Media

MSNBC host Martin Bashir led his program the other day with a lengthy discussion of a scandal the left-leaning cable network ominously called "Cookie-gate."

It stemmed from a campaign photo-op discussion that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney had with suburban Pittsburgh voters in which he mocked the cookies they were served as looking like "they came from 7-Eleven." They had been donated by a popular local bakery, and over the next several minutes the cable TV channel spun the story as an example of how Romney has trouble connecting with voters.

"Cookie-gate" was the latest in a series of near-daily items that have dominated the presidential campaign recently. Somehow, rocker and outdoors enthusiast Ted Nugent, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, Romney's dog Seamus and President Barack Obama's long-ago description of eating dog as a child have taken turns dominating the national conversation.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Media attorneys on Monday asked the Sanford, Fla., judge overseeing the George Zimmerman murder case to unseal the court file.

The story of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin and the man who shot him, George Zimmerman, has become the most covered story in America, eclipsing even the presidential election, according to one media-tracking organization.

But the many Americans who turned their attention to the violent incident got radically different accounts of what happened on that rainy Sunday night in Sanford, depending on where they got their news.

OGDEN — When Zaynab Alshakhiss won her bid for the Weber State University student Senate, it didn’t draw much attention in Ogden, but when the news hit in Alshakhiss’ native Saudi Arabia, the media mobilized.

Over spring break, more than a dozen print and online newspapers approached Weber State representatives and Alshakhiss for the story of her groundbreaking win as the international student senator for the 2012-13 year.

Email is a wonderful tool, making communications faster and broadening the universe to which you can easily send information. Facebook and Twitter take it several steps further, but email still has its niche.

But whether that niche is an effective tool as city officials’ only way of communicating with the media — well, we’re about to find out how well that works.

NORTH OGDEN — The city council has unanimously adopted a media policy that encourages email contact with the media. The five-page policy designated the city manager as the public information officer to be the main point of contact for the media.

OGDEN -- The defense is asking Weber County to pay $10,000 for an investigator for Matthew David Stewart.