In an essay for Columbia Journalism Review, writer Jordan Michael Smith says the capture of U.S. diplomats by Iranian students 30 years ago this week had “pernicious” effects on the U.S. public’s attitude on Iran. read more »

Competitors of Fox News have showed support for the network, which White House officials maintain is not a legitimate news organization. read more »

Christiane Amanpour has roamed the world as a foreign correspondent, reporting for CNN from hotspots throughout the Middle East, the Balkans, Somalia, and Rwanda. read more »

Investigators are exploring whether some media outlets may have known that the story about a little boy floating away in a balloon was a hoax, CBS News reports, quoting a Colorado sheriff. read more »

Here’s how the Los Angeles Times described the saga of a 6-year-old boy believed to be inside a helium-filled balloon soaring over Colorado:

“As the story unfolded, it seemed tailored for the current age, complete with a nod to reality TV, lots of chatter in the blogosphere and even a hint of scandal as questions were raised about whether the whole thing had been a hoax.” read more »

Cesar Conde, 35, Univision’s chief strategy officer, takes charge of the largest U.S. Spanish-language media empire on Oct. 1. The Associated Press and PODER magazine profile the Miami-born son of Cuban and Peruvian immigrants. read more »

Unionized employees of the Puerto Rico Corporation for Public Broadcasting (WIPR) said they would seek all possible measures to reverse a plan to lay off more than 50 people at the government's main TV and radio stations, the Associated Press reports. read more »

Cronkite, the CBS News journalist who defined the TV anchor's role for a generation of viewers, died this evening, The New York Times reports. His family said last month that he was seriously ill. read more »

“Drowning in $10.8 billion in debt and hit hard by the advertising downturn,” the Spanish-language media company Univisión Communications cut about 6 percent of its workforce, El Nuevo Herald reports. The TV network also cancelled the weekend broadcast of its news program Primer Impacto. read more »

While the foreign press challenges Israel's restrictions on entering Gaza, Al Jazeera has had the distinct advantage of having six reporters there, including two who are working in English. read more »

The signals will also be formatted to be received by other mobile devices, such as MP3 players, GPS units, and in-car entertainment systems, the Associated Press reports.

"Unlike current mobile TV services, the broadcasts would most likely be free, and would provide access to local news, weather and traffic updates," AP Technology Peter Svensson writes. "The broadcasts could also fill an important role in emergencies like hurricanes." read more »

ABC, CBS, and NBC haven’t sent their top news anchors to the Middle East to cover Israel’s conflict with Hamas, even though each network did so in 2006 when Israel battled Hezbollah, but the networks say their decisions were editorial and not financial, the Associated Press reports. read more »

The nation’s most famous TV surgeon, Sanjay Gupta, is the president-elect’s top choice for U.S. surgeon general, The Washington Post reports. read more »

Information Minister Jesse Chacón says Globovisión's editorial stance "totally opposes the government," but he criticized the Jan. 1 attack on the privately owned network's Caracas offices and urged pro-Chávez activists to use legal and peaceful ways to protest, El Nacional reports. read more »

Two legal threats could jeopardize the broadcast license of the privately owned Globovisión news channel. Government regulators are investigating whether Globovisión encouraged public disorder by broadcasting an opposition politician who called for supporters to stay in the streets while votes for state elections last week were being counted, Reuters reports in English. read more »

By cutting its commercial breaks from four to one for some programs, TV Globo has already noticed positive results in retaining its audience, the Agência Estado reports, citing a study by Controle da Concorrência (Competition Control), which monitors media advertising.

In the case of the evening soap opera Três Irmãs (Three Sisters), Globo has reduced the number of commercial breaks from four to two, and one.

Unlike the 2000 election, which lasted until the early hours and beyond, the main drama for network and cable TV anchors was trying not to say what they knew to be true—that Barack Obama would win— while retaining their credibility, writes David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun. read more »

Al Jazeera’s English service (AJE) has produced more than 300 stories from its six-person Buenos Aires bureau in two years, covering major stories and little-known topics, the Miami Herald reports.
“’Taking an interest in Latin America is our greatest innovation,” AJE’s Americas editor, Will Stebbins, tells the Herald. read more »

Veteran TV news anchor Tom Brokaw conducted Tuesday's presidential candidate debate like a school teacher trying to keep unruly students under control, says David Bauder of the Associated Press. read more »

In his "Media Notes" column, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post asks why news organizations are sending 15,000 journalists to Denver, even though there will be little real news. A contested convention hasn't taken place since Gerald Ford edged Ronald Reagan in 1976, he notes. “How many journalists does it take to cover an infomercial?” read more »