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Survey: Want to discredit your reporting? Use anonymous sources...

Note: I just posted this item at Morph: The Media Center blog, where I'm guestblogging. All comments welcome here.

A new survey indicates the best way for a news organization to discredit a story with American news readers may be to rely on anonymous sources.

Against the dramatic backdrop of Newsweek's decision to retract a story based on an anonymous source, the ensuing public debate (try this syllabus), and even one congresswoman's corresponding call for a magazine boycott, news consumers have spent the week voting with their feet. Everywhere you look, users are underscoring – in scientific surveys and casual polls – their real opinion of reports based on anonymous sources.

What do Julie Leung, Denise Howell, Lisa Meyers Brown, Genia Stevens, Susannah Gardner and Carolyn Elefant have in common?

You may already have guessed the good news, as I have tapped into a new vein of shameless advocacy on behalf of BlogHer.org: These prodigious thinkers have joined the list of bloggers who are planning to be in Santa Clara, California on July 30 for BlogHer Conference '05.

Have you seen the rest of the line-up? Here's a one-page PDF. What's new:

1. Julie Leung has agreed to join Susan to lead the Blogging 101 session.

2. Denise Howell is joining Mary in her sessions for those who want to learn more about how to fund, build and sell things.

3. Lisa Meyers Brown will be moderating the Blogging for Business panel, making sure we talk about non-profits as well as for-profit businesses.

4. Genia Stevens joins the Citizen Journalism session.

5. Susannah Gardner and Carolyn Elefant join the $$ and Sense session.

See any of your regular reads?

Again, the full schedule is here. Registration, however, is here.

Related posts:

• New New Schedule
• New Schedule

Why you should nominate a blogher|blogshero to the OpenMedia 100

Note: I just posted this at BlogHer.org. I welcome your comments there. Thanks--LS

You need to get out your blogroll, or your list of bloghers formerly known as your blogroll. Because Dave Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati, needs your help. And, given his mea culpa to Liz Lawley and Susan Mernit today, I think he might be in the process of earning it.

Here's what I'm on about: Earlier this evening, while I was out watching nine-year-olds pelt each other with baseballs, Lawley and Mernit blogged a piece of their minds about the Open Media 100, a new joint initiative by Always On and Technorati.

Can you guess the first category for these new awards, "honoring those individuals who are driving the proliferation of Open Media and leveraging the power of community, not an individual or a corporation"?

Answer: The "Founding Fathers: Industry luminaries who created the vision of open media and continue to shape it." (Hat-tip: Liz Lawley)

Lawley responded with a post called "open media luminaries: mothers need not apply," writing...continued here.

Nancy (dis)Grace?

Note: I just posted this comment at Legal Blog Watch. All comments welcome there.

Why is Nancy Grace still on CourtTV and CNN, given her record?

"Can you imagine letting this wounded duck back into the well of a court while a jury is in the room?" asks Norm Pattis, Law.com blogger, in a post about Monday's ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the conduct of CourtTV commentator and anchor Nancy Grace.

I think -- as journalist and a blogger -- that Pattis has sketched a strong case for Grace's resignation, or for CourtTV and CNN to remove Grace from the air as a public service to viewers, although Pattis doesn't think it would ever happen:

"Will this latest ruling affect her credibility as a television commentator? Of course not. The public doesn't read appellate decisions. The public only knows what the camera exposes," Pattis writes.

Here I will piggyback on Pattis' perspective: I think Monday's decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has negatively affected Nancy Grace's credibility as a legal commentator and I think its the responsibility of CNN and CourtTV to either disclose these decisions to the audience and/or take action.

Here's why: On Monday, Grace was admonished for the third time for her conduct as a prosecutor in Georgia, this time by the 11th Circuit. The court, however, still "upheld a triple murder conviction won by Grace, explaining that her actions didn't change the result of the trial." Here's an excerpt from the full story by John Ringell of the Fulton County Daily Report:

"The three-judge panel on Monday criticized Grace for not following her obligations to disclose to the defendant's lawyer information about other possible suspects. The 11th Circuit also agreed with a magistrate who found it hard to believe that Grace did not knowingly use a detective's false testimony that there were no other suspects ... Grace on Tuesday denied hiding that other people might have been involved with the crime, noting one of her witnesses said so in open court ..."

In his post on Crime & Federalism, Pattis details each appellate court admonishment of Grace, as a public record of her misconduct:

"Grace's conduct as a prosecutor has gleaned the following commentary by reviewing courts. She has "demonstrated disregard of the notions of due process and fairness;" her conduct was "inexcusable," wrote the Georgia Supreme Court in Carr v. State, 267 Ga. 701 (1997).

"Her closing argument in another case "exceeded the wide latitude" afforded counsel. She argued the heinousness of drug-related murders and serial rape in a heroin trafficking conviction. Bell v. State, 263 Ga. 776 (1994).

"And most recently, she "played fast and loose with her disclosure obligations" as regards exculpatory evidence, a third court found in a habeas case. Stephens v. Hall, (N.D.Ga. Sept. 11, 2003)"

Today, Grace is no longer in Georgia courtrooms. But she is in many American living rooms, as the host of "Nancy Grace" on CNN's Headline News, as well as on CourtTV. The question is whether her conduct and credibility as a lawyer impinges upon her credibility as a legal commentator -- suspect in my book for some time.

Should she still be there? Comments are open on Legal Blog Watch.

Related posts:

• The Volokh Conspiracy/Orin Kerr: Prosecutorial conduct by Nancy Grace?
• How Appealing/Howard Bashman: Linked here.
• TalkLeft: The Presumption of Guilt Never Rests

Copyright pre-registration and Speedos

As posted on Legal Blog Watch, 5.3.05:

Musical partnerships: Wilson Sonsini loses two to Heller

The Double-Secret Spyware Probation Bill of 2005, with love from Congress

Who writes a better law review article: You or this computer program?

Gee, think Adam Curry's Podshow could ever use some of these?

Your copyrights to that screenplay you've been meaning to write

What this coffee cup provides about distinctive product configurations

Tiny town peels back ban on men's bikinis

BlogHer Conference '05 Schedule announced

Question: What's going to happen on July 30?

Answer: Only you can decide.

Here's the schedule of the day. Expect more fantastic women bloggers to join it soon...