News Coverage

C-Span viewers this weekend watched as 12 voters from the Baltimore area talked about the direction of the nation and what they wanted in  a presidential candidate. The two-hour program is the first in a series of focus groups to be conducted in advance of the 2008 election by Democratic pollster Peter Hart, on behalf

Thirty-nine states elect their judges in some fashion. What once were “sleepy little affairs,” judicial campaigns have become high-stakes races, drawing in big money and increasingly negative advertising campaigns. In 2006, an estimated $16 million was spent on advertising in supreme court races in 10 states, a record. If predictions hold true, contests in 2008

Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, co-authors of UnSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation, described their findings in a May 15th interview on WHYY-FM’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane. The book, published last month by Random House, has been described as “the secret decoder ring for the 21st-century world of disinformation.” Jackson, who directs

The Webby Awards today named FactCheck.org the best political website as well as the best on government in the 2007 People’s Voice vote. Billed as the “Oscars of the Internet,” the Webby Awards are sponsored by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.  This year’s contest drew more than 8,000 entries. Last year, Justice Learning

FactCheckED, a new website designed to help high school students learn to think analytically, has been launched. An offshoot of the prize-winning FactCheck.org website (www.factcheck.org), FactCheckED (www.FactCheckED.org) will offer tools that enable students to search out accurate and unbiased information and in the process become better informed consumers and citizens. In addition, FactCheckED offers lesson plans for

The increasing polarization of political debate was the subject of a Penn Conference on Civility and American Politics Monday on Capitol Hill. The event was sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute. Among those participating in the event were Penn President Amy Gutmann, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the

Federal funding of abstinence-only education is fiscally, politically and scientifically irresponsible, writes Amy Bleakley in a column published in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. Bleakley, a research scientist in the Health Communication Group of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, notes that studies confirm the programs are ineffective in preventing or delaying sexual activity among teens. They are losing political support among

The increasing polarization of political debate was the subject of a Penn Conference on Civility and American Politics Monday on Capitol Hill. The event was sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute. Among those participating in the event were Penn President Amy Gutmann, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of

Joseph Turow co-authored an op-ed article published today in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Why Marketers Want Inside Your Medicine Cabinet” describes the potential threats to privacy if personal health records are posted online by a for-profit marketer of health information. WebMD, an online provider of health information, recently announced a free service that will allow

Texas Monthly, in its March issue, polled what it calls “15 of the smartest people in the room-presidential scholars, best-selling biographers and White House veterans of both parties,” asking them about the legacy of George W. Bush and if “there is anything he can still do to change it.” Joining historian Douglas Brinkley, biographer Robert