Remember Eminent Domain? The Journal Does

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 30, 2009 at 05:28 PM

Good for The Wall Street Journal for putting eminent domain back in the news. We haven't heard much about the... More

Brown Versus Noonan, Everyone Versus Fleischer

Showdown at the Paley Center

By Katia Bachko   Apr 30, 2009 at 04:56 PM

Feathers flew today at a panel at the Paley Center hosted by the Independent Film Channel's Media Project. Two burning... More

Grade-A Boring

Press yawns over Obama’s 100-day presser are childish

By Jane Kim   Apr 30, 2009 at 04:24 PM

Last night, President Barack Obama held a press conference marking his first 100 days in office. After hyperventilating for weeks... More

Obama Speaks on State Secrets

And here’s what he might have meant

By Clint Hendler   Apr 30, 2009 at 02:39 PM

Last night, at his hundredth-day news conference, President Barack Obama went on the record for the first time on his... More

CDO Complexity in Context

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 30, 2009 at 02:15 PM

Thought you were the only one who really doesn't understand collateralized debt obligations or, better yet, CDO-Squareds? Rest easy. No... More

CPJ’s 10 Worst Countries To Be a Blogger

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 30, 2009 at 11:45 AM

1. BURMA 2. IRAN 3. SYRIA 4. CUBA 5. SAUDI ARABIA 6. VIETNAM 7. TUNISIA 8. CHINA 9. TURKMENISTAN 10.... More

Copter Trouble

NYT digs into costs of canceling prez’s expensive new helicopter fleet

By Jane Kim   Apr 30, 2009 at 11:38 AM

Remember Obama’s helicopter problem? In late February, John McCain called him out over defense procurements, and specifically about a fleet... More

Enchanté (And Not) and “John Wayne” Men v.”NPR Men”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 30, 2009 at 10:25 AM

Swine flu. The economy. Pakistan. Iraq. Torture. Of all the pressing topics about which the president was asked during last... More

The Economy Today: Rise of the Gleaners

News from New Mexico, Florida, Texas, and elsewhere

By Jane Kim   Apr 30, 2009 at 10:05 AM

In Texas, we see stories about stimulus checks, tax breaks, and hurricane funds. The Gainesville Daily Register notes that $250... More

Bloomberg: Schapiro’s FINRA Dumped Debt Early

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 30, 2009 at 09:29 AM

Bloomberg has a good scoop on FINRA's, the financial industry's self-regulator, suspiciously well-timed exit from the auction-rated securities market. FINRA... More

Swine Flu and CAFOs?

Blogs call for more coverage; MSM hesitant

By Curtis Brainard   Apr 29, 2009 at 04:45 PM

In the search for the swine flu outbreak’s “ground zero,” blogs have called upon mainstream media to investigate the potential... More

The FT, Germany, and the Weimar Republic

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 29, 2009 at 04:44 PM

This FT story seems like a reach to me. It reports that Germany is abuzz that the financial crisis resembles... More

Slate “Stumble[s] Across A Primary Source”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 29, 2009 at 04:41 PM

"100 Days of Obama's Facebook news feed" (most recently: "Arlen Specter joined the group Democrats"). More

How I Got the Story: David McCraw

The lawsuit behind The New York Times’s Pulitzer-winning military analyst story

By David E. McCraw   Apr 29, 2009 at 04:01 PM

This is the first in an occasional series asking journalists and other media professionals to recount noteworthy open government and... More

Premature Legacy

Evaluating Barack Obama on Day 100

By Katia Bachko   Apr 29, 2009 at 03:58 PM

As we’ve noted before, much Obama coverage is eager to write history in advance of the present either by speculating... More

Speaking Truth To Power…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 29, 2009 at 03:15 PM

...or biting the hand that feeds? CNN Contributor Roland Martin about an hour ago on-air declared "this whole 100 Days... More

Specter of a Surprise

Was the senator’s switch really unexpected? No.

By Katia Bachko   Apr 29, 2009 at 02:37 PM

Surprising, unexpected, shocking, and stunning. Those are the adjectives the press used to disguise the collective OMG reaction to Pennsylvania... More

CNN Has A “Swagger Expert”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 29, 2009 at 02:08 PM

Then again, would you expect anything less of The Best Political Team on Television (in this, The Week Of Obama's... More

WSJ Scoop on Citi’s $100 Million Man

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 29, 2009 at 01:41 PM

The Journal has a nice scoop that Citigroup is begging the government to let it pay big bonuses to "key... More

Office Quiz: Which Media Outlet Is This?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 29, 2009 at 12:56 PM

"[A]n environment that is sometimes prone to more extreme emotional manifestations" is an insider's description of the workplace at which... More

Gupta Goes Blair Witch Project

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 29, 2009 at 12:46 PM

My colleague Curtis sent me the link to this Sanjay Gupta CNN video from last night, noting its distinctly Blair... More

NYT Reader Requests Newsroom Blog

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 29, 2009 at 12:26 PM

During a "Talk to the Newsroom" chat at nytimes.com with Sewell Chan, bureau chief for the City Room blog, a... More

McCaffrey’s Poppy Eradication Conflict

By Clint Hendler   Apr 29, 2009 at 11:24 AM

MSNBC, as part of their 100 days of Obama spectacular, invited NBC war correspondent Richard Engel to join Tamron Hall... More

On State Secrets Obama Loses, Openness Wins

By Clint Hendler   Apr 29, 2009 at 11:07 AM

Yesterday afternoon, a federal appeals court struck down a claim—originally made by the Bush administration, but adopted and defended by... More

NYDN: Photoshop Your Own Air Force One Photo-Op

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 29, 2009 at 10:21 AM

The New York Daily News invites you to "create your own NYC Air Force One flyover photo," showing off examples... More

High and Outside

The author of Generation Kill chronicles the lost tribes of America

By James Marcus   Apr 29, 2009 at 10:10 AM

Evan Wright won himself a mass audience with Generation Kill (2004), which expanded on the Iraqi reportage he had done... More

NY Mag Disapproves Of Coop’s Tweets

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 29, 2009 at 09:31 AM

Which news personalities' Twitter feeds does New York magazine find "insipid," if "news-sharing?" CNN's Anderson Cooper ("we expected more"), Katie... More

The Economy Today: Trickling In

News from Utah, Montana, Connecticut, and elsewhere

By Katia Bachko   Apr 29, 2009 at 09:20 AM

The big national headline this morning is another contraction in the economy, which shrank by 6.1 percent in the second... More

Yet Another Reason to Dislike Securitization

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 29, 2009 at 09:20 AM

The Rortybomb blog has an illuminating post on how the mortgage industry used credit scores to replace old-fashioned due diligence—and... More

Bronte Capital with a Major Scoop on Alleged Fraudster

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 28, 2009 at 06:12 PM

John Hempton the excellent Aussie blogger who writes Bronte Capital appears to have a blockbuster of a scoop. A Connecticut... More

FDIC’s Pitch to End “Too Big to Fail”

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 28, 2009 at 04:52 PM

Is it me or does it seem like FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair is about the only person in Washington who... More

Defense by Numbers

More clarity needed on F-22 unemployment stats

By Jane Kim   Apr 28, 2009 at 04:26 PM

The Washington Post today reports that contractors, labor unions, and trade groups claim cuts in federal weapons programs may put... More

Dead Magazines Slideshow

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 28, 2009 at 04:11 PM

Silicon Alley Insider's Business Insider has a slideshow "of magazines shuttered in the current recession" (nitpick: "the current recession" officially... More

Why Michelle Obama “Impresses German Women”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 28, 2009 at 03:01 PM

More Michelle Obama's First 100 Days Coverage! CNN International has, in cnnpolitics.com's "The 44th President First 100 Days" section, a... More

Baucus Watch, Part VIII

What kind of public plan is the senator talking about?

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 28, 2009 at 02:45 PM

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus holds the keys to health care reform; any health care... More

Learning from Perlman and Maddox

Press salutes two pioneers of science journalism

By Katherine Bagley   Apr 28, 2009 at 02:08 PM

Many of us in science journalism today know (or should know) that our careers are vastly different because of two... More

Above the Fold: Ross Report Revisited

Kaiser on Stelter, Ross, and the 2007 CIA waterboarding interview

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 28, 2009 at 01:22 PM

Brian Stelter reports on page one of The New York Times today that newly disclosed torture memoranda show how an... More

The Hundred-Day Stretch

Is there value in marking this presidential milestone?

By The Editors   Apr 28, 2009 at 12:13 PM

It’s been hard to miss the steady drumbeat counting down to Obama’s 100th day in office. Yesterday we wrote that... More

NYT’s GM Lede Is in the Trunk

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 28, 2009 at 11:34 AM

The New York Times leads its front page with news of the latest General Motors plan for its future, but... More

The Most 2009 Story Kicker of the Year (So Far)?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 28, 2009 at 11:26 AM

Now that we have contenders for "Most 2009 Headline of the Year (So Far)," how about this, from WWD, for... More

“The Most 2009 Headline of the Year”? (Already?)

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 28, 2009 at 10:56 AM

"The most 2009 headline of the year comes courtesy of CNN.com: 'Swine flu creates controversy on Twitter'," Twitters Keith Phipps,... More

Let’s Not Fight About It

It’s arguably not worth it

By Merrill Perlman   Apr 28, 2009 at 10:35 AM

For unknown reasons, English speakers insist on making the language more difficult than it already is, by modifying words to... More

Today’s Economic Headlines: Gaps and Cuts

Economic news from Omaha, Detroit, Madison, and elsewhere

By Katia Bachko   Apr 28, 2009 at 10:27 AM

In national news, bank regulation will be on the agenda at the Supreme Court today, while the Senate and House... More

About That Low-Flying Plane “Photo-Op”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 28, 2009 at 09:55 AM

From the (print only) New York Times today, byline A.G. Sulzberger and Matthew L. Wald: Neither the White House nor... More

Douthat’s Eye-Grabbing Debut NYT Column

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 28, 2009 at 09:24 AM

"Cheney For President" is the attention-grabbing headline of Ross Douthat's inaugural New York Times column today (web only). Once Douthat... More

SEC Follows Journal’s Ponzi Story

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 28, 2009 at 09:07 AM

Remember that awesome Wall Street Journal story a couple of weeks ago on the shady financier Danny Pang? It took... More

Toying with Climate Information

Media last week rife with stories of misdirection

By Curtis Brainard   Apr 27, 2009 at 05:59 PM

The news media and blogs were rife with stories last week about politicians and journalists alike manipulating information related to... More

The Dover Policy, Three Weeks Out

By Clint Hendler   Apr 27, 2009 at 04:22 PM

Randall Chase, an Associated Press correspondent based in Delaware, has an interesting update on the Pentagon’s just three-week-old policy allowing... More

Fox Won’t Air Presidential News Conference

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 27, 2009 at 04:21 PM

From the AP: The Fox network is sticking with its regular schedule over President Barack Obama this week. The network... More

The Bloomberg Way—To Transfer

By Clint Hendler   Apr 27, 2009 at 03:47 PM

In the category of fun things you learn while being a media reporter, today I learned that Bloomberg LP prefers... More

NYT, Portfolio Profiles Land a One-Two Punch on Geithner

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 27, 2009 at 03:20 PM

Tim Geithner is the subject of two major profiles in recent days. He doesn't come out so well in either... More

NY Fed Releases Geithner’s Schedule

But don’t go calling it a FOIA

By Clint Hendler   Apr 27, 2009 at 03:13 PM

Last night, on its Web site, The New York Times released a 5,000 word piece, by Gretchen Morgensen and Jo... More

“From Terrifying Tweet to News Report— In 4 Minutes”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 27, 2009 at 02:44 PM

Nieman Lab's Zachary M. Seward explains. Also: at the White House press briefing just now, MSNBC's Chuck Todd asked Robert... More

Irony of the Day

By Megan Garber   Apr 27, 2009 at 02:40 PM

See if you can spot this delightful little entry into the annals of ironic errata, on the masthead of the... More

“100-Day Milestone” Falls Victim to Swine Flu?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 27, 2009 at 01:48 PM

From the Washington Post: "Swine Flu Crisis May Overshadow 100-Day Milestone." After all, "swine flu has dominated headlines for the... More

A (Professional) Journalist by Any Other Name…

By Megan Garber   Apr 27, 2009 at 01:40 PM

The Society of Professional Journalists now includes within its ranks...citizen journalists. The 100-year-old journalism organization is partnering with Helium, the... More

AP on Michelle’s 100 Days “Transformation”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 27, 2009 at 01:03 PM

CJR's Jane Kim to political reporters gearing up for Wednesday (you know, President Obama's 100th Day? Report card day?): "Let’s... More

Condé Nast Shuts Down Portfolio

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 27, 2009 at 12:56 PM

The writing has pretty much been on the wall for Portfolio since the recent news that it had a staggering... More

Does CNN Need To “Make It Sexy?”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 27, 2009 at 12:18 PM

Reports Bill Carter of the New York Times: In March, CNN averaged 328,000 viewers in prime time among the audience... More

Today’s Economic Headlines

How the country’s newspapers are covering the financial crisis

By Katia Bachko   Apr 27, 2009 at 11:44 AM

Here’s what the nation’s papers are writing about today. The Topeka Capital-Journal launches “Road Through Recession,” a local-focus series. Reporter... More

Condé Nast Closes Portfolio

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 27, 2009 at 11:30 AM

Condé Nast is ceasing publication of Portfolio, the glossy business magazine (and 2008 National Magazine Award winner). A brief post... More

The Century Mark

Let’s go substantive on 100-day coverage

By Jane Kim   Apr 27, 2009 at 11:01 AM

President Barack Obama’s hundredth day in office is approaching, and, as Howard Kurtz wrote on Friday (a.k.a. Day 95), it’s... More

The Newspaper Death Spiral Accelerates

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 27, 2009 at 09:25 AM

If you haven't made your peace with the coming wave of newspaper deaths, now might be a good time. Editor... More

The Recession is Making Us Fat

Eliminating the health-wealth divide

By Katia Bachko   Apr 24, 2009 at 03:56 PM

A recent Newsweek piece cautioned that “one of the most insidious health effects of a downturn is in the area... More

The Journal Just Loves This Obama Flip-Flop

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 24, 2009 at 03:38 PM

You know something's up when The Wall Street Journal editorial board gives President Obama "three cheers" for anything. You really... More

Because it’s Friday

By Clint Hendler   Apr 24, 2009 at 02:18 PM

(First in the series is here) More

Newspapers Blank on Billions in Fed Losses

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 24, 2009 at 01:19 PM

The Federal Reserve finally opted for a little transparency with some of the trillions it's put us on the hook... More

A Laurel to the Eagle-Tribune

Paper gets Astroturfed and smells a rat

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 24, 2009 at 12:51 PM

The grassroots army is on the march. On Wednesday, Campaign Desk reported that health insurers have called up the grassroots... More

A Dart to the Buffalo News

Paper confuses Medicare Advantage news with insurance marketing tactics

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 24, 2009 at 12:47 PM

The Dewey Square Group must have been pleased as punch to see the Buffalo News’s coverage of its Medicare Advantage... More

What Price is Right?

Collaboration needed between business and politics reporters

By Katia Bachko   Apr 24, 2009 at 11:59 AM

In this morning’s roundup, we saw a number of headlines about slumping housing prices around the country. In San Diego,... More

Rethinking the “Assembly Line”

Needed: a quality revolution in journalism

By Craig Silverman   Apr 24, 2009 at 11:32 AM

"When you think about the assembly line that was a newsroom, it's changed," Arnie Robbins, editor of the St. Louis... More

NPR on recovery.gov

By Clint Hendler   Apr 24, 2009 at 11:23 AM

Last night on All Things Considered NPR correspondent Andrea Seabrook filed the first of a two part series on how... More

First 100 Days Mad Libs

Our “100 days” coverage has been (applauded; too expensive; largely cribbed from Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter feed)

By Steve Daley   Apr 24, 2009 at 11:00 AM

From: The Editor To: All Hands Re: The First 100 Days Since President Obama took office, we have (focused with... More

Tough Love with Ken Lerer

The HuffPost co-founder on “how we got here”…and “how we get out of here”

By Megan Garber   Apr 24, 2009 at 10:48 AM

Kenneth Lerer to newspapers: You blew it. The media executive and Huffington Post co-founder, in a lecture he delivered last... More

Huffington Post’s Ken Lerer, 140 characters or less

By Clint Hendler   Apr 24, 2009 at 10:32 AM

Last night Huffington Post CEO Ken Lerer spoke at the Columbia Journalism School. CJR's Megan Garber was on the scene,... More

Black and White and Red All Over

By Clint Hendler   Apr 24, 2009 at 09:51 AM

The Wall Street Journal has a nifty--in the sense of stylin'--map graphic quantifying the ramping-up of newspaper "adverse events" coast... More

The Economy Today

Headlines from around the country

By Katia Bachko   Apr 24, 2009 at 09:51 AM

Here’s a quick survey of economic news from around the country: The San Diego Union Tribune offers three indicators that... More

Chaos Theory

How Pakistan was cast as a failed state

By Madiha R. Tahir   Apr 24, 2009 at 09:48 AM

Pakistan is on the clock. “A fast-expanding Islamic insurgency...threatens to devour the country,” wrote The New York Times this month.... More

NYT Is Excellent on Mortgage-Biz Linchpin

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 24, 2009 at 09:04 AM

Here's a good angle on the mortgage mess. The New York Times reports on an entity I haven't read much... More

Winners & Sinners

Kaiser on Shane, Maddow, Kaplan, and more

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 23, 2009 at 06:25 PM

Winner: The New York Times's Scott Shane. Just four months after remarks of F.B.I. director Robert Mueller were published on... More

Mortgage Defaults Beyond the Numbers

Chronicle reports the figures, LAT goes deeper

By Jane Kim   Apr 23, 2009 at 02:37 PM

Yesterday, a San Diego real estate information service called MDA DataQuick released numbers that show a rising number of mortgage... More

FT Editor Criticizes Financial Press’s Performance

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 23, 2009 at 01:41 PM

We're going on two years into this still-unfolding crisis and most of the financial press has yet to cop to... More

Times Foundation Suspends Grant Making

By Megan Garber   Apr 23, 2009 at 01:13 PM

Responding to "the economy and the secular changes in our industry," the New York Times Company Foundation, and The Boston... More

Shep Smith: “We Do Not F*&#ing Torture!”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 23, 2009 at 10:52 AM

Watch the video below of Shep (Smith) talking torture with colleagues Trace (Gallagher) and Judge (Napolitano) yesterday on Fox News's... More

Team of Rivals

Media business strategists on watchdogging, branding, and paying for it all

By Megan Garber   Apr 23, 2009 at 10:14 AM

Last night's "Innovation in Media: Global Meets Digital" panel--part of the Levin Institute's "Innovate New York" series--was, per its name,... More

Stephanopoulos’s “Get”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 23, 2009 at 10:02 AM

ABC News's George Stephanopoulous blogs about his sit-down yesterday with the president of Iran (who is up for re-election in... More

Seat At The Table

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 23, 2009 at 09:23 AM

Time photographer Callie Shell snapped a photo of the seating chart (think red velvet and calligraphy, not notepad paper) for... More

Lewis on Merrill: The Government Made Me Do It!

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 23, 2009 at 09:10 AM

A Journal scoop this morning goes a ways toward filling in the details of just what Bank of America's Ken... More

Why Pay $100 a Year for the Journal?

They’re giving it away free on your phone

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 22, 2009 at 07:41 PM

Amy Gahran over at Poynter points out something I've been wondering about, too: Why is The Wall Street Journal giving... More

Green Issues Fade

Several magazines cancel, cutback annual environment editions

By Katherine Bagley   Apr 22, 2009 at 07:21 PM

Another year, another Earth Day, another wave of “Green Issues” on newsstands… or not. After three years, the springtime fad... More

Above the Fold: Know-Nothings at the NYT

Times waterboarding story reports, demonstrates ignorance of history

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 22, 2009 at 05:34 PM

“There is no history of ethnic conflict in Iraq.” – former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, explaining to Congress... More

The More Things Change

The PolitiFact Pulitzer: new form, old function

By Megan Garber   Apr 22, 2009 at 04:53 PM

Aron Pilhofer is right: PolitiFact's Pulitzer win is in many ways a watershed moment for journalism. In a blog post... More

The NYT Co.’s 411 Trademarks

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 22, 2009 at 04:26 PM

"Inspired" by the news that the New York Times Company, citing its trademark, had successfully convinced The Food Section blog... More

“To Be A Predator”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 22, 2009 at 02:29 PM

Wow. Even for local TV news. Just...wow. From Minnesota Public Radio's The Loophole blog: So, there was an attempted child... More

A “Postprint Writing Class”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 22, 2009 at 01:06 PM

Maybe the nineteen-year-old version of you fulfilled your science requirement by pass/failing "Rocks For Jocks." But, back then, as you... More

Can You Say Lede of The Day?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 22, 2009 at 12:39 PM

Try saying this lede -- from the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog today-- five times, fast, aloud: A heated, multimedia... More

Who Will Be at the Table? Part VII

WellPoint brings forth voices from the grassroots

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 22, 2009 at 12:29 PM

During the campaign, Barack Obama promised his cheering crowds that, when he rolled up his sleeves to work on health... More

Portfolio to Credit Suisse: “Good Doggie”

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 22, 2009 at 12:18 PM

Jesse Eisinger of Portfolio points to a bank doing something right on compensation for once and throws them a deserved... More

Hill Sys-Admins Want Carl to Print

By Clint Hendler   Apr 22, 2009 at 11:27 AM

Ever since I started writing a profile of transparency advocate Carl Malamud's unorthodox campaign to head the Government Printing Office... More

New Guinea Tribesman Sues New Yorker

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 22, 2009 at 11:26 AM

The protagonist in Jared Diamond's 2008 New Yorker story, "Vengeance is Ours," is suing the magazine's publisher for $10 million,... More

Horn: Toot!

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 22, 2009 at 11:00 AM

CJR's own Megan Garber has been named a finalist in the "Best Commentary, Digital" category for the third annual Mirror... More

Book, Cook by Twitter (But Don’t Solicit Interview Questions)

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 22, 2009 at 09:28 AM

Today in Twitter: Gary Trudeau, who Twitters as a cartoon Fox News reporter, slams journalists who use Twitter to "solicit... More

iTunes for News…Literally

By Megan Garber   Apr 22, 2009 at 09:26 AM

The Detroit Media Partnership, umbrella organization of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, has branched out from its... More

Journal Gives “Too Big to Fail” Some Play

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 22, 2009 at 09:13 AM

Applaud The Wall Street Journal for, alone among most papers, reporting on the congressional testimony yesterday on the "too big... More

About That Pulitzer Shutout

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 21, 2009 at 07:21 PM

There's been lots of buzz today about the Pulitzers giving financial reporting a big fat zero. Audit impresario Dean Starkman... More

Above the Fold: Waiting in the Lobby

The Obama administration needs to rethink its blanket “no lobbyists” policy

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 21, 2009 at 05:40 PM

Although FCP doesn’t agree with everything the Obama administration has done, especially in its defense of state secrets, never has... More

The Smiling Somali Pirate

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 21, 2009 at 03:56 PM

Linking to video of the Somali teenager accused of heading up the seizure of the Maersk Alabama arriving in New... More

To America, With Love, Signed Barack Obama

NYT too wide-eyed on White House mailman story

By Jane Kim   Apr 21, 2009 at 03:30 PM

The New York Times had a sweet story yesterday about Mike Kelleher, the White House mailman (official title: Director of... More

Mixed Messages

The press searches for good news in economic indicators

By Katia Bachko   Apr 21, 2009 at 03:20 PM

“I'm tired of feeling financially defeated all the time,” wrote Washington Post personal finance blogger Ylan Mui last week. Even... More

No Power of the Penn

The fuzzy numbers are only the start of the problems with Penn’s blogger “microtrend”

By Megan Garber   Apr 21, 2009 at 02:28 PM

Hey, have you heard? America now has more professional bloggers than it has bartenders! Or firefighters! Or CEOs! Or rodeo... More

No Pulitzers, But Here’s an Audie

Financial news is shut out on journalism’s big day

By Dean Starkman   Apr 21, 2009 at 01:45 PM

We don’t have anything to do with Pulitzers here at the Columbia Journalism Review, other than bask in their reflected... More

Prize Fighter

What would your fantasy journalism award look like?

By The Editors   Apr 21, 2009 at 01:05 PM

The Pulitzer Prizes may be among the most prestigious of journalism awards, but they are by no means the only... More

WSJ Credit Raters Story Downgraded to Single ‘A”

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 21, 2009 at 12:48 PM

The Journal takes a look today at the credit-ratings firms and their assertion that the First Amendment protects them from... More

NBC News’s Selective Pulitzer Reporting

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 21, 2009 at 12:16 PM

Questions we asked ourselves here in our news meeting earlier: Does television news -- the nightly newscasts, for example-- (still)... More

Capturing Conversation

Press finally digs into CCS both nationally and locally

By Curtis Brainard   Apr 21, 2009 at 10:38 AM

On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency formally announced that heat-trapping greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and welfare,... More

House Hearing This Afternoon: “A New Age for Newspapers”

By Megan Garber   Apr 21, 2009 at 10:35 AM

Today, at 2 p.m. EST, the House Subcommittee on the Courts and Competition Policy and the Internet will hold a... More

Make mine…Someone Else’s?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 21, 2009 at 10:30 AM

The first issue of mine, that free (conceived and sponsored by Lexus) choose-your-own-content (from assorted Time Inc. publications) magazine arrived... More

Prized Journalists

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 21, 2009 at 09:30 AM

Paul Giblin, one of a two-reporter team yesterday awarded a Pulitzer for local reporting for the East Valley Tribune (Mesa,... More

WaPo Skittish on Its Own Chrysler Scoop

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 21, 2009 at 09:13 AM

The Washington Post has a nice exclusive today on Chrysler Financial turning down a $750 million government loan because its... More

New York’s Portrait of Wall Street in Denial

In the well-appointed fortress with a finance class under siege

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 20, 2009 at 05:51 PM

New York's fun story about Wall Streeters not Getting It is one of the best yet on the difficulty of... More

(Don’t) Follow Me!

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 20, 2009 at 04:36 PM

Meghan McCain kicks off a Daily Beast column complaining about all the "creepy" people following her on Twitter (like Karl... More

The Golden Years

Happy fiftieth birthday, Strunk & White

By Merrill Perlman   Apr 20, 2009 at 03:54 PM

April 16 was the fiftieth anniversary of the release of The Elements of Style, the “little book” that so many... More

Pulitzers! Getchyer Pulitzers here!

By Clint Hendler   Apr 20, 2009 at 02:45 PM

In just a few minutes, the 2009 Pulitzer Prizes will be announced just upstairs from CJR world headquarters. Megan Garber... More

Budget Balancing Acts

LAT zooms in on California’s Props 1D and 1E

By Jane Kim   Apr 20, 2009 at 01:39 PM

A Los Angeles Times article today discusses two propositions that will appear on the state’s May 19 special election ballot,... More

Magic Wall And All

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 20, 2009 at 12:48 PM

If you watch CNN, you know that since Obama's inauguration they've been trying to retain viewers with/heavily promoting (music! logo!)... More

Follow the Money

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tracks the stimulus dollars in Wisconsin

By Katia Bachko   Apr 20, 2009 at 12:41 PM

Kudos to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for setting an example of how newspapers can and should cover the progress of the... More

WSJ Calls Out Treasury’s Inflated Loan Numbers

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 20, 2009 at 12:38 PM

The Journal has more bad news on the banks and some top-notch analysis that cuts through the government line on... More

‘Round The Water Cooler: Bono’s Column

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 20, 2009 at 11:57 AM

Assorted CJR writers ponder Bono's second New York Times column: 1) Finally, a home for all those stray lyrics that... More

Senate Panel to Examine Newspapers’ Financial Woes

By Megan Garber   Apr 20, 2009 at 11:40 AM

There's been much talk, of late--some serious, some not-so-serious--of government intervention in the financial crisis facing newspapers. Well, next week,... More

“Waiting To Be Told Things…”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 20, 2009 at 10:15 AM

...is what "the day of a typical White House correspondent consists [of], literally," writes Ana Marie Cox in a Washington... More

Sunday Morning: “Time Warp” or “Golden Age?”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 20, 2009 at 09:31 AM

Writing for CJR last week Charles Kaiser declared "Sunday show punditry" "stuck in a hopeless time warp." Kaiser's focus was... More

NYT: Obama to Invent New Bank Capital

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 20, 2009 at 09:05 AM

The New York Times scoops that the administration has figured out how to give the banks another bailout without having... More

Snail Mail Disclosure

ProPublica frees ethics information for the Internet age

By Clint Hendler   Apr 20, 2009 at 08:03 AM

President Barack Obama ran a technology savvy presidential campaign that promised a more ethical and transparent government. The Office of... More

“The Snake Is Eating Itself”

By Megan Garber   Apr 17, 2009 at 07:31 PM

Here's a sad little parable about The State of Contemporary Journalism, a tale told of the Chicago Tribune and related... More

Above the Fold: Memos of (Mis)understanding

For the torture memos, too, sunlight is the best disinfectant

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 17, 2009 at 06:58 PM

Barack Obama acted intelligently and courageously yesterday by making the Bush administration’s torture memos public, despite the strong objections of... More

Cognitive Dissonance of the Week

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 17, 2009 at 05:00 PM

The Syracuse Post-Standard has a fascinating report on one of the leaders of the local "tea-party" protest this week—you know... More

Goodbye to All That

By Megan Garber   Apr 17, 2009 at 04:37 PM

A Times-bound Ross Douthat bids a fond farewell to The Atlantic. More

Must-Read of the Day: Brothers in Arms

By Megan Garber   Apr 17, 2009 at 03:32 PM

Today's Times features a must-read article by CJ Chivers: the story of an American platoon's ambush of Taliban fighters in... More

WSJ: Obama Official Caught Up in Pension-Scandal Inquiry

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 17, 2009 at 02:48 PM

The Journal today goes a good way toward catching up with the Times on the New York pension-fund kickback scandal... More

The Short, Happy Life of Oprah’s Twitter Feed

By Megan Garber   Apr 17, 2009 at 01:58 PM

Today is kind of a Monumental Day for Twitter. First, we had two users--Ashton Kutcher and CNN's breaking-news feed--breaking the... More

A Tale of Two Palins

Politico and the NYT offer conflicting assessments of the Alaska governor

By Katia Bachko   Apr 17, 2009 at 01:49 PM

Depending on where you get your Sarah Palin news, you might have two very different ideas about how the Alaska... More

“Nothing but a Bunch of Tea-Bagging Rednecks”

By Megan Garber   Apr 17, 2009 at 01:05 PM

On last night's Countdown, Keith Olbermann hosted actor-and-sometime-activist Janeane Garofalo to talk about Wednesday's tax-protesting Tea Parties. And talk she... More

For Ricker, for Poorer

By Megan Garber   Apr 17, 2009 at 12:46 PM

The Philadelphia Inquirer--the newspaper whose owners are bankrupt and whose staff has endured wide layoffs and whose remaining staff members... More

OLC Memo Release Opens the Door

By Clint Hendler   Apr 17, 2009 at 12:39 PM

Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, one of the nation's foremost secrecy experts, has an extraordinary post up... More

Huffraking

By Megan Garber   Apr 17, 2009 at 11:44 AM

The screen grab: once again showing itself to be a muckraking tool of the digital age. Up until this morning,... More

It’s a Small Word

Great damage can be done by subtracting a single word

By Craig Silverman   Apr 17, 2009 at 11:29 AM

I’ve read hundreds of thousands of corrections over the last nearly five years, and one of my favorites is also... More

The Times Falls Short on Banks’ Health

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 17, 2009 at 10:40 AM

The New York Times writes on page one about the signs of recovery in the banking industry, but its story... More

Twalk of the Town

By Megan Garber   Apr 17, 2009 at 10:11 AM

Gary Trudeau. Roland Hedley. Twitter. The New Yorker. 'Nuf said. More

Omnipresence, That Irritating Thing

Roger Simon’s problem with Obama’s ubiquity

By Jane Kim   Apr 17, 2009 at 10:03 AM

On the scale of one to ten of irritating things that a president might do while dealing with an economic... More

Kate White’s 5 Things

The Cosmopolitan editor says ‘Go big or go home’

By Katherine Bagley   Apr 17, 2009 at 09:15 AM

“If Jay Leno isn’t mocking something about Cosmo at least once a month, I’m not doing my job,” said Kate... More

One Miiiiiiiillion Followers

By Megan Garber   Apr 17, 2009 at 09:02 AM

So. On Monday, Massive Twitterlebrity Ashton Kutcher issued a challenge to CNN: a race to one million followers. "I just... More

Journal’s Awesome Pang Story Gets Quick Results

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 17, 2009 at 08:59 AM

The Wall Street Journal's epic story on the, um, questionable past of financier Danny Pang is already getting results. The... More

Inst-Tea-Gators

Local radio hosts loom large over tea parties

By Katia Bachko   Apr 16, 2009 at 11:09 PM

Much ink has been spilt debating whether yesterday’s tea parties were “an organic movement built on genuine anger, or a... More

Taloussanomat: Cautionary Tale for Online-Only?

A new report offers a case study on the merits of Web migration

By Megan Garber   Apr 16, 2009 at 03:50 PM

On December 28, 2007, after ten years of publication, the Finnish financial newspaper Taloussanomat made a move that would foreshadow... More

New Polk Curator Talks Citizen Journalism

By Megan Garber   Apr 16, 2009 at 03:22 PM

John Darnton, a reporter and editor who had a long and distinguished career at The New York Times before his... More

Bloomberg: Wells Fargo’s Numbers Don’t Add Up

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 16, 2009 at 02:24 PM

Wondering just how the banks' earnings reports have been so good? Me, too. Already we've seen Goldman Sachs fiddle with... More

Shuns of Steele

Can Michael Steele still steer the GOP?

By Katia Bachko   Apr 16, 2009 at 01:16 PM

Poor Michael Steele. When he was elected as the head of the Republican party in late January, he was seen... More

Bo Knows

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 16, 2009 at 11:59 AM

Only a matter of time before Bo Obama "gets" that he's "famous" and starts acting vain and entitled like Stump... More

In Other Wednesday Protest News

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 16, 2009 at 11:21 AM

Had your fill of news footage of Wednesday's Tea Party protesters? Be sure to check out the nytimes.com video of... More

“Tea’d Off” “Anger Brews”

By Katia Bachko   Apr 16, 2009 at 11:05 AM

Yesterday's tea parties may have lacked message clarity, but they more than made up for it by creating an opportunity... More

Remember When “Nuts” Were Naughty?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 16, 2009 at 09:25 AM

Remember a time not long ago when "nuts" were really, truly in the news -- as in, a reporter could... More

New ProPublica Site Birddogs the Bailouts

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 16, 2009 at 09:13 AM

The investigative outlet ProPublica has created a new site devoted to tracking the government bailouts. Called "Eye on the Bailout,"... More

Wish He Was a Baller

Friedman fumbles with last-minute call for a carbon tax

By Daniel Luzer   Apr 16, 2009 at 08:39 AM

As virtually all of America knows by now, Tom Friedman is a big environmentalist. He loves nature, green things, responsible... More

A WSJ Tour de Force

A Wall Street Journal investigation paints a devastating portrait of a financier and shows the paper’s deep-reporting powers are far from gone

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 15, 2009 at 07:33 PM

The Wall Street Journal drops an incredible story on its page one today. It's one of the best stories I've... More

A-Pirate Hunting We Go?

Bad-guy commentary is too easy, limits public discourse

By Jane Kim   Apr 15, 2009 at 04:43 PM

Spike TV is really happy it has a pirate show in the works. After the dramatic rescue of Captain Richard... More

“Strategy Session” Meets “The Pleasant Little Dog Story”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 15, 2009 at 03:46 PM

Recall what Megan wrote earlier about Bo Obama's arrival and how it brought out the worst in cable news impulses,... More

Above the Fold: Beltway Journalism, “Swallowed by an Hourglass”

It’s long past time to expand the spectrum of Sunday-show punditry

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 15, 2009 at 03:42 PM

The more things change, the more Beltway punditry stays the same. If only the voters could change the composition of... More

“Is Media Jingoism Fanning Indo-Pak Tensions?”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 15, 2009 at 03:08 PM

Indian and Pakistani journalists sat down in New Delhi today "for a session of unflinching self-scrutiny." (The headline to this... More

What Hath Dog Wrought

Bo-bama, unleashing cable’s worst impulses

By Megan Garber   Apr 15, 2009 at 02:15 PM

So. As you've undoubtedly heard, unless you spent yesterday under a rock or in a coma or some such, the... More

Journalism Online To The Rescue?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 15, 2009 at 12:39 PM

Behold: "a company that will quickly facilitate the ability of newspaper, magazine and online publishers to realize revenue from the... More

Married to the Military

Opposites attract in this ex-stripper’s memoir of army life

By Courtney Reimer   Apr 15, 2009 at 12:00 PM

I Love a Man in Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles By Lily Burana | Weinstein Books... More

Today In “Spaghetti Ingenuity”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 15, 2009 at 11:24 AM

Yesterday, my colleague Megan bemoaned the glut of "wishful thinking-" type contributions to The Future of News Conversation, calling for... More

WSJ Finds a Renewed Foreclosure Push by Banks

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 15, 2009 at 11:19 AM

The Journal has a good story today reporting that some big banks are ramping up their foreclosure machines again after... More

TMZ’s M.O. — and Bo

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 15, 2009 at 10:26 AM

Time.com has a piece about how TMZ, "the usually Hollywood-focused follower of celebrity gossip and scandal"-- not Politico or The... More

WaPo: Economy’s Decline Slowing, But Don’t Say That

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 15, 2009 at 09:06 AM

This page-one Washington Post's story doesn't make much sense to me. Its premise is that Obama and Bernanke are getting... More

Next Time You Want a Worm…Why Not Try Fishing?

By Sara Germano   Apr 14, 2009 at 06:20 PM

A teenager from Brooklyn launched two Twitter “worms” this past weekend, to expose both a flaw in the microblogging site... More

…But Facts Are Sacred

A modest entreaty: less talk and more walk in the meta-journalism conversation

By Megan Garber   Apr 14, 2009 at 06:09 PM

In an article on the Boston Phoenix’s Web site last week, Adam Reilly argued that The New York Times Company... More

Times: Cuomo Is Eyeing Carlyle Group

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 14, 2009 at 05:44 PM

The Times got a nice scoop today, reporting that the white-shoe private-equity firm Carlyle Group is under investigation by New... More

Almost Bo Time!

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 14, 2009 at 04:44 PM

CNN is flooding the zone on the Bo Obama Story: as we count down to the dog's any-minute-now debut, a... More

HuffPo’s Citizen Journalists (Now More Journalist-y?)

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 14, 2009 at 02:53 PM

Reports Jeff Bercovici: The next batch of aspiring Mayhill Fowlers will have to behave a little more like journalists... As... More

60 Minutes and The Nation Shine on Health Care

Two good stories that expose health care’s holes

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 14, 2009 at 02:41 PM

Politicians and journalists take note. In the last several days, a segment on 60 Minutes and a personal story in... More

Blame The Teleprompter? The Teleprompted?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 14, 2009 at 01:46 PM

Another chance to talk teleprompter! Of which MSNBC's Joe Scarborough availed himself on today's Morning Joe: (Cue clip of President... More

Ad Nauseam

What do you think about online ads?

By The Editors   Apr 14, 2009 at 01:26 PM

In a post yesterday, Nieman Journalism Lab’s Martin Langeveld crunched the numbers underscoring the general assumption that “the audience for... More

The Press, NYT’s Norris Excepted, Gives Goldman a Pass

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 14, 2009 at 12:35 PM

News of Goldman Sachs's good first quarter is all over the business press today, as it should be. But the... More

Read My Lips: No Purebred Puppies

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 14, 2009 at 12:30 PM

The AP asks: Is Bo a rescued dog or not? Did President Obama keep or break a campaign promise in... More

Maureen Dowd: Not Kidding

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 14, 2009 at 10:02 AM

A New York Times reader from Vermont used the "Talk to The Editor" feature at nytimes.com to ask the op-ed... More

Muzzling Media in Iraq?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 14, 2009 at 09:31 AM

Per the New York Times: The Iraqi military put local journalists on notice on Monday that their organizations could be... More

FT Stays Ahead on Merrill Bonuses

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 14, 2009 at 08:55 AM

The Financial Times continues to get scoops in the Merrill Lynch/Bank of America bonus scandal. Today it reports that the... More

Only 3 Percent of Newspaper Reading Done Online?

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 13, 2009 at 06:43 PM

Martin Langeveld has been doing some interesting stuff over at Nieman Journalism Lab on newspaper numbers. I disagreed with parts... More

Press Freedom Hating Flack Caught on Tape

By Clint Hendler   Apr 13, 2009 at 06:19 PM

Last week David Schultz, a reporter for Washington DC public radio station WAMU, had his audio recorder seized by Veterans... More

Frugal and Fabulous!

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 13, 2009 at 03:11 PM

From Saturday's New York Times Business Section (another one for Katia's NYT- Revels-in-Bad-Times File): Millions of Americans have trimmed expenses... More

NYT Finds Evidence of Twitter’s “Utility”…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 13, 2009 at 02:42 PM

...including this, which alone should totally convince Twitter skeptics: Corey Menscher, a graduate student at New York University, developed the... More

Crediting Obama For Captain’s Rescue?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 13, 2009 at 11:53 AM

Michael Crowley, writing at TNR yesterday, on press coverage of The Pirate Story : Predictably if somewhat absurdly, news commentary... More

Journal Walks the Plank with Commodity News

“Arrrrrr,” says Audit

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 13, 2009 at 11:21 AM

So Rupert Murdoch wants the Journal to be a first read, to compete with The New York Times on general... More

Serial Killer

Why the ‘serial comma’ isn’t important

By Merrill Perlman   Apr 13, 2009 at 11:00 AM

You know it, and you love it or hate it—it’s the last comma in a simple series, the one before... More

Hiding the Messenger

What’s Lewin’s pedigree anyway?

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 13, 2009 at 10:55 AM

The big news in health care last week, at least for the cognoscenti, came from the Lewin Group. Lewin reported... More

A (Sort of) Disclosure

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 13, 2009 at 10:38 AM

In defense of a recent New York Times op-ed about Bernie Madoff written by Daphne Merkin, the editor of the... More

Sometimes Silence Speaks Volumes

By Clint Hendler   Apr 13, 2009 at 10:17 AM

Last week saw a burgeoning controversy develop over the Obama administration's decision to invoke the state secrets privilege in a... More

CNN’s On-Air Editorial Meeting?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 13, 2009 at 09:24 AM

Heard on CNN last night: DON LEMON (CNN anchor): Listen, let's talk about this, guys. [The Obamas are] getting a... More

WSJ Gives TARP Panel the Play It Deserves

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 13, 2009 at 08:57 AM

Good for The Wall Street Journal for giving a nice run to an exclusive that the TARP oversight panel is... More

The Man with the Van

Early reports failed to check Italian earthquake researcher’s science, qualifications

By Katherine Bagley   Apr 13, 2009 at 08:45 AM

In early March, in a mountainous, quake-prone patch of central Italy, the readings on Gioacchino Giuliani’s patented radon detector suddenly... More

Winners & Sinners

Kaiser on Danner, Poniewozik, Rove, Vanity Fair, and more

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 10, 2009 at 05:21 PM

Winner: Mark Danner, for another brilliant piece about torture in the New York Review of Books: “Torture is at the... More

Holdren’s First Interviews

Obama’s new science advisor causes a media stir

By Curtis Brainard   Apr 10, 2009 at 05:20 PM

President Barack Obama’s new science advisor, physicist John Holdren, met the press this week, with mixed results for the ensuing... More

Above the Fold: Our Financial Follies

Black and Born prove it yet again: we need to regulate the regulators

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 10, 2009 at 04:33 PM

Last week, William Black, a former investigator of the Savings and Loan scandal, went on Bill Moyers Journal and repeated... More

AP Articulates Its Intellectual Property Initiative

By Megan Garber   Apr 10, 2009 at 03:59 PM

The AP has articulated its new policies on intellectual property. Gauntlet: thrown. More

That depends on your definition of “touch”…

By Clint Hendler   Apr 10, 2009 at 03:55 PM

From Julie Rovner's NPR story on the impending Obama puppy: Dog commentator David Frei, the voice of the Westminster Kennel... More

Obama and State Secrets? Shhh…

Silence breaking on key legal filing

By Clint Hendler   Apr 10, 2009 at 03:29 PM

Obama, like Bush, decides to limit what the courts and the people can know about warrantless wiretapping. Isn’t that a... More

The Fashion of the Christ

By Megan Garber   Apr 10, 2009 at 01:08 PM

New York City's Trinity Church is marking Good Friday in an oh-so-modern way: it's Twittering it. No, seriously. The famous... More

Scrappy Mortgage Blogger Fights Bad Court Ruling

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 10, 2009 at 12:08 PM

A reader points us to this Citizen Media Law Project report on an unlikely new front in the battle for... More

No Fear Factor

Bill O’Reilly’s intimidation tactics won’t scare me away from blogging

By Amanda Terkel   Apr 10, 2009 at 11:45 AM

Last month, I had one of the most chilling experiences of my career as a reporter-blogger. I had planned on... More

Total Recall

When a mere retraction just isn’t enough

By Craig Silverman   Apr 10, 2009 at 11:25 AM

How bad does an error have to be to warrant the journalistic equivalent of a product recall? In 1948, the... More

why???!!!

By Clint Hendler   Apr 10, 2009 at 10:07 AM

Taking off of Megan's car chase post below, I see that NBC big shot David Gregory has just posted the... More

A Moderate-Speed Chase! (Shocker: On Cable!)

By Megan Garber   Apr 10, 2009 at 09:44 AM

In Southern California right now, there's a woman driving "erratically" in what looks to be a Honda Element...in reaction to... More

How* to Get a Book Deal! (*If your name is Meghan McCain!)

By Megan Garber   Apr 10, 2009 at 09:03 AM

Dear Young Journalists: Is it a dream of yours to write a book? Are you thinking that now might be... More

The Banking Industry’s Other Bad Loans

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 10, 2009 at 08:59 AM

Felix Salmon has an interesting chart showing what he aptly calls the "Usury Datapoint of the Day." The chart shows... More

Laurel to the Tampa Tribune

For adding a fresh dimension to the Medicare Advantage story

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 10, 2009 at 08:26 AM

We were pleased to see the Tampa Tribune publish a smart, enterprising story that took a different angle on an... More

Snark Hunt

The search for the true meaning

By Merrill Perlman   Apr 9, 2009 at 06:45 PM

Sometimes, dictionaries just don’t get it. this one will define a word one way; that one will define the same... More

Now or Never

Does the president have to get everything done this year?

By Katia Bachko   Apr 9, 2009 at 03:24 PM

Last month, Media Matters documented that CNN and other outlets repeatedly wondered if President Obama was addressing too many issues... More

Business-Press Beat-Sweetening

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 9, 2009 at 12:11 PM

I wrote about beat-sweeteners in my previous post and said I'd look at it in the business press next. It's... More

Slate’s Beat-Sweetener Reader

Good, but goes a bit too easy on the practice

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 9, 2009 at 11:54 AM

Timothy Noah has a fun column over at Slate on the journalism practice of "beat-sweeteners," stories written about key sources... More

Fox News’s “Military Analyst” on How To Fight Pirates

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 9, 2009 at 11:43 AM

Gawker's Mike Byhoff and Ryan Tate spotted on Fox News yesterday one of the retired military officers cited in David... More

Ars Technica picks up on PACER

By Clint Hendler   Apr 9, 2009 at 11:08 AM

Timothy B. Lee, writing at Ars Technica, the Conde Nast owned technology site, has an thorough state-of-play summary of the... More

Post vs. Post

News article, blog entry criticize Will’s account of warming (one fails)

By Curtis Brainard   Apr 9, 2009 at 10:56 AM

On Tuesday, an article and a blog entry at The Washington Post both took the unusual step of rebutting one... More

Class Dismissed

The ‘populist’ case against cap-and-trade is absurd

By Daniel Luzer   Apr 9, 2009 at 10:20 AM

Historian John Steele Gordon, writing on Barack Obama’s economic policies in the April issue of Commentary, says that the president's... More

Pollsters Duck NH Questions, Polling Loses

By Clint Hendler   Apr 9, 2009 at 09:58 AM

Ten days ago, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, a major polling industry group, released its long awaited report... More

Noah: “Who The Hell Wrote This Crap? His Mother?”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 9, 2009 at 09:55 AM

At Slate, Timothy Noah holds forth on the beat sweetener, a "gratuitously flattering profile that a reporter writes about a... More

The Press Buries the TARP Overseer’s Report

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 9, 2009 at 09:04 AM

The press has given short shrift to an important report by the Congressional Oversight Panel on the government's bailout efforts.... More

Painting by Polling Number

WaPo’s Gerson depicts wide partisan gap, misses bigger picture

By Jane Kim   Apr 9, 2009 at 08:00 AM

Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson has a column up at The Washington Post arguing that Obama isn’t delivering on his... More

ProPublica Wants YOU to Dig into Obama Records

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 8, 2009 at 05:13 PM

ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative group, has rounded up a mother lode of Obama administration financial disclosures. They're asking readers to... More

NYT on Wall Street Versus Small-Town America

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 8, 2009 at 04:52 PM

The New York Times fronts a story that illustrates well the asymmetry of information between the financial industry and those... More

Got A Nose for News?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 8, 2009 at 04:05 PM

No? Better go get one. "Plastic surgery is latest accessory for job seekers,"reports Reuters. When the going gets tough, some... More

The Human Strain

Notes from Mesh’s “Future of News” panel

By Craig Silverman   Apr 8, 2009 at 03:00 PM

Perhaps it’s a bit cliché for a panel about the future of news to discuss how humans and computers will... More

TPM’s Slideshow of Newspaper Deaths

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 8, 2009 at 02:42 PM

Supply your own soundtrack. UPDATE: TNR's (less comprehensive) version. More

What I Wanna Know: Scott Harshbarger

A former Massachusetts AG offers questions for Geithner, Holder

By Scott Harshbarger   Apr 8, 2009 at 02:25 PM

“What I Wanna Know” is a new series from CJR, in which we invite outside experts to propose questions about... More

Another Endorsement

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 8, 2009 at 02:20 PM

Moving on from Oprah: Would you pay for Alec Baldwin-endorsed news? More

Would You Pay For Oprah-Endorsed News?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 8, 2009 at 01:13 PM

Others are stepping in to save newspapers. Colleges are creating newspaper cooperatives with their local paper to bolster dwindling resources.... More

Excluded Voices

An interview with Marilyn Moon

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 8, 2009 at 01:05 PM

The past year’s health discussion has been remarkable for the narrow range of ideas and opinions that have floated down... More

WSJ With a Big Story on Grid Spies

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 8, 2009 at 12:50 PM

The Wall Street Journal gets a major scoop on its page one this morning, reporting that China and Russia have... More

It’s Ok to Mock Madonna (Randy Cohen Says So)

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 8, 2009 at 12:46 PM

Nytimes.com launches a new blog, Moral of the Story, where Randy Cohen (of the "The Ethicist" column in the Times... More

Parker On The President’s “Group Hug” “Diplomacy”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 8, 2009 at 12:33 PM

From Kathleen Parker's Washington Post column in praise of President Obama's "Unmacho Diplomacy" (in reference to those who question "whether... More

They Don’t Cry?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 8, 2009 at 10:46 AM

The latest in Glenn Beck-inspired coverage, from a New York Observer piece about how tears are all the rage in... More

Broken Record on the Broken Economy

By Katia Bachko   Apr 8, 2009 at 10:39 AM

I don't mean to sound like I'm repeating myself, but I can't help it. In yet another article, The New... More

News As Bottled Water

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 8, 2009 at 09:32 AM

From a who will pay for news piece in the business section of today's New York Times: How do you... More

WaPo Finds Stimulus Bucks Going Further

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 8, 2009 at 09:27 AM

The Washington Post has a piece of good news (really!) on its front page today: We're going to get more... More

Doing the Math on Online Subscriptions

What do newspapers have to lose?

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 7, 2009 at 05:10 PM

Martin Langeveld over at the Nieman Journalism Lab runs some back-of-the-envelope calculations on whether charging online can work for newspapers... More

Resurgent WSJ Marches Into Glorious Future

Rivals are crushed, Aussie sister paper says; Elitists, counter-revolutionary elements on the bleedin’ run

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 7, 2009 at 02:39 PM

Here's an interesting thought experiment: What do you get when a longtime Rupert Murdoch newspaper interviews one of Murdoch's key... More

Looking Past Red Flags

Coverage of MS stem-cell transplant research lacks caution

By Katherine Bagley   Apr 7, 2009 at 02:04 PM

In late January, clinical immunologist Richard Burt and his Northwestern University colleagues published the results of a study which found... More

Public Speaking

What would you say to the Newspaper Association of America?

By The Editors   Apr 7, 2009 at 01:02 PM

Today, the Newspaper Association of America closes out its annual conference with a keynote speech from Google CEO Eric Schmidt.... More

Vermont Overrides Governor’s Marriage Veto

By Clint Hendler   Apr 7, 2009 at 12:44 PM

The Vermont State House has just, by the narrowest of margins, overridden Governor Jim Douglas’s veto of a bill providing... More

Poor Ted Stevens

Justice screwed up, but that doesn’t change what he did

By Kate Klonick   Apr 7, 2009 at 09:25 AM

The public reaction to Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision last week to dismiss the indictment of former Senator Ted Stevens... More

NYT Looks at the Economy’s Lost Years

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 7, 2009 at 08:54 AM

The New York Times has an interesting angle on the economy this morning, looking at how far the deep downturn... More

Reporting Celebrity

Press loses context, glosses Obamas’ popularity in Europe

By Jane Kim   Apr 7, 2009 at 07:30 AM

As the Obamas swept across Europe late last week and this weekend, they left some very glittery, starry-eyed reports behind... More

The Journalists Formerly Known As…

By Megan Garber   Apr 6, 2009 at 10:25 PM

What's in a name? Well, if you're ASNE, not the word "newspaper." The professional organization--née, eighty-seven years ago, the American... More

Dover, Behind The Scenes

The Pentagon’s new consent-to-cover policy.

By Clint Hendler   Apr 6, 2009 at 05:20 PM

On February 26, when secretary Robert Gates announced that the Defense Department would develop procedures to allow media access to... More

Virginia Heffernan Hates Her iPhone…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 6, 2009 at 04:37 PM

...iPhone lovers hate Heffernan's piece (scan the comments section). More

Pat Kiernan Goes National

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 6, 2009 at 03:32 PM

Pat Kiernan, the man who reads aloud on TV from New York-area newspapers ("In the Papers" on NY1) is now... More

Good Wall Street Journal Op-ed on the Bubble’s Advent

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 6, 2009 at 03:17 PM

The Wall Street Journal's editorial page runs a must-read today on why the housing bubble has caused so much more... More

Hopefully Yours

Is “full of hope” full of it?

By Merrill Perlman   Apr 6, 2009 at 01:36 PM

“Hopefully,” Americans have been watching the first overseas visit of President Barack Obama. Those Americans who were taught English and... More

“I Am Now On The Other Side of This War”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 6, 2009 at 12:50 PM

Two Iraqi translators for the New York Times, Mudhafer al-Husaini and Sahar S. Gabriel, have received refugee visas to come... More

To Cable, With Love

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 6, 2009 at 12:09 PM

"[Sarah Palin] is the gift that keeps on giving to cable television and certainly the supermarket tabloids," said John Decker,... More

Julius Teaser

By Megan Garber   Apr 6, 2009 at 11:51 AM

This Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission will begin crafting its national broadband strategy--a collection of policies aimed, most broadly, at... More

Michelle, In The Eye of the Beholder

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 6, 2009 at 11:41 AM

Michelle Obama: "The New Oprah?" The New... President? (The New Director of Your Local Daycare Center?) More

“There Will Still Be News”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 6, 2009 at 10:17 AM

In a Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/05/AR2009040501733.html">column, Michael Kinsley shrugs off The Death of Newspapers As We (Used To) Know Them: We're... More

Unemployment Rate Misses True Labor Picture, Bloomberg Says

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 6, 2009 at 09:50 AM

Bloomberg has a nice story today on how the unemployment rate is woefully understating the amount of pain in the... More

18-Year Media Ban Ends

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 6, 2009 at 09:35 AM

New organizations were on hand late last night at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, for the first time since... More

Obama AWOL on Health Reform?

Times tackles the President’s “light touch”

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 6, 2009 at 09:30 AM

Robert Pear of The New York Times, who almost always can be counted on to let the world know the... More

A-Flutter for Satire

By Megan Garber   Apr 5, 2009 at 10:21 PM

Twitter is, like, so five seconds ago. In its place, the jokesters over at Slate V are introducing...Flutter, the "nanoblogging"... More

Trudy Lieberman Campaign Desk Archive

A complete archive of Trudy Lieberman’s Campaign Desk articles

By The Editors   Apr 5, 2009 at 04:06 PM

This archive is no longer updated. Please click here for a complete and updated list of Trudy Lieberman's Campaign Desk... More

Winners & Sinners

Kaiser on Vanity Fair, Ed Henry, and Colbert

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 3, 2009 at 05:30 PM

Sinner: Vanity Fair, for running an article by Mark Bowden about Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. that was so filled with elementary... More

Above the Fold: Colin Powell, American Coward

The general continues to debunk the myth of his own greatness

By Charles Kaiser   Apr 3, 2009 at 05:21 PM

At just about every crucial juncture in his career, Colin Powell has failed his country, and himself. This sorry record... More

Sturm und Throng

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 03:56 PM

Remember the interview that the Newspaper Association of America president John Sturm conducted with Stephen Colbert earlier this week? The... More

Making Space for Skeptics

Post, Times draw criticism for coverage questioning global warming

By Curtis Brainard   Apr 3, 2009 at 03:35 PM

Washington Post columnist George Will was at it again on Thursday with his third column disparaging the scientific consensus behind... More

Tough Times in Newsrooms

The latest figures on buyouts, layoffs, and pay cuts

By Megan McGinley   Apr 3, 2009 at 03:15 PM

The struggle to keep up with rising costs, changes in technology, and dwindling profits is taking a toll on industries... More

Bloomberg Looks at What Toxic Assets Might Be Worth

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 3, 2009 at 02:18 PM

We've been asking for a while now for a story that would delve into what seems to me the core... More

Breaking News with Geraldo

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 01:58 PM

All three cable networks are currently offering nearly nonstop coverage of the Binghamton, New York shootings. Both CNN and MSNBC... More

Good Will Hunting

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 12:48 PM

Attytood's Will Bunch is arguing that philanthropy can save newspapers. But--here's a twist for you--the papers should be the donors,... More

Michelle! OMG, Michelle!

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 12:37 PM

Howie Kurtz reports on the Michelle-O-mania currently captivating the American media: President Obama may be grappling with a global economic... More

The Financial Model: Kristof Doesn’t Know, Either

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 12:31 PM

In a blog post today, Nick Kristof discusses the speech Boston Globe editor Marty Baron delivered yesterday at the University... More

Tribune’s Unanswered Blagojevich Questions

By Clint Hendler   Apr 3, 2009 at 12:01 PM

Yesterday’s indictment of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich puts the governor’s original misdeeds back in the crosshairs of a media... More

The Name Game

Trouble can result when two or more people share the same name

By Craig Silverman   Apr 3, 2009 at 11:27 AM

Even if you remove the element of fame, you’re much better off being Engelbert Humperdinck than John Smith. Though unique... More

NYT’s False Balance on AIG Ex-CEO Greenberg

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 3, 2009 at 11:27 AM

Jay Rosen points me to a story on AIG in The New York Times this morning and asks if a... More

It Takes Two, Baby…

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 11:08 AM

The Washington Post today fronts a weighty investigation--the result of a collaborative effort between the Post's Robert O'Harrow Jr. and... More

(C)able News?

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 10:45 AM

Okay, cue the existential crisis. Because I am finding myself, somehow, actually...pleased with cable news's performance this morning. I know.... More

Stephen Adler’s Ten Things

The Business Week editor talks about life in the magazine world

By The Editors   Apr 3, 2009 at 10:35 AM

"I'm very scared of Dean Starkman," admitted BusinessWeek editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, when asked how his magazine fared in covering the... More

The Forgotten War

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 09:55 AM

The Project for Excellence in Journalism released its weekly News Coverage Index--which, among other things, ranks the week's top ten... More

The Future of News! Buh-Dum-BUM!

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 09:25 AM

Politico's Tim Grieve reports on Bill Keller's talk at Stanford yesterday...and, per his telling, the one-liners just kept on coming.... More

FT: Wall Street Sees a New Shell Game

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 3, 2009 at 09:08 AM

The Financial Times fronts an important story today that shows the ridiculousness of several things, including our banking system and,... More

The Twolbert Tweport

By Megan Garber   Apr 3, 2009 at 09:02 AM

When Stephen Colbert encounters Twitter--in the person of Twitter founder Biz Stone--hilarity is pretty much guaranteed to ensue. Make that,... More

The WSJ Singles on Sports Subsidies

The Providence Journal goes down looking.

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 2, 2009 at 06:28 PM

The Journal has a pretty good story today on corporate welfare for sports teams. This one's about the Boston Red... More

Newspapers! Jazz Hands!

By Megan Garber   Apr 2, 2009 at 04:36 PM

How will newspapers save themselves? The East Bay Express explores that thorny issue...in song. And dance. Beyond that, the video... More

“Heard” In a Graduate Seminar

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 2, 2009 at 01:10 PM

The Wall Street Journal today tosses off one of the more disappointing pieces I've read in this crisis—and that's saying... More

Still Don’t “Get” Twitter?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 2, 2009 at 10:56 AM

"TRULY GROUNDBREAKING MARKETING RESEARCH: UNDERSTANDING TWITTER." (h/t Andrew Sullivan) More

Snub Is In The Air

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 2, 2009 at 09:31 AM

Are American reporters adopting that perceiving-slights-around-every-corner thing that some British reporters seem to have? (When in London...) The New York... More

Mark-to-Market and the Last Honest Man

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 2, 2009 at 08:55 AM

Jonathan Weil over at Bloomberg finds a great way to illustrate the see-no-evil-hear-no-evil policy being instituted by the accounting-standards board... More

“Too Big to Fail”: The Debate

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 1, 2009 at 06:40 PM

Felix Salmon (over at his new digs at Reuters) and Kevin Drum of Mother Jones are having a back-and-forth over... More

Accounting Funny Business

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 1, 2009 at 05:48 PM

A reader emails to point out a good Slate column from the 2002 era of Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Global Crossing,... More

I Covered The G20 And All I Got Was This Lousy…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 1, 2009 at 03:23 PM

A report on President Obama's overseas trip devolved into swag talk on CBS News's The Early Show this morning: BILL... More

April Is the Foolest Month

Media members to the world: teehee!

By Megan Garber   Apr 1, 2009 at 03:20 PM

Ah, April Fool's Day. The day when normally sorta-staid members of the Fourth Estate get to put their feet up,... More

Sick Around America

What exactly was Frontline trying to say?

By Trudy Lieberman   Apr 1, 2009 at 02:39 PM

It is not clear what message Frontline wanted to deliver in last night's Sick Around America documentary. The show, conceived... More

Journal Good on FASB but Should Be Better

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 1, 2009 at 02:15 PM

The Journal is good today in showing how the proposed new rule gutting mark-to-market accounting would be counterproductive to healing... More

Look Kids! Big Ben! Parliament!

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 1, 2009 at 12:09 PM

If President Obama is in London, no need to ask, Where in the world is Brian, Charlie and Katie? All... More

Times Launches Pictures of Goats Section?

By Katia Bachko   Apr 1, 2009 at 11:45 AM

Fronting the Dining section today, we have this story, "How I Learned to Love Goat Meat," accompanied by this adorable... More

Hey, Fox Nation!

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 1, 2009 at 11:38 AM

I assume, this being launch week, that the content aggregators at The Fox Nation are pretty busy. So, in case... More

AP Accesses Governor’s Inbox

Public Records request nets Vermont’s thoughts on same sex marriage

By Clint Hendler   Apr 1, 2009 at 11:16 AM

Last Wednesday, Jim Douglas, Vermont’s Republican governor, announced that he would veto a bill that would legalize same sex marriage... More

The Ballad(s) Of Glenn Beck

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 1, 2009 at 11:15 AM

Behold: "The Poetry of Glenn Beck," Volumes 1 and 2. More

“Top 10 April Fool’s Day Fake News Items”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 1, 2009 at 10:02 AM

PC World has compiled what it regards as today's ten best fake news items. Wireless wolfpigeon "news" aside, here's my... More

In Reporters’ Briefing Book, Brits See “Snubs”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Apr 1, 2009 at 09:42 AM

Are American reporters accompanying President Obama overseas geographically challenged? Is the self-worth of some British reporters too easily challenged? Are... More

Failing on “Too Big to Fail”

By Ryan Chittum   Apr 1, 2009 at 09:06 AM

The Journal, Bloomberg, and Reuters have stories on a Fed president, Gary Stern, saying the government is to blame for... More

Anatomy of a Murder

How journalists dropped the ball on the Columbine massacre

By Steve Weinberg   Apr 1, 2009 at 07:30 AM

Columbine By Dave Cullen | Twelve | 403 pages, $26.99 Ten years ago, two Colorado high school students nudged the... More