PARIS, France – OVERSEAS CAPITALS DO SERVE to offer new perspectives. I was surprised early in my trip here to read in Le Monde the claim that Voltaire, a writer I already greatly admired, deserves an extra, and to me unexpected, accolade as “Father of Investigative Journalism.”

We likely know Voltaire — or at least I do — as a combative and witty philosopher who so powerfully represented the Scottish Enlightenment. Yes, Scottish! As it was, before being appropriated – in France at least – as distinctly French. To his credit for honesty, Voltaire did acknowledge the Scots for their originating role, saying that “we look to Scotland for all our ideas on civilization“.     Continue reading “French Claim for Origins of Investigative Journalism” »

WITH THE LONGEST WAR in American history, and the third longest, now both in sight of ending, US media are scattered … you might say confused and conflicted … in assessing what happens next.

With the Bonn conference on Afghanistan’s post-war recovery occupying international journalists’ attention, extremists chose this week to inject more vicious sectarian strife into that benighted country’s complex conflicts. (Above Left: Aftermath of the Kabul bombing)    Continue reading “Post-war Withdrawal Quandaries Challenge Media Analysis” »

JOURNALISTS, EVEN WHILE EXHIBITING cynicism and world-weariness, can also be extremely sensitive. When they feel betrayed, they feel it extra-powerfully.

South Africa’s media are among the most vibrant and adventurous in the world — and if not out-and-out cynical all the time, they can without question be deeply skeptical in a professionally appropriate way. Currently, though, journalists in this still-young democracy, the so-called ‘Rainbow Nation’, are in a state of shock and outrage.  Continue reading “Clamp-down on Free Press … From Winners of Freedom!” »

NEWSROOMS EVERYWHERE ARE are compiling their year-end lists. People of the year, movie of the year, gaffe of the year, all that sort of thing.

Here’s my offering for story of the year 2011. But it’s hardly been noticed at all in western media — and least of all in American news outlets.     Continue reading “Story of the Year – Goes Largely Unnoticed” »

THE ‘GIVING’ PART of Thanksgiving is, inevitably, what the charity industry’s media experts focus on every November. Outsiders are sometimes astonished to learn that it’s some 40% of all charitable giving that happens at the end of the year.     Continue reading “Post-holiday Persuasion to Get Us Giving” »