Journalism

This is a critical moment for TMZ, the celebrity website overseen by lawyer and former KCBS-TV Channel 2 reporter Harvey Levin. The 4-year-old website last week broke its biggest story yet -- the death of Michael Jackson -- following up with scoops and rumors about the singer's alleged drug habit, audio of the initial 911 call from his rented mansion, and news of what it suggested was a brewing fight over custody of his children.

ABC News is going back to school. The network announced Wednesday that it was opening five college campus bureaus in September at journalism schools around the country. The multimedia bureaus will be staffed by undergraduate and graduate journalism students who will report stories for the news division's online offerings, as well as its broadcast news programs. ABC News will provide mentoring and stipends for the bureaus' student staffers, as well as the video and editing equipment to produce their stories.

The Voice of San Diego office has the trappings of many newsrooms -- messy desks, glowing computers, journalists hunched over phones. But something about the mood seems a little off. Where's the anxiety? Why isn't anyone trolling those websites that obsess about the latest layoffs in the news business? Where are the sidelong glances when someone gets stuck too long in the editor's office? All of that was missing when I visited the Voice of San Diego ( www.voiceofsandiego.

It's not hard for most people to know what to do when they happen upon a crime, or its aftermath. They find a police officer and cooperate in any way they can. Only it's not always that simple for a journalist working on a story. And that's not so simple to understand. The latest fight over a claim of reportorial exceptionalism comes to us from San Francisco, where a college photojournalist documenting life in a sketchy neighborhood happened on a homicide scene.

Upping the ante in the fight between the press and the courts over confidential sources, a judge here has imposed daily fines on a former reporter for USA Today that could quickly bankrupt her unless she reveals all of her sources at the Justice Department and the FBI. Toni Locy, who now teaches journalism at West Virginia University, faces a $500 daily fine beginning at midnight. Next week, the fines will go up to $1,000 per day, then to $5,000 a day the week after.

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said Monday that he supported federal legislation to protect journalists' confidential sources -- a position that puts him at odds with the Bush administration, which contends that the legislation threatens national security.

If Vanity Fair's current takedown of former President Clinton is any measure, a new standard of campaign journalism has taken root: We will now learn not just about politicians who have affairs. We will learn about politicians whose associates are afraid they might be having affairs. That's the foundation of a good part of a lengthy Bill Clinton profile featured in the July issue of the glossy celebrity-centric magazine, which is due to hit newsstands today.

A rumor found its way onto the Internet recently. It involved a high-profile athlete. It was scandalous. And entirely unconfirmed. As skeptics might say, it was perfect for the Wild West territory of sports blogs. But an interesting thing happened to that bit of gossip about Lakers star Kobe Bryant. Blogs such as Deadspin and the Big Lead treated it with relative caution, while others ignored it altogether.

Despite declines in revenue and repeated staff reductions, most American newspaper editors remain optimistic that their publications will regain their footing by shifting news to online editions and by employing innovations like video and computer-assisted reporting, a study has found.

Spacious and airy, the newsroom of the National seems a newfangled journalistic field of dreams, with its stylish furniture, flat-panel monitors and roomy, uncluttered desks. Though the new United Arab Emirates newspaper has a daily circulation of only 70,000 to 90,000, it has grand ambitions and leaders who are bullish on print journalism. "Don't panic!" editor Martin Newland advises his counterparts in the West. "Don't head to the hills yet.