Journalism in the Heartland

A shout out to the Kansas City Star and the Salina (Kan.) Journal

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 30, 2009 at 03:03 PM

Good journalism doesn’t just grow on the right and left coasts. Two papers in America’s middle show that good reporting... More

Gasparino’s Gossip Column

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 30, 2009 at 02:41 PM

Charlie Gasparino really wants you to know that Wall Street executives are "nervous" and "feel betrayed" by Barack Obama. Is... More

David Brooks’s Afghanistan Straw Man

By Greg Marx   Sep 30, 2009 at 12:24 PM

In a Campaign Desk piece today, I talk about the reflexive hawkishness of various big-deal think tanks and op-ed columnists... More

An Open Debate on the Afghan War?

A measure of dissent on the full counterinsurgency doctrine

By Greg Marx   Sep 30, 2009 at 12:23 PM

Expert opinion in the foreign policy think-tank world—your American Enterprise Institutes, your Councils on Foreign Relations, etc.—runs, on balance, hawkish.... More

Eyes Wide Shut on Iran

Familiar sources sing a tired song

By Michael Massing   Sep 30, 2009 at 11:10 AM

Listening to the CBS Evening News on Friday, I was roused from the slumber that program so often induces by... More

FOIA Hearing Underway

By Clint Hendler   Sep 30, 2009 at 10:11 AM

Senator Patrick Leahy has just kicked off a hearing on the status of the Freedom of Information Act, which is... More

Reality Bites

More promotional ideas for The Washington Post

By Justin Peters   Sep 30, 2009 at 09:48 AM

The Washington Post yesterday announced its "America's Next Great Pundit" contest, in which ten amateur columnists will compete for a... More

CQ Stomps Out Newsroom Dissent

Setting a bad example by firing a veteran editor for impertinence

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 30, 2009 at 08:04 AM

When the human-resources folks come for you, and in journalism these days that's not infrequent, you have to hope somebody... More

Classification policy draft leaked

By Clint Hendler   Sep 29, 2009 at 04:44 PM

Secrecy watcher Steven Aftergood has obtained a draft version of the Obama administration’s new executive order tinkering with the nation’s... More

America’s Next Great Pundit: A Close Reading

By Megan Garber   Sep 29, 2009 at 03:31 PM

The Washington Post Pundit Contest: A Close Reading [I NEED SOME KIND OF BRIEF INTRO HERE…] America’s Next Great Pundit... More

Going for the Gold

Is Obama’s Olympic trip really a big political risk?

By Greg Marx   Sep 29, 2009 at 02:43 PM

One of the persistent memes of American political journalism is that our president must always be testing his political power... More

One Possible Contestant for the Post

By Clint Hendler   Sep 29, 2009 at 12:59 PM

There’s a lot to say about the Washington Post’s just announced contest, “America’s Next Great Pundit.” The set-up is pretty... More

“Get off Their Asses and Get Back to Talking to Real People”

By Megan Garber   Sep 29, 2009 at 11:29 AM

Over at The Huffington Post, Jason Linkins turns in a fantastic Q&A with Dale Maharidge, the Pulitzer-winning journalist, author, and... More

The Journal Edges to the Right

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 29, 2009 at 11:23 AM

Charles Kaiser had a good piece this weekend questioning whether Rupert Murdoch's ideology has been seeping into the news pages... More

Talese: “The Magazine Piece Is Not a Work of Art Anymore”

By Megan Garber   Sep 29, 2009 at 10:15 AM

Leave it to Gay Talese to find a new angle on an old story. In a video for the Big... More

CJR’s Town Hall Meetings, Part V

The view from the Italian festival, Scranton, Pa.

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 29, 2009 at 10:00 AM

Everyone, it seems is trying to take the pulse of the electorate—Americans who, as the saying goes, vote with their... More

Take a Stand

How journalism can regain its relevance

By Brent Cunningham   Sep 29, 2009 at 08:00 AM

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, as the press faced criticism for failing to use the catastrophe to initiate a... More

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant.”

By Clint Hendler   Sep 28, 2009 at 05:20 PM

I’m sorry I missed this the first time around, but Chris Cato, a reporter for Channel 7, a CBS affiliate... More

“So, Keep Your Guns, and Buy More Guns…”

By Megan Garber   Sep 28, 2009 at 05:06 PM

Think Progress's Lee Fang offers a disturbing cautionary tale: a distillation of the frayed edges of the ridiculous rhetoric that... More

Poll Lancing

By Megan Garber   Sep 28, 2009 at 04:39 PM

So you may have heard, today, about the existence of troubling poll previously making its way around Facebook--one that asked,... More

Green Rankings a Means, Not an End For Journalists

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 28, 2009 at 04:24 PM

Are you invested in a dirty company? If you work for the state of New York and plan to draw... More

Berlusconi and Press Freedom, Petition Edition

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 28, 2009 at 03:19 PM

La Repubblica, Italy's second-largest newspaper, was sued for defamation earlier this summer by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for repeatedly... More

WaPo: How the Fed Failed to Protect Consumers

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 28, 2009 at 03:18 PM

The Washington Post ran an excellent story yesterday looking at the Federal Reserve's utter failure to protect consumers—indeed to even... More

CBS goes GlobalPost-al

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 28, 2009 at 02:48 PM

GlobalPost and CBS plan to make beautiful news together, according to this story by David Carr in today's New York... More

The Washington Post, Angsty Teenager

The paper really, really wants to go to prom with you

By Megan Garber   Sep 28, 2009 at 02:34 PM

Reading the text of The Washington Post’s new guidelines for its staff’s use of Facebook, Twitter, and the like, I... More

On the NYT’s opinion media monitor

By Greg Marx   Sep 28, 2009 at 02:31 PM

As noted by Michael Calderone and others, NYT ombudsman Clark Hoyt reported in his Sunday column that, in the wake... More

Bodies in Motion

How many objects are moving in a “collision”?

By Merrill Perlman   Sep 28, 2009 at 02:30 PM

News stories frequently cover accidents where a car hits a bus, a train hits a car, a bicycle hits a... More

Gang Land Entrepreneur

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 28, 2009 at 01:47 PM

In a feature story in yesterday's Washington Post, Jerry Capeci's subscription-only "Gang Land" Web site is held up as a... More

Now Bloomberg Calls it an Obama Bull Market

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 28, 2009 at 12:49 PM

I nicked Bloomberg for a story in March calling the stock-market swoon an "Obama Bear Market." Now it's saying there's... More

Morgenson on a Mortgage Front

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 28, 2009 at 09:51 AM

Gretchen Morgenson, unlike the rest of the press, pays attention to a Kansas court ruling last week that has potentially... More

Two-Ply Puns

By Megan Garber   Sep 28, 2009 at 09:06 AM

See if you can find the many puns embedded in the following Washington Post headline, on environmentalists' challenge to toilet... More

Baucus Watch, Part XV

What’s the senator hiding in his bill?

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 27, 2009 at 03:19 PM

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

William Safire, 1929-2009

By Megan Garber   Sep 27, 2009 at 02:41 PM

Today brings sad news: William Safire has passed away at 79, of pancreatic cancer. Currently leading the Web site of... More

Are Americans Wild Enough?

Ken Burns’s documentary and the debate over how much nature we need

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 25, 2009 at 06:20 PM

On Sunday evening PBS will air Ken Burns’s much anticipated documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. News outlets and... More

The Prophet Motive

Glenn Beck in an age of anxiety

By Megan Garber   Sep 25, 2009 at 06:11 PM

Here is one rule I’ve discovered as a consumer of media-celebrity coverage: if you know what a celebrity's tongue looks... More

Lofty Living, On the Cheap

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 25, 2009 at 05:39 PM

Dear New York Times Home & Garden section: I like you. I do. But why do you insist on wasting... More

The Five W’s, Google, and You

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 25, 2009 at 05:27 PM

In an attempt to find out the name for the trend (especially in the tech world: twitter, flickr, I'm talking... More

Q & A: Jim Brady

Guardian America’s Web consultant on building audiences, brands, and a culture of innovation

By Greg Marx   Sep 25, 2009 at 04:27 PM

Named executive editor of washingtonpost.com in late 2004, Jim Brady presided over a near-doubling in Web traffic and saw the... More

Speaking of Ahmadinejad … And Running Out Of Things To Say

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 25, 2009 at 04:25 PM

With air time to fill as they awaited a press conference from President Barack Obama about a secret nuclear facility... More

More on Coupons and Credibility

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 25, 2009 at 02:56 PM

So the people behind the media usage and credibility survey we mentioned earlier today were kind enough to write back... More

Ahmadinejad Gets His Morning News Bulletin

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 25, 2009 at 02:20 PM

Time magazine Managing Editor Richard Stengel got to break the news to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad this morning that President... More

More Journalism Green Shoots

By Dean Starkman   Sep 25, 2009 at 12:28 PM

The news this morning of a $5 million slug of money for a new non-profit local news organization in the... More

Hed Injuries

Sometimes it’s copy editors who have the last gaffe

By Craig Silverman   Sep 25, 2009 at 12:24 PM

I don’t write the headlines. It’s a line every print journalist will say at least once during his or her... More

Painting a Pretty Picture of Sewage

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 25, 2009 at 11:23 AM

Maira Kalman has a new illustrated (and reported!) blog on the New York Times Web site today, extolling the virtues... More

A Dart to Health Affairs

Policy journal jumps in bed with Aetna

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 25, 2009 at 10:52 AM

In this day and age, when medical journals have come under fire for failing to disclose researchers’ conflicts of interest;... More

Survey Says … In Penny-Savers We Trust

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 25, 2009 at 10:33 AM

A new survey measuring media usage finds that Americans, or at least the 1,000 surveyed, are increasingly getting their news... More

Starr Testimony to the JEC

By Megan Garber   Sep 25, 2009 at 10:15 AM

Yesterday, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, under the chairmanship of Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), held a hearing about the future... More

Harper’s Long Miss on AIG

By Dean Starkman   Sep 25, 2009 at 09:20 AM

I was standing at the 116th Street subway stop looking for something to read when a trained started to pull... More

James Grant’s Twaddle on Detroit

By Dean Starkman   Sep 25, 2009 at 08:38 AM

Looking over the vast landscape of foreclosures in New York City graphically illustrated at the Queens Museum of Art show... More

Leonhardt’s Deft Med Mal Treatment

By Dean Starkman   Sep 24, 2009 at 03:25 PM

Times's economics columnist David Leonhardt deserves a tip of the doctor's mirrors for delving into the messy business of separating... More

Of Headlines and (Oven) Feet

By Megan Garber   Sep 24, 2009 at 02:00 PM

So, strictly speaking, the following is not the best of headlines. It's unclear; it's rather absurd; and, ultimately, it begs... More

Gettin’ Piggy with It: Anderson Cooper Edition

By Megan Garber   Sep 24, 2009 at 01:39 PM

Hot on the heels of the news about Sanjay Gupta's brush with swine flu...we learn that Gupta may well be... More

You Mean Not Everybody Watches Cable News?

By Greg Marx   Sep 24, 2009 at 12:05 PM

As Ali notes below, for all the dust he’s kicked up lately, Glenn Beck still isn’t really a household name.... More

California Dreaming

An era of “strange quietude” in the Golden State

By Toby Warner   Sep 24, 2009 at 12:00 PM

Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance | By Kevin Starr | Oxford University Press | 576 pages, $34.95... More

Glenn Beck; PoMoCon

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 24, 2009 at 11:30 AM

Statistical wunderkind Nate Silver has the over/under on Glenn Beck's popularity on his site, Fivethirtyeight.com. Silver digs up and analyzes... More

Total Ellipse of the Heart…

By Megan Garber   Sep 24, 2009 at 10:49 AM

Do you have a soft spot in your heart for the semicolon? Do you harbor passionate feelings about the proper... More

Bloomberg Further Hammers FDIC Credibility

By Dean Starkman   Sep 24, 2009 at 10:38 AM

Audit Interviewee Jon Weil, the Bloomberg finance columnist, has a good piece this morning noting that the bank regulator is... More

Congressional Hearing: Newspapers and “the Impact on the Economy and Democracy”

By Megan Garber   Sep 24, 2009 at 10:00 AM

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Chair of the Joint Economic Committee, is currently convening a hearing: “The Future of Newspapers: The... More

Go to Queens Museum, Get Mad

By Dean Starkman   Sep 24, 2009 at 09:03 AM

Business press practitioners and their readers in the New York area who are suffering from crisis fatigue have a few... More

Sidebar: The New Energy Beat

Our Web-only list of the energy sites journalists need to know

By Curtis Brainard and Cristine Russell   Sep 24, 2009 at 12:00 AM

Energy Journalism All Green To Me: An eclectic energy and environment Web site from The News Journal in Wilmington,... More

The New Energy Beat

It’s global as well as local, environmental as well as financial. Can embattled newsrooms see the big picture?

By Curtis Brainard and Cristine Russell   Sep 24, 2009 at 12:00 AM

On a Monday morning in January, less than a week after his inauguration, President Barack Obama signed two memoranda designed... More

For That Special Nerd in Your Life…

By Megan Garber   Sep 23, 2009 at 10:53 PM

...mental_floss magazine has produced a gift that will, in its way, keep on giving: a t-shirt bearing the slogan, "The... More

Earnest Headline of the Day

By Megan Garber   Sep 23, 2009 at 10:25 PM

The following headline is presented without further comment, except to clarify that it is not--repeat, not--from The Onion: "Penn Township... More

Deadline NYT

By Megan Garber   Sep 23, 2009 at 06:15 PM

In a cost-saving measure, The New York Times is moving up the deadline for its Monday-through-Saturday papers by half an... More

…And the Book Would Weigh 1.2 Billion Pounds

By Megan Garber   Sep 23, 2009 at 04:35 PM

Ever wonder what would be required, theoretically, to print out the entirety of the Internet on paper? No? Well, regardless:... More

Baucus Watch, Part XIV

The senator confronts the affordability question

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 23, 2009 at 04:33 PM

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

50 Ways to Spell ‘Quaddafi’

By Megan Garber   Sep 23, 2009 at 02:57 PM

Here at CJR, we've been thinking a lot lately about the informational implications of fragmentation in the news. So we've... More

‘I Went to Afghanistan, and All I Got Was This Lousy Swine Flu’

By Megan Garber   Sep 23, 2009 at 02:46 PM

Talk about internalizing a story. On a recent reporting trip to Afghanistan, Sanjay Gupta--CNN's chief medical correspondent and a onetime... More

Katie and Diane: The Wrong Questions

Why can’t the print press treat TV news as news?

By Michael Massing   Sep 23, 2009 at 12:49 PM

Michael Massing’s voice has long been part of the Columbia Journalism Review in print. He is a columnist, a former... More

Michael Massing Online Archive

A complete archive of Michael Massing’s columns for CJR.org

By The Editors   Sep 23, 2009 at 12:28 PM

Michael Massing’s voice has long been part of the Columbia Journalism Review. He is a columnist, a former executive editor,... More

A New Obama Line on State Secrets?

By Clint Hendler   Sep 23, 2009 at 11:54 AM

The New York Times and the Washington Post chime in with similar articles detailing the Obama administration’s new policy, to... More

McKinsey to Condé: 25 percent-ish

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 23, 2009 at 11:19 AM

The New York Observer reports today that initial recommendations from McKinsey & Co., hired to help streamline costs at Condé... More

Lede of the Day

By Megan Garber   Sep 23, 2009 at 10:45 AM

Behold, the introduction of the Atlantic correspondent Graeme Wood's latest blog post, emphasis mine: Last month, Mexico decriminalized possession and... More

Bloomberg Keeps Heat on FDIC

By Dean Starkman   Sep 23, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Yesterday, the Orange County Register banged away at bank regulators' bizarre six-year paralysis in the face of IndyMac's blatantly unsafe... More

Labor Gets a Word in Edgewise

By Dean Starkman   Sep 23, 2009 at 09:46 AM

The Times gets credit this morning for initiating and prominently displaying a story on organized labor, or as I like... More

Muckraking 1, Banksters 0

By Dean Starkman   Sep 23, 2009 at 08:12 AM

The announcement yesterday by the Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase that they would end some of their most egregious... More

Newsweek Ranks 500 Greenest Companies…

But shills for Big Oil in the process

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 22, 2009 at 06:45 PM

The press’s latest attempt to quantify and categorize the environmental track records of myriad businesses attempting burnish their eco-credentials is... More

WSJ Correction: Allies Not “Roiled” After All

By Dean Starkman   Sep 22, 2009 at 06:00 PM

Reading Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, we are finding, requires some amount of Kremlinology. What is happening is visible for... More

Q & A: Rick Perlstein

The liberal historian on ACORN, the Post, and wagging the dog

By Greg Marx   Sep 22, 2009 at 05:52 PM

As the recent scandals surrounding the green-jobs advocate Van Jones and the community organizing group ACORN have shown, even under... More

Redacted: WaPo’s Unprecedented Deal with the Pentagon

The McChrystal report: Who did the redacting?

By Clint Hendler   Sep 22, 2009 at 03:58 PM

This week’s news cycle seems certain to be dominated by The Washington Post’s huge scoop: its acquisition of a confidential... More

Whose Line Is It, Anyway?

When it comes to journalistic ethics, do definitions matter?

By The Editors   Sep 22, 2009 at 03:42 PM

Earlier this month, New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt trained his gaze on the conflict-of-interest questions surrounding the popular... More

When a Tax Is a Tax

The New York Times explains

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 22, 2009 at 12:19 PM

Reed Abelson deserves a shout-out for her story Sunday detailing how Sen. Max Baucus and his Senate Finance Committee plan... More

Spot.us, Now in Two Spots

By Megan Garber   Sep 22, 2009 at 12:00 PM

When it decides which digital-news projects to fund each years as part of its News Challenge, the Knight Foundation makes... More

Clinton: “I Am Bitter about It”

By Megan Garber   Sep 22, 2009 at 09:54 AM

As a follow-up to yesterday's much-discussed USA Today article--yes, the one that detailed, among other things, the tragicomic episode in... More

O.C. Register Stays on IndyMac Madness

By Dean Starkman   Sep 22, 2009 at 09:19 AM

The Orange County Register's Mathew Padilla has an item about a newly released FDIC inspector general's report saying the agency's... More

Of Heroes and Humans

Jim Brosnan wrote about himself, and sports writing evolved

By Michael Shapiro   Sep 22, 2009 at 08:00 AM

Red Smith, who wrote as well as anyone about athletes and the games they play, called the sports section the... More

McClatchy’s “Unconfirmed Reports” About Criminal Probes

By Dean Starkman   Sep 22, 2009 at 06:11 AM

McClatchy asks a darned good question in a recent news story: "Why haven't any Wall Street tycoons been sent to... More

Of FOX News and Catnip

Alessandra Stanley’s treatment of the Obama “snub” misses the point

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 21, 2009 at 07:07 PM

Alessandra Stanley’s New York Times piece today on President Obama’s health care-themed weekend media blitz included a photo montage that... More

Lost Innocence

People plead “not guilty”

By Merrill Perlman   Sep 21, 2009 at 05:42 PM

Back in the days before everyone had a computer, news stories would have to be retyped at least once before... More

Wiki Fingers

By Megan Garber   Sep 21, 2009 at 04:00 PM

So you know Time magazine's none-too-flattering treatment of the 'troubles' of Wikipedia? The one suggesting that the online encyclopedia--the paragon... More

Craigslist vs. the Aggregators

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 21, 2009 at 03:44 PM

Wired's cover story this month is a terrific look at craigslist and why it's awesome and not very good, all... More

Genachowski, the Journal, and Net Neutrality

By Megan Garber   Sep 21, 2009 at 03:10 PM

Earlier today, FCC chair Julius Genachowski delivered a speech in which he laid out two new proposals for FCC adoption:... More

Barack Obama, Media Thinker

By Megan Garber   Sep 21, 2009 at 01:30 PM

The most interesting part of Barack Obama's Oval Office discussion with reporters from the Toledo Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette... More

Sixty-Six Pages

By Megan Garber   Sep 21, 2009 at 11:10 AM

The Washington Post, most recently associated, in media-reporting circles, with salons and story-killings, has gone back to its roots. Today's... More

Driving the Conversation

NYT series examines texting, talking behind the wheel

By Greg Marx   Sep 21, 2009 at 10:50 AM

The New York Times has published a number of ambitious series this year, on topics ranging from the financial crisis... More

The Observer Advances the Ball on BoA

By Dean Starkman   Sep 21, 2009 at 09:44 AM

Charlotte's Rick Rothacker scooped the world over the weekend with a story saying the FBI has been probing Bank of... More

Tom DeLay, Twinkle-toes

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 21, 2009 at 09:24 AM

The new season of "Dancing With The Stars . . . and Tom DeLay" premieres tonight at 8 p.m. and... More

Waiting for the Angelides Commission

By Dean Starkman   Sep 21, 2009 at 08:00 AM

Kudos to The New York Times edit page for dogging the poky progress of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the... More

The President versus Stephanopoulos

When is a tax not a tax?

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 21, 2009 at 08:00 AM

I had a lot of sympathy for George Stephanopoulos Sunday when he faced the president in a one-on-one interview. This... More

Medical Homes? You’ve Got To Be Kidding

The new health care dialect

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 20, 2009 at 11:58 AM

At a gathering of Washington health care journalists last week, panelists, including myself, talked about the challenges of covering this... More

ACORN’s Family Tree

Was the Baltimore video journalism? Does it matter?

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 18, 2009 at 05:44 PM

In a piece in the October 2009 issue of The Atlantic, “The Story Behind the Story,” journalist Mark Bowden examines... More

Suggested Readings

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 18, 2009 at 05:30 PM

The New York Times's Charles Duhigg continues his eye-opening investigation of the state of the nation's water quality, today looking... More

MinnPost.com Launches “Science Agenda”

Newcomer outlet picks up the slack left by MSM

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 18, 2009 at 04:43 PM

On Thursday, I wrote about a group of thirty-five research universities that have launched a “newswire” called Futurity.org to showcase... More

Pinning Down the “Jackass” Tale

A tweeted slip reveals a complicated arrangement

By Clint Hendler   Sep 18, 2009 at 04:20 PM

To be sure, the quote at hand does not address the world’s most pressing issue. But earlier this week, when... More

WSJ: Hey, Readers—Your Jobs Aren’t That Important

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 18, 2009 at 03:45 PM

I really like this page-one Wall Street Journal story today looking at the financialization of the economy over the past... More

Seeds of Discontent

What does the ACORN story mean for the mainstream media?

By Greg Marx   Sep 18, 2009 at 03:31 PM

James O’Keefe, the pimp-playing provocateur who set out to target ACORN with a video camera, a cheesy costume, and a... More

Happy Birthday, New York Times

By Megan Garber   Sep 18, 2009 at 02:00 PM

Happy birthday to the Gray Lady, who today turns...158 years old. Whether she's aged well or not is, I guess,... More

“A Big Chance to Win Back the Public’s Faith”

MediaBugs’s Scott Rosenberg on error-correction in the digital age

By Craig Silverman   Sep 18, 2009 at 11:37 AM

Earlier this summer, Scott Rosenberg, co-founder of Salon.com and author of the new book Say Everything, received word that he... More

Examining the Individual Mandate

The Wall Street Journal takes a hard look in Massachusetts

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 18, 2009 at 11:26 AM

Hurrah! At last a major publication has looked in some depth at the central feature of the Obama-et-al health plan.... More

Fight On, Bloomberg.

By Clint Hendler   Sep 18, 2009 at 10:48 AM

Bloomberg News honcho Matthew Winkler has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal bringing us up to date on the... More

Pearlstein: Fundamental Reform for Credit Ratings

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 18, 2009 at 10:13 AM

Steven Pearlstein does well to keep the credit-ratings firms in the spotlight, a place it seems they've been all too... More

Suggested Readings

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 17, 2009 at 06:37 PM

Michael Mandel of BusinessWeek calculates some rough numbers on journalism employment. Newspaper employment is fast approaching a 50 percent decline... More

Missing the Point on the Anglicization of the WSJ

“Come a cropper” is the least of the paper’s problems

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 17, 2009 at 05:17 PM

It's good to see somebody else notice the Anglicization of the The Wall Street Journal. It's not good that that... More

Investors vs. the Public

Why the business press should focus on the latter

By Dean Starkman   Sep 17, 2009 at 05:02 PM

Bloomberg posts interesting results of a poll saying that investors and the general public see Obama's economic performance very differently.... More

Is Futurity the Future?

Citing a lack of science coverage, universities launch their own “newswire”

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 17, 2009 at 04:52 PM

Citing the decline of science coverage in the mainstream news media, thirty-five of the country’s top universities have banded together... More

“Learned, Baroque, and Quite Frequently Terrifying”

The New Republic profiles the Financial Times’s Martin Wolf

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 17, 2009 at 01:39 PM

We're big fans of the Financial Times's Martin Wolf here at The Audit. His Wednesday columns and occasional takeouts are... More

In Which Chuck Todd Learns: Sebelius Is No One to Sneeze At

By Megan Garber   Sep 17, 2009 at 12:50 PM

So flu season, friends, is upon us. And in The Year of the Pig (Flu), the line between common courtesy... More

A WSJ Deal Column After The Audit’s Own Heart

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 17, 2009 at 10:23 AM

It's not often you see something like this in the financial press. David Weidner writes on The Wall Street Journal... More

West Side Story

By Clint Hendler   Sep 17, 2009 at 10:10 AM

The Village Voice's Wayne Barrett was recently watching New York City comptroller candidate David Yassky press the flesh when a... More

Darts and Laurels

News outlets in Connecticut grapple with a hostage crisis

By Greg Marx   Sep 17, 2009 at 09:42 AM

It was the kind of ethical dilemma that classroom case studies are made of, but the potential con- sequences of... More

Suggested Readings

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 16, 2009 at 07:04 PM

Felix and Barry do it. So can I! The NYT says China's slap back at the U.S. tire tariff may... More

Anticipating Peter Goodman’s New Book

By Dean Starkman   Sep 16, 2009 at 05:53 PM

If this excerpt is any indication, Past Due, a new book by New York Times economics writer Peter S. Goodman... More

Hell Spawn with Pepper Jack

By Megan Garber   Sep 16, 2009 at 04:47 PM

The A.V. Club, to commemorate and otherwise record the various "disgusting and/or delicious new edibles" on offer in this brave... More

Mint Makes a Mint

But press coverage of the $170 million deal leaves a bad taste

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 16, 2009 at 04:11 PM

The press, institutionally, has an all-too-short memory. But have we already forgotten some of the lessons of the tech bubble,... More

More on The Atlantic: Wire They Aggregating?

By Megan Garber   Sep 16, 2009 at 02:32 PM

I agree with you, Greg: from what I've seen of the Atlantic Wire, it seems to be, as you say,... More

Washington=Cool… Really?

By Greg Marx   Sep 16, 2009 at 01:11 PM

I share Megan's amazement at Arianna Huffington's entrepreneurial abilities. But, despite our current president's rock-star appeal, I remain skeptical of... More

Atlantic launches opinion aggregator site

By Greg Marx   Sep 16, 2009 at 11:51 AM

Last night, The Atlantic officially launched its new aggregator site of opinion and analysis, The Atlantic Wire. You can see... More

Mother’s Special Recipe

By Clint Hendler   Sep 16, 2009 at 11:29 AM

I’m quite fascinated by the fundraising events that the always hungry opinion magazines cook up hoping to liberate some money... More

Arianna Huffington, Queen of All Media

By Megan Garber   Sep 16, 2009 at 11:27 AM

Conservative pundit? Check. Liberal pundit? Check. Book author? Check. Lobbyist? Check. Political activist? Check. Gubernatorial candidate? Check. Radio commentator? Check.... More

Science Needs a Storyline

The question is not if, but how scientists should frame their research

By Matt Nisbet, Dominique Brossard, Dietram Scheufele   Sep 16, 2009 at 11:22 AM

Journalists choose an angle for every story they write. Should scientists do the same when explaining the import of their... More

Out of Africa

The raw and redemptive odyssey of a Burundian refugee

By Gregory Beyer   Sep 16, 2009 at 10:50 AM

Strength in What Remains | By Tracy Kidder | Random House | 304 pages, $26 “The world is full of... More

Expert Takes on Overseas Elections

By Greg Marx   Sep 16, 2009 at 10:33 AM

A promising development for global news junkies: the group political science blog The Monkey Cage is seeking poli-sci posts on... More

Trade, “Buy American,” and the Journal

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 16, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Trade reporting has picked up in the last couple of days after the Obama administration slapped a fat tariff on... More

Another Case for Bipartisanship

By Greg Marx   Sep 16, 2009 at 09:56 AM

At his Mother Jones blog, Kevin Drum makes an interesting case that bipartisanship is important, after all. On the most... More

Health Reform Lessons from Massachusetts, Part VI

The canary in the coal mine

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 16, 2009 at 09:54 AM

Three years ago the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted a far-reaching health reform law that politicians and the media hailed as... More

Brauchli: “Too Many People Call Our Newsroom”

By Greg Marx   Sep 15, 2009 at 07:08 PM

Howie Kurtz hasn’t had to range far afield for story subjects the last couple months. Today, he delivered an in-depth... More

Forget 140 Characters, Try Just Six Words

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 15, 2009 at 05:01 PM

SMITH Magazine, the online journal of pithy six-word memoirs and FRONTLINE/Digital Nation — a PBS documentary project about life in... More

WSJ Will Charge for Mobile Access

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 15, 2009 at 04:49 PM

Rupert Murdoch is putting his money—or more accurately, "your money"—where his mouth is, announcing that his Wall Street Journal will... More

More Thoughts on the Big Speech

By Greg Marx   Sep 15, 2009 at 03:28 PM

Prompted by Nate Silver’s latest thoughts on this topic, Ezra Klein asks, “Do Speeches Work?” His conclusion: That said, the... More

Times Up

Is “three times more” the same as “three times as many”?

By Merrill Perlman   Sep 15, 2009 at 01:44 PM

Most journalists didn’t become so because they’re good at math—even economic journalists. But, when dealing with numbers, you don’t have... More

Cheech and Chong Aren’t Dead Yet

Not everyone in the media is ready to take drug reform seriously

By Greg Marx   Sep 15, 2009 at 01:20 PM

David Downs presents a lot of support today for the proposition that the media is, at long last, adopting a... More

A Culture of…Integration

By Megan Garber   Sep 15, 2009 at 01:02 PM

So, hot on the heels of Sam Sifton's strange-yet-also-strangely-obvious shift-of-roles from The New York Times culture editor to its restaurant... More

The Too-Fleet Tweet

Should news organizations editorially monitor their employees’ Twitter accounts?

By The Editors   Sep 15, 2009 at 12:16 PM

On Monday, ABC News reporter Terry Moran broadcast President Obama’s off-the-record assessment of Kanye West’s MTV Video Music Award antics... More

Graphic Storytelling, Finger Paint-Style

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 15, 2009 at 11:36 AM

Illustrator Christoph Niemann has a new entry in his graphic blog, "Abstract City" on the New York Times's online Opinion... More

Flipping…Out?

By Megan Garber   Sep 15, 2009 at 11:34 AM

It doesn't happen too often...but I have to take issue with David Carr. As Ali pointed out, the Times's Media... More

Bipartisanship Has Sailed

Political consensus is not an unalloyed good

By Greg Marx   Sep 15, 2009 at 10:44 AM

In Politico yesterday, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen had a good, interesting piece about why, in their words, “bipartisanship gets... More

Google Flips For Print Experience

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 15, 2009 at 10:30 AM

As newspapers try to figure out how to be Web-bier, the Web is trying to be more like the print... More

The Press Hypes This Morning’s Retail Sales Numbers

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 15, 2009 at 10:21 AM

There they go again. The press is out of the gate with the first news stories on the retail sales... More

Government Claims That Should Perhaps Not Be Believed

By Greg Marx   Sep 15, 2009 at 09:50 AM

Further evidence, not that it was needed, of the weakness of Pakistan’s government institutions: the distinctly subpar quality of its... More

Of Twitter, Jackasses, Toothpaste and Tubes

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 15, 2009 at 09:16 AM

In his column in today's Washington Post, media critic Howard Kurtz chronicles a Twitter episode that showed how important it... More

Rock Bottom

Get stoked: the MSM are acting less childish about pot

By David Downs   Sep 15, 2009 at 09:00 AM

The strain of “reefer madness” that's been infecting American newsrooms since at least 1911 appears to be abating amid some... More

Disappearing Iraq

After a period of openness that benefited both the military and the media, the door is closing

By Jane Arraf   Sep 15, 2009 at 08:00 AM

Ah, the happy world of Iraq, as seen through U.S. military press releases. Iraq could be exploding—in fact, parts of... More

Anniversary Stories, Lehman Brothers, and Bloomberg

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 14, 2009 at 06:22 PM

We're still wading through the anniversary stories in the business press, one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered... More

Dancing With Political Operatives

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 14, 2009 at 06:06 PM

In one week, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay makes his debut on the dance competition show "Dancing With the... More

And Just Your Best Guess—Is the Earth Round? Or Is It Flat?

By Greg Marx   Sep 14, 2009 at 06:05 PM

The latest CNN/Opinion Reseach Corporation poll (PDF) includes the following question: And just your best guess -- based on what... More

Happy Anniversary, Financial Crisis

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 14, 2009 at 11:58 AM

Put on your party hats, it's the first anniversary of Lehman Brothers's collapse and the start of a domino effect... More

Why Alt Media Beat the MSM to the Mortgage Crisis

They were tuned to a different audience

By Alyssa Katz   Sep 14, 2009 at 11:15 AM

Over recent months, The Audit and CJR have investigated how it was that business reporters failed to see the crisis... More

Tea for Two…Million?

FreedomWorks, Twitter, and the evolution of an error

By Megan Garber   Sep 14, 2009 at 10:55 AM

On Saturday, a collection of citizens of the Republic, armed with handmade signs, Gadsden flags, and pent-up frustration, descended on... More

Who Will Be at the Table? Part XV

The gun owners come out of the woodwork

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 14, 2009 at 10:42 AM

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

Looking at BusinessWeek’s Prospects

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 14, 2009 at 10:39 AM

Somebody finally got a hold of the BusinessWeek sale documents, and they clarify the magazine's prospects a bit. The New... More

Measuring a Speech’s Success

In speech reax stories, competing theories of politics

By Greg Marx   Sep 14, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Barack Obama’s big health care speech last week has, in general, been deemed a success by the media and the... More

Other Angles of the Health Care Story

By Greg Marx   Sep 14, 2009 at 10:20 AM

For readers tracking the legislative negotiations on health care reform, today’s New York Times has two interesting stories on overlooked... More

BW Looks at Effectiveness of Proposed Reforms

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 11, 2009 at 05:35 PM

We've been watching press coverage of regulatory reform closely here at The Audit for several months. The press has done... More

From Hudson to 9/11

Times smartly pairs two lower-Manhattan anniversaries

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 11, 2009 at 04:26 PM

Remember remember the month of September. So says a smart tribute in today’s New York Times, pairing the eighth anniversary... More

So Much for Ignoring Joe Wilson

By Greg Marx   Sep 11, 2009 at 03:33 PM

Per Kevin Drum, it seems that The Washington Post, at least, has not heeded Megan's plea. Drum's comparison of the... More

Joe Wilson’s War

In praise of indecorous debate

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 11, 2009 at 03:01 PM

It may be an unpopular opinion, seeing as the rest of the world has piled onto Rep. Joe Wilson of... More

New York Times to CNN: We’re better than you

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 11, 2009 at 02:52 PM

More on CNN's false alarm over a Coast Guard training exercise in the Potomac earlier today. The New York Times's... More

“Sept. 11: O’Donnell and Geist inspect ‘male model’ Louis’ hair”

By Megan Garber   Sep 11, 2009 at 02:27 PM

Presented without further comment, because, just... Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy More

CNN and the Case of the Missing Phone Call

By Megan Garber   Sep 11, 2009 at 01:59 PM

Over at Politico, Michael Calderone has a good summary of the tumult of events that led Matt Drudge, on the... More

Examples of “Crankery” That Really Weren’t

By Greg Marx   Sep 11, 2009 at 01:40 PM

In continuing Joe Wilson coverage, Andie Collier has a story at Politico about the increasing prominence of Republican “cranks.” The... More

The Graphic Explainer

By Megan Garber   Sep 11, 2009 at 01:30 PM

Ever wonder what would happen if, one evening, Explanatory Journalism met Comic Book, and they kinda hit it off, and... More

Q & A: Financial Times CEO John Ridding

How the Financial Times not only kept its readers, but even got them to pay

By Diana Dellamere   Sep 11, 2009 at 12:40 PM

While newspapers fight to stay afloat, the Financial Times is doing just fine. In fact, the paper has almost doubled... More

CJR’s Town Hall Meetings, Part IV

The view from Main Street, Columbia, Mo.

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 11, 2009 at 11:27 AM

Everyone, it seems is trying to take the pulse of the electorate—Americans who, as the saying goes, vote with their... More

Lessons from “Sesame Street”

PBS hits home with a look at the economic fallout on families

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 11, 2009 at 11:14 AM

Last night, I saw some of the best journalism on regular working folks that I've seen in some time. But... More

Michael Kinsley, Correctionaholic

Don’t believe a word of Kinsley’s recent WaPo column

By Craig Silverman   Sep 11, 2009 at 11:13 AM

Don’t believe a word of Michael Kinsley’s recent column for the Washington Post. The man would have you assume that... More

“Nothing Short of a Declaration of War”

By Megan Garber   Sep 11, 2009 at 10:38 AM

Watching the "living history" coverage of 9/11/01 on MSNBC, I am struck repeatedly by the language journalists used to describe... More

WSJ: Some Restaurant Won’t Take Cash Now

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 11, 2009 at 10:22 AM

File this one under odd news judgment: A Greenwich Village restaurant is no longer taking cash. The Wall Street Journal... More

#whereiwas

By Megan Garber   Sep 11, 2009 at 10:07 AM

Today is a day for remembering. MSNBC, as it has every September 11 since 2001, is re-airing, in full, its... More

Playing the Margins

Politicians have good reason to avoid the details. Journalists don’t.

By Greg Marx   Sep 10, 2009 at 04:42 PM

Ezra Klein’s live chat with readers today included this interesting exchange: Washington, D.C.: I found it interesting that the subsidies,... More

So is the “You Lie!” Guy a Liar?

By Greg Marx   Sep 10, 2009 at 03:56 PM

As you might have heard, there was a little interruption during the president’s address last night. But was Rep. Joe... More

Wrongheaded and Incomplete on Incomes

The Wall Street Journal, comforting the comfortable with selective data

By David Cay Johnston   Sep 10, 2009 at 03:07 PM

This morning’s page-one Wall Street Journal story on incomes in America contains many bungled facts and concepts in a single... More

The Times on a Real Estate Deal Gone (Deservedly) Bad

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 10, 2009 at 02:22 PM

The New York Times on page one today looks at the fate of the buyout of Manhattan's Stuyvesant Town and... More

More About Munadi

By Greg Marx   Sep 10, 2009 at 02:09 PM

Over at The New Yorker’s site, George Packer has published some powerful thoughts about the death of Sultan Munadi. An... More

John Stossel/Mother Ship

By Megan Garber   Sep 10, 2009 at 01:46 PM

And, now, all is just a little more right with the world: John Stossel, longtime 20/20 correspondent and the media's... More

What Does “Urban Modern” Editing Look Like?

By Greg Marx   Sep 10, 2009 at 01:40 PM

The big news in New York Times Magazine editor Gerald Marzorati’s pre-Labor Day Q&A with readers was the jaw-dropping price... More

Joe Wilson Is Your Preexisting Condition

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 10, 2009 at 01:38 PM

Joe Wilson has become that guy. The Republican Representative from South Carolina who blurted out "You lie!" during Obama's healthcare... More

What Did the President Really Say?

More goals and details and questions to ponder

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 10, 2009 at 12:52 PM

Politico got it just about right. “In the end,” wrote Carrie Budoff Brown, “a speech meant to reset the health... More

Reshuffling the Senate

Strong Politico piece takes stock of Senate moves

By Greg Marx   Sep 10, 2009 at 12:34 PM

I was somewhat critical of a David Rogers article earlier this week, but his Politico piece today on the shuffling... More

Sultan Munadi, RIP

By Greg Marx   Sep 10, 2009 at 10:42 AM

A week before he was killed during a commando raid that freed his colleague, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell,... More

Barack Obama, Media Critic

On Obama’s remarks at the Cronkite memorial service

By Greg Marx   Sep 10, 2009 at 10:33 AM

Maybe, if this whole presidency thing doesn’t work out, Barack Obama can land a Nieman fellowship. As you’ve probably heard,... More

Mr. Wilson Goes to Washington

Dear news networks: ignore Joe Wilson. Please.

By Megan Garber   Sep 9, 2009 at 11:03 PM

The most memorable aspect of President Obama's health care address to Congress tonight was not its rhetoric, or its resonance,... More

WSJ on the Prospects for Reform

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 9, 2009 at 05:48 PM

The Wall Street Journal has an okay page-one look at the prospects for financial reform, concluding that they've "faltered" as... More

Research, Not Relations…

Why scientists should leave communications to the pros

By Earle Holland   Sep 9, 2009 at 04:58 PM

A piece in The Observatory last week lamented the fact that Rajenda Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on... More

Schooling the President

In ‘91, Bush spoke, students listened, the Post snarked

By Greg Marx   Sep 9, 2009 at 04:56 PM

When conservative foot-soldiers began to kick up a storm last week about President Barack Obama’s plans to deliver a manipulative,... More

What a Speech Can’t Do

The president thinks he can persuade people. He’s probably wrong.

By Greg Marx   Sep 9, 2009 at 01:58 PM

Tonight, if a recent Pew Research Center poll is to be believed, a massive television audience will tune in to... More

All Wet

When you read, you “pore,” not “pour”

By Merrill Perlman   Sep 9, 2009 at 12:52 PM

The White House releases a bunch of sensitive documents on a Friday afternoon, and the investigative reporter resigns herself to... More

Twittering the Newsman’s Memorial

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 9, 2009 at 12:32 PM

TVNewser kept us up to date this morning by live-tweeting the Walter Cronkite memorial service at Lincoln Center. Besides breathlessly... More

Baucus Watch, Part XIII

At last, the senator brings forth a plan

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 9, 2009 at 11:27 AM

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

Drudge Has Lost His Touch

Technology, the competition, and the times have passed him

By Ethan Porter   Sep 9, 2009 at 11:25 AM

If you visited the Drudge Report on July 1, you’d be forgiven for thinking that nothing had changed. A BILLION... More

Death Panel, DNR

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 9, 2009 at 11:10 AM

She's at it again. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has revived the specter of the death panel, this time in... More

Where Have All the Health Reform Goals Gone?

What will Obama articulate tonight?

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 9, 2009 at 10:09 AM

When Barack Obama was running for president, he said he wanted to make sure every child had health insurance. That... More

Truth? Yes, Sir!

Why we need a clearer view of both our wars

By The Editors   Sep 9, 2009 at 08:00 AM

General William Tecumseh Sherman, like a number of military leaders through history, despised journalists. Tom Curley, president and CEO of... More

Too Close for Comfort?

Tom Ricks and the military’s new philosophical embeds

By Tara McKelvey   Sep 9, 2009 at 08:00 AM

Thomas E. Ricks has a photograph of a general—Ulysses S. Grant, looking haggard and defeated in Cold Harbor, Virginia—on the... More

The Times Takes on Overdraft “Protection”

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 9, 2009 at 07:00 AM

The New York Times goes big this morning on the overdraft "protection" racket with a front-page story looking at this... More

Somebody Else (!) Takes on the Murdoch Journal

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 8, 2009 at 05:31 PM

The blog NYTPicker, in the course of praising a page one Times story yesterday, turns its critical eye on The... More

Plagiarism Follies at the Courant

TribCo unit fumbles a scandal

By Dean Starkman   Sep 8, 2009 at 03:53 PM

On the subject of newspapers chewing their own legs off, the Hartford Courant, is in the process of doing... More

The Unlearned Lessons of Lehman, a Year Later

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 8, 2009 at 03:26 PM

September 15 is a week away, so here come the Lehman Brothers retrospectives. First out of the gate is Bloomberg,... More

Stuck with the Senate

Why it makes sense for Obama to focus on the upper house

By Greg Marx   Sep 8, 2009 at 02:15 PM

American health care system is in need of reform. Does President Barack Obama’s job consist of finding a way to... More

Connect the dots

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 8, 2009 at 02:15 PM

Today, Slate launches a new interactive feature called "News Dots," which aims to illustrate how all news stories are related... More

Listening to Legislation

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 8, 2009 at 01:20 PM

In an effort to inform people about the ongoing health care debate and to make reading legalese less boring, a... More

Raking the Muck

By Megan Garber   Sep 8, 2009 at 12:53 PM

Which of these jobs is not like the others? Here's a clue: More

School Lessons from Obama

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 8, 2009 at 11:06 AM

Any minute now, President Barack Obama will address the nation's schoolchildren in a planned televised speech that caused a partisan... More

CJR’s Town Hall Meetings, Part III

The view from Wal-Mart, Honesdale, Pa.

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 8, 2009 at 11:05 AM

Everyone, it seems, is trying to take the pulse of the electorate—Americans who, as the saying goes, vote with their... More

Press Forward: Dialogues on the Future of News

A new series from CJR

By The Editors   Sep 8, 2009 at 10:40 AM

Somewhere along the way, we began talking about the future of news in terms of salvation. What will save us?... More

In Conversation

Megan Garber and Justin Peters talk about the news, the Internet, and the convergence of the two

By Megan Garber and Justin Peters   Sep 8, 2009 at 10:37 AM

To read Megan Garber's "Common Knowledge," click here. To read Justin Peters's "Something to Talk About," click here. Justin Peters:... More

Common Knowledge

Communal news in a fragmented world

By Megan Garber   Sep 8, 2009 at 10:32 AM

The supermarket shelves have been rearranged. It happened one day without warning. There is agitation and panic in the aisles,... More

Something to Talk About

The Internet as a communications tool

By Justin Peters   Sep 8, 2009 at 10:31 AM

“The irony is that in all its various guises—commerce, research, and surfing—the Web is already so much a part of... More

Something to Talk About: Further Reading

By Justin Peters   Sep 8, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Inventing the Internet, by Janet Abbate. A solidly researched, no-nonsense look at the Internet's early days. The Charles Babbage Institute... More

Common Knowledge: Further Reading

By Megan Garber   Sep 8, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Further Reading Eric Alterman’s What Liberal Media? is seminal reading in the broad field of ‘bias studies.’ The book challenges... More

Press Forward

Links to every entry in CJR’s Press Forward: Dialogues on the Future of News series

By The Editors   Sep 8, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Project Introduction: "News will continue, but what shape will it take? What will the transition from the analog world to... More

Shout-outs to the Kansas City Star and Kaiser News Service

For starting to fill in the blanks on health reform

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 8, 2009 at 10:24 AM

For months we on Campaign Desk have been urging the media to pull back the reins at health care’s Kentucky... More

WSJ on a New Chamber of Commerce Campaign

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 8, 2009 at 10:08 AM

The Wall Street Journal has a scoop today that the Chamber of Commerce is funding a $2 million ad campaign... More

The Health Care Debate: A Resource for Journalists

By The Editors   Sep 4, 2009 at 05:02 PM

Far too many Americans have no health insurance or are underinsured. And, meanwhile, far too large a percentage of America’s... More

White House Promises to Reveal Visitor Logs

But vague exemptions could undercut disclosure

By Clint Hendler   Sep 4, 2009 at 04:46 PM

Today, in a truly stunning conclusion to a long series of lawsuits, the Obama administration announced that it will begin... More

More on Print and Online Reader Revenue

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 4, 2009 at 04:23 PM

Michael Masnick of TechDirt took issue last week with my post showing the wide disparity between the value of online... More

Michael Kinsley vs. Factual Accuracy

WaPo columnist slams the Times’s “schoolmarmish” corrections column

By Lester Feder   Sep 4, 2009 at 02:14 PM

In an op-ed published in today's Washington Post criticizing The New York Times's published corrections, columnist Michael Kinsley officially went... More

Silver Buckshot Misses Target

Fact-checking Biden’s Stimulus Speech

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 4, 2009 at 12:13 PM

Silver Buckshot. No, that's not Vice President Joe Biden's new nickname. That's his description of the stimulus package, which he... More

EPA Targets Major Emitters

Journal sees an admission that limiting carbon will be costly

By Curtis Brainard   Sep 4, 2009 at 11:41 AM

The Environmental Protection Agency sent a “tailoring rule” to the White House for consideration on Saturday that would limit regulation... More

Sex, Newspapers and Defamation, Italian-style

The latest in Italy’s media wars

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 4, 2009 at 11:21 AM

The New York Times picks up on the Silvio Berlusconi newspaper wars in Italy today with a follow up on... More

CJR’s Town Hall Meetings, Part II

The view from the heartland—the patients

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 4, 2009 at 11:09 AM

Everyone, it seems, is trying to take the pulse of the electorate—Americans who, as the saying goes, vote with their... More

Spoiling the Broth

When recipes get it wrong

By Craig Silverman   Sep 4, 2009 at 10:35 AM

Around this time last year, celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson was tucking into a big piece of humble pie. Worrall... More

Whose photo is it?

By Clint Hendler   Sep 4, 2009 at 10:32 AM

This week, an interesting behind the scenes debate played out between the Associated Press, a deceased Marine's parents, and the... More

Unemployment (Still) Worse Than You Think

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 4, 2009 at 09:53 AM

The press reports the bad news this morning that the unemployment rate closed in on 10 percent last month, hitting... More

Throwing Spitz Balls at The Post

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 3, 2009 at 07:03 PM

Congratulations to the New York Post. They’ve managed to pull three four days worth of cover stories out of a... More

A Good Dose of Common Sense Heard on the Street

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 3, 2009 at 06:02 PM

The Journal's Simon Nixon has a nice Heard on the Street column today, noting that "Bankers Have Only Themselves to... More

Local Flavor

Philadelphia newspapers launch “keep it local” campaign

By Daniel Denvir   Sep 3, 2009 at 03:23 PM

The owners of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News hope that local newspapers won’t be going out of... More

Calculating the Benefits of Cash for Clunkers

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 3, 2009 at 01:24 PM

Yesterday I tipped The Audit's cap to a nifty bit of analysis from Calculated Risk pointing out that the real... More

“Which Is Presented as an Essay By [Levi] Johnston…”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 3, 2009 at 10:43 AM

The Anchorage Daily News reports today on Levi Johnston's Vanity Fair piece, and goes out on a limb to suggest... More

WSJ’s Wessel on the Deficit and Taxing the Rich

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 3, 2009 at 10:25 AM

The Wall Street Journal's David Wessel has a useful column looking at whether and how much tax increases on the... More

Farewell, Kind Uncle Charlie

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 3, 2009 at 09:50 AM

Charles Gibson, in a word? LA Times: ... the abrupt end of the Bob Woodruff-Elizabeth Vargas pairing that led the... More

Dominick Dunne, Done

Celebrity journalism matters, sometimes

By Daniel Luzer   Sep 3, 2009 at 07:00 AM

Quite possibly the person most bothered by the death of Edward M. Kennedy last week was celebrity crime writer and... More

“If Michael Jackson Hadn’t Died…”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 2, 2009 at 03:52 PM

In an online Q&A, Vanity Fair special correspondent Maureen Orth explains what might have been this summer for "The Craigslist... More

How To Keep Secrets

Obama tries to get classification right

By Clint Hendler   Sep 2, 2009 at 12:41 PM

It’s no secret that many think America’s classification system is no longer up to the task of protecting the nation... More

Advice for Diane Sawyer

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 2, 2009 at 12:13 PM

Advice for Diane Sawyer for her inaugural outing, reportedly to take place in January, as the new anchor of ABC's... More

Ling and Lee on Their Detention in N. Korea

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 2, 2009 at 11:16 AM

Current TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee write, for the first time, about their reporting, capture, and detention in... More

The Op-Ed No One Wanted

Canada’s corpse-strewn landscape?

By Trudy Lieberman   Sep 2, 2009 at 10:31 AM

By now, how many Americans haven’t heard of death panels, and the Big Bad Government interfering with end-of-life decisions that... More

Calculating the Clunkers’ Real Cost to Taxpayers

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 2, 2009 at 10:06 AM

Calculated Risk has a smart bit of economic analysis on the real cost to taxpayers of the Cash for Clunkers... More

“Free-For-All Internet Media Culture” is a Euphemism For…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 2, 2009 at 09:50 AM

..., apparently, the Washington press corps. The New York Times's Peter Baker today writes about the rumored "nuptials that never... More

Mob Mentality

The Times’s mafia-and-the-stimulus angle? Whacked.

By Alexandra Fenwick   Sep 2, 2009 at 08:00 AM

The New York Times had an interesting story on the stimulus earlier this week. Specifically, on the stimulus and—wait for... More

Today’s Number 1 and Number 2 Headlines…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 1, 2009 at 04:46 PM

... thematically, anyway. From the Wall Street Journal: "In Paris, Behavior Brigade Battles to Make Oui-Oui a Non-Non" And, from... More

The FT on the Bloat in Banking

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 1, 2009 at 03:57 PM

The debate in the U.S. over how to reform the financial system has been overshadowed by the health-care hubbub. It's... More

Breaking: Bernie Madoff’s Beach House Has (Ew!) “Formica Countertops”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 1, 2009 at 01:59 PM

Reporters have been given a video walk-through of Bernie Madoff's Montauk, New York beach house. And? Not so impressed. This... More

Lazy Summer Musings from the WSJ D.C. Bureau

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 1, 2009 at 01:36 PM

The Wall Street Journal wants you to know why the town halls were so rowdy this summer. Here's its stilted... More

DePaul U. Delivers On McSweeney’s “Internet-Age Writing Syllabus?”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 1, 2009 at 11:58 AM

At McSweeney's back in April, Robert Lanham unveiled his "Internet-Age Writing Syllabus and Course Overview" for (wink, wink) "ENG 371WR:... More

WaPo Develops Visual Commenting System

By Megan Garber   Sep 1, 2009 at 11:21 AM

Conversation on the Web can be a tricky little thing for news outlets to facilitate. At their best, stories' commenting... More

“The Strangulation of the Sri Lankan Press”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Sep 1, 2009 at 10:55 AM

From a profile of Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, written for The (UK) Independent by a "special correspondent," "a Sri... More

When Kennedy Didn’t Compromise

Lessons from the senator’s early health reform failure

By Cristine Russell   Sep 1, 2009 at 10:17 AM

I join the chorus of those who have long admired Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s remarkable Senate career and his persistence... More

Sex on Skates Newsstands

By Megan Garber   Sep 1, 2009 at 09:07 AM

Gotta hand it to Levi Johnston: the dude has leveraged. He took a random and semi-awkward moment in the political... More