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Lou Dobbs Leaves CNN; Coverage of Fort Hood Shootings Too PC?
Aired November 15, 2009 - 10:00 ET
HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR: His name has been synonymous with CNN for nearly three decades, but Lou Dobbs has become an increasingly opinionated and divisive figure in recent years. And the more he has crusaded on such issues as illegal immigration, the more he has seemed at odds with a network that tries to define itself, indeed, tries to market itself as a straight news operation that doesn't lean to the left or the right. Those starkly different approaches cause rising tensions at CNN, even as some liberal and Latino groups were mounting a campaign to force the veteran anchor off the air. On Wednesday, Lou abruptly told viewers that this was his final broadcast. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LOU DOBBS, FORMER CNN ANCHOR: Over the past six months, it's become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us. And some leaders and media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at role at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: Dobbs could get riled up on the air as he did three years ago during a clash with a Hispanic anchor and days later in an interview with me on this program. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are sick and tired of being treated as criminals, being treated as racists. DOBBS: As criminals? Maria Elena they are -- wait a minute, wait a minute. That is precisely what they are, they have broken the law. KURTZ: You told "The New York Times" this week, "There is nothing fair and balanced about me because there's nothing fair and balanced about the truth, but shouldn't a cable news anchor be fair?" DOBBS: A cable news network should be fair always. On "Lou Dobbs Tonight," I broadcast, my viewers, my audience, expect to come at them with the unvarnished reality and the truth irrespective of how the chips fall in the political spectrum. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: So was this television divorce inevitable and what does it mean for Dobbs and for CNN? Joining us now in Tampa, Eric Deggans, television and media critic for the "St. Petersburg Times." Here in Washington, David Zurawik, television critic for "The Baltimore Sun" who writes the blog "Z on TV." And Chris Plante, host of "The Chris Plante Radio Show" on WMAL. Chris Plante, many liberals cheering Dobbs' sudden exit. A "New York Times" editorial called him close to a right wing ranter who distorts the facts. Is the media being fair to Lou Dobbs? PLANTE: Well, of course not. Well the reason Lou Dobbs was in trouble is not because he has opinions, it's because of what his opinions were and his opinions are out of lockstep with the rest of the mainstream news media. "The New York Times" in their -- pretty much every report also say that he's a crusader against immigrants, or immigration and that's false. It's a misrepresentation and it speaks to their point of view. And maybe "The New York Times" should be taking a look at itself rather than Lou Dobbs. KURTZ: Eric Deggans, Dobbs for years was a conventional business anchor, but do you believe in recent years that he became more of a crusader than a journalist? DEGGANS: I think it's obvious and I could not disagree more with your previous panelist's assertions. It became obvious that Lou was pressing this world view about illegal immigration being at the root of a ton of evils in America, and I think a lot of his conclusions were debatable. "60 Minutes" exposed that he had said things about illegal immigrants causing a rise in leprosy in the United States that just could not be backed up. And he's also made assertions of the criminality of illegal immigrants that statistics just don't bear out. So opinions are one thing, but to be unfair and to make assertions that are not true or to exaggerate using selective data, that is just not something that's very ethical and very fair or anything that helps anyone. KURTZ: David Zurawik, whether Dobbs was opinionated on the left or the right, he was a very opinionated guy in recent years. CNN doesn't style itself as that kind of operation. Could they have continued this sort of uneasy co-existence? ZURAWIK: No, it's impossible. You know, by July I think I was writing he's a liability, you have to get rid of them. And even, Howie, forget the larger sense. Just in a business sense, in terms of the CNN brand, Dobbs was a disaster with the birther controversy this summer, first of all, cut against it. And secondly, you know, CNN has "Latinos in America" coming out, really fine series that they had with Soledad O'Brien. At the same time, they're being protested by Latino groups because of Dobbs' positions. How can you function that way? Listen, I think Jonathan Klein has made a really important stand with this culture with the kind of news he's trying to do. KURTZ: Just to clarify, CNN president Jon Klein said that he had asked Dobbs several months ago to take the opinion off his program and Dobbs had largely complied. But Lou ultimately was unhappy and decided to cut the cord. PLANTE: That's why he's gone. Let's boil it down to the facts here. It's not that Campbell Brown is completely neutral. Anderson Cooper is completely neutral. Larry King is completely neutral. KURTZ: Wait, let me finish the question. Are you suggesting that those hosts lean to the left? PLANTE: Yes, I am. KURTZ: In anything like the degree that Lou Dobbs? PLANTE: So it's a matter of degrees? It's also a matter of bounty. It's also a matter of what the reality -- of course, you're not. ZURAWIK: Of course I don't because it's a fact, that's why I don't agree with you! I couldn't -- PLANTE: And the news media -- I'm supposed to be the radio talk show host and you're the newspaper guy here. In Washington, we've got a chief White House correspondent for CBS News Chip Reid who was a former employee on Capitol Hill of Joe Biden. We've got a senior White House correspondent of NBC News who was a former staffer for Tom Harkin. KURTZ: Let's stick to CNN. PLANTE: We have a senior Washington correspondent for ABC News who is a Clinton administration official. David Axelrod is a former "Chicago Tribute" reporter. We've got Jay Carney leaving his job at "Time" magazine to go to work for this administration. Look, the pattern is clear, everybody knows it except you guys, you know? KURTZ: What does it is say about CNN? None of those people work at CNN. PLANTE: It's the news media as an industry and as a company, the last conservative voice on the channel is gone. They had Glenn Beck, he's gone. They had him, now he's gone. Lou Dobbs is gone. DEGGANS: Is it possible for someone else to break here? KURTZ: I'm going to let you break in, but I want to play some sound for you, and then tee it up for you. Zurawik mentioned the birther controversy that really erupted over the summer, was President Obama really born in this country? Lou had some things to say on that, too. Let's roll the tape. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DOBBS: We've been reporting on the accusations widespread on the Internet that President Obama wasn't actually born in the United States and therefore some believe he's not eligible to be president. It's out there. There are those who claim that he was born, Dom, in a different country. The president, obviously, all he has to do is just produce the original birth certificate in Hawaii and be done with it. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: And unlike illegal immigration, Eric Deggans, where a lot of people in this country feel passionately against that, this birth thing is pretty fringe stuff. DEGGANS: Yes, and it's surprising, if you actually look at the ratings for his show, they really took a hit when he started talking about the birther controversy. I think it's obvious that he started to go further and further out on a limb with some of these conspiracy theories and he left some of his viewers behind. I would also note that the problem with opinionated anchors isn't the opinion, it's when they are not accurate. It's when they say things that are false. It's when they say things that are not fair. That's when there's the biggest problem and we've seen this over and over again with certain news outlets and I think that was Dobbs' biggest problem and what drew the biggest protest. And I'll also say Diane Sawyer is about to become the top anchor on ABC News and she once worked for the Nixon administration. PLANTE: It's been 30 years. DEGGANS: It's obvious that there are lots of people in journalism who used to work in politics on both sides of the aisle and what you have to do is look at their work and not look at where they came from. PLANTE: Right, OK, well, I've got to say, this is an essentially an attack on Lou Dobbs. Let's call it what Lou Dobbs said. Lou Dobbs raised a question. I saw him raise questions that a lot of people are asking out there. Do you know who Chiyome Fukimo is, either one of you? ZURAWIK: Chris, if a lot of people are asking the question, they weren't watching him. This is not some ratings juggernaut. Lou Dobbs was finishing third in his time period. This was not some great populous groundswell of support for what he was doing. PLANTE: Based on that standard, there are a lot of other anchors who would be gone, too, aren't they, but they're not gone, are they? ZURAWIK: Chris, this is also about trying to run a news organization. Jonathan Klein fired a nice shot across his bow back in July. If an editor did that to me, I would stop being a hot dog gas based stop off guy like Lou Dobbs and I might think about reining it in. You can't run a news organization with somebody -- PLANTE: You represent -- you're a media writer for a newspaper, for a Baltimore newspaper and you represent the mainstream news media point of view. ZURAWIK: Which is what? PLANTE: And this goes right to my point. Howard, you know that every survey -- ZURAWIK: I think that is the mainstream point of view. PLANTE: You know that every survey that's ever been taken involving the politics of the news media finds it between 85 and 95 percent of the news media votes Democratic, goes along with the liberal agenda and newsrooms are stocked with this point of view. Now -- KURTZ: I want to come back to your point, do you contend that Campbell Brown and Larry King and Anderson Cooper, that their programs are built around their personal opinions to the extent that "Lou Dobbs Tonight" was? PLANTE: Now you're going by a different standard. KURTZ: It's what you do on the air. PLANTE: Let me tell you something. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine in Washington, a longtime Washington journalist type and we were talking about a reporter that we both know who is very liberal. And my friend said, yes but I think that he does a great job of hiding it. The idea is not to have a room full of people who are hiding their political beliefs and failing, by the way. Lou Dobbs wore it on his sleeve and he at least put it out there. You knew where he stood unlike others. KURTZ: Eric, I'm sorry that we have slighted you. Let's move the conversation to you can say whatever you want about Dobbs, but by naming John King, my colleague at "State of the Union" to take over the 7 p.m. slot that Dobbs has now vacated, is CNN doubling down on straight news and is that a good strategy? DEGGANS: Well, of course it seems obvious that by replacing Dobbs with someone who doesn't present the opinions the way that he did, that there may be a return to more standard reporting and more objective analysis. But one of the things I wanted to talk about is I'm concerned that we're losing the forest for the trees here. DEGGANS: One of the things that we've seen increasingly in modern -- in present years is the presentation of news that fits the world view of the audience that wants to watch it. And when the news gets distorted to fit someone's world view, regardless of what that world view is, there's a problem. The problem with Dobbs wasn't necessarily that he was expressing conservative views; it was that he was distorting facts and distorting the situation to fit the world view that he wanted to present to his viewers. And that's also a problem. You know, David and I have written about this as it relates to Fox News or as it relates to MSNBC, at times. When -- when the news is distorted to fit a world view to draw viewers, that's when we have a problem. KURTZ: In fairness, Dobbs did correct some of those mistakes. And here is my two cents. I've been on Dobbs's program. He's been on this program. It's not about his opinions. He has a lot of them. He's a smart guy. He can say what he wants. It's about CNN wanted to be. And there increasingly was just a divergent path between Lou's opinionated approach to the world and CNN saying it was going to be -- it was going to market itself as the straight news network. Now, I think a divorce was inevitable. Now Lou can run around the country, raise money, speak to groups, say whatever he wants on the face of the earth and CNN can get back to journalism. I think CNN tries to be fair. Chris Plante may disagree -- former CNN correspondent, here -- but we're going to leave it there. David Zurawik, Chris Plante, Eric Deggans, thanks very much for joining us. When we come back, politically correct? Are journalists playing down the role that Nidal Hasan's Muslim beliefs may have played in the Fort Hood massacre? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KURTZ: Every time there's a major tragedy in this country, the media, the conflict-crazed media finds something to argue about. And Fort Hood is no exception. This time, though, the cable-fueled debate is about the news coverage itself, whether journalists been too reluctant to call Nidal Hasan a terrorist, or they have shied away from the obvious implications when a member -- a Muslim member of the military is in touch with people associated with Al Qaida. Take a look. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The evidence was there about Hasan, but political correctness prevented action. To a large extent, the media drives the P.C. insanity in this country, and it's appalling. (END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLINT VAN ZANDT, FORMER FBI PROFILER: He's a terrorist, just like Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist, a domestic terrorist. (END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (UNKNOWN): I think this is where the political correctness comes in. You know, we don't want Muslims to be discriminated against because 99.9 percent of Muslims are practicing a religion that's honorable and nonviolent. (END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: There are 10,000 American Muslims who are serving every day in our military. (END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) EVAN THOMAS, NEWSWEEK: I cringe that he's a Muslim, I mean, because it just inflames all the fears. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: So has the coverage of these awful shootings been on the mark or way too timid? Joining us now in New York, Reihan Salam, a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation and a contributor to The Daily Beast. And in Colorado Springs, Cliff May, columnist for the (inaudible) and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Cliff May, have the media been skittish in reporting on Nidal Hasan being a Muslim and the implications that stem from that? MAY: Yes, I would say skittish in the extreme, and I think the media really need to take a hard look at why they were avoiding the abundant evidence for as long as possible in this case. The evidence suggested that -- that Major Hasan clearly had embraced radical Islamist beliefs, that he was a traitor to his country, that he had embraced the views of his country's enemies. And if you look at what the media was reporting in recent days, it was everything but that. Maybe it was a mental health problem; he didn't have access to a psychiatrist. Of course, he is a psychiatrist. Maybe it's post traumatic stress, except he had never been in combat. Maybe he had been harassed by his fellow officers for being a Muslim, except there was never any evidence of that, and the fact that there was never any evidence wasn't stated. (CROSSTALK) KURTZ: Let me come back to that, Cliff, because I want to get Reihan in here and ask -- but aren't there perfectly valid reasons for the media to be cautious about a case like this when evidence is, kind of, dribbling out day after day? SALAM: Well, we call journalism the first draft of history for a reason. And I think that, initially, what happened -- I have a very simple story. During the shootings, there was an effort to reach out to Hasan's relatives, to a cousin and to an aunt. And these folks gave what was frankly an account that didn't square with the facts. It was, as Cliff suggests, an account that this was really about stress; it was about fear of deployment. And I think that journalists took that story and ran with it during that initial phase. But over the subsequent days, if you look at the New York Times today, for example, they're describing a litany of events where people should have noted that this guy really was a radical extremist. But again, it's a slow process. It works slowly. It doesn't happen immediately. And I think that a lot of the folks on the right and the left who, kind of, pressure the media can actually play a pretty constructive role by saying, hey, let's look at this other line of thinking. I think it's very valuable. KURTZ: Cliff, I don't think that trying to piece together possible clues to Hasan's motivation, whether he felt harassed by other soldiers, for example, is the same as justifying this mass murder that he carried out. MAY: I'm not saying anybody justified mass murder. What I am suggesting is, had the media simply been cautious? Had they said that there were a number of possibilities here that people were looking at, including the possible they he had embraced radical Islamist views, that would be one thing. Instead there was -- if you look at the headlines in a lot of newspapers and a lot of the TV shows, what they were saying was either that we'll never know; we'll never know if religion played a part or, frankly, at the New York times, where I used to work, and I'm sorry to say this, it was -- the headline was very clear that he was -- he feared the horror of war. He was such a sensitive soul and he had a fear of that and that caused him to, what, to shoot several dozen of his comrades-in-arms and reload while they were bleeding on the floor? There was -- there was an avoidance of the most obvious explanation in the first few days. Again... (CROSSTALK) KURTZ: Cliff, I've got to get both sides in here. Reihan, do you feel that journalists need to be concerned about fanning the flames of anti-Muslim sentiment? I had -- one woman wrote a letter to my newspaper, The Washington Post, we've made so much of the fact that he's Muslim and you wouldn't do it if he was Jewish or he was Christian. SALAM: I think that journalists are fallible, and I think that there are cross-cutting pressures at work here. I actually am sympathetic, in some respects, to Cliff's analysis. I think that it is good and worthwhile for journalists to keep in mind that there is an Islamist threat, that it's something that actually does, kind of, frame an incident like this. At the same time, sure, I think that, you know, when you're looking at the military, and look at General Casey's sentiments, now, you could say that, when General Casey says, we need a diverse military, you could say he's being P.C., et cetera. But you could also say that, look, the military doesn't have enough people who speak Arabic or Urdu or Pashtu. And the United States military needs those folks, to survive, to flourish, to do its job of defeating Muslim terrorists. SALAM: And so you know, that's one reason why I think that folks like General Casey were trying to say, you know, hey, we don't want to jump to conclusions here. But again, I think that journalists have done their job over the course of this week, you've seen the story change as we've learned new information. And that story has grown more to be a story of this guy was reaching out to radical imams. KURTZ: Right. SALAM: We've learned a lot and that's the way it's supposed to happen. KURTZ: The story has really evolved and you had TIME magazine, which came out just the other day, has got that headline, if we can put it up on the screen, that said "Terrified or Terrorist?". So, Cliff, let me read something that you wrote the other day about this Fort Hood case, you accuse the media of self-censorship on radical Islam, saying that "so many have imbibed the Kool-Aid of multicultural relativism and political correctness that they candy- coat stories." You are certainly not suggesting that the Fort Hood story has been candy-coated, are you? MAY: It was for the first few days, absolutely. Now I think the evidence has been so overwhelming, it's beginning to come out, exactly what happened here. And, look, I'm not saying that anybody should be fanning the flames of anti-Muslim prejudice. On the contrary, one of the lessons of this ought to be that those Muslims serving honorably in the military, those Muslims who are there to serve their country and be patriotic. they're taking a great risk because they know they're going to be accused of turning their back on their religion by putting their country first. They're very brave and they need to be supported. But you don't -- but it is wrong for journalists to make believe that when they hear hoof beats, it's probably not horses, it's zebras. KURTZ: All right. MAY: In this case, if you look at the coverage initially, it was anything but the possibility that he was a traitor who had embraced his enemies' beliefs. KURTZ: Now one area where the media clearly bobbled the ball, Reihan Salam, is in the early reports were about Sergeant Kim Munley, who acted very bravely, that she was the heroine who shot Hasan even after she herself had been shot. And later we learned that it was actually one of her colleagues, Sergeant Mark Todd, who had fired the shots that took Hasan down. And I was wondering because Sergeant Munley is a woman, you know, it kind of reminded me of Jessica Lynch and the way her story was overblown by the media during the Iraq War. Do you see anything in that? SALAM: Yes, I think that in general people always talk about media bias, et cetera, but the most powerful bias is we all want a story that makes sense to us and that's appealing. And I think that's going to be the case pretty much regardless, as much as you try to correct for that. So I think that that's what was going on here. It was a feel- good story coming out of a deeply horrible and tragic and miserable event. And it's hardly surprising to me that that -- you know, you try to get a feel-good story out of it. KURTZ: Yes, even after Kim Munley and Mark Todd went on "Oprah" together, the media accounts focused on Kim Munley. And I think there was that feel-good aspect, as you say, of a terrible tragedy. The AP and The New York Times did a lot to report what actually as they learned more about this. All right. Cliff May, Reihan Salam, thanks very much for talking about this difficult subject with us this morning. And coming up in the second half of RELIABLE SOURCES, Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean both claim in new books they're being slimed by the mainstream media. OK, but how come they get so much air time? Plus David Letterman's sex scandal back in the spotlight as the accused CBS producer in the case gets his day in court. And the woman who was fired in the ESPN "sexcapade" takes to the airwaves and says everyone is being mean to her. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: I'm John King and this is STATE OF THE UNION. Here are stories breaking this suspected morning. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says it's a bad idea to put alleged 9/11 terrorists on trial in civilian court in New York. Earlier on this program today, Giuliani said those trials will put Americans at risk and cost the government millions of dollars in added security. He says the cases should be tried before military commissions. President Obama has arrived in Shanghai, China, the next stop on an eight-day Asia trip. Climate change and the strength of China's currency expected to be among the issues on the agenda. Mr. Obama flew to China from Singapore where he met with the Russian president, Medvedev, and also attended a sum wit Asian Pacific leaders. Funeral services today for Michael Cahill, the only civilian killed in the Fort Hood shooting rampage. Funerals were held yesterday for six of the 13 people killed. The accused shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder. Those are your stops here on STATE OF THE UNION. KURTZ: She has been lionized and vilified by the press, and now it's her turn. Sarah Palin is "Going Rogue" this week, releasing her book with that title, and I have got to hand it to her, this is a neat little maneuver, slamming the mainstream media while using the very same MSM to help her sell her book. First up, a sit-down with Oprah Winfrey, who asked about Palin's most disastrous interview of the campaign. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OPRAH WINFREY, HOST, "THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW": Let's talk about the interview with Katie Couric. Did you think that was a seminal, defining moment for you, that interview? PALIN: I did not. And neither did the campaign. The campaign said, right on, good, you're showing your independence, this is what America needs to see. And it was a good interview. And of course, I'm thinking, if you thought that was a good interview, I don't know what a bad interview was. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: Palin's account of her vice presidential run is already being challenged by some former John McCain advisers. But this, of course, is what every author craves, controversy. Joining us now to talk about the Palin marketing campaign and ex-beauty Carrie Prejean, who says she's being "Palin-ized," in Syracuse, New York, Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University; in New York, Lola Ogunnaike, former entertainment correspondent for CNN and The New York Times; and here in Washington, Amanda Carpenter, who writes the "Hot Button" column for The Washington Times. Lola Ogunnaike, is Sarah Palin now using the very media establishment she disdains to help turn this book into a huge best- seller? LOLA OGUNNAIKE, FORMER CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: That's the irony here. She keeps saying, you know, I'm being marginalized by the liberal media, they won't pay attention to me, I'm being vilified by these people. But they keep giving her a platform and she keeps embracing it. So I don't quite understand why she has such an adversarial relationship with the mainstream media, because they seem to love her. KURTZ: And Amanda Carpenter, you're thanked in the acknowledgments as one of a number of conservatives who, I guess, were fair to Sarah Palin. AMANDA CARPENTER, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Well, that hasn't -- I have seen that there is an Amanda that is thanked... KURTZ: There's an Amanda? CARPENTER: I don't know -- I've never talked to her personally. I haven't. KURTZ: OK. Newsweek cover out today. Let's put it up on the screen: "How do you solve a problem like Sarah?" And look at that picture of her. I don't know where they got that from. With all of the media criticism in the book, and in light of that Newsweek cover, is she getting and will she get a fair shake from the news business? CARPENTER: I don't think she is right. I mean, I saw that cover published by Newsweek, it's coming out in their November 23rd edition. It was a photo taken from Runners World where it makes sense to show someone with their legs. And there were other poses where she is not showing her legs. But they chose that one. And I don't know what you're supposed to take from that cover, that her looking fabulous is part of the problem? Because that's what the cover says. So... KURTZ: What is the problem? Or is there a problem? CARPENTER: You've got to read it to find out. That's the way. They want to buy it, and they're selling her sexy legs to get it. KURTZ: Robert Thompson, Sarah Palin, on her Facebook page, says that the Associated Press and other outlets were erroneously reporting the contents of the book. KURTZ: Now the A.P. had a copy, so I think she's just taking issue with the way in which some of the excerpts are being portrayed. What is your take on this back and forth? ROBERT THOMPSON, PROFESSOR, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Well, they did. I mean, this is a brilliant book-selling campaign and of course it's the best selling book in the country and it isn't even out yet and part of it is that she's managed to deputize the entire entertainment, journalistic industrial complex as part of her promotional campaign. Everybody is talking about this. David Letterman has been making jokes about this book for weeks before its coming. She has managed to orchestrate a drum roll for this book and, you know, it doesn't really matter. Her narrative here is all about the idea that she's up against gossip and unfair media treatment and all the rest of it. But Sarah Palin, like so much else, she's like a Rorschach test, how one interprets these stories, how one goes on the media content depends on how you already feel about her. But my guess is, and we've already got the evidence from the pre-orders that all of this thing is really moving units off the shelf. KURTZ: Right. Right. Let's come back to the Katie Couric interview which we showed you Palin talking with Oprah about that at the top. In the book, Sarah Palin says that the CBS anchor was badgering her and was biased. Let's play a brief excerpt from that. You will recall those interviews from last fall. This was the third time that Katie Couric was pressing her on a position that John McCain had taken or on John McCain's record. Let's show that. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KATIE COURIC, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: I'm just going to ask you one more time, to not belabor the point, specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation. SARAH PALIN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: Lola Ogunnaike, does that seem like badgering by an anchor to you? OGUNNAIKE: That's not badgering. That's called journalism. Katie Couric was asking a legitimate question. She's doing her job and these people can't get on stage and expect them to throw them softball questions. That's not Katie Couric's job. Her job is to represent the people and ask the questions that the people want to know and she did a very effective job. KURTZ: And Amanda Carpenter, in this book, it's kind of fascinating. Palin talks about how Nicolle Wallace, who had one been a contributor for CBS, but was a high-ranking campaign official, talked her into doing the interview for Katie Couric. She said she felt sorry for Katie and was having a tough time. And then she goes on to say that the McCain campaign structure kept Palin away from the media, wouldn't let her go back on the plane, talk to reporters. Was this partially her fault? Was she some kind of hostage as the VP nominee? CARPENTER: Well, I think she was caught in a strange dynamic where she wanted to be her own person, but then again she had to be loyal to the man who put her on the stage. I think you saw that complex playing out over and over again. But this is what the book is about. It's defining her as a person. I don't know if she is testing the waters for a 2012 run, but I think she wants to show people this is who I am. We'll see what happens later. KURTZ: Is there also a little bit of payback here? CARPENTER: Absolutely. Absolutely. But I will say I think she's entitled to capitalize on everything that she's able to because she was so unfairly smeared by the media throughout much of this, but I do wonder if there's a little bit -- I hate to be conspiratorial, a lot of liberal media is building her up because she's perceived as being very easy to take down. KURTZ: All right, since she has resigned as governor of Alaska and I think it's a long shot for her to actually run for president, I don't know, take her down from what? Great thing in the book where she said she had to sneak calls away from the prying eyes of McCain officials to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham and so forth. Robert Thompson, when Palin says in this book that the campaign stuck her with a $50,000 bill for vetting her, for checking her background and whether she was suitable to be the running mate, McCain aides now denying it. Does this undermine the credibility or does it just add to the buzz about the book? THOMPSON: I think it just adds to the buzz. And you know, people feel one way or another about Sarah Palin and it tends to be very, very strong feelings on one side or the other. I don't think this book is going to change anybody's mind. I don't think the discussion is going change anybody's mind. However, I do think there are places we have to take her up on some of what she says. That badgering, I've watched those Katie Couric interviews probably 30 times and that wasn't badgering any more so than I think journalists are supposed to be. Woodward and Bernstein were badgering the Nixon administration. I suppose if journalists were going adopt a mascot, a badger wouldn't be a bad one to take. That's what they're supposed to take. KURTZ: There was a great e-mail "The Huffington Post" got written during the campaign by Palin. She initially didn't want to go on "Saturday Night Live." You remember when she went on and appeared with Tina Fey. Those folks are whack. Even though it wasn't as bad as it was, she didn't like the portrayals naturally of her and her family. All right, let's talk about Carrie Prejean who kind of -- it's almost like in the same category as Sarah Palin. She has a lot to say about the media. She, of course, is the former Miss California who ended up in a lawsuit with pageant officials who took away her title. She's been making the rounds and look at what Carrie Prejean has been saying to various interviewers. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MEREDITH VIEIRA, NBC NEWS: Do you believe that somebody said -- pageant officials got their hands on this tape. How'd they get it? CARIE PREJEAN, FORMER MISS CALIFORNIA: I have no idea. All I know is there's been a campaign against me to try and silence me. SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: How hard is it to be in the middle of a national controversy? PREJEAN: You know, we have the freedom of speech and I was punished. I was fired. I was brutally attacked. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: She was referring there to a sex tape that she made when she was young which has leaked out. She keeps talking about free speech. She's on this TV tour. She's got a book. Who exactly is stopping her from speaking her mind? OGUNNAIKE: I don't understand. She's been on "The View." She was on "The Today Show." She's been all over FOX. She's given countless interviews to Christian outlets and people are trying to silence her. And then what does she do when she gets on Larry King? She tries to silence herself by ripping off the microphone and throwing a temper tantrum. KURTZ: We're going to show that in just a moment. We're going to show that classic moment in just a second. OGUNNAIKE: But Howard, she tried to silence herself. She's had countless outlets, people can't get enough of her. If she walked on your show, you would put her on air. So I don't understand what Carrie Prejean's problem is. KURTZ: I would kick you off and put her on. I initially felt sorry for Carrie Prejean because she was asked that question by Perez Hilton about gay marriage. I thought she gave a perfectly reasonable answer, she did get vilified. But as she has head to explain the breast implants and the sex tape and the lawsuit, she does seem to blame everyone else including the media. CARPENTER: Well, I'm somewhat sympathetic. She is a young girl. I think she's 22. I sort of blame the publicity people handling her. She goes on "The View," the Hannity, Larry King, these are intense, high-profile interviews and I think she's in a little bit over her head and a lot of people made bad assumptions about her. Just because she's against gay marriage, they thought she was a nun on both sides of the aisle. Not true. KURTZ: All right, let's show what's become an instant classic which of course is just the other night, Carrie Prejean on Larry King, she did not like Larry's questioning. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LARRY KING, CNN HOST: So the agreement discusses the motive behind why each party agreed? PREJEAN: Larry, you're being inappropriate. You really are. So I'm not going to talk about -- KING: What? I'm asking a question. PREJEAN: I'm not going to talk about anything that was discussed in mediation. It's completely confidential. KING: Did you hear the question, Carrie? Does she hear the question? You took the mike off. If you put the mike on we can hear you. PREJEAN: Yeah, I think that you are being extremely inappropriate right now and I'm about to leave your show. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: Robert Thompson, was Larry King, the most gentle of interviewers, being inappropriate? THOMPSON: Well, what's so funny about that is this woman cannot make an exit. If you're going to rip off your mike and storm out, you've got to storm out. She ripped off her mike and then she kept sitting there. She really needs to kind of study her showbiz timing if she's going to pull this kind of stuff off. No, I mean, Larry King wasn't being any more inappropriate than when he asks anybody questions like this. I think she went on there. I think she actually expected when she went on that it was likely she would walk off and this is very different than Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin was a vice presidential candidate of a major political party. This is P.T. Barnum time. This is a beautiful woman, a beauty queen and it's got everything and it never stops. KURTZ: By the way -- CARPENTER: Howard... KURTZ: I've got to go, I've got to go to break, but I just want to make one quick observation, which is that she yelled, Carrie Prejean yelled at a young staffer her in the CNN bureau, why did you let Larry ask me these questions? It didn't have anything to do with the interview or the questions. And I don't think it was her best night. After the break, stick around, lawyers for David Letterman and the man accused of blackmailing him hit the morning shows. Could this case turn even uglier? (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KURTZ: David Letterman seemed to have put the scandal behind him, but weeks after the late-night comic being admitted having sex with women on his late show staff, the story burst back into the news this week. CBS news producer Joe Halderman, who was under indictment, had his first day in court and then his lawyer and Letterman's lawyer made the morning show rounds. The Halderman attorney says his client wasn't trying to extort $2 million from Dave, he was legitimately trying to sell him a screen play. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VIEIRA: Now you say that this was not blackmail, it was a business transaction, a commercial transaction. Are you concerned that a lot of people out there listening to this are going say, give me a break? DANIEL HOROWITZ, LETTERMAN'S ATTORNEY: Who negotiates a business transaction at 6:00 in the morning in the shadows of somebody's apartment building who says your world's about to collapse? GERALD SHARGEL, HALDERMAN'S ATTORNEY: I'm not -- it's not a question of me smearing anyone. David Letterman himself got on TV on I think October 1st, Thursday night and said that he did creepy things and he had sexual relations not with a woman, this isn't about some elicit affair. This is by his own admission, a hostile work environment. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: Amanda Carpenter, that was Gerald Shargel, Joe Halderman's lawyer who says he is not going to smear David Letterman, but it is not clear that Dave's reputation is going to be dragged through the mud in this case. CARPENTER: Oh, yes. From a media perspective, I like seeing the lawyer v. lawyer action on TV and having them fight it out in television rather than court, but David Letterman is going to have -- every time they see him doing his late-night stand up, they're going to think of the people fighting out during daytime TV. KURTZ: Lola Ogunnaike, have the media basically accepted Letterman's version and the prosecutor's version? Because we haven't heard very much from the defendant in this case, Joe Halderman. Is it possible that he does have a case and that he wasn't trying to blackmail David Letterman? OGUNNAIKE: It may be possible, but in the court of public opinion, I do believe that people have already sided with Letterman and his lawyer Horowitz was very convincing. Shargel's explanation rang a little hollow and I don't even think the journalists that were interviewing him were actually buying it. So it's going to be an uphill battle for Shargel. KURTZ: Robert Thompson in Syracuse, does this case still have the potential to tarnish Letterman further and what explains the media fascination where all three morning shows booked these lawyers the very next day after this hearing? THOMPSON: Well, the media fascination, I think, isn't hard to explain. It's an interesting story and this new wrinkle in it was really even more fascinating. You know, I remember when Letterman first came on his show and confessed to this whole thing and what really surprised me about that was when he said that what he got in his car was a screenplay. And I immediately thought, you know, if you're going to blackmail someone, you usually have blurry black and white photos through the blinds of a hotel room or all this kind of thing and you generally don't give someone a screenplay and my guess is that from the very start, one of the ways that this guy, and I think it was blackmail, but one of the ways he kind of covered himself was, OK, I'll put this information I've got in the form of a screenplay. And if this thing goes bad, I've got this defense available. I've got a feeling this was planned from the very beginning and that makes this a really fascinating story. KURTZ: Well, it's definitely fascinating and Halderman is presumed innocent. There's a lot we haven't learned about the case. To complete our sex scandal coverage this morning, we have talked on this program about the ESPN mess where the baseball analyst Steve Hundley (sic) was fired -- excuse me, where Steve Phillips was fired. He was having an affair with 22-year-old Brooke Hundley, a production assistant who then had a lot of interaction, shall we say, with Phillips' wife. Brooke Hundley spoke to ABC's Kate Snow this week. A very emotional interview. Let's show you some of that. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BROOKE HUNDLEY, MISTRESS OF PHILLIPS: I've been called things by the public that no woman should ever be called. KATE SNOW, ABC NEWS: Saying what? HUNDLEY: I've been called the "c" word. I've been called a whore. I've been called a home wrecker. I was in a situation where I felt like if I didn't do what was asked of me, then everything I had worked for the past six years, everything I had done to establish myself as a successful media professional could be gone like that. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: Amanda, to a large extent, I believe Brooke Hundley brought this on herself, but when you watch that, it reminds you she's a 22-year-old kid. CARPENTER: She is a 22-year-old kid and that's why he had to go. He clearly used his influence, and she was attracted to her influence and felt her career was at risk. KURTZ: She said she felt pressured there. CARPENTER: Right, but she also, she is an adult. She did confront the married woman at her home. KURTZ: She drove to Steve Phillips' house. She wrote him a letter. CARPENTER: So that's why they both had to go. They both got fired. KURTZ: Right. ESPN dragged its feet on that, but eventually did get rid of both of them. Lola Ogunnaike, Kate Snow asked the right questions there. Was she a stalker? What would she say to Steve Phillips' wife Marty? You brought it on, Kate Snow said. And Brooke Hundley said she couldn't discuss the case, but she denied harassing anyone. Anyone who has listened to that 911 tape might reach a different conclusion about what she did. OGUNNAIKE: Absolutely and anyone who got a hold of the letter and actually had a chance to read the contents of that letter would think differently. KURTZ: This is the very taunting letter that she wrote to Steve Phillips' wife. OGUNNAIKE: Exactly, making clear that she's sleeping with her husband, making clear that she knows specifics about parts of his body that only a women who visited him in certain areas would know. She also reached out to this man's son on Facebook and was speaking disparaging about his wife to his own son. I mean, this are really scary things. That said, I'm not one to side with the mistress, but I did walk away from that interview feeling a bit sorry for her. She has been called horrible names. Everything from pudgy paramour to -- another one was a shlubby seductress. Those things are awful and no one should have to go through something like that. KURTZ: Right. OGUNNAIKE: But like you said, Howard... KURTZ: It's impossible not to feel some sympathy. Let me try to elevate this a little bit by turning to Professor Thompson. Do you see similarities to the Letterman case? High-ranking men and young women and that has helped elevate this to the level of a network story? THOMPSON: Well, I think there are a lot of similarities. I think the Letterman case, the Monica Lewinsky case, this, I mean, it's once a warning tale that people in really high positions of power should not be having sexual relationships with younger subordinates and to some extent the sympathy goes to the subordinates no matter how crazy they may be or no matter what they do simply because of that power differential. What changes this now, though, is the fact that we now all have access to so much of this stuff. It used to be the story would be covered and you would hear the other side. Now you can go on the Internet and you can read the letter. You can see a facsimile, you can hear the 911 call. KURTZ: We are out of time, but yes, I've heard the 911. Robert Thompson, Lola Ogunnaike and Amanda Carpenter, thanks very much for joining us. Up next, making history. A look back at how the media covered the crumbling concrete of communism and how it holds up 20 years later. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KURTZ: Journalism has famously been described as the first rough draft of history. We scramble. We throw things on the air. We don't have all the pieces. But there are times when you know you're witnessing something that will be remembered for a long time to come. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KURTZ (voice over): I grew up at the peak of the Cold War, with fallout shelters and bomb drills at school. Whether it was Kennedy and Khrushchev and the Cuban missile crisis or Nixon and Brezhnev negotiating over nuclear weapons, we automatically assumed that the Soviets would rule their empire forever, that half of Europe would live under Communism. And then, 20 years ago, journalists found themselves covering a story in a city divided by concrete and barbed wire, that not too much earlier seemed unimaginable, even when Ronald Reagan uttered these famous words. FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. (APPLAUSE) TOM BROKAW, NBC ANCHOR: Good evening. Live from the Berlin Wall on the most historic night in this wall's history, what you see behind me is a celebration of this new policy, announced today by the East German government, that now, for the first time since the wall was erected in 1961, people will be able to move through freely. DAN RATHER, CBS ANCHOR: In Berlin, this is definitely the "in" place to be, the sights and sounds, all the joy and the history in front of the Brandenburg Gate with West Berlins partying literally on top of the Berlin Wall. PETER JENNINGS, ABC ANCHOR: Thousands and thousands of West Germans, comes to make the point that the wall has suddenly become irrelevant, something, as you can see, almost to party on. How do you measure such an astonishing moment in history? KURTZ: Think how much we didn't know, as television carried pictures of those first East Germans streaming into the western side of the city. We didn't know that night would lead to the reunification of Germany and the demolition of the wall, its pieces shipped off as souvenirs of a darker age. We didn't know that other countries in Eastern Europe would overthrow communism and turn to democracy. We didn't know that, in two years, Mikhail Gorbachev's Soviet Union would collapse, freeing its long-suffering satellites in the Baltics. So what Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather reported in 1989 is even more important in retrospect than it seemed at the time. News organizations often find themselves reporting dull stories or tabloid stories or tragic stories or ephemeral stories that are quickly forgotten. Only once in a great while do you get to cover an exciting and uplifting story that literally changes the course of history. The fall of the wall was such a moment. And two decades later, the reporting still looks pretty good. Still to come, Fox's Sean Hannity is nailed by a very tough media critic. No kidding. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) KURTZ: Television news revolves around pictures, and you have to trust that those pictures are real, that they are what we say they are. Sometimes that's not the case. But as the images fly by, it's difficult to prove. It calls for a seasoned investigative reporter, someone like, say, Jon Stewart. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": Wow. That was actually from Glenn Beck's 9/12 rally two months ago, his much bigger 9/12 rally. It seems Sean Hannity used footage of a bigger crowd from a totally different event to make last week's GOP health care rally appear more heavily attended. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: So was Stewart just having some fun, playing the situation for laughs? The answer came the following night on Fox News. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HANNITY: Although it pains me to say this, Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, he was right. We screwed up, we aired some video of a rally in September along with the video from the actual event. It was an inadvertent mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: Talk about your moment of zen. Holding media people accountable is serious business, even when the comedian has to step in and do the job. Maybe the rest of us can learn a few tricks from the righteous wrath of "The Daily Show." And John King, congratulations to the news this week that you'll be moving to weeknights early next year taking that 7 p.m. Eastern slot just vacated by Lou Dobbs. As you know, the big ratings in cable at night seem to be gotten about opinionated hosts. You're all about reporting. Is that a challenge for you? KING: You know Howard, we're going to do our best. We're going to try to give people an interesting, provocative show, with an anchor who tries to stay in the middle of the road. I'm sure I'll catch some harpoons for that. But looking forward to it. KURTZ: You've traveled to 44 states. You going to keep traveling in your new role? KING: I'll travel as much as I can. It will be a little more difficult when you're on Monday through Friday, but we'll get out as much as we can. KURTZ: All right, back to you, John. KING: Howie, you take care. Have a great Sunday.


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WASHINGTON — It is a testament to the decline in party relations in the House that a simple private meeting Wednesday between Democratic and Republican leaders to discuss an economic stimulus plan was treated as remarkable.
In 2007, the first year of Democratic rule and Republican exile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, and the minority leader, Representative John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, barely spoke. The senior party leaders and their respective staffs circled one another like the Sharks and the Jets, displaying a similar spirit of trust, cooperation and understanding.
But Ms. Pelosi said Wednesday that she hoped the glimmerings of bipartisanship seen on the economy could serve as a model and lead to increased dialogue between the two parties, easing some of the bitterness from last year and the partisan rancor that has pervaded the House from the days leading up to the Republican takeover in 1994.
"I don't want my legacy to be a continuation of that attitude," said Ms. Pelosi, the first woman to hold the speaker's job. "I had to get a certain amount of work done. I did. Now we need to go on to the next step, which is to expand the conversation."
After a dozen years in the minority, Democrats came to power a year ago, promising a new tone and pledging that they would not treat minority Republicans like they had been treated: shut out of negotiations, prevented from offering amendments and just generally overrun by Republicans trying to solidify their grip on Congress.Continue reading the main story
But from the Republican perspective, things got off to a bad start when Democrats rammed through legislation on the minimum wage, energy, combating terrorism and other party priorities without allowing Republicans opportunities to push their alternatives. Angry Republicans fought back, using procedural moves, politically charged amendments and efforts to embarrass the speaker through tactics like highlighting her request for a larger airplane than her predecessor used for public trips.
Democrats won bipartisan approval of many of their chief issues, but the enmity simmered through the year, fueled by repeated clashes over the Iraq war. It subsided only slightly as Congress wrapped up last month and finished off spending bills, energy legislation and war financing.
Ms. Pelosi acknowledged that she occasionally short-circuited the process but said it was necessary to achieve some of her first-year goals. And she said she understood what Republicans were trying to accomplish in the minority, having spent considerable time there herself. But she said she hoped the climate could be improved. "Now that everybody has established their parameters, I think that we will be able to move forward with confidence," she said. "I have respect for them. I want everything we do here to have legitimacy, to have a broader base of support, not just a simple majority. So I welcome the opportunity to increase not only the bipartisanship, but the communication."
Ms. Pelosi dismissed the notion that her attitude was an outgrowth of public calls for conciliation that are being sounded with some success in the presidential primary campaign. But others believe those are echoing in the corridors of a nervous Congress.
"There's a general pervasive feeling that Washington is broken," said Representative Adam H. Putnam of Florida, chairman of the House Republican Conference. "And I think it is incumbent upon us to talk about how we intend to fix Washington, and what have we learned from our time in the majority, and what have we learned from our time in the minority."
Still, some veteran lawmakers are dubious that the tensions between the two parties can be eased, particularly in an even-numbered year. "Get serious," said Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho. "It is a presidential election year."
Yet the tone in Congress, at least in the first 48 hours of the session, is a bit different from 2007. Members of both parties are moving cautiously, feeling one another out and not wanting to be the first to drop a political bomb. If voters are looking for change, the mood suggests, it is probably best to show you are getting the message now rather than waiting to get it in November.
"Bipartisanship is spreading out all over," declared Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat, as he prepared for the economic meeting with Mr. Boehner and Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri.
The Republican leadership was approaching the Democratic overture gingerly but certainly did not want to be seen as refusing any olive branch. Or taking it and breaking it in two.
"I am hopeful we can work together," Mr. Boehner said.
Mr. Blunt, the No. 2 Republican, said maybe things could be better, at least part of the time.
"This is a political year," he said. "So my guess is we'll have a conciliatory start and a conciliatory finish and the middle won't be all that good."
Ms. Pelosi said she envisioned more regular meetings with her Republican counterparts, though not on a fixed schedule. And she said she believed the top lawmakers had at least a foundation of cordial relationships to build on.
But no one expects the two sides to suddenly drop their gloves and embrace. A serious Congressional election is looming, and both parties will soon be trying to coalesce around a presidential nominee, eager to draw distinctions between the two competing ideologies.
And, as Ms. Pelosi noted, Congressional political conflict is daily and intimate. But she said it was her hope that House members of both the Republican and Democratic persuasion could figure out a way to clash over ideas while finding at least a smidgen of common ground.
"You can do both," she said. "This body was created to be a marketplace place of ideas. The idea was you would come and debate different points of view. It is not a bad thing to say, 'We disagree.' "Continue reading the main story

subset: commoncrawl


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Looking into the career crystal ball, what does the future of hiring look like for civil engineers?
It depends on whos doing the fortune telling. Youll hear predictions about the economy gyrating all the way from disastrous to great, and jobs going from copious to scarce. However, whats not picked up is the steady hum of employment opportunities for civil engineers.
If anything, the job market for civil engineers has gradually been heating up as other industry sectors cool down. Civil engineering graduates are getting good jobs. The rate of salary growth has been excellent for a number of years, reports Nicholas Sitar, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. He sees the salary gap between civil engineers and electrical engineers closing significantly because of plummeting nationwide undergraduate engineering enrollment. This means there areand will continue to be for the foreseeable futurefewer civil engineers to go around. Employers [who hire civil engineers] realize that they must make jobs more attractive and financially rewarding, reflects Sitar.
But dont start dreaming of those once fabled dotcom salaries and job offers to pop out of the woodwork. Civil engineering graduates from the class of 2001 had to work harder to get top jobs than graduates did in 2000, and most likely, you will too. Camille Luckenbaugh, employment manager at the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), which researches and publishes information about issues affecting careers and employment for all college graduates, says employers are playing a wait-and-see game. Theyre recruiting, but are more cautious about who they hire. Luckenbaugh says she hears from some employers that say theyre actually pleased about the economic slowdown because the competition for top talent isnt quite as steep as it was before.
Ann Herrmann, a career counselor from the University of Colorado at Boulder career services center, says recruiting for their engineers was very strong for the class of 2001, but adds a note of prudence. In 2000, the job market was moving at 100 mph while for the class of 2001, it was going 65 mph. Its still at a good, strong pace, she states.
Mark Savage, director of engineering co-op and career services at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., thinks the job market for civil engineers is at a crossroads. Hes unsure what will happen in the next several months, but hes optimistic. He says that for the last three years employment for civil engineers has been good.
So Whos Hiring and Where Are the Jobs?
While you probably will be choosing among several good job offers, if you drill down into the particular areas of civil engineering, youll find that some fields are hotter than others. Larry Roth, assistant executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), says people in his field are not usually employed in the more volatile high-tech segment of the economy. Thus, the sectors in which civil engineers get jobs are healthy and, at least in the near future, recession-proof. Jobs in areas such as transportation and construction, particularly in the repair and replacement of the nations infrastructure, seem to be more secure than ever. In general, construction is going strong given the level of building in the United States. Hermmann concurs, As the population continues to grow, there will be a continued need for people who know how to build.
The demand for civil engineers in the construction field results from the increased need for facilities for data storage and telecommunication, according to Daniel Halpin, professor of civil engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. These high-tech industries have special requirements such as air conditioning and exceptionally clean rooms. Building in the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries is growing as well.
Another huge area of hiring activity is transportation, which is particularly active in California. Roth reports that in order to get the number of civil engineers they need, Californias department of transportation (Caltrans) is offering competitive salaries. They cant hire fast enough, he says.
Halpin agrees, saying Caltrans is even venturing to Illinois to recruit. Five years ago, they were well-satisfied with the products of the California schools, which were large in number and high in quality, he says. Thats not enough for them now.
The environmental side of civil engineering hasnt grown as rapidly as most thought it would; however, Savage points out that they had two and a half times the number of employers this year over last year at an environmental career fair at Cornell. Though recruitment for environmental engineers is still going strong at Purdue, Halpin sees it trailing off a little.
Thinking Outside the Box
While civil engineers will find plenty of challenging jobs within their discipline, theyre also being tapped for jobs outside civil engineering, such as with consulting companies. They are starting to make a dent in the supply line, says Roth. Firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Booz-Allen & Hamilton Inc. arent interested in civil engineering skills but rather problem solving and numeric ability. They value the whole design process civil engineers learn.
Savage took a look at the roster of employers from his class of 2001 and saw a number going into the financial services sector. They traditionally pay higher than civil engineering firms. The civil engineers diploma is flexible. So many companies are looking for their analytic skills and their comfort with numbers, remarks Savage.
UC Berkeleys Sitar has also noticed that some outstanding civil engineering graduates are going into jobs in areas such as data mining and risk analysis.
Will a Masters Be a Must?
Yes, says Halpin. The basic civil engineering degree gives you the technical foundation, but theres not enough time to learn about some aspects of managing technical people. And hes seeing more and more civil engineers being placed in leadership positions.
In addition, says the ASCEs Roth, a masters degree is ideal if youre going to specialize in a particular area such as geotechnical, structural, environmental or transportation engineering. The level of sophistication in civil engineering today requires an advanced degree. Technology is advancing at an exponential rate, yet many civil engineering undergraduate programs are being encouraged to reduce credit hours and to increase emphasis on liberal arts and social sciences, he says. We cannot accommodate all three. ASCE believes that a masters degree and continuing education is needed to ensure the technical savvy of our future engineers.
Back to Basics
Many, however, disagree with Roth and see the increased emphasis on liberal arts as crucial to graduates, recognizing the importance of a well-rounded education for civil engineers.
Communication skills are among the most important skills for civil engineers to have, according to Joseph Schofer, department chair of civil engineering at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. If you want to achieve success, you have to be able to communicate with people, orally and in writing, he says. People who arent that good at dealing with people are not going to the be the most successful in the field.
It could even mean the difference between getting the job you want. Schofer contends that employers expect all engineering graduates to have good technical skills, so the candidates that stand out are the ones with the business skills. They look for somebody they can send out into the world to talk to real people, he says.
James Hunt, professor of environmental engineering at University of California, Berkeley, concurs and warns against specializing too early. There is a tendency in civil engineering for students to identify themselves with a specialty area right away, he says. Thats not healthy. Students need an appreciation of the breadth of the civil engineering profession.
Hunt states that recognizing civil engineering as an interface between societal problems and technology is especially important. We have water systems at capacity and urban transportation systems falling apart. The network that makes societies work is starting to fall apart, he says. That is where civil and environmental engineers fit.
Graduates also need to be wary of relying too much on technology to do their jobs, Hunt says. Because of the pervasive nature of computers, people dont understand that they actually have to go out and measure things, he says. They dont realize measurements come with errors and uncertainties and biases.
And computers are only a small part of the new technologies being developed that will greatly impact civil engineers in the years to come. Purdues Halpin says use of new technologies such as microtunneling (the horizontal directional drilling of pipe lines ranging from 12 inches to 12 feet in diameter) and composites (fiber-reinforced plastics that are lighter to handle and less subject to corrosion) are beginning to be used by civil engineers and have great potential for the future. Although currently used to make airplane fuselages more lightweight, Halpin predicts composites will be used in the construction of bridges, making them lighter than the classical concrete slab systems used today.
Halpin also points to the evolving global positioning systems (GPS) as a breakthrough waiting just around the corner. Using GPSs, we are able to measure the location of equipment down to plus or minus a centimeter, he says. Halpin says eventually operators could be assisted by information thats available electronically through the consul of the equipment that tells them exactly within a centimeter where the equipment is located.
Were not quite there yet, but thats the future, he adds.
Other new technologies and innovations such as real-time video are driving many of the changes in civil engineering. The contractor is on the scene, but the designers and architects may be in other places, says Schofer. People in the field are getting the latest drawing updates with the capability to monitor whats going on at a construction site.
Now were in a position to exchange information very rapidly, to make decisions, to do collaborative management, so that everybody is involved, he remarks. It has really become the standard way of operating on large construction projects.
It also means changes in the way projects are managed. Fewer managers and engineers are on site, making room for more less-skilled workers to be guided by civil engineers. A smaller number of people can be on top of a larger number of projects at any one time, and there are ways these people can interact, Schofer says. It gives engineers multiple sets of hands to do more at one time.
Halpin agrees, addressing the importance of knowing how to coordinate many engineers. Civil engineering graduates need to be able to manage other people, he says.
And if you can do this effectively, you may have the opportunity to advance quickly into management, if you so desire. According to Schofer, even though starting salaries for civil engineers are at the lower end of the engineering salary spectrum, you can make up the difference rapidly. A lot of our best people are getting into project management, he says. People that are two years out are managing $20-$50 million worth of construction in the field.


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Next, I had my dad project the image for me using the laptop and his projector. I simply traced the image onto the back of the artwork that was there before. (it made it easier to see the lines since it was a plain cardboard piece.) I don't have a picture of that because it was really hard to take a picture showing the pencil lines. They didn't show up very well. So here is a partially painted board instead.
Now, if you don't want to spend 11 hours making this (like I did) you can try a different option. These were the inspiration for my project in the competition.


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Large Institutions with a leverage ratio exposure measure above 200bn EUR
The list of banks included in these annual sections follows the EBA Guidelines on disclosure of indicators of global systemic importance. These EBA Guidelines not only increase the transparency in the G-SIIs identification process but also achieve a level playing field in terms of disclosure requirements between global systemically important institutions (G-SIIs) and other large institutions with an overall exposure measure of more than EUR 200 billion at the end of each year. Institutions that are close to but below the given measure may occasionally participate. Consequently, all EU institutions, which are potentially systemically relevant, will be subject to the same disclosure requirement as the G-SIIs.
In turn, the mentioned EBA Guidelines follow closely the Basel Committee recommendations and efforts to identify global systemically important banks (G-SIB) and provides data which contribute to assess EU banks' systemic riskiness.
First reference date available is December 2013 and this exercise will be run on a yearly basis.
Files below constitute the most up-to-date version of the reporting templates and instructions for the upcoming end-2018 exercise (see also www.bis.org/bcbs/gsib for further information on BCBS' process).


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UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The United Nations Thursday voted to upgrade Palestine to non-member observer status, with 138 countries voting in favor, nine against and 41 abstaining.
The upgrade will help the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas challenge Israel in international judicial forums, but its effect on achieving a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not immediately clear, The New York Times said.
The vote came despite intense lobbying by the United States and Israel to reject upgraded status for Palestine.
During a speech prior to the vote, Abbas called on the General Assembly to "issue a birth certificate of the reality of the state of Palestine."
He accused Israel of short-changing the peace process and said Palestinians instead "have witnessed, and continue to witness, an unprecedented intensification of military assaults, the blockade, settlement activities and ethnic cleansing, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem, and mass arrests, attacks by settlers and other practices by which this Israeli occupation is becoming synonymous with an apartheid system of colonial occupation, which institutionalizes the plague of racism and entrenches hatred and incitement."
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a statement Abbas' speech was "defamatory and venomous" and was "full of mendacious propaganda."
Israeli U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor addressed the body, saying "the Palestinians are turning their back on peace."
"Don't let history record that today the U.N. helped them along on their march of folly," Prosor said.
Netanyahu said before the vote the Palestinians' move to upgrade their status will distance them from statehood.
Speaking in Jerusalem Thursday, Netanyahu said, "Israel's hand is always extended in peace, but a Palestinian state will not be established without recognition of the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, without an end-of-conflict declaration and without true security arrangements that will protect Israel and its citizens," The Jerusalem Post said.
"It does not matter how many will vote against us, there is no force in the world that will cause me to compromise on Israeli security, and there is no force in the world able to sever the thousands year connection between the people of Israel and the Land of Israel," Netanyahu said.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday Washington had taken one last try at getting Abbas to reconsider.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the General Assembly vote to give the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip the same rank as the Vatican won't produce "a lasting solution" in the Middle East.
"The path to a two-state solution that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York," she said.
Clinton called for direct negotiations between the two sides.
The vote had been expected to be supported by at least 11 of the European Union's 27 members -- Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Spain.
The General Assembly is the only U.N. body in which all members have equal representation.
The vote took place on the 65th anniversary of the General Assembly's 1947 approval of a plan to partition British-administered Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states, with a special international regime for Jerusalem.
The Jewish leadership embraced the decision at the time, The Wall Street Journal said, but Arab governments rejected it, leading to an Arab-Israeli war that left Palestinians without a state.
The Palestine Liberation Organization endorsed the two-state solution and accepted the partition resolution in 1988, contingent on terms such as making East Jerusalem the Palestinian capital and giving Palestinians a "right of return" to land they occupied before 1948.
Thursday's U.N. resolution gives Palestinians an option of asserting legal rights over territorial waters and airspace in U.N. bodies, as well as bringing war-crimes charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court.
Not all Palestinians support the move.
The vote won't change anything on the ground, Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's political department, said from Tunisia.
"The armed struggle against Israel has proved more effective than peace negotiations," the Post quoted him saying.
"This will not benefit the Palestinians because it won't change the reality of occupation and Judaization that exists on the ground," he said. "What we really need is change on the ground. ... Resistance has a better impact on Israel. Therefore, there is no need for negotiations."
Hanan Ashrawi, member of the PLO Executive Committee in Ramallah, said the statehood bid will pave the way for freedom and independence for the Palestinian people. The U.N. decision means "our lands are not disputed territories, but Palestinian lands," the Post quoted her saying this week.
Israel described the vote's passage as merely technical and procedural, creating a symbolic Palestinian victory devoid of diplomatic significance.
"It may give them some procedural advantages, such as access within the United Nations system to some things, but that's it," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The New York Times.
"It does not change the status of the territory."
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who engaged more than any other Israeli in direct negotiations with Abbas, told The Daily Beast he saw the Palestinian request as "congruent with the basic concept of the two-state solution."
"Therefore, I see no reason to oppose it," he said. "Once the United Nations will lay the foundation for this idea, we in Israel will have to engage in a serious process of negotiations, in order to agree on specific borders based on the 1967 lines and resolve the other issues.
"It is time to give a hand to, and encourage, the moderate forces amongst the Palestinians. Abu-Mazen [an Abbas alias] and [Palestinian Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad need our help. It's time to give it."
Abbas' Palestinian Authority planned celebrations in the central West Bank city of Ramallah -- the authority's administrative capital, 6 miles north of Jerusalem -- after the vote.
But the U.N. decision wasn't expected to change Palestinian life any time soon.
"This evening there will be a celebration in Ramallah but on Friday morning there will be no change on the ground," a senior Israeli official said.


text: In February, former BBC broadcaster Stuart Hall vowed to fight the allegations against him. On Thursday, he admitted to 14 charges of indecently assaulting girls. Jon Super/AP hide caption toggle caption Jon Super/AP The Two-Way Veteran British Broadcaster Admits To Sexual Abuse Of Girls May 2, 2013 Stuart Hall is the latest British TV personality who has been linked to sexual abuse. His arrest is part of an operation that followed revelations about the beloved Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011.


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Maximum Training for Minimum Money2 Jul, 2010 By: Robert Green
Set up a self-learning program for your users to increase skills and productivity even when times are tight.
Training users has always been a key part of the CAD manager's job, but when times get tight, the training budget is often the first thing cut. But now is not the time to throw in the training towel. It is time to adapt and establish a self-training program for your users. So let's determine your training goals, make use of today's low-cost training tools, and make your new resources easily accessible to your users — then turn them loose to learn.
In this installment of "CAD Manager," I'll pass along some tips for creating a self-learning program for your users that will bring you closer to your training goals regardless of budget.
Be Goal-Oriented
Before you can begin to develop a self-learning program for your users, you need to clarify your mission. Any training program will take less time and be more effective if it focuses sharply on meeting key training goals. The trick is to know what those goals should be, right? Here are my tips for where to begin:
Fill in software knowledge gaps. Although most users know the basics of their design software, few really know everything they should. As a result, the majority spend too much time performing routine tasks. Identify these knowledge gaps and make them a focus of your training so your users will become more productive. Keep in mind that not all users will have the same gaps in knowledge, so you'll want to assess what's going on at all levels of user expertise in your firm.
Reduce errors. What are your users' most common mistakes? Develop training that will help them avoid making the same mistakes over and over. Reduced user error translates into saved time and money.
Emphasize standards. CAD managers perform all sorts of customization and setup work to simplify and standardize software use, yet they often neglect to train users to take full advantage of those efforts. Make sure your users understand the tools and standards you've developed by incorporating them into your training exercises.
Support Self-Learning
Now that you know what to teach, you'll want to give users the opportunity to train themselves. You can encourage this process by providing easy access to learning resources. Then it is up to users to dig in and get smart. Here are some ideas about what those self-learning resources might be
Books and computer-based videos from third-party vendors. Purchase copies of a book that includes exercises on CD — available from many CAD software companies, resellers, online booksellers, and other sources — then allow users to check out copies for use on their own time. Some users prefer computer-based video training over books, so check out companies such as Axiom and CADLearning. Many can provide site licenses for your company. Buying these materials requires some investment, but it will enable self-learning that will save you time — and a bundle of money — compared with instructor-led training.
Custom handouts and videos. You can create your own materials, customized for the needs of your workplace, and users can learn from them just as they would from any other book or video. To educate users about using your custom standards and how to reduce errors, create simple handout-style materials using Microsoft Word and save them as PDF files to distribute electronically. Create your own training videos easily and inexpensively using an application such as Camtasia. (See my two-part CAD Manager's Newsletter series about creating training videos.)
User groups. Another great way to encourage self-learning is to get users involved with local or national user groups, such as AUGI for Autodesk users, Be User Groups for Bentley, or SWUGN for SolidWorks. User groups offer forums, tutorials, and learning resources for motivated CAD users at little or no cost. For the ultimate in personalization, see if you can get a few of your power users to start a user group in your company that meets once a month.
Make Materials Easy to Access
Now that you have your training resources, you need to make them easy to access. Here are a few low- and no-cost ideas for deploying your resources:
Company intranet. Use a web-page creation tool, such as Microsoft's FrontPage, to deploy your PDF files and video segments on your company's network. Users can access learning resources at the office, at home, or on the road, 24 hours a day.
YouTube. If your responsibilities involve standards training for vendors or partners, and you don't want those outside parties logging into your network, set up a YouTube channel to share your videos without spurring security concerns.
The common theme to these deployment methods is they are cheap and they allow anyone with an Internet connection to use your materials whenever and wherever they like. The more convenient you can make your self-learning resources, the more users will take advantage of them.
Motivate and Reward
With every training program I've ever organized, I've had some power users who advance at warp speed, while some of their less-motivated counterparts lag behind. So how do you motivate everyone to study and achieve without having to over-manage them? Incentives, that's how.
A simple certificate signifying completion of a training program will motivate many. Gift cards or financial incentives at review time will encourage others. Consider any options that might motivate your group and that you have the authority to offer. Don't overlook the opportunity to give verbal kudos and encouragement, whether in staff meetings or in private. By acknowledging those who achieve, you will create an environ-ment in which peer pressure leads to increased learning — and that is the best way to get hesitant users to invest their own time and effort.
Instructor-Led Training
In case you got the idea that I'm against instructor-led training, let me assure you that I'm not! In fact, all the self-learning methods in the world won't eliminate the need for instructor-led training. Some CAD coordination tasks, such as project-kickoff training or introducing new work procedures, are easier to present in team environments and are thus ideal candidates for an instructor-led session.
I do believe, however, that a self-learning program drastically reduces the need for instructor-led training. The key is to reserve instructor-led training for situations in which it pays to use it and rely on self-learning for the rest.
Summing Up
Now that you have some ideas for controlling your training costs, it's up to you to implement your own plan. Once you've set up your users for self-learning success, you should be able to spend the time you gain creating formal training for high-value projects.


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As 100+ governments gather in Antalya to shape the first IPBES programme for assessing the world's biodiversity, 100+ knowledge holders reinforce their offer to assist and propose concrete actions for success.
Identifying and engaging the most relevant experts in the IPBES work is one of the greatest challenges that this new intergovernmental platform is facing. Stakeholders – including the private sector, indigenous peoples, local communities, scientific networks and conservation practitioners – are not only essential knowledge and expertise resources for IPBES, but will also be end users of its outcomes.
Today – at the opening of the Second Session of the IPBES Plenary (IPBES-2) – stakeholders have called for the establishment of an open Forum to streamline access to the Platform's activities. This would help facilitating effective partnerships, full stakeholder engagement in the implementation of the IPBES work programme and interactions with all Platform bodies throughout all IPBES process.
They have also urged the governments to adopt the proposed stakeholder engagement strategy and develop an engagement plan as part of the first IPBES work programme 2014-2018. The practical recipes for success in IPBES communication, outreach and the first five-year programme delivery thereby recommended should serve as a starting point for this plan.
A collective statement and these recipes for success have been developed by 100+ participants of IPBES Stakeholder Days, held immediately prior to IPBES-2. The meeting was convened by the IPBES Secretariat and co-facilitated by IUCN and the International Council for Science (ICSU).
About IPBES
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was established in 2012 as an independent intergovernmental body open to all member countries of the United Nations. The members are committed to building IPBES as the leading intergovernmental body for assessing the state of the planet's biodiversity, its ecosystems and the essential services they provide to society.
- List of Member nations (currently 115);
- Leadership (including Spencer Thomas, IUCN Regional Councillor for North America and the Caribbean);
- Experts (including Tamar Pataridze, IUCN Regional Councillor for Eastern Europe, North and Central Asia and a number of members of IUCN Commissions).


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Maybe you have already heard the rumors that Oracle is releasing a patch release for APEX 3.0.
It's finally out, you can download Oracle APEX 3.0.1 from OTN, or just the patchset for a 3.0 to 3.0.1 upgrade from Metalink. The patch number on Metalink is 6113844.
See the release notes for a list of fixes. BTW, Oracle APEX 3.0.1 is also "supported" to be installed on Oracle XE.
Have fun!


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29 March 2010 at 3.40pm | Comment on this article
Last week saw Jocelyn, Orlando and I swinging on rubber tyres and punching bags in a photography studio for opera shots publicity, which was actually pretty good fun and an unexpected laugh. This week, though, is all about composition.
In case you found my first blog a little confusing, my part in opera shots will be to create a new work based on an impulse I had some time ago. The idea of using techniques from vedic Indian mathematics, calculus and quantum theory along with the musical and lyrical traditions of various cultures arose from my deep interest in the connections between ancient Hindu philosophy and physics. It was important to find an appropriate musical vocabulary to convey the universal and complex nature of those connections and so I have set about focusing on an operatic variation of Erwin Schrödinger's hypothetical cat.
Erwin Schrödinger was a celebrated physicist, with an intense interest in Hindu philosophy, mathematics and music, who in 1935 set about creating a hypothetical construct to expose the absurdity of quantum theory. In his construct, he placed a cat in a box along with a radioactive substance that had a 50 percent chance of decaying. If it decayed it would trigger a poisonous substance that would kill the cat. Therefore, Schrödinger's cat existed in a precise state of balance until it was observed. In that small moment ("quantum tunneling") between opening the box and seeing the cat, several possibilities existed. The cat was considered to be dead or alive and in a strange "superposition" of being both simultaneously.
In my opera, "Entanglement", I have changed the cat in the box into a pregnancy test where the very existence of a new life hangs in the balance. To communicate the idea I have chosen five women to sing in 5 different time signatures at an accelerating tempo (hence the need for calculus).The entire opera plots the arc of that tense moment between observation of a result and the emergence of a settled reality.
In Hindu philosophy the concept of "Dharma" postulates a universal flow to the universe that accounts for our freewill and individual decisions. A few years ago I interviewed Oxford university professor, quantum physicist and author of "The Fabric of Reality", David Deutsch, at his home about his concept of "the multiverse". In his idea, derived from the mathematical theories of 50's physicist, Hugh Everett, all possibilities based on observation co-exist in separate parallel universes. In other words there is a universe that accounts for every direction in which freewill flows.
In my opera, there are five women who represent each of the possibilities related to the outcome of the observed pregnancy test… This precedes the moment at which the wave function collapses into the very reality we, the audience, inhabit.
In order to represent some of those complexities I have consulted with geniuses such as Marcus Du Sutoy, Maths professor at Cambridge who helped me get my head around some of the calculus involved in accelerating a tempo curve at changing rates whilst maintaining a precise number of beats and 5 co-existing time signatures ending on a precise moment in time!
Tomorrow we will workshop the opera again with all musicians and singers present. I'll let you know how that goes.
- Nitin Sawhney


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I really like your cookie recipes
I think that one would be hard pressed to find a more beloved combination than chocolate and peanut butter. This cupcake celebrates the classic pairing with a moist and flavorful chocolate cake topped with a rich and creamy peanut butter frosting. In a word, divine.
I made these cupcakes for a neighborhood party. The children were eating birthday cake and I assumed that the adults would be the only ones interested. As soon as they all saw these come to the table, they dropped the cake and grabbed these cupcakes. It took about 8 minutes for all 24 to be eaten. In my book, that is the sign of a great recipe.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake
By Bree
Makes 24 cupcakes
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant coffee
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin with 24 liners.
Cream together butter and both sugars, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time.
In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder and coffee. In a measuring cup, mix together milk and vanilla. Slowly add 1/3 of dry ingredients; when incorporated, add 1/2 milk. Alternatively add dry ingredients and milk, ending with flour.
Divide the batter evenly among muffin cups. Put in oven, and reduce heat to 350°. Bake for 23 to 26 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, remove and cool completely on cooling rack.
Peanut Butter Frosting
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 tablespoons heavy cream
In an electric mixer, cream butter and peanut butter. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add vanilla. Add heavy cream and beat until fluffy.
Frost cupcakes with frosting.


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The Market for Accountability Journalism
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Please check back later for the full article.
If most voters remain rationally ignorant about the details of public policy, how can politicians be held accountable for their actions? Information markets offer an unprecedented amount of data today to help people in their roles as consumers, workers, and audience members. Yet the stories that help voters hold politicians accountable face a number of hurdles in the market place. Investigative work about public affairs topics is expensive, uncertain, and not always highly demanded. Attempts by candidates to convey ideas through the media faces a conflict between what approaches motivate the marginal voter and what topics are of interest to the marginal viewer. Research in media economics offers evidence on what types of political information gets produced, what the impact of accountability journalism is on the functioning of government, and where market failures exist in the coverage of politics and policy.