“Fair and Balanced?” Justice Issues on Political Talk Shows

Like their news program predecessors, many political talk shows focus a considerable amount of their coverage on justice issues. Although numerous past studies have examined justice issue presentation in news programs, infotainment, and crime drama, to date only one forthcoming study has examined crime and justice coverage on political talk shows. Political talk shows often present issues in a debate format, as well as emphasize the balanced nature of the content in advertising, with one program even using the slogan “fair and balanced.” Building upon the format of previous media studies, we analyzed a composite month of videotaped footage of three popular political talk shows appearing on cable networks: CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Mathews, and The O’Reilly Factor from the Fox News Channel. Using content analysis techniques, this study examines balance in the form and content of these programs in terms of presentation of justice issues, political party identification of hosts and guests and realistic presentations of race and gender in the context of crime and justice. Results indicate that these programs tend to adopt an advocacy tone rather than an objectivist one. Furthermore, we demonstrate that racial and gender portrayals of crime and justice on these shows are significantly distorted from reality, with a priority afforded to white female victims of violent crime and minority male offenders.     

日本公务员制度改革述评

随着桥本内阁在世纪之交进行的行政组织改革目标的实现,日本公务员制度改革被提上了政府改革的议事日程。经过多种改革制度的探索,2001年12月,日本内阁会议通过《公务员制度改革大纲》明确了改革的方向;随后经过各方的探讨和论证,2008年7月日本国会通过《公务员制度改革基本法案》。至此,日本公务员改革的政策最终确立。本文在分析日本公务员制度改革的背景和具体内容的基础上,进一步对这一改革做出了分析和评价。     

The Real Story Behind the Nation's First Shield Law: Maryland, 1894–1897

Blame it on H.L. Mencken. His unsupported account of how Maryland adopted the nation's first shield law in 1896 has been repeated in books and articles for seventy-five years, but it was a fabrication based on shoddy reporting. This article will show the law was not prompted, as Mencken claimed, by the jailing of Baltimore Sun reporter John T. Morris but by the criminal indictments of reporters John S. Shriver and Elisha J. Edwards in 1894. Passage of the law was not connected to local events but was sparked by a scandal unfolding in Washington. The drive for a shield law was not isolated to Maryland but was part of a national lobbying campaign that included talk of a federal shield law. Finally, that campaign did not emanate from The Baltimore Sun but from The Baltimore American.     

尊宪守宪，行宪护宪——纪念现行宪法公布施行三十周年

30年前的12月4日，五届全国人大五次会议通过了现行宪法。这是新中国颁布的第四部宪法，与广纳民意、深得民心的1954年宪法一脉相承，同“文革”色彩鲜明的1975年宪法、“左”的思想尚未彻底清除的1978年宪法进行了果断切割。现行宪法根据改革开放新时期的使命和任务，全面体现了党在社会主义初级阶段的基本路线，     

Zizek on Law

This essay outlines the theory of lawin the work of Slavoj Zizek. Zizek proceedsfrom the premise that law is internally,constitutively divided. Law is split betweenthe external social law and the obscenesuperego supplement. Superego is thenecessary, unavoidable underside of the sociallaws that hold together the community.Nevertheless, law can serve potentiallyliberatory ends. It can work as a repositoryfor aspirations for something better. Thus, thearticle argues that for Zizek what is beyondlaw inheres in law as a kind of faith. Theadvantage of Zizek's approach to law thus restsin the way it addresses the crime of law whileholding onto the hope animating law.