Media Coverage

A Mormon official called media coverage of the church biased and sloppy in an open letter sent yesterday to reporters covering the 2002 Winter Games. While most news reports from Salt Lake City have been fair, the letter said, others are "full of arrant nonsense and prejudice" and prove that Mormons are still as persecuted as they were when they fled to Utah in 1847. Also, the church criticized a Denver Post column mocking Mormonism and the Olympics. The piece was pulled from the paper's Web site and an apologetic column was planned for today.

The Joe Paterno story goes beyond the death of a famous man. There is sadness and mourning, as at any passing. And there are looks back, as at any passing of note. But this story is different. It provokes conflicting emotions, violent in some hearts. Why are people reacting as they are? Part of it is the way the media have covered - some say overcovered - this story. Part is grief when idols fall. Part is anger when the institutions with which we identify are threatened or accused.

BERNARD Hopkins should have his license pulled for saying "I would never let a white boy beat me. " He thinks his excuse that he's just trying to sell tickets means something. So what if his company CEO, trainer and best friend are white? Where are the good reverends after this blatant show of racism? Why aren't they picketing and calling for his job? Why wasn't there extensive, over-the-top media coverage? I'm not a boxing fan, but why should one side be punished for this kind of talk and not the other?

MICHELLE MALKIN, in her March 4 column, counts the stories about Danny Pearl's tragic death to make a bogus argument about media hostility toward religion. Three thousand people die in the World Trade Center, the most closely covered story in decades. Millions in Africa die anonymously of AIDS every year. Is it because the African AIDS victims were devout and the Sept. 11 victims were heathens? Malkin's methods show far more obvious biases against foreigners, non-whites and the poor.

Pretrial publicity will prevent Patrick Alexi McCarthy, a suspect in a killing at a King of Prussia motel last fall, from getting a fair trial, his lawyer said yesterday. Extensive media coverage of Anna Nicole Fowler's death dictates that McCarthy, 22, of Norristown, should be tried outside Montgomery County or that a jury be brought in from another area, said McCarthy's lawyer, Frank Genovese. The body of the 19-year-old woman was found in a Motel 6 on Oct. 6, 2004. McCarthy was charged on Oct. 20 with raping and killing Fowler before taking her ATM card, credit cards and car. Video surveillance from three cash machines showed McCarthy trying to withdraw money from or walking near the machines, police said.

OVER the past month, we have seen the Trayvon Martin controversy mushroom from a local story to a national controversy of Rodney King-like proportion. Seemingly everyone from the water cooler to the White House has offered their opinion on what "really happened" that night. Unlike most controversies, however, nearly all Americans seemed to land on the same side of the Trayvon issue. At least in the beginning. Nearly everyone expressed despair for Trayvon and disgust for shooter George Zimmerman.

A Superior Court judge yesterday denied a motion to move the trial of Charles E. Reddish, who is charged with the 1991 murder of Cherry Hill resident Yeda Sharon Rosenthal. The jury-selection process is scheduled to begin Sept. 17 in state Superior Court in Camden County. In denying the motion, Judge Frank M. Lario rejected arguments from defense attorney Kevin Lewis that media coverage of Reddish, who is serving a life sentence for a different murder, has made it impossible to select an impartial jury from this area.

I RECENTLY attended a family function where I saw my cousin, Sharon Conroy. Although the family was busy "catching up," we were all aware someone was missing - Sean Patrick Conroy. We listened in amazement as we were updated on the recent hearing held to set dates for declassification of his alleged assailants from adults to juveniles. To Sharon's surprise, she was seated among the alleged assailants. No notification of the release of the accused on bail. No media coverage, and, what's worse, there has never been any photo ID of the "adult" assailants in any of the media coverage.

The news of the deaths of two young and promising athletes was tragic and disheartening. It was disconcerting that both died as a result of drug abuse. Yet, somehow, the media coverage of their deaths seems to have compounded the tragedy. Seeing the news reports, in the pit of my stomach I felt an injustice. Perhaps the media were compelled to report the deaths in such a sensational manner because the two were well-known athletic figures. For days, that's all I saw flashed on television screens and in newspapers.

"Free trade" and "World Trade Organization" are fighting words to Michael Morrill. "There are reasons for regulations on business," says the former minister and professional activist who lives in Reading. "Free trade sounds like a good idea, but the marketplace has been bad for human rights, for the environment, for workers' rights, and for food safety. " Morrill, 44, became interested in global trade issues as executive director of the Pennsylvania Consumer Action Network, which has offices in Reading and Philadelphia and works on issues that Morrill says are vulnerable to damage from free trade.

OVER the past month, we have seen the Trayvon Martin controversy mushroom from a local story to a national controversy of Rodney King-like proportion. Seemingly everyone from the water cooler to the White House has offered their opinion on what "really happened" that night. Unlike most controversies, however, nearly all Americans seemed to land on the same side of the Trayvon issue. At least in the beginning. Nearly everyone expressed despair for Trayvon and disgust for shooter George Zimmerman.

Somewhere along the line, the Supreme Court justices turned into media celebrities. As one of the three pillars of government, the court has always drawn attention and reaction. But this week has seen a nearly unprecedented media explosion in Washington - touched off not by a decision, but by the argument phase of the court challenge to the Affordable Care Act. That tells two tales: the huge significance of a decision that may affect not only the vexed one-sixth of the U.S. economy that is health care, but also the national election in November; and the mad proliferation of 24/7, voracious, instantly celebrifying media coverage.

CAIRO - An Egyptian judge Wednesday set a June 2 date for the verdict and sentencing in the trial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, which could put the man who spent nearly 30 years as one of the Arab world's key strongmen on death row. Mubarak, 83, is accused of complicity in the killing of protesters during the 18-day uprising that pushed him from power last February. More than 800 people were killed during the uprising, many of them demonstrators shot dead by security forces. A guilty verdict would make Mubarak the first leader ousted in the Arab Spring uprisings to face legal punishment by his people.

The Joe Paterno story goes beyond the death of a famous man. There is sadness and mourning, as at any passing. And there are looks back, as at any passing of note. But this story is different. It provokes conflicting emotions, violent in some hearts. Why are people reacting as they are? Part of it is the way the media have covered - some say overcovered - this story. Part is grief when idols fall. Part is anger when the institutions with which we identify are threatened or accused.

All along, the Herman Cain campaign - which Politico called "one of the most hapless and bumbling operations in modern presidential politics" - was riveting but improbable. Yet whatever the ex-restaurant executive's other misdeeds and missteps, his bid seems finally to have crumbled because of extensive coverage of a woman's allegations that she had a 13-year extramarital romance with him. Some Cain supporters have cried foul: "Private alleged consensual conduct between adults," said his lawyer, Lin Wood, is "not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public.

WALL STREET is now the target of the disillusioned degenerates (failures for the most part) that the pressures of today's society is producing in burgeoning numbers. It's Wall Street today, and tomorrow the target could be the National Football League or Major League Baseball, anything to attract attention and, of course, media coverage. Makes me think of the riots in France and Britain when the governments could no longer provide the protesters with the benefits they should never have given them to begin with.

Here's a verdict that benefits the public: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has finally decided to allow television cameras to capture video of some of its proceedings. The decision has been a long time in coming for the oldest continuously sitting state supreme court in the country, a body that has been insular for decades. The seven-member court had rebuffed requests for TV coverage of oral arguments for years, but voted in June to leap into the electronic age. Not only will the coverage provide more insight into how the court reaches a decision, but it will also create opportunities for the public to learn more about the justice system.

By Leah Roman and Jennifer Taylor Last week's news that the late Philadelphia firefighter John "Jack" Slivinski would be featured on the cover of the "Nation's Bravest" calendar reminded us of media coverage of his suicide in June. It was often at odds with recommendations for reporting on suicide released this year by a consortium of public health, suicide prevention, Internet safety, and journalism experts. Slivinski's suicide was the subject of intense coverage, but the concerns it raises are not unique.

The Knight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts are offering grants of up to $100,000 in eight cities, including Philadelphia, for projects that provide "innovative methods to cover, inspire, and engage communities through the arts and to provide platforms for high-quality cultural criticism and coverage. " "With the changing media landscape, we have a real opportunity here to find new, engaging, and sustainable models," said Dennis Scholl, vice president/arts for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

By Brett Mandel How did a wonky Democratic newcomer defeat an incumbent party stalwart who's been a city commissioner since the Flyers' last Stanley Cup? How did the son of an iconic mayor fail to be nominated for reelection as an at-large Republican city councilman? And why did long-serving district Council members decide to leave a legislative body whose members usually seem to stay until death or imprisonment? In this week's primary election, it was a swift media DROP-kick that made the difference between the outsiders who defeated "machine" pols and the other worthy challengers who fell short.