Across The Media Universe
The incident has the Poughkeepsie Journal asking questions about the ethics of the logo's appearance. It wasn't product placement, however – just a bit of free, inadvertent advertising for Nike – and media critics don't seem too worked up. "You would have a different ethics issue if they had just fixed it by blacking it out in post-production," The Poynter Institute's Al Tompkins told the Journal. "That would have been altering reality. But inking over it in the field is a great fix to a problem. The camera recorded what was actually there and it aired as the camera saw it."
The Bleeping Irony: The hearing at which television networks are challenging the Federal Communications Commission's indecency rules is taking place today, and C-SPAN is broadcasting it live. As the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire notes, the station is not bleeping anything out, which means that C-SPAN viewers have been treated to Supreme Court specialist Carter Phillips uttering such bon mots as "motherf—–," "eat s—" and "f— the USA" in their full, uncensored glory. The FCC is being a suprisingly good sport. Notes the Journal: "'The commission has emphasized it will use great restraint' and would not fine stations for airing the hearing as part of a news program, responded Eric Miller, a media attorney representing the FCC."
An Unwanted Record: 2006 is the deadliest year for the press ever recorded by the Committee to Protect Journalists in a single country, with 32 journalists killed in Iraq so far. At least 55 journalists were killed worldwide this year in connection with their work. "When this conflict began more than three and half years ago, most journalists died in combat-related incidents," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "Now, insurgents routinely target journalists for perceived affiliations—political, sectarian, or Western."