See No Evil, Report No Evil

Covering the oil spill, reporters must ensure that what’s out of sight isn’t out of mind

By Brett Norman   May 28, 2010 at 03:37 PM

The gall of BP and their federal overseers in withholding the fact that the “top kill” effort was suspended for... More

Missing the Paywall Point

What do the Irish News and the Guardian teach us about paywalls?

By Ryan Chittum   May 28, 2010 at 03:01 PM

The Guardian's Roy Greenslade thinks we should take a lesson about paywalls from the Irish News, a 45,000-circulation daily that... More

The Times Takes a Timely Look at Migration

By Holly Yeager   May 28, 2010 at 02:55 PM

The New York Times has a fascinating look at an angle of the immigration story that often goes unnoticed: international... More

Hacky Punditry at the WSJ

Noonan says Dems don’t ‘love’ Obama. But they seem to like him pretty well.

By Greg Marx   May 28, 2010 at 02:52 PM

Given much of the media’s determination to see politics primarily as a stage upon which the president struts and frets,... More

The Man on the Street

So a citizen journalist walks into a journalism school …

By Alexandra Fenwick   May 28, 2010 at 12:51 PM

Lots of people walk through the doors of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism every day. Just this past month,... More

California Roundup

SacBee presses Fiorina, and AP perplexes on GOP primary

By Greg Marx   May 28, 2010 at 12:50 PM

Folks who’ve been paying attention to the Republican Senate primary in California this year might have noticed something unusual: in... More

Taking out the Sestak Trash

By Clint Hendler   May 28, 2010 at 12:05 PM

With Obama’s promise at yesterday’s press conference that the White House would imminently (“When I say ‘shortly,’ I mean shortly.... More

Polygraphs and Private Eyes

Inside the National Enquirer’s elaborate fact-checking process

By Craig Silverman   May 28, 2010 at 11:23 AM

Prior to returning my call, Barry Levine was on the phone with one of his reporters, discussing a source they... More

AJC Stirring Up the Anti-Census Crowd with Falsehoods

Bob Barr says—without evidence—the gubmint can force its way into your home when you’re not there

By Ryan Chittum   May 28, 2010 at 10:00 AM

Drudge is linking to an incendiary Atlanta Journal-Constitution blog post by former congressman Bob Barr. Barr claims in his headline... More

Audit Notes: Animal Farm Webified, Murdoch’s Paradox, Reform Hype

By Ryan Chittum   May 27, 2010 at 07:09 PM

Speaking of the Web and hyped headlines, McSweeney's has probably the best satire of the genre yet. Mike Lacher's piece,... More

Bad Redesigns

News sites regress in a bid to declutter their home pages

By Ryan Chittum   May 27, 2010 at 05:49 PM

What's going on with these redesigns? There seems to be a movement afoot to declutter news websites' home pages. Problem... More

If This Election Thing Doesn’t Work Out, They Can Take This Show on the Road

By Greg Marx   May 27, 2010 at 04:18 PM

I noted this morning how the Arkansas press corps has a knack for turning out surprisingly readable endorsements. Another campaign... More

The Journal Excels on BP

An investigation shows the company repeatedly cutting corners in the Gulf

By Ryan Chittum   May 27, 2010 at 12:33 PM

The Wall Street Journal unloads a huge, devastating investigation into the BP oil catastrophe this morning, finding that the company... More

More Prepping for POTUS’s Presser

By Greg Marx   May 27, 2010 at 12:22 PM

Building off Liz’s post below, it’s worth noting that Politico’s Josh Gerstein and Carol E. Lee have put together their... More

Press Conference To-Do Lists (“Show Us The Anger!”)

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 27, 2010 at 11:51 AM

With President Obama scheduled to hold a press conference in about an hour, the Washington Post's Karen Tumulty has a... More

Secrecy at the Deficit Commission

Note to the media: It’s past time for a little sunshine here

By Trudy Lieberman   May 27, 2010 at 11:42 AM

The President’s Deficit Commission held an end-of-the month meeting yesterday, and among the attendees was a woman representing the disability... More

Another Unusual Endorsement

Is something in the water in Arkansas?

By Greg Marx   May 27, 2010 at 11:05 AM

Newspaper endorsement editorials are notoriously snooze-inducing affairs. (Maybe that’s why we’re seeing a spate of non-endorsements this year—it’s the only... More

Massa in the movies?

By Clint Hendler   May 27, 2010 at 10:51 AM

Just when you thought the only thing left to come of the Congressman Massa resignation (the one that brought us... More

Can Local Television Afford Investigations?

A Texas station makes the calculation

By Lisa Anderson   May 27, 2010 at 05:00 AM

In the predawn hours of October 16, 2006, the home of Benny and Martha Cryer exploded. They had lived in... More

Audit Notes: Corporate Welfare for BP, (Financial) Markets First, Facebook

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 07:25 PM

The Los Angeles Times has a terrific story pointing out that Washington larded up the oil companies with tax breaks... More

WSJ Again Pulls Back the Curtains on Window Dressing

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 06:53 PM

The Wall Street Journal continues its excellent work on the Wall Street "window dressing" story, which it broke early last... More

More on Hyped Atlantic Headlines

“Did Christianity Cause the Crash?” was a low point for the magazine

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 05:21 PM

Mollie brings up a great point in comments on my earlier post on sensational, misleading headlines at the Atlantic. She... More

Jobs Bill Jumble

Competing narratives and conflicting theories as Congress delays action

By Holly Yeager   May 26, 2010 at 03:20 PM

The news today is that Democratic leaders in the House delayed a vote on a jobs bill. But good luck... More

Attention! Pay No More to Palin?

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 26, 2010 at 01:33 PM

Author and reporter Joe McGinniss has apparently rented the house next door to Sarah Palin's in Wasilla, Alaska, the better... More

The Financial Industry’s Threadbare Astroturf

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 10:37 AM

Mike Konczal reports on a scrambled-together lobbying effort by the banks along with Visa and Mastercard to defeat the interchange-fee... More

Sorry, Porn Didn’t Cause TK Regulatory Failure

A misleading Atlantic headline and a misdirection on what’s wrong with oversight

By Ryan Chittum   May 26, 2010 at 09:53 AM

Here's an example of one of the all-time most-annoying Web journalism tricks. Daniel Indiviglio at The Atlantic's site has this... More

Secretary of Best Guesses

Timeline sinks longstanding Sestak Navy rumor

By Clint Hendler   May 26, 2010 at 09:00 AM

Last Wednesday, after Pennsylvania Democrats picked Representative Joe Sestak over long serving (and recently Republican) incumbent Arlen Specter as their... More

Big Bet, Small Stakes

Reporting on the “Contract” debate should be clear: it didn’t do much

By Greg Marx   May 26, 2010 at 08:02 AM

At his WaPo blog, Chris Cillizza has a post up that hashes over the question of whether Republicans, poised to... More

Audit Notes: Blankfein and Barber, Another BP OIl Spill, Box Offices and Onions

By Ryan Chittum   May 25, 2010 at 11:13 PM

Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor Alan Murray has a good question on Twitter for the Financial Times: So the... More

WSJ.com Lacks Link Luster

But there are lots of reasons for that

By Ryan Chittum   May 25, 2010 at 05:43 PM

Jeff Bercovici and Felix Salmon point to a Project for Excellence in Journalism study for a cautionary tale on paywalls... More

Santorum Cracks the Code to Getting Coverage

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 25, 2010 at 04:41 PM

Rick Santorum, the former two-term Republican Senator from Pennsylvania and current Fox News contributor and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, was... More

Stung Out

By Daniel Luzer   May 25, 2010 at 04:24 PM

Apparently now that the is-she-actually-a-lesbian discussion has been ruled dilatory, journalists have decided to focus on the one kinda minority... More

Rural Voters for Halter: The New CW in ARSen

By Greg Marx   May 25, 2010 at 03:09 PM

We’ve noted a couple times here, in the wake of the Democratic Senate primary in Arkansas, that the vote breakdown... More

Reading Between the Rescission Lines

By Holly Yeager   May 25, 2010 at 02:34 PM

The White House proposal to give presidents new power to cut spending got plenty of media attention. But despite all... More

Small Banks Did Not Perform Worst in This Crisis

It would take 3,800 Georgia bank failures to equal one Bank of America

By Ryan Chittum   May 25, 2010 at 01:23 PM

The Atlantic's Derek Thompson quotes a friend in finance saying: "Small banks did the worst in this crisis," he once... More

Making News Pay

Is it possible to design a paywall that’s both permeable and profitable?

By The Editors   May 25, 2010 at 12:30 PM

After years in which discussion of getting readers to pay for news was out of fashion, momentum seems to be... More

William Greider on Social Security

A superb take on Obama’s deficit commission

By Trudy Lieberman   May 25, 2010 at 11:42 AM

William Greider, writing in The Nation, didn’t mince words when it came to explaining what’s at stake in the looming... More

Rand Paul’s Wild Ride

Did the Kentucky press fail to challenge the GOP Senate nominee?

By Greg Marx   May 25, 2010 at 08:37 AM

Over at his new blog, Josh Green has been posting lately on Rand Paul’s victory in Kentucky’s Republican primary for... More

How Blogs and Social Media Agendas Relate To Traditional, Oh To Hell With It

By Alexandra Fenwick   May 25, 2010 at 08:30 AM

Yesterday, the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism released another of their comprehensive and fascinating research reports on... More

Bite the Hand That Feeds

The Chicago News Cooperative and the tricky nonprofit terrain

By Jamie Kalven   May 25, 2010 at 05:00 AM

Shipwrecked by the sea change in their industry, many journalists are looking to philanthropy and academia as safe harbors. Numerous... More

Audit D.C. Notes: Crook on Broken Labour Markets, Bartlett Notices That We’re Getting Old, WSJ Notices Fannie and Freddie

By Holly Yeager   May 24, 2010 at 06:32 PM

We’ve been complaining that the long-term unemployment problem isn’t getting enough attention from the business press. But Clive Crook’s latest... More

Audit Notes: Hardly a Nick, European Fallout, Shopping for Ratings

By Ryan Chittum   May 24, 2010 at 06:25 PM

I wrote this morning that the financial-reform bill is like taking a firebug's matches away and leaving him with his... More

Bloomberg Investigates a “Double Irish” Corporate Tax Scheme

By Ryan Chittum   May 24, 2010 at 04:31 PM

A tip of The Audit's cap to Bloomberg, which had an excellent investigation last week on a big way corporations... More

Soaking It Up

There’s more than one way to blot a spill

By Merrill Perlman   May 24, 2010 at 03:11 PM

The aftermath of the Gulf oil spill is giving many readers an education in a booming industry that rarely comes... More

“She Sat With Her Legs Ajar…”

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 24, 2010 at 01:49 PM

... is what the Washington Post's Style columnist -- yes, Robin Givhan (of I see Clinton cleavage fame)-- wants you... More

WaPo Gives Dodd the Tick-Tock Treatment

By Holly Yeager   May 24, 2010 at 01:15 PM

Washington newsrooms don’t generate too many tick-tocks these days, and that’s too bad. As a bare-bones version of the form... More

Good Coverage at USA Today

Some smart takes on problems with health and financial reform

By Trudy Lieberman   May 24, 2010 at 12:22 PM

The other day, on a plane from Ho Chi Minh City to Hong Kong, a flight attendant thrust a copy... More

The Times on What Financial Reform Really Means

By Ryan Chittum   May 24, 2010 at 12:07 PM

Binyamin Appelbaum of The New York Times has the smartest take I've seen yet on what the impending passage of... More

Kurtz on Todd (Again)

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 24, 2010 at 11:48 AM

It's been almost exactly two years since Howard Kurtz's last profile of (MS)NBC's Chuck Todd. Back in May 2008, Kurtz... More

Excuse Me, Miss. Your Sue Grafton Novel is Jamming the Plane’s Electronic Signals

By Alexandra Fenwick   May 24, 2010 at 10:55 AM

Sometimes iPads, Kindles and Nooks just don't fly. As reported by a friend, the following is an actual announcement made... More

Audit Notes: Pretty Pensions, Private Equity Walks, Payday Lenders Skate

By Ryan Chittum   May 21, 2010 at 07:17 PM

Kudos to the Times’s Mary Williams Walsh and Amy Schoenfeld for a corker of an exposé on six-figure pensions larding... More

Mostly Muddled Coverage of the Housing Market

By Ryan Chittum   May 21, 2010 at 05:50 PM

How optimistic should we be about the housing market? After reading press coverage of April's mortgage stats, you'd be forgiven... More

Memoirs of a Pugilist

Hitchens in light and shade

By Scott Sherman   May 21, 2010 at 01:13 PM

Hitch-22: A Memoir | By Christopher Hitchens | Twelve | 435 pages, $26.99 In early 1966, shortly after he moved... More

Muddling On

Lukewarm media reception to comprehensive new reports on climate change

By Brett Norman   May 21, 2010 at 12:26 PM

The Earth is warming thanks to the human industrial complex, we must price carbon emissions in some way and soon... More

Sidelined Speech in Saudi Arabia

Prominent Saudi editor resigns, supposedly

By Justin D. Martin   May 21, 2010 at 12:09 PM

CAIRO—Jamal Khashoggi, editor-in-chief of the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan and longtime irritant of crotchety Saudi clerics, resigned his post May 16,... More

The Journal Reveals Another Facebook Privacy Gaffe

By Ryan Chittum   May 21, 2010 at 11:30 AM

The Wall Street Journal gets a nice Facebook/MySpace privacy scoop this morning, reporting that the sites—particularly Facebook—send along personal-identification information... More

Facts and Fiction

A small literary magazine lists all of its mistakes—ever

By Craig Silverman   May 21, 2010 at 11:00 AM

Taddle Creek is a small literary magazine with big accuracy ambitions. Back in 2007, the twice-a-year Canadian publication with a... More

The Novak Files

By Clint Hendler   May 21, 2010 at 09:40 AM

Yesterday, The Washington Post ran an article on the late Robert Novak's FBI files. It turns out that in the... More

Audit Notes: A-hed Hed, Deflation, BW or BBW?

By Ryan Chittum   May 20, 2010 at 07:42 PM

Headline of the Week goes to The Wall Street Journal for this A-hed: In England, Buying the Farm Can Be... More

A Challenge from the Left? ‘Halter Doesn’t Play It That Way’

By Greg Marx   May 20, 2010 at 05:33 PM

I’ve been pushing the point over the last couple days that the national media, in covering the Arkansas Senate primary,... More

Audit D.C. Notes: WaPo on Where the Lobbyists Are, NYT on Whistleblower Buyouts, a Senator Says Too Much

By Holly Yeager   May 20, 2010 at 03:10 PM

A wise editor once told me that good journalism is the stuff that readers cut out and stick on the... More

All the Banks in Georgia

Small-bank failures are child’s play in a too-big-to-fail world

By Ryan Chittum   May 20, 2010 at 01:46 PM

It's a good idea to point out that small banks are failing, too. This is hardly a news flash, but... More

Is Washingtonpost.com Forgetting About Its Congress Page?

By Holly Yeager   May 20, 2010 at 12:53 PM

If you woke up Thursday wondering what was happening with the financial regulation reform bill in the Senate, the Congress... More

A Sharper Take on the Razorback State

NYT notes that the vote in Arkansas upended expectations

By Greg Marx   May 20, 2010 at 12:53 PM

Campaign Desk noted yesterday how the actual results in Arkansas’s Senate primary complicate the national narratives about an anti-incumbent wave... More

Two Paths to Twitter Cash

By Greg Marx   May 20, 2010 at 08:09 AM

The current print issue of CJR includes a profile—online today!—of the music critic Christopher Weingarten by Justin Peters. In addition... More

Stayin’ Alive

Christopher R. Weingarten is determined to be the last rock critic standing

By Justin Peters   May 20, 2010 at 05:00 AM

Christopher R. Weingarten reviews records on Twitter under the name “1000TimesYes.” In January, he decided to make a full set... More

Audit Notes: Not-So-Goldman Advice, One Source Stories, Facebook

By Ryan Chittum   May 19, 2010 at 09:43 PM

Bloomberg reports that even though Goldman Sachs, along with other banks, won on every day at the dog tracks last... More

Tribune Investigation Finds Mercury-Laced Skin Creams

By Ryan Chittum   May 19, 2010 at 09:07 PM

A terrific investigation today by the Chicago Tribune discovered high levels of mercury in skin-whitening creams on shelves across Chicago.... More

Why Did Halter Do Well?

Arkansas journalists highlight details that complicate the national narrative

By Greg Marx   May 19, 2010 at 04:38 PM

Take a look around the political Web today, in the wake of Tuesday’s primary and special elections, and the consensus... More

Border Patrol

Remapping Arizona’s immigration coverage

By Stefanos Chen   May 19, 2010 at 04:07 PM

It has been nearly a month since Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed into law Senate Bill 1070, the strictest anti-illegal... More

Judis Delivers a Tea Party History Lesson

Paul’s Kentucky victory prompts new coverage of the movement

By Holly Yeager   May 19, 2010 at 03:34 PM

Rand Paul’s victory in Kentucky has brought new energy to the Tea Party crowd—and prompted a flurry of coverage of... More

Blumenthal Blunders

NPR shines where the Times didn’t

By Clint Hendler   May 19, 2010 at 01:27 PM

Despite a congressional sex scandal and three closely watched Senate primaries, yesterday’s news was dominated by The New York Times’s... More

A Few Good Book Reviews

By Justin Peters   May 19, 2010 at 12:11 PM

The Washington Monthly just published its spring books issue, and it's a good one. Disclaimers abound here: I used to... More

The New York Times’s Devastating Goldman Piece

Morgenson and Story unload on the bank’s conflicted business model

By Ryan Chittum   May 19, 2010 at 11:18 AM

The New York Times goes long on the conflict machine that is Goldman Sachs. It's a devastating synthesis of what's... More

“Curtains for Specter”

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 19, 2010 at 09:35 AM

A selection of front pages this morning from Pennsylvania newspapers: More

Audit Notes: WSJ Win, Tully Calls a Crash, Sugar Shock

By Ryan Chittum   May 18, 2010 at 08:20 PM

The Wall Street Journal has been doing solid work on the BP/Transocean oil spill, and today's paper has another good... More

Fortune Sounds Out of Tune With a Facebook Piece

By Ryan Chittum   May 18, 2010 at 06:20 PM

Reading Fortune these days, it's all-too-often hard to tell we've been going through a crisis of capitalism for the last... More

‘Remember Good Old Monroe Schwarzlose?’

An unusual editorial from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

By Greg Marx   May 18, 2010 at 05:46 PM

That’s one of the questions posed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in its highly entertaining endorsement of John Boozman, the front-runner... More

The Graduates

What advice do you have for new journalism school graduates?

By The Editors   May 18, 2010 at 04:52 PM

Today, amid much pomp and circumstance, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism minted its newest crop of alums. It... More

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?

As press coverage falters, the Washington conversation keeps shifting

By Holly Yeager   May 18, 2010 at 02:43 PM

The stubborn unemployment rate may be the biggest economic issue facing the country. But the business press’s coverage hasn’t kept... More

In PA: Voter Turnout Low, Reporter Turnout High

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 18, 2010 at 02:40 PM

From The Delaware County [PA] Daily Times: There seemed to be more reporters out and about in Delaware County [PA]... More

Who’s Watching the World, Now?

Changes in media climate snuff out two in-depth environmental reporting outlets

By Brett Norman   May 18, 2010 at 02:23 PM

With untold millions of gallons of crude oil spewing into the Gulf and a troubling outlook for energy legislation in... More

Primary Day Grab-Bag

As the polls open on Campaign 2010, some press pitfalls to avoid

By Greg Marx   May 18, 2010 at 01:47 PM

With closely-watched primaries in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas set today, and more on the horizon, there’s been a surge of... More

Watching the Banking Canaries in the Coal Mine

By Ryan Chittum   May 18, 2010 at 11:57 AM

Bloomberg and the Financial Times are good to emphasize that the banking system—at least in Europe—is shuddering yet again in... More

Rhymes with ‘Truck’

Profanity in the press: Why is it such a big fucking deal?

By Clare O'Connor   May 18, 2010 at 10:34 AM

There’s nothing the media like more than a politician’s blunder, especially if a video clip means that the gaffe goes... More

Q & A: CJR Cover Artist Tomer Hanuka

We talk with the illustrator behind the May/June ‘10 cover image

By Brent Cunningham   May 18, 2010 at 09:59 AM

Developing a cover illustration can be a simultaneously maddening and infinitely satisfying experience. You must divine the central idea of... More

“Journalists as Targets” in Russia

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 18, 2010 at 09:39 AM

From Clifford J. Levy's grim report, "Russian Journalists, Fighting Graft, Pay in Blood," on the front page of today's New... More

Look at Me!

A writer’s search for journalism in the age of branding

By Maureen Tkacik   May 18, 2010 at 08:00 AM

When I was nineteen and chose to accept the creeping suspicion that I would turn out to be a writer... More

Audit Notes: WaPo on a Whistleblower, Analysts, Reshuffled Toxic Assets Still Toxic

By Ryan Chittum   May 17, 2010 at 07:14 PM

— The Washington Post ran a terrific piece yesterday on UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld yesterday, a flawed hero (aren't they... More

Everyone’s the Wine Expert

Wine critics and bloggers, professional and amateur, are mixed up in a social media web

By Spencer Bailey   May 17, 2010 at 04:58 PM

In late 2003, just as wine blogging was starting up on the Internet, Eric Arnold, currently the editorial director of... More

Hyphen Tension

A ‘hyphen’ is not a ‘dash’

By Merrill Perlman   May 17, 2010 at 04:57 PM

Precision is necessary in a lot of things in journalism—facts, spelling of names, etc. It’s also vital in Web addresses—tell... More

Oklahoman Columnist Strikes Out

Softball, stereotypes, and straw

By Ryan Chittum   May 17, 2010 at 03:24 PM

Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman devotes an entire column to what I and a couple of others said last week... More

Neither Taylor Momsen Nor David Carr Wrote This Headline

By Alexandra Fenwick   May 17, 2010 at 02:33 PM

David Carr's Media Equation column in today's New York Times discusses the death of the witty headline and explores the... More

A Times Profile of Bernanke is Too-Decorous By Half

By Holly Yeager   May 17, 2010 at 02:05 PM

The New York Times put Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke front and center on Sunday. But in this long, long profile,... More

Bread and Circuses—and Beer

By Greg Marx   May 17, 2010 at 10:13 AM

With primary elections set tomorrow in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas, today’s NYT offers looks at each of the races. Perhaps... More

Crystal Balling Kagan

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 17, 2010 at 09:33 AM

Question to the panel from Norah O'Donnell, standing in for Chris Matthews on yesterday's Chris Matthews Show: Bottom line, would... More

NYT vs. NYT on the Big Fat Greek Question

By Holly Yeager   May 14, 2010 at 07:10 PM

It’s New York Times columnist vs. New York Times columnist, again. Back in April, it was Paul Krugman and Andrew... More

Audit Notes: Some Ads Up; Mr., Mrs., Messrs.; Visualize Your Music Purchase

By Ryan Chittum   May 14, 2010 at 07:06 PM

Happy days are here again. Well, not really. But magazine ads are up (in the monthly-mag category anyway) 5 percent... More

License to Kill, Part III

Times takes note: Al-Awlaki standard makes some ‘uneasy’

By Greg Marx   May 14, 2010 at 02:55 PM

The legal questions surrounding the Obama administration’s decision to authorize the extrajudicial killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen accused... More

Spotty Coverage of the Financial Reform Amendments

By Ryan Chittum   May 14, 2010 at 01:14 PM

The Senate has been adding tough amendment after tough amendment to the financial-reform bill. Okay, tougher than anybody thought they... More

Correction as Weapon: Self-Inflicted Wounds

Was this week’s most profane correction targeted at a news site, or its subject?

By Craig Silverman   May 14, 2010 at 01:06 PM

Can you tell what’s going on in this 2001 correction/apology published by the Ottawa Citizen? The Ottawa Citizen and Southam... More

Audit Notes: Covering Investigations, the iPad Browser Threat, Rome

By Ryan Chittum   May 13, 2010 at 06:05 PM

ProPublica managing editor Stephen Engelberg has some good thoughts on how the press covers investigations, noting all the stories coming... More

Deploying Journalism on Unemployment

By Holly Yeager   May 13, 2010 at 03:09 PM

The New York Times does good reporting today on an under-examined bit of the unemployment story: those many jobs lost... More

Opening the Presidential Records Act

By Clint Hendler   May 13, 2010 at 02:52 PM

We’ve just published a piece discussing how the Presidential Records Act contours access to documents that Supreme Court Elena Kagan... More

The Press Misleads on a Gold “Record”

In real dollars it’s barely half the 1980 price

By Ryan Chittum   May 13, 2010 at 01:36 PM

Yesterday, the Financial Times, the most-sophisticated business newspaper in the world, published this head-slapper: Gold hits fresh record on inflation... More

Following Kagan’s Paper Trail

Meet the gatekeeping Presidential Records Act

By Clint Hendler   May 13, 2010 at 12:39 PM

When John Roberts was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2005, journalists touched down at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library... More

Pushing Back Against Facebook’s Privacy Practices

The press and others bring needed new scrutiny to the social network

By Ryan Chittum   May 13, 2010 at 11:53 AM

The press has begun an overdue backlash against Facebook, whose privacy invasions have grown increasingly brazen as its user base... More

Politico: ‘Kagan’s Not Gay’ Story Not a Hard Call

A straightforward response to persistent online speculation

By Greg Marx   May 13, 2010 at 11:07 AM

As speculation about Elena Kagan’s sexual orientation has circulated on the Internet in the wake of her nomination to the... More

The Reporter Whom Time Forgot

How Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day changed journalism

By Michael Shapiro   May 13, 2010 at 08:00 AM

In 1957, an expatriate Irish newspaperman struggling to make a buck after his most recent employer went under began making... More

Audit Notes: ProPublica’s Dead Prez Prospectuses; Citi and Deutsche, Too; Michael Lewis

By Ryan Chittum   May 12, 2010 at 06:41 PM

ProPublica's Marian Wang advances the WSJ's scoop on the Morgan Stanley "Dead Presidents" investigation, publishing prospectuses from Citigroup and UBS—the... More

Editor’s Notebook: Journalism Criticism in German

How Germany approaches the media beat

By Mike Hoyt   May 12, 2010 at 04:27 PM

This is the first in a series of occasional columns by CJR’s editor, Mike Hoyt. In late April, two of... More

At the WSJ, A Question of Trust

The real issue in the Kagan softball dustup: The paper has lost credibility in the Murdoch era

By Ryan Chittum   May 12, 2010 at 03:45 PM

"As News Corp. has consolidated its control of the paper they have increasingly come to demand enterprise journalism that serves... More

Go Fish

Have reporters paid sufficient attention to the Gulf spill’s impact on marine life?

By Curtis Brainard   May 12, 2010 at 03:40 PM

On Tuesday morning, Agence France-Presse reported that “Louisiana's charter fishermen are slamming media coverage of the Gulf oil spill for... More

A Pride of Lions, a Flock of Geese, a Herd of… Electronic Bonds?

By Greg Marx   May 12, 2010 at 10:55 AM

Matt Taibbi, in his 2005 evisceration of Tom Friedman’s writing style, said: The usual ratio of Friedman criticism is 2:1,... More

WSJ: Feds Investigating Morgan Stanley CDOs

By Ryan Chittum   May 12, 2010 at 10:53 AM

Morgan Stanley is under criminal investigation for Abacus-like CDO deals, The Wall Street Journal scoops this morning, showing that the... More

California Senate Race: Three Things You Oughta Know

Electability concerns, another campaign that’s sucking up the oxygen, and the month-long election

By Greg Marx   May 12, 2010 at 09:42 AM

If it’s still the case that new trends start in California, the state’s 2010 Senate election may really be one... More

Audit Notes: Post’s Silver Medal, HAMPered, “The Iran Edition”

By Ryan Chittum   May 11, 2010 at 05:22 PM

The New York Post reported this weekend that regulators have criminal and civil investigations underway into possible manipulation of the... More

Tip Off

Did the press report too many details about the Times Square car bomb?

By The Editors   May 11, 2010 at 05:12 PM

Faisal Shahzad, the man suspected of parking an SUV packed with explosive material along a busy Times Square thoroughfare, was... More

The FT Stands By Its Moody’s Story, As It Should

By Ryan Chittum   May 11, 2010 at 02:53 PM

This morning I noted that a 2008 Financial Times story led to an SEC investigation of credit-ratings firm Moody's. I... More

WSJ Stretches with Black-Swan Theory of the Crash

By Ryan Chittum   May 11, 2010 at 02:20 PM

A tried and true way to draw readers to your blog is to say something provocative in your headline and... More

Bond Charts Should Be As Good As Stock Charts

Right Now They Just Lie There

By Holly Yeager   May 11, 2010 at 01:49 PM

The papers are filled with charts illustrating Monday’s big rebound in the stock market. But what we really need these... More

The FT’s 2008 Moody’s Scoop Makes an Impact

By Ryan Chittum   May 11, 2010 at 11:21 AM

Let us now praise the Financial Times for its investigation of Moody's, which has now, at last, resulted in an... More

The New Investigators

Nonprofits are breaking new ground. Can they sustain themselves?

By Jill Drew   May 11, 2010 at 08:00 AM

At a story meeting for California Watch, the nonprofit investigative news startup, employees sit around a conference table as Robert... More

Audit Notes: “Populism” (Argh), Bush-Era Regulation, Tom Friedman

By Ryan Chittum   May 10, 2010 at 06:40 PM

Yves Smith has a good post on a longtime pet peeve of The Audit: Misuse of the word "populism." The... More

Kentucky Senate Race: Three Things You Oughta Know

Nasty fights, a kingmaker challenged, and class warfare

By Clint Hendler   May 10, 2010 at 04:43 PM

Joe Gerth is a political reporter and columnist at the Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky’s largest paper. The Louisville native and resident... More

Stopping the Flow

‘Staunch’ or ‘stanch’?

By Merrill Perlman   May 10, 2010 at 04:18 PM

Frantic efforts are underway to shut off the oil flowing from a well in the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone agrees... More

WaPo Does Well on Payday Lenders Pushing for Protection

By Holly Yeager   May 10, 2010 at 01:40 PM

The Washington Post does a nice job of highlighting just how worried payday lenders and check cashers are about the... More

The Huffington Post Turns Five

CJR reporters reflect on The Huffington Post’s first five years

By CJR Staff   May 10, 2010 at 12:12 PM

On Sunday, May 9th, The Huffington Post celebrated five years in business. Below, five CJR reporters reflect on various aspects... More

Why My Brother Likes The Huffington Post

By Greg Marx   May 10, 2010 at 12:09 PM

I confess: The Huffington Post brings out the Andy Rooney in me. The site obviously supports some good journalism, it’s... More

Stop Blaming The Huffington Post

By Clint Hendler   May 10, 2010 at 12:09 PM

When I think about The Huffington Post, I’m troubled. But when I think harder, I reconsider what, exactly, makes me... More

Huffington Post and the Art of the Headline

By Alexandra Fenwick   May 10, 2010 at 12:08 PM

Everyone’s heard The Huffington Post described as the Drudge Report of the left, but someone once told me that they... More

The HuffPost’s Business Reporting Shows the Site Maturing

By Ryan Chittum   May 10, 2010 at 12:07 PM

Let's get it out of the way up top that I think The Huffington Post is a mess—a schizophrenic, mostly... More

Top 5 UNENTHUSIASTIC HuffPo Reviews of 2005 (NO PHOTOS)

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 10, 2010 at 12:06 PM

What is a birthday without being reminded of what you were like when you were first born, according to some... More

Disappearing Chyron

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 10, 2010 at 11:16 AM

With the news this morning of Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court, cable news got to work familiarizing viewers... More

Lindsey Graham: Maybe Not Such a Maverick, Either

An attempt to define the “M” word with some serious math

By Greg Marx   May 10, 2010 at 10:52 AM

Late last week, there was a fair bit of online chatter (see here, here, here, and here) about an unlikely... More

Beefing Up Coverage, MSNBC-Style

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 10, 2010 at 09:32 AM

So many government agencies; so little press coverage. Who's watching the Department of Agriculture? The Administration on Aging? The Bureau... More

Audit Notes: Facebook Creeps, Apple and Ridicule, CDS Carnage

By Ryan Chittum   May 7, 2010 at 07:14 PM

As Facebook continues to steadily invade its users' privacy, it's been somewhat difficult to convey how exactly this has happened.... More

Good WSJ Probe Shows Oil Regulator’s Capture

By Ryan Chittum   May 7, 2010 at 06:48 PM

The Wall Street Journal has a great investigation on Minerals Management Service, the regulator supposed to oversee oil drilling. The... More

Coverage of TBTF Amendment FAIL Fails

By Ryan Chittum   May 7, 2010 at 04:22 PM

The Senate voted 61-33 yesterday against the so-called SAFE Banking Act, an amendment to the financial-reform bill that would have... More

EPA Officials Demand Anonymity

“Hush-hush” conference calls anger reporters

By Curtis Brainard   May 7, 2010 at 02:47 PM

Twice in the last three months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered reporters not to name the agency officials... More

Pennsylvania Senate (and Governor’s) Race: Three Things You Oughta Know

Family campaigns, a “way of sharing,” and Sodom on the Schuylkill

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 7, 2010 at 12:34 PM

With the 2010 midterm elections looming on the horizon—and some primaries rapidly approaching—Campaign Desk will soon be devoting more attention... More

Warning: Trans-Atlantic Tensions Ahead

By Holly Yeager   May 7, 2010 at 12:14 PM

There’s been a small, but sharp, undercurrent of trans-Atlantic tension in this week’s coverage of the Greek debt crisis. Judging... More

The End of Accuracy?

In a world of information abundance, fact-checking might be more important than ever

By Craig Silverman   May 7, 2010 at 12:11 PM

Is accuracy an outdated value? That's not normally a question I'd pose, but it was raised in a recent opinion... More

NYT Busts Out the Weasel Words for Stock Crash

By Ryan Chittum   May 7, 2010 at 10:23 AM

What the heck happened in the stock markets yesterday? Well, nobody really knows yet. So what do you do when... More

Audit Notes: The Market Crashes, The Market Bounces Back

By Ryan Chittum   May 6, 2010 at 07:29 PM

Let me give some rare Audit props to CNBC's Jim Cramer for his coverage during the stock-market crash today. As... More

Greek Omens

Bizpress was around the story; not too alarmist

By Holly Yeager   May 6, 2010 at 04:06 PM

The business press is starting to get used to this crisis-and-collapse thing. There was an eerie prescience in this morning’s... More

TSSF Footnotes

Footnotes

By Justin Peters   May 6, 2010 at 02:53 PM

Introduction 4. Media commentator Alan Mutter addressed this in a post, “Non-profits can’t possibly save the news,” Reflections of a... More

NPR goes Gaga

By Clint Hendler   May 6, 2010 at 02:52 PM

OK! Internets, are you ready to take this viral? What's "this," you ask? Well, of course, it's video of National... More

Newsweek’s Woes, Way Back When

CJR’s look at whether the newsmagazines were doomed, from 1989

By Greg Marx   May 6, 2010 at 01:28 PM

In his version of the “What’s the matter with Newsweek?” story, published yesterday afternoon at Slate, Jack Shafer noted that... More

Black Editor, Gray Lady

Gerald Boyd, Jayson Blair, and journalism’s diversity problem

By Howard W. French   May 6, 2010 at 08:00 AM

My Times in Black and White: Race and Power at The New York Times | By Gerald M. Boyd |... More

Audit Notes: Warren v. Dimon, Fudging the Books, REACTionaries

By Ryan Chittum   May 5, 2010 at 07:52 PM

Time's Stephen Gandel has a great post on why he can't find anyone to debate Elizabeth Warren on the proposed... More

Ad Age Shows Paywalls Preserving Print Circulation

By Ryan Chittum   May 5, 2010 at 04:04 PM

Advertising Age looks at small-paper paywalls and finds that they're having some success—at least in staving off print declines. I've... More

Poli-Sci Perspectives on Covering the Midterms

By Greg Marx   May 5, 2010 at 04:00 PM

I have a short article in the May/June issue of CJR (not currently online) about the sometimes fraught relationship between... More

Delacorte Lecture with Arianna Huffington

Watch the Huffington Post editor-in-chief’s Delacorte Lecture here

By The Editors   May 5, 2010 at 02:41 PM

On April 7, 2010, Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Huffington Post, delivered a Delacorte Lecture at the Columbia... More

He Said-She Said Victim

By Holly Yeager   May 5, 2010 at 02:19 PM

After a few weeks of news coverage of Republican complaints that the financial reform legislation moving through Congress would permit... More

Everyone Knows the Troubles They’ve Seen

The press pays attention to WellPoint

By Trudy Lieberman   May 5, 2010 at 12:13 PM

If any group can claim responsibility for breaking the logjam on health reform, you might say it was WellPoint. Just... More

Shorter Wall Street Journal: Blankfein’s Days Are Numbered

By Ryan Chittum   May 5, 2010 at 12:06 PM

Lloyd Blankfein isn't going to make it. That's basically what this Money & Investing story is saying today. It can't... More

Schudson on The Fate of Journalism

By Justin Peters   May 5, 2010 at 11:07 AM

CJR contributing editor Scott Sherman has a thoughtful interview with Michael Schudson up at The Common Review. Schudson, as you... More

Arkansas Senate Race: Three Things You Oughta Know

A tough campaign, potential runoffs, and all eyes on the Dems

By Greg Marx   May 5, 2010 at 06:00 AM

With the 2010 midterm elections looming on the horizon—and some primaries rapidly approaching—Campaign Desk will soon be devoting more attention... More

Audit Notes: No Perp Walks, How Goldman’s Like Penny-Stock Boiler Rooms, WSJ iPad

By Ryan Chittum   May 4, 2010 at 10:19 PM

David Heath of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund takes a good look at how and why executives have so far... More

A “Slick” Numbers Game

Fixation on exact spill rate belies worrisome uncertainties

By Brett Norman   May 4, 2010 at 05:36 PM

Monday night, Jon Stewart laid into coverage of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, noting the disaster... More

Audit D.C. Notes: NYT on Obama’s Juggling Act; Mystery Pollster on How It’s Done in the U.K., FT on the Very Long View

By Holly Yeager   May 4, 2010 at 04:21 PM

President Obama’s ideological juggling act gets thoughtful treatment from the NYT’s Jackie Calmes. There’s no real news in the piece,... More

CBS And CNN?

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 4, 2010 at 04:04 PM

NY Mag's Gabriel Sherman reports that CNN and CBS News are "in advanced negotiations about signing a news-gathering partnership." Writes... More

Crude Coverage at the Times

News analysis displays gross lack of concern about Gulf spill

By Curtis Brainard   May 4, 2010 at 03:30 PM

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded on April 20, causing the massive oil spill currently unfolding in the Gulf... More

“The Victor and the Vanquished”

Vanity Fair excerpts upcoming Sarah Ellison book on Murdoch’s Journal takeover

By Ryan Chittum   May 4, 2010 at 02:22 PM

Reading the Vanity Fair excerpt of Sarah Ellison's upcoming War at The Wall Street Journal, on Rupert Murdoch's takeover of... More

Arizona on Our Minds

Has the coverage of Arizona’s new immigration law been overly sensational?

By The Editors   May 4, 2010 at 01:17 PM

For the last month, as Arizona debated and passed new strict anti-illegal immigration measures into law, the press has struggled... More

Delacorte Lecture with Ronald Henkoff

Watch the Bloomberg Markets editor’s Delacorte Lecture here

By The Editors   May 4, 2010 at 01:05 PM

On March 31, 2010, Ronald Henkoff, the editor of Bloomberg Markets, delivered a Delacorte Lecture at the Columbia University Graduate... More

The Journal Comes Up Short on Lawmakers’ Short Selling

By Holly Yeager   May 4, 2010 at 12:09 PM

The Wall Street Journal has good instincts today, looking for hypocrisy in a place it’s known to dwell: Capitol Hill.... More

Unproductive Outrage

By Clint Hendler   May 4, 2010 at 10:15 AM

This morning's Politico Playbook has some advance excerpts from Jonathan Alter's The Promise, our next big Obamabook. Here's one: When... More

“A Slow Moving Car Wreck of a Story…”

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 4, 2010 at 09:49 AM

... is how NBC Nightly News's Brian Williams describes the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, writes the AP's... More

An End to War, But Not to Danger

Reporting on reform holds peril in Nepal

By Yepoka Yeebo   May 4, 2010 at 08:00 AM

This story has been updated since initial publication. The political agenda in Nepal this spring is jam-packed. By May 28,... More

Pictures for Peace

An editor uses photojournalism to shift the dialogue in Nepal

By Greg Marx   May 4, 2010 at 08:00 AM

A brief item in our May/June issue described how Kunda Dixit, the editor of the weekly newspaper the Nepali Times,... More

A New Start

An Iraqi journalist builds a life in New Jersey

By Vera Haller   May 4, 2010 at 08:00 AM

Saif Alnasseri stepped out into a winter morning, stood on the wide front porch outside his apartment in a... More

Food Fighter

Grist’s Tom Philpott on why class needs to be a part of the food debate

By Brent Cunningham   May 4, 2010 at 08:00 AM

In 2004, Tom Philpott quit his job as a financial journalist in New York City and moved with his girlfriend... More

Audit Notes: Bubble Machine, Apple Pushback, Quitting Facebook

By Ryan Chittum   May 3, 2010 at 09:28 PM

The Wall Street Journal has a good explainer on how banks like Goldman Sachs used credit-default swaps to fuel the... More

FT Slaps Goldman Spin on Page One

By Ryan Chittum   May 3, 2010 at 05:55 PM

The Financial Times goes above the fold on page one today with a story on how "Goldman plans to overhaul... More

Ignatius on the Downside of the Inside Story

By Holly Yeager   May 3, 2010 at 04:11 PM

The Washington Post’s David Ignatius did us all a favor in Sunday’s Outlook section, with a critical look at embedding—a... More

The Hands That Feed

Managing conflicts of interest in the era of nonprofit journalism

By The Editors   May 3, 2010 at 04:03 PM

The need to manage real and perceived conflicts of interest, and the self-censorship that can accompany them, has always been... More

Darts and Laurels

An LAT reporter did strong work on the Toyota story. But where was the rest of the auto press?

By Alexandra Fenwick   May 3, 2010 at 03:54 PM

Complaints about Toyota and Lexus cars suddenly accelerating out of control began surfacing about a decade ago, and a series... More

Brief Encounters

Short reviews of books about misreported stories, the Killing Fields, and the press vs. secrets

By James Boylan   May 3, 2010 at 03:48 PM

Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism | By W. Joseph Campbell | University of... More

French Connections

What do different press styles have to do with distinct political cultures?

By Michael Schudson and Julia Sonnevend   May 3, 2010 at 03:38 PM

If you think about European print media at all, you are likely to think of newspapers that stake out ideologically... More

Down the Rabbit Hole

One reporter’s effort to understand a forty-year-old nuclear accident

By Barbara Moran   May 3, 2010 at 03:27 PM

Anouschka and I stood in the parking lot of an empty gas station, leaning against the hood of the rental... More

A WHCD Explainer: Couric’s Twitpics

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 3, 2010 at 02:18 PM

Wondering what this White House Correspondents' Dinner thing is all about? Don't have time to track down hard-to-come-by descriptions and... More

Delacorte Lecture with Cyndi Stivers

Watch the EW.com managing editor’s Delacorte Lecture here

By The Editors   May 3, 2010 at 01:23 PM

On March 24, 2010, Cyndi Stivers, the managing editor of EW.com, delivered a Delacorte Lecture at the Columbia University Graduate... More

You Talkin’ ‘Bout Me?

Avoiding reader ‘indirection’

By Merrill Perlman   May 3, 2010 at 01:05 PM

“A 28-year-old man who died early Saturday in a crash was remembered Sunday as an outgoing, optimistic fellow who had... More

Behind Bars

Roxana Saberi talks about her Iranian captivity

By Nazanin Rafsanjani   May 3, 2010 at 12:43 PM

Roxana Saberi was an American freelance reporter living and working in Tehran when she was arrested by Iranian authorities in... More

Warren Buffett, Talking His Book on Goldman

By Ryan Chittum   May 3, 2010 at 10:31 AM

Warren Buffett can tout an investment like any other CEO. And the press can airbrush it as long as it's... More

NYT Finds Your “Moment[s] in Time” Dull, Domestic

By Liz Cox Barrett   May 3, 2010 at 09:51 AM

On Friday, the New York Times's photojournalism blog, Lens, announced an ambitious-sounding project called "Moment in Time," described as follows:... More

American Justice

Two distinct takes on the folly of our prison policies

By Sasha Abramsky   May 1, 2010 at 10:07 AM

Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire | By Robert Perkinson | Metropolitan Books | 496 pages, $35 Orange... More