Despite all the recent downsizing news at The Record and Star Ledger, similar economic pressures at New Jersey's only statewide television station have virtually been ignored by the media. Aside from the headliner early retirements announced and the station's budget proposal to wean itself off state's coffers back in May, very little attention has been paid to the pressing financial predicament at NJN.

"We are at an urgent point in our history," emphasized NJN Executive Director Elizabeth Christopherson. "Being so lean for so many years makes you creative, but it is also like living on an oxygen tank. If you turned it off now, we will not be able to be sustainable."

Plagiarism is a bit like pornography - you know it when you see it, to paraphrase US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. 

But is the standard the same for bloggers? Given most blogs informal and causal tones, should bloggers be held to the same ethical standards of newspapers?

For some news organizations, "borrowing ideas" is OK, but not the "direct words".  For others, it is "one of journalism's unforgivable sins".
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Case in point, if I was writing this for a newspaper, I would have probably written:  For some news organizations like the Detroit Free Press, "borrowing ideas...is considered fair journalistic practice", but "words directly quoted from sources other than the writer's own reporting should be attributed."  For others like the Grand Forks Herald, it is "one of journalism's unforgivable sins", according to published excerpts on plagiarism by the Committee of Concerned Journalists.

With now less than 100 days to go until the presidential election, the veepstakes race is reportedly narrowing. The problem with the news reports is a gender bias that seems to keep cracking its head open on the glass ceiling.

To its credit, The New York Times public editor recently took a hard look at its own coverage -- "Pantsuits and the Presidency." In the column, Clark Hoyt quoted two experts that noted The Times did a better job than others in the media on the newsroom sexism measuring stick. 

It’s not often a congressional seat opens up in New Jersey – so you would think that all editorial eyes would be focused on any and all campaign story angles in the open districts – especially the hometown dailies.

So when the 3rd District (Burlington-Ocean-Camden) campaigns closed their fundraising books for the 2nd quarter and candidates started reporting cash-on-hand, it should have made some news.

Show us the money!

Twenty months ago The Daily Record's Bob Ingle gave the SCI an "A+" for its report titled "Taxpayers Beware" which detailed how "hidden perks greatly inflated the value of school superintendents' compensation" (The Daily Record, 10/16/06).

Sound familiar? The SCI devoted 165 pages to the taxpayer abuses -- a key section focused exclusively on superintendents' "severance package/buyouts". It exposed seven districts where departing supers had pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars -- including some in the poorest districts in the state.

So why did the SCI report and the ongoing sweetheart-deals-at-taxpayers-expense all but disappear from the headlines until recently?

Another fiscal-cutting measure still lies on the Governor's desk -- it's the one that reduces spending by way of statutory tweaks to the state's negotiated union contracts with public employees. 

Did anyone notice that The New York Times completely overlooked the $32.9 billion budget adopted by the state legislature on Monday?

Despite its run-up to the grand event, nary a mention could be found on its inside pages or in the Metro section.

With all the picketing, legal saber-rattling, TV and radio ads, and political arm-twisting over the proposed pension changes, how's the average Jersey Joe and Jane supposed to stay in the know?

This is "inside baseball" at its best. So it's important the daily newspapers distill the facts for readers.

Credit The Record for its Sunday series which went a long way towards reminding us how the State got into this hole -- while sorting out what's now at the heart of the current pension reform controversy.

With all the picketing, legal saber-rattling, TV and radio ads, and political arm-twisting over the proposed pension changes, how's the average Jersey Joe and Jane supposed to stay in the know?

This is "inside baseball" at its best. So it's important the daily newspapers distill the facts for readers.

Credit The Record for its Sunday series which went a long way towards reminding us how the State got into this hole -- while sorting out what's now at the heart of the current pension reform controversy.

Someone from South Carolina once told me Jersey style politics reminded her of the deep South – that is, about 80 years ago when political bosses used to run the roost.