behavior on social media. War, bigotry and human rights abuses, however, are nothing new. If anything, the internet has enhanced awareness of these problems, especially for those of us fortunate enough to live in a relatively free society. The internet has only exacerbated our more animalistic tendencies going back to the dawn o...

  In 2006, Vladimir Putin hired Atlanta-based Ketchum, Inc. to bolster his image in Western nations… Yes, that Vladimir Putin . Ketchum would go on to earn tens of millions in revenues until just this past week, when Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced Putin had fired them . Ketchum, meanwhile, told PR Week that they fired Putin . Regardless of whom you believe, this raises the question of why an American PR firm would choose to represent one of the world’s most flagrant human rights abusers, or for that matter, how it managed, just a year later, to get Time magazine to name him their “Man of the Year. The “Man of the Year,” as Time explains, "is not and never has been an honor... It is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world--for better or for worse." Time, after all, named Adolph Hitler in 1938. Despite this, Putin didn’t pay Ketchum to represent him “for better or worse.” That’s not wha...

  The survival of democracy depends on an informed electorate. For this reason, the founders of this country sought to guarantee freedom of the press in the First Amendment. Journalists, for their part, established professional standards of objectivity in which news reporting stuck to the facts and opinions showed up in editorials. Over the years, these standards have encountered several issues. For one, they’ve created the false assumption that objective reporting is free of bias . Reporters and editors insert their biases every time they decide what to report, what photos to include and where to place a story. As human beings we all have biases. Professional journalism demands that we acknowledge our biases, rather than pretending they don’t exist. A second issue lies in the assumption that there is an objective reality , made up of ascertainable facts and that such facts are the basis for truth. This notion fails on many fronts. Our only access to reality lies in our senses,...

  According to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics , journalists should “ Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible.  Journalists must also   “ remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.”   On Jan. 6, 2012 “This American Life” (TAL) released a story titled Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory , Mike Daisey’s allegedly first-hand account of working conditions at the factories of Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Co., Ltd, trading as Foxconn Technology Group . Foxconn manufactures iPads under license with Apple . “This American Life” is a broadcast of WBEZ Chicago . Daisey’s story became TAL’s most downloaded recording. Prior to releasing Daisey’s audio report, “This American Life” fact-checked it, verifying that Daisey’s statements about Foxconn’s relationship with Apple were correct. They did not validate Daisey’s story with his onsite translator,...

  As an author, I can personally attest to the importance of intellectual property protection. Writers, artists, musicians, tech companies, fashion designers, news media, anyone who creates for mass consumption, we all depend on it,. From foreign counterfeiting to illegal downloading and copying of music , creative works are under attack now more than ever. Artists must protect themselves, and individuals must be wary of breaking the law. Technology is only making matters worse. While Napster lost its argument that it was merely a music sharing service , the damage it did endures. YouTube and other social media have long claimed immunity to intellectual property litigation but may soon find themselves accountable for allowing posting of infringed materials . At the same time unravelling infringement claims is becoming increasingly difficult. The severity of this matter and its spiraling economic and cultural toll are impossible to overstate. Learning to respect others creati...