MMMM # 203 --- And So Forth

     I've been off a few days, so the MMMM of the morning is a bit limited...pointing out three media developments of note last week:

I have no idea what the MPD does
as far as training about this issue,
but the picture was in my files.

•       Police in Philadelphia insist on moving forward with charges against a Temple University journalism student who photographed police making a routine traffic stop on the street where he lives. Just as insistence on the Immigration Law is having a terrible impact on Alabama's image, repeated harassing of citizens exercising their constitutional freedom will have a continued negative impact on the image of police. How hard would it be for police academies to teach that lesson, and for commanders to reinforce it? 

•      In Trinidad a TV host was arrested  for airing video of a rape..several times...on his show  In the U.S., the media follows the general practice of not identifying victims of sexual assault (and not reporting suicides, with some exceptions). I suspect that airing an actual rape video would end a few careers, if not just station reputations.

•      Meanwhile TIME Magazine compared two Washington scandals of last week: the Columbia/Secret Service Agents and the GSA bureaucrats in hot tubs, and concluded that the former was overwhelming the latter. Two stories..one has sex and guns, the other partying pencil pushers. Hmmmm Which one the media will focus on?

[ALSO: Last night's 60 Minutes included a segment about a decline in the number of Christians in the Holy Land...and Bob Simon confronts the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. about his call to the President of CBS News complaining about the story...long before it was written, much less aired. The program succeeds because it is fearless.]

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this website.]