Here is the list from Arizona State University Professor Tim McGuire. Comments?

Tim’s baker’s dozen list of things to remember when you’re deciding whether to publish a potentially controversial photo.

1. Can the reader handle this picture and his Wheaties? Don’t shock or offend just for fun or just because you can. If a picture is going to make readers sick and angry all the flags have to go up. This must be discussed.

2. Dead bodies carry a presumption that you don’t use it. All the flags have to go up. This must be discussed.

3. Ask whether this photo is going to embarrass or shame an innocent person or a minor.

4. Does the controversial photo have great power? To overcome the above concerns the photo must convey its content powerfully.

5. If the flags have gone up and there is a discussion, will publishing this photo serve a larger purpose and contribute to the common good in some way? (This is a large concept question.)

6. Does this actual photo communicate something larger about a person, group or movement? (This question is about this specific photo not a concept.)

7. How big is the event surrounding this picture? The Oklahoma City bombing or Sept. 11 carry far more import than a gory accident on Mill and University.

8. Who is involved in the event? ASU President Michael Crow and Dean Callahan would change the University and Mill accident significantly.

9. If you’re struggling with the decision, do the distance test. Would you publish this photo if it happened in your dorm rather than Germany or Boston?

10. If you decide to publish, take every possible step to preserve the dignity of the subject while selecting pictures that preserve as much of the power the photographer captured as possible.

11. Make sure you can write your public justification and you are prepared for the first phone call BEFORE you publish.

12. Share that written justification with diverse groups in the newsroom: women, people of color, young old etc.

13. Don’t be a wimp! The easy thing to do is to not publish any controversial photos. The reader is not well-served by that stance either. Be sensitive and cautious but don’t crawl into a hole either. If you make a dumb decision the public will learn about the photo and will be angry you kept it from them.

Charging sites that link to news stories

Is this one way for newspapers to survive?

Check out the comments by John Curley and Rupert Murdoch here.

Great senior paper topic, no?

How not to leave your job

A Billings Gazette reporter has taken a job with a company that wants to run the new, but so-far-unoccupied jail in Hardin. Seem like a good idea? Check this out.

Do anonymous posters deserve protection?

Ed Wasserman, who is a longtime-journalist-turned-professor, has an interesting column in the Miami Herald that relates to the question we talked about last week about turning over to critics the names of anonymous posters on news sites.

If there are things you want to discuss, or discussions you want to continue, here's a place to do it. Let me know if you want a subject posted and I'll feature it. Otherwise, feel free to comment on issues in general.

I've left a few of the old posts on the site because they are either still pertinent, or just interesting.

Why journalism matters

If you've ever wondered whether what you're going through to become a journalist is worth it, read Washington Post reporter Ann Hull's comments delivered as she accepted the Lovejoy Award for courageous reporting. She speaks about both reporters and photojournalists.

It's extradordinary.

Planning to graduate in May?

Graduation applications are due (in theory) to the registrar's office on Monday. You can get a form at Griz Central or download one by going to this site and clicking on The University of Montana Application for Bachelor Degree. (Once you get a diploma you can help the office understand possessive case.)

Print a transcript from Cyberbear. Use it to fill out the form. Make sure you don't neglect to fill every applicable line. You MUST state what specific courses you will register for in spring. You can't just say, a 400-level course in history, for example.

Once you have filled it out, give it to your adviser AND note in writing for the adviser when and where you did your internship. The adviser will fill out a form we need for accreditation and pass all this on to me. I'll check it over, sign it if it's accurate and complete and give it to Judy in Room 412 (8-noon, M-Th)for photocopying and filing. YOU have to pick it up, and carry it (along with $25) to Griz Central.

They have this early deadline so that any problems they catch can be fixed (we hope) by what classes you register for spring semester. They're trying to make sure you won't have to come back to school next fall.

The difference between errors and ethics violations

Remember, there's a difference between bad journalism that stems from human errors and the ethical dilemmas that we'll focus on in the seminar. This is bad journalism, but isn't really an ethics question. This is about ethics because it addresses at least one of the core principles of journalism, such as fairness, responsbility and other values that influence our professional conduct. So if you are reading Romenesko for ethical dilemmas that journalists are debating, you'll know which stories to pay particular attention to.