The Fourth Estate: First Amendment Protections Require Greater Public Responsibility
Many critics argue that the special protection and benefits the news media receive demand a greater degree of public responsibility. As Mickey Edwards puts it, "Did the founders intend to protect this business enterprise..
The Fourth Estate: License to Blame
Public officials and public bodies like Congress are criticized by the press. As Barbara Sinclair points out, "You want a skeptical media, but too often the media goes across the line and interprets everything that's don..
The Fourth Estate: Need to Redefine Journalism in the 21st Century, The
In the fast-paced world of the news room, accuracy and speed are natural enemies. Story decisions are often based on fragments of information as former CNN Vice President Ed Turner explains. The best news organizations d..
The Fourth Estate: Reporting on the White House: Three Perspectives
Major political figures spend enormous amounts of time directing the attention of the press toward issues they consider important. This intense concern with "managing" the news makes the relationship with the press adver..
The Fourth Estate: Role of the Press as Watchdog, The
The press's role in protecting the public from corrupt officials and practices took on new meaning in the 1960s and '70s. Correspondent Marvin Kalb talks about his experience covering the Vietnam War. The idea that Presi..
The Fourth Estate: Winning the News Game
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, reporters and cameras converge on late-breaking news events with one thought in mind: winning the news game. In the 1950s and 1960s, most people's access to political informati..
The Great Mystery: Circadian Rhythms
Human alertness ebbs and flows along with other brain and body processes, a direct reflection of circadian rhythms. The hormone melatonin also contributes to the control of sleep. It is secreted in the darkness and inhib..
The Great Mystery: Discounted Theories of Consciousness
Although it is widely accepted that a person's mental life is caused by neurobiological processes in the brain, we have no real understanding of how the brain gives rise to consciousness, or what brain processes are spec..
The Great Mystery: Functions of Sleep
Although the exact functions of sleep are unknown, researchers believe it serves a restorative function, providing a period when the body can heal and get ready for the next day. Some think that sleep is related to therm..
The Great Mystery: Levels of Consciousness
Researchers agree that there are various levels of consciousness, from concentrated attention at one end of the spectrum to a total lack of consciousness at the other. Most of what we do tends to be on the unconscious en..