McClatchy Is Hard to Read on Goldman

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 30, 2010 at 07:50 PM

Speaking of Goldman Sachs investigations, McClatchy adds another installment to its Goldman series, reporting that the bank now admits that... More

Celluloid Heroes

A champion jazz critic turns to the silver screen

By Tim Appelo   Jun 30, 2010 at 02:16 PM

Warning Shadows: Home Alone with Classic Cinema | By Gary Giddins | W.W. Norton & Company | 416 pages, $18.95... More

NYT Digs Further Into the AIG Backdoor Bailout

Regulatory capture doesn’t begin to describe what went on here

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 30, 2010 at 01:57 PM

Just when you thought the AIG/Goldman Sachs backdoor bailout scandal couldn't smell any fishier, The New York Times wades through... More

Dr. Parker: Obama Suffers From RTDD

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 30, 2010 at 01:46 PM

Kathleen Parker, Eliot Spitzer's co-host for CNN's much-anticipated Not Crossfire show, has a Washington Post column out today with the... More

How to Cover the Recession

A new Pew study provides good clues

By Holly Yeager   Jun 30, 2010 at 01:41 PM

The unemployment crisis has dragged on and on, but reporting about its real-life effects just hasn’t kept up. Hopefully the... More

A Tip of the Hat to The Oregonian

For finding health reform’s forgotten people

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 30, 2010 at 12:16 PM

We often thought nobody was paying attention when, during the health reform debate, we urged the press to investigate the... More

Twitter + Diplomacy = Danger: Stray Voltage!

By Alexandra Fenwick   Jun 30, 2010 at 11:30 AM

Two State Department staff members leading a delegation of Silicon Valley executives to Syria have learned that social media and... More

Audit Notes: Board Pay, the Hubris of Big Business, Taibbi vs. Logan

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 29, 2010 at 08:53 PM

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has an excellent investigation into board pay at public companies in Wisconsin. While compensation for chief executive... More

The Rap On From Kagan

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 29, 2010 at 05:06 PM

The Washington Post, having already brought us the definitive rap on Elena Kagan, today brings us a rap by Elena... More

Video: The Journalism of Opinion

Video from Columbia’s recent conference on opinion journalism in American intellectual history

By The Editors   Jun 29, 2010 at 03:44 PM

On April 30, 2010, Columbia University hosted a conference on opinion journalism in American intellectual history. The conference was organized... More

Summer Reading List

What book would you recommend to a journalist this summer?

By The Editors   Jun 29, 2010 at 02:25 PM

The solstice has come and gone, and the Fourth of July is around the corner. We’re well into the season... More

Finding the Right Expert

How reporters should use a controversial new study categorizing scientists’ stances on global warming

By Curtis Brainard   Jun 29, 2010 at 02:15 PM

A controversial new study that categorizes climate scientists as either “convinced” or “unconvinced” by the basic tenets of manmade global... More

Style-ish

Yahoo shows why the Web really is different

By Merrill Perlman   Jun 29, 2010 at 01:38 PM

Yahoo! There’s a new style guide! By Yahoo! Available now on the Web and to be available in print very... More

Depressing Days

Time to look at the effects of Washington’s false unemployment/deficit choice

By Holly Yeager   Jun 29, 2010 at 01:29 PM

With Washington still unable to get its act together on a new round of stimulus spending, warnings about the consequences... More

Ineligible to work at the Washington Post?

By Clint Hendler   Jun 29, 2010 at 12:04 PM

Oh no! Politico reports that a California television station recorded audio of reporters snarkily dissecting Sarah Palin's recent speech at... More

Right To Know in India

By Clint Hendler   Jun 29, 2010 at 10:28 AM

The New York Times has an interesting summary today of the way that India's groundbreaking Right to Information law has... More

BizWeek: BP Has Us Over a Barrel

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 29, 2010 at 09:22 AM

We've been on the watch for BP's PR line, and it's been popping up at an alarming rate in the... More

The Trouble With Experts

The Web allows us to question authority in new ways

By Alissa Quart   Jun 29, 2010 at 08:00 AM

Actress Jenny McCarthy’s favorite line is, “My son is my science.” She’s an autism activist who insists that vaccines caused... More

Audit Notes: WSJ iPad, Bled Dry, Grease Up the Revolving Doors!

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 28, 2010 at 08:22 PM

The Wall Street Journal's iPad revenues are less than it led us to believe. Business Insider prints an internal memo... More

More on Boycotting BP from the LAT

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 28, 2010 at 08:02 PM

The Los Angeles Times gets in on the boycotting-BP-just-hurts-small-businesspeople meme. It's better than some of the other stories we've seen... More

The Secret to Rolling Stone’s Success

NYT explores how magazine prospers off the news cycle

By Greg Marx   Jun 28, 2010 at 04:03 PM

That David Carr column flagged by Ryan Chittum this morning wasn’t the only item about Rolling Stone in today’s New... More

Audit D.C. Notes: Austerian Origins, G-20 Loses Its Grip, Gaping Income Gap

By Holly Yeager   Jun 28, 2010 at 03:43 PM

“Austerians” has started popping up all over, and Barry Ritholtz does a nice job of tracking the origin of the... More

Aftergood goes after WikiLeaks

By Clint Hendler   Jun 28, 2010 at 02:55 PM

Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, one of the nation’s foremost experts on classified documents and secrecy policy,... More

Press Freedoms Lag in Singapore

Modernity means more than progressive banking and shining cities

By Justin D. Martin   Jun 28, 2010 at 02:04 PM

SINGAPORE—Walk the streets of Singapore and you may think you’re in the world’s most modern country. But Singaporeans you’re pacing... More

Welfare, Entitlements, and Sharron Angle

What sayeth she now?

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 28, 2010 at 01:53 PM

It’s fair to say that Sharron Angle is controversial. She’s the former Nevada state legislator who is running against Harry... More

Lara Logan’s Misplaced Question

By Clint Hendler   Jun 28, 2010 at 11:34 AM

CBS reporter Lara Logan took to CNN’s Reliable Sources this weekend to criticize Michael Hastings and the article he wrote... More

Excrutiating (Also, Haunting)

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 28, 2010 at 11:17 AM

Damon Winter's photograph on the front page of yesterday's New York Times. The scene captured-- soldier tearfully embraces family before... More

Look at Us!

Lessons from the response to the David Weigel flap

By Greg Marx   Jun 28, 2010 at 11:11 AM

It’s been three days since David Weigel, the reporter and blogger best known for his coverage of the conservative movement,... More

Rolling Stone and the MSM Copyright Thieves

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 28, 2010 at 10:51 AM

It's good to see David Carr take Politico and Time to task for their egregious violations of copyright (not to... More

Audit Notes: Reform Report Card, Bhopal vs. BP, “Power Problem”

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 25, 2010 at 05:37 PM

Barry Ritholtz's very helpful report card on financial reform. Up top, he gives the bill a big fat "F" on... More

Covering the “Historic” Financial Reform Bill

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 25, 2010 at 12:36 PM

You're going to read a lot about how the financial-reform bill agreed to by Congress this morning is "historic" and... More

The Coffee Lobby

By Clint Hendler   Jun 25, 2010 at 12:27 PM

Eric Lichtblau has a story in today’s New York Times noting that hundreds of meetings between White House officials and... More

The Narrative That Wouldn’t Die

Oil spill dragging down Obama, NBC insists—despite evidence to the contrary

By Greg Marx   Jun 25, 2010 at 11:29 AM

Last week, Campaign Desk flagged a New York Times item that reported a surprising finding: for all the criticism about... More

A Conversation with Andrew Alexander

The Washington Post ombudsman on the paper’s corrections process

By Craig Silverman   Jun 25, 2010 at 11:23 AM

Sooner or later, any news ombudsman or public editor will end up addressing the issues of accuracy, errors, and corrections.... More

No Call is a Bad Call

By Clint Hendler   Jun 25, 2010 at 09:53 AM

Yes, it's the National Enquirer. But still, the tabloid's justification for deciding not to call Al Gore before running a... More

The Docs and the Press

What a little help from their friends will do

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 25, 2010 at 07:30 AM

Well, what do you know? Congress may finally be giving the doctors what they want—sort of. As Campaign Desk has... More

Audit Notes: Paper It Over, Katrina Whistleblowers, Google Ad Fun,

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 24, 2010 at 07:54 PM

The Wall Street Journal's David Wessel flat-out says "Congress is planting the seeds of the next big bank bailout." He's... More

Marshall Island “Regulators”—What Could Go Wrong?

Tribune explores how Transocean flagged Deepwater Horizon in the tiny Pacific nation

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 24, 2010 at 05:55 PM

Let's circle back around to last week's excellent Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune report on the Deepwater Horizon. Did... More

Palin camp claims records suit “sexist … demeaning”

By Clint Hendler   Jun 24, 2010 at 04:49 PM

Thomas Van Flein, Sarah Palin’s personal lawyer, has taken to the former governor’s Facebook page to announce a victory in... More

Congress Gives Defense Spending a Look

Will the press do the same?

By Holly Yeager   Jun 24, 2010 at 03:49 PM

The Hill is good to notice a small but potentially significant change in lawmakers’ attitudes toward Pentagon spending: a “growing... More

Politico Belatedly Provides a Welcome Explanation

Why news organizations should talk it out

By Clint Hendler   Jun 24, 2010 at 03:45 PM

In the wee hours of Thursday morning, NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen took to his PressThink blog to spin forward... More

Dana Milbank, Ideologue

The WaPo columnist’s latest reflects the press bias for action

By Greg Marx   Jun 24, 2010 at 03:10 PM

In his recent blog post on “the actual ideology of the American press,” NYU professor Jay Rosen identified Dana Milbank—the... More

Why Were South Carolina Voters So Uninformed?

S.C. media sit out the Democratic primary

By Bruce E. Altschuler   Jun 24, 2010 at 10:54 AM

When unemployed veteran Alvin Greene won the Democratic nomination for United States Senate in South Carolina with 59 percent of... More

Weil on How the Government Shields Fraudsters

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 24, 2010 at 10:52 AM

Did you know you can't sue somebody if they help cheat you out of money via securities fraud? I didn't.... More

In Haiti, “When Is This All Going to End?”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 24, 2010 at 09:11 AM

The New York Times has a wrenching piece today about sexual violence against women in Haiti, a piece in which... More

Audit Notes: SEC Chills, Tallahassee Paywall, Goldman TLC

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 23, 2010 at 07:27 PM

Felix Salmon takes on the SEC's backdoor subpoena of two Dow Jones journalists' communications: ... it nullifies a huge amount... More

Bringing Energy Home

Can local reporting help break the cycle of inaction?

By Curtis Brainard   Jun 23, 2010 at 05:32 PM

The vast majority of Americans want a “fundamental overhaul” of the country’s energy policies, according to the latest nationwide New... More

Spencer Ackerman to Join Wired’s Danger Room

By Greg Marx   Jun 23, 2010 at 04:04 PM

Interesting news in the journo world today—Spencer Ackerman, the prolific national security reporter and blogger for The Washington Independent, is... More

CNBC’s Quick Pushes for Prosecutions in Fortune

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 23, 2010 at 12:51 PM

The combo of CNBC and Fortune, while not quite a WSJ editorial board/Forbes sandwich, doesn't exactly make you think McClure's.... More

A Politico Graf Goes Missing

By Clint Hendler   Jun 23, 2010 at 12:37 PM

Yesterday in one of Politico’s write-ups of the furor that ensued as it became known that damaging quotes from General... More

Reporting on Orszag Departure is Skin Deep

By Holly Yeager   Jun 23, 2010 at 12:26 PM

Peter Orszag’s decision to step down as the White House budget director didn’t get much press attention. The comings and... More

BREAKING: Hastings Enjoys Pornography, is Good Writer

By Clint Hendler   Jun 23, 2010 at 11:07 AM

This morning’s Politico Playbook brings this unusually prudish paragraph: FAILURE TO GOOGLE: A quick search would have showed McChrystal that... More

At 8pm, CNN Goes “Tangy” and “Spicy”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 23, 2010 at 10:34 AM

CNN has just announced the team that will take over Campbell Brown's 8pm slot: Eliot Spitzer, the former Democratic governor... More

“We Can Almost Pre-write the Headlines” (Almost?)

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 23, 2010 at 09:50 AM

For those who can't predict what the Washington press corps will write and say on cable if Gen. McChrystal still... More

Sparring, Spinning in West Palm Beach

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 23, 2010 at 07:30 AM

On Tuesday, the Palm Beach Post hosted (and broadcast on its Web site) a debate between Democratic Senatorial candidates Jeff... More

Audit Notes: Rolling Stone Robbed, STOLI, Forbes.com SEO

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 22, 2010 at 09:32 PM

Our Greg Marx wrote about how Politico and Time, bizarrely, posted Rolling Stone's blockbuster scoop on General McCrystal and staff's... More

“BP Journalists” and Their Greatest Propaganda Hits

Tone-deaf PR from the oil spiller

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 22, 2010 at 07:55 PM

The Wall Street Journal's Benoit Faucon got a hold of BP's in-house magazine Planet BP, and has some fun with... More

The Day’s Big Story, Hours before It Was Published

Why Rolling Stone’s bombshell couldn’t be found, even as it was making news

By Greg Marx   Jun 22, 2010 at 04:50 PM

Eric Bates had an unusual start to his day Tuesday. Bates is the executive editor of Rolling Stone, and his... More

Advice for Arthur Brisbane

What can the Times’s new public editor learn from the last three?

By The Editors   Jun 22, 2010 at 03:54 PM

First there was Daniel Okrent. Then there were Byron Calame and Clark Hoyt. And now The New York Times has... More

Beneath the Controversy, Lots of Good Reporting in Rolling Stone’s McChrystal Story

By Holly Yeager   Jun 22, 2010 at 01:59 PM

The reaction to Rolling Stone’s profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal has been fast and furious. But while we wonder what’s... More

McChrystal’s Real Error

By Clint Hendler   Jun 22, 2010 at 01:14 PM

Politico’s Gordon Lubold has a quote from an administration official saying that Stanley McChrystal, the subject of a famous-before-published Rolling... More

Would A Beat Reporter Have Written This McChrystal Piece?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 22, 2010 at 12:18 PM

Andrew Sullivan flags the following, found at the end of a McChrystal-related Politico piece today: McChrystal, an expert on counterterrorism... More

McChrystal’s “Outside Set of Eyes” Resigns

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 22, 2010 at 10:13 AM

The Washington Post has a brief report on the resignation of Duncan Boothby, Gen. Stanley McChrystal's civilian press aide who... More

The SEC Is After Two Dow Jones Journalists’ Emails

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 22, 2010 at 10:03 AM

Gary Weiss asks a heckuva good question: "What in heaven’s name is the SEC thinking? Is it completely out to... More

Audit Notes: Magnetar, ICP Unmasked, Communities vs. Corporations

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 21, 2010 at 08:06 PM

The Wall Street Journal reported this weekend that the SEC is ratcheting up its investigation of Magnetar, the hedge fund... More

“Rock-Jawed Titans of Industry Don’t Really Like Free Markets”

As Kevin Drum says, they prefer monopolies like the ones Visa and MasterCard enjoy

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 21, 2010 at 07:11 PM

Kevin Drum, in dismissing Matt Ygeslias's qualms about over-regulating the credit and debit card industry, touches on an excellent point... More

CNN Ditches the AP

By Greg Marx   Jun 21, 2010 at 03:30 PM

It’s official: CNN will no longer use content from The Associated Press in its news coverage, Michael Calderone reports for... More

Dangling by a Thread

Misplaced modifiers can confuse and amuse

By Merrill Perlman   Jun 21, 2010 at 02:46 PM

“After beating Jankovic in 60 minutes in the semifinals, Stosur’s parents and two brothers flew in from Australia to watch... More

WSJ: BP Fund Between a “Shake Down” and a “Capitulation”

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 21, 2010 at 11:55 AM

Every once in a while (which is far too often, needless to say) the distinct stench of Rupert Murdoch wafts... More

More Words of Wisdom from Alan Simpson

Just who are the “lesser people” he had in mind?

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 21, 2010 at 10:41 AM

Alan Simpson is quickly taking on the persona of the Energizer bunny—his mouth just doesn’t stop. We know about seniors... More

Consider Helen Thomas

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 21, 2010 at 10:14 AM

Was advanced age the critical factor in the career-ending Helen Thomas incident? Because the Which-Retirement-Resistant-Journalist-Media-Figure-Will-Helen-Thomas-Next Watch is on. At TVNewser,... More

Polar Opposites

The press vs. poli-sci on the rise of partisanship in Congress

By Greg Marx   Jun 21, 2010 at 06:00 AM

My article in our latest print issue on political science and the political press noted that the two camps offer... More

Audit Notes: Energy Economy, Fraud Fight, Worst Banking Crisis

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 18, 2010 at 04:34 PM

The Washington Post's Ezra Klein posts a fascinating graphic from the showing where our energy comes from and how it... More

Audit D.C. Notes: A Deal Unravels, Vuvuzela Valentine, Senate Sport

By Holly Yeager   Jun 18, 2010 at 02:35 PM

Politico has some great reporting on the Democrats’ backroom maneuvering to pass the Disclose Act, which would increase disclosure requirements... More

And That’s Not the Way It Is

W. Joseph Campbell busts some persistent media myths

By Craig Silverman   Jun 18, 2010 at 02:22 PM

Journalism is a profession built on storytelling, so it’s no surprise that its history is filled with some remarkable tales.... More

The Economist Off the Deep End on BP and “Vladimir Obama”

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 18, 2010 at 01:28 PM

The Economist has a pathetic leader this week criticizing Obama for hammering BP and raising the ridiculous idea that his... More

Shining Light on the Debt Commission

By Holly Yeager   Jun 18, 2010 at 01:16 PM

I’m not usually a big fan of ambush journalism. But I’m making an exception for Alex Lawson of Social Security... More

WikiLeaks Alleges Collusion

Wired’s happy to set the timeline straight

By Clint Hendler   Jun 18, 2010 at 10:51 AM

On June 6, Wired.com published a piece reporting that a U.S. soldier named Bradley Manning, who purportedly claimed to be... More

A Laurel to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

For keeping the spotlight on the doctors’ shenanigans

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 18, 2010 at 10:47 AM

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Fauber deserves kudos for his dogged reporting on some unsavory practices in the medical profession.... More

Audit Notes: Mortgage Charges, BP Testimony, FT.com Ad Revenue

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 17, 2010 at 09:57 PM

The Washington Post calls the charges against Lee Farkas "to date the biggest criminal case related to the crisis that... More

WaPo Flags Obama Inaction on Wall Street Crime

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 17, 2010 at 06:42 PM

It doesn't inspire confidence in the Washington Post that it fails to mention the blockbuster SEC fraud charges against Goldman... More

Audit D.C. Notes: Ouija Boards, Older 99ers, Making Lemonade

By Holly Yeager   Jun 17, 2010 at 05:23 PM

The Washington Post picks a good moment to profile Scott Rasmussen, the pollster who’s hitting the big-time, even if the... More

The Man Who Imagined Tablets and E-Readers

An interview with Roger Fidler of the RJI Digital Publishing Alliance

By Curtis Brainard   Jun 17, 2010 at 04:59 PM

In 1981, Roger Fidler wrote a visionary essay on the emergence of mobile reading devices like the Apple iPad and... More

House of Games

A spirited defense of the “digital dollhouse”

By Gregory Beyer   Jun 17, 2010 at 02:43 PM

Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter | By Tom Bissell | Pantheon | 240 pages, $22.95 Tom Bissell may be... More

Beleaguered Pensioners

It’s a good thing that BP investors are taking it on the chin

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 17, 2010 at 02:14 PM

Atrios says: I really can't believe how fast the "you can't hurt BP! If you do, you're just hurting poor... More

BP, Government Still Thwarting Press Access

Despite promises to facilitate oil spill coverage, limited transparency persists in the Gulf

By Curtis Brainard   Jun 17, 2010 at 12:38 PM

Despite repeated promises to improve transparency, BP, the United States government, and their contractors are still inhibiting the media’s ability... More

(Other People’s) Pundits Drowned Out Obama’s Oil Speech

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 17, 2010 at 10:32 AM

At Newsweek.com, Jeremy McCarter describes "How Cable TV Pundits Stepped on Obama's Oil Speech." Writes McCarter: Critics describe the Beltway... More

Florida, Lately: Big Bucks and “Baggage”

And Heidi Fleiss

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 17, 2010 at 09:36 AM

A roundup of recent campaign news from and about Florida: Can you win a primary when the following three facts... More

WSJ Comes Up Short on BP Boycott Effects

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 16, 2010 at 06:01 PM

The Wall Street Journal dodders onto the boycott-BP story, writing that not visiting BP service stations won't hurt BP much... More

Are All Americans Living Longer?

CNBC didn’t ask the right questions

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 16, 2010 at 04:54 PM

A few days ago, CNBC’s Squawk Box turned its show over to a gab-fest between two VIPs in the Social... More

2010 Knight News Challenge Winners Announced

Some clever ideas in the Sisyphean struggle to Save Journalism

By Alexandra Fenwick   Jun 16, 2010 at 04:02 PM

The latest Knight News Challenge has been closed and the winners are in, just announced earlier today. First, the bad... More

All Talk and No Oil Cap Makes Barack A Dull Boy

A roundup of press coverage of and reaction to Obama’s Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill

By Alexandra Fenwick   Jun 16, 2010 at 02:52 PM

Eight weeks into the biggest oil spill disaster in American history and beset by criticism of the federal reaction to... More

The FT Makes a Mess of Its Goldman Subprime Story

The perils of limiting stories to 500 words are well illustrated here

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 16, 2010 at 12:41 PM

This Financial Times story is frustrating. On the one hand, the paper is great to zero in on Goldman Sachs's... More

WaPo on Not Really Walking Away

By Holly Yeager   Jun 16, 2010 at 10:56 AM

The Washington Post is good to notice a shift among lenders, who have become more aggressive about going after borrowers... More

Quote of the Morning…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 16, 2010 at 10:54 AM

... not from a News Importance standpoint or anything, just, well... here are a few words on New York City's... More

“We Will Make BP Pay”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 16, 2010 at 09:40 AM

"We will make BP Pay" are among the words from President Obama's Oval Office address last night that seemed to... More

Audit Notes: Volcker Pans Geithner, BP Bust, Single-Scoop Recession

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 15, 2010 at 04:27 PM

Obama administration advisor Paul Volcker says the Obama administration's resolution authority won't work to unwind too big to fail banks... More

Audit D.C. Notes: Ethics in The Hill, Lobbyists Not on the Hill, New Sheriff in Town, Part IV

By Holly Yeager   Jun 15, 2010 at 04:04 PM

The Hill did good work breaking the news that a House ethics office “is demanding fundraising information from lobbyists on... More

Combatting Oil Spill Fatigue “Jejune Ennui”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 15, 2010 at 02:54 PM

The WaPo's Tom Shales today gives the Style-ish take on the oil spill, as seen on TV. Shales argues that... More

Setting Standards

The NYT frowns on ‘tweet’, for now. So which words would you edit out of—or into—press accounts?

By The Editors   Jun 15, 2010 at 02:39 PM

The New York Times sparked a bit of a blogospheric kerfuffle last week when its standards editor, Phil Corbett, issued... More

Lazarus Gets the Interchange Issue Right

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 15, 2010 at 01:06 PM

David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times takes a nice, nuanced look at interchange fees, which is the cut the... More

Congress Confirms WSJ’s Story on BP’s Corner-Cutting

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 15, 2010 at 11:38 AM

The evidence keeps stacking up that BP cut all kinds of corners to save time and money at the expense... More

Calling BS on Official Boilerplate

By Greg Marx   Jun 15, 2010 at 10:03 AM

Adam Liptak has a story in today’s New York Times about William Macumber, an Arizona man who’s been in prison... More

Audit Notes: Wall Street’s Predators, Tate on Apple, Dow “10,000”

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 14, 2010 at 06:47 PM

Speaking of the poverty business, journalist Gary Rivlin has a good piece at The Huffington Post listing all the Wall... More

How Vast Mineral Resources Could Be Bad for Afghanistan

NYT discusses perils of resource curse; AP doesn’t

By Greg Marx   Jun 14, 2010 at 04:52 PM

So, the big story of the day—that New York Times front-pager on the discovery of “nearly $1 trillion in untapped... More

Of Death Panels and Rationing

Don Berwick’s messy confirmation

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 14, 2010 at 04:46 PM

For awhile it looked like Don Berwick was the perfect candidate to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services... More

Afghan Minerals Story “Aroused Considerable Suspicion from Times Readers”…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 14, 2010 at 01:58 PM

... notes Bassey Etim at The New York Times's The Lede blog today (of James Risen's A1 Times piece today,... More

On Your Mark

Trademarks that no one treats as such

By Merrill Perlman   Jun 14, 2010 at 12:50 PM

When you have a cold, you use a lot of kleenex. When you cut yourself, you put on a band-aid.... More

WSJ: Lever Up Your Portfolio!

All the “to be sures” in the world aren’t enough to save this one

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 14, 2010 at 12:14 PM

The Wall Street Journal ought to know better than to write a big article about why "There Has Never Been... More

Another Null Result: Obama’s Numbers Stable in Wake of Spill

By Greg Marx   Jun 14, 2010 at 11:58 AM

John Harwood’s Monday contributions to The New York Times’s “Caucus” blog provide a reliably level-headed take on the political news... More

Prez Should Stop “[C]omplaining on TV about TV”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 14, 2010 at 10:51 AM

The Nation's Ari Melber has, according to his headline, "The Solution to Obama's BP Press Problem." Writes Melber: Obama is... More

WaPo, NYT, Anonymous Sources

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 14, 2010 at 09:59 AM

"[B]y casually agreeing to conceal the identities of those who provide non-critical information, The [Washington] Post erodes its credibility and... More

Audit Notes: Mortgage Fraud, Deflation Threat, Starkman Win

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 11, 2010 at 06:27 PM

The Financial Times reports that the FBI is preparing to drop the hammer on the mortgage fraudsters: The FBI is... More

Apple’s Controlling Instincts Censor Ulysses All Over Again

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 11, 2010 at 05:05 PM

Apple continues to run amok censoring iPad/iPhone apps, now forcing changes to a graphic novel version of James Joyce's Ulysses.... More

Deficit Still Not Dominant

Some cold water on a Gallup poll that’s making the rounds

By Greg Marx   Jun 11, 2010 at 02:13 PM

My colleague Holly Yeager made a pretty good case the other day that the press is exaggerating the level of... More

Mixed Effort From Bloomberg on a Hedge Fund Tycoon’s Taxes

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 11, 2010 at 01:50 PM

Bloomberg is good to examine how hedge-fund kingpin Eddie Lampert, No. 316 on Forbes richest in the world list, may... More

Like Oil, Few Answers Rise to Surface

Replies to some of our readers’ “seeping questions” about the Gulf spill

By Ethan Scholl   Jun 11, 2010 at 12:04 PM

Editor’s Note: In a recent News Meeting question, CJR asked readers what they wanted to know about the ongoing oil... More

Report the Error

Scott Rosenberg’s quest for a universal corrections button

By Craig Silverman   Jun 11, 2010 at 10:50 AM

Many of the corrections that appear in the press are notable thanks to the significance or amusing nature of the... More

Audit Notes: TBTF, Billionaire’s Free Pass(ing), Poverty Profiteers in Paris

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 10, 2010 at 06:01 PM

The Journal's David Wessel looks at the divide over what to do about too big to fail. Even mainstream economists... More

E-Reader History

Online sidebar for Curtis’s piece

By Justin Peters   Jun 10, 2010 at 04:59 PM

More

CJR Wins Two Mirror Awards

By The Editors   Jun 10, 2010 at 03:59 PM

Congratulations to CJR's Dean Starkman and former staff writer Megan Garber for their victories at today's Mirror Awards ceremony. The... More

Party-Switchers Losing Elections: Not Hard to Explain

By Greg Marx   Jun 10, 2010 at 12:55 PM

A piece in Politico today proffers a few explanations for Blanche Lincoln’s moderately surprising win in Arkansas’s Democratic Senate primary.... More

More On Super-Soakering With Sources

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 10, 2010 at 12:22 PM

In response to questions from Twitter followers, Mark Knoller, White House correspondent for CBS News Radio, has been tweeting about... More

Goldman Seizes Some of the Spotlight Back from BP

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 10, 2010 at 12:04 PM

Goldman Sachs must have been enjoying its month-long respite from Most Despised Capitalist status. That crown rests quite easily on... More

Sebelius Watch, Part III

Schizophrenia over Medicare Advantage plans

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 10, 2010 at 11:10 AM

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has emerged as the person to watch as the Obama administration scrambles to... More

Carly Fiorina Hands Sean Hannity a New Tagline

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 10, 2010 at 09:31 AM

Yesterday, Carly Fiorina, California's brand new Republican Senatorial candidate, had herself an open mic situation while waiting to begin an... More

The End of Men in Politics? Um, No

Some perspective on the “Ladies’ Night” meme

By Greg Marx   Jun 9, 2010 at 06:00 PM

As if to unite Ryan’s irritation with sensational headlines at The Atlantic with Liz’s observation that “Ladies’ Night” seems to... More

Audit Notes: A WSJ Winner, BPA in Canned Goods, AIG

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 9, 2010 at 05:52 PM

Wouldn't it be ironic if Rupert Murdoch and Robert Thomson watered down the Journal's print Pulitzer-winning prowess but got the... More

An NYT Win on a Countrywide Mortgage Scam

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 9, 2010 at 04:35 PM

The Federal Trade Commission slapped a $108 million fine on Countrywide/Bank of America earlier this week. Tough investigative business journalism... More

Too Many Cooks

Celebrity chefs enjoy their media moment

By Steve Daley   Jun 9, 2010 at 03:10 PM

There they are again, this time on the front of the Washington Post Style section. It’s the celebrity chefs, and... More

Deficit Dominant

By Holly Yeager   Jun 9, 2010 at 03:05 PM

In its story on the Obama administration’s apparent inability to take strong steps to spur the economy and create jobs,... More

Washington Wins! (And Loses, Too!)

The limits of the “anti-Washington” frame for interpreting the elections

By Greg Marx   Jun 9, 2010 at 01:22 PM

Continuing with the theme of insta-narratives from Tuesday’s elections, a co-worker passes on Ron Fournier’s analysis piece for The Associated... More

Going underwater with the AP

By Clint Hendler   Jun 9, 2010 at 10:44 AM

Via Joe Strupp (once of Editor & Publisher, now with Media Matters) here's a clip of AP reporter Rich Matthews... More

Pick a Narrative, any Narrative…

By Greg Marx   Jun 9, 2010 at 10:10 AM

So, the results from Super Duper Tuesday are in. What insta-narratives are our leading press outlets constructing? Let’s take a... More

NYT’s DealBook, Stenographer to Private Equity

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 9, 2010 at 10:10 AM

The private-equity industry is issuing a "dire warning" about the consequences of raising its taxes, the NYT's DealBook reports. In... More

Primaries & The Gang

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 9, 2010 at 09:49 AM

And the feelin's right/Oh, yes it's... ABC News CBS News's Bob Schieffer: "The biggest election day of the year heading... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg Blues, Fool’s Gold, TBTF Primer

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 8, 2010 at 07:53 PM

I think this Bloomberg story is important. But I'm not exactly sure, because it's almost unreadable. Here's one reason it... More

Unfriendly Fire

Wired’s scoop sets WikiLeaks a-Twitter

By Clint Hendler   Jun 8, 2010 at 04:17 PM

When, late Sunday night, Wired reported that Bradley Manning, a young Army intelligence staffer, had been arrested and charged with... More

More Lessons from Political Science

How understanding the horse race can keep us from obsessing over it

By Greg Marx   Jun 8, 2010 at 03:58 PM

I’m late in flagging it, but Slate’s Chris Beam, riffing of my magazine article on what political journalists can learn... More

FP On How Media Misread Tehran

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 8, 2010 at 03:08 PM

Foreign Policy has an interesting package of stories reflecting on the media coverage of last year's elections in Iran, including... More

Audit D.C. Notes: The Disappearing Watchdog, Dinner—and Dollars—with a Staffer, Tax Help Needed

By Holly Yeager   Jun 8, 2010 at 02:11 PM

Our comrades-in-criticism at the American Journalism Review are out with an important piece about the alarming decline of watchdog reporting... More

Beach Blanket Bingo

Veep’s party revives age-old ethical debate

By The Editors   Jun 8, 2010 at 01:24 PM

One of the classic ethical questions in journalism—how much distance should a reporter keep from his sources and subjects?—is back... More

ProPublica and WaPo on the Rotten Culture at BP

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 8, 2010 at 12:29 PM

ProPublica and the Washington Post team up for an investigation today on BP's history of flaunting environmental safety regulations. Particularly... More

The Small Business Angle, Part II

The Boston Globe discovers the fine print

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 8, 2010 at 10:53 AM

One of the best stories I’ve seen in the post-health reform media era comes from the Boston Globe. Health reporter... More

Audit Notes: Links, Readability, Distractions, Wired

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 7, 2010 at 06:08 PM

Jason Fry weighs in on the Nicholas Carr links-as-distractions discussion, with a thoughtful post breaking down the issue. Fry says... More

Politico Sees Public Unions Under Fire

But adds to the problem it describes

By Holly Yeager   Jun 7, 2010 at 05:11 PM

Politico picks a good moment to write about the way public employee unions have landed in the crosshairs, as politicians... More

WaPo denies allegation it sat on WikiLeaks video

By Clint Hendler   Jun 7, 2010 at 05:05 PM

Whoever had been posting to the WikiLeaks Twitter account over the last 12 hours has had some very unkind words... More

The Small Business Angle

A gutsy health reform piece from Colorado Public Radio

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 7, 2010 at 04:27 PM

Eric Whitney, Colorado Public Radio’s health reporter, did a good job recently on a story that more and more in... More

Sure, He’s an Arrogant Opportunist, but Once You Get to Know Him…

By Greg Marx   Jun 7, 2010 at 04:00 PM

A little while back, in the course of marveling at the entertaining endorsements emanating from the Arkansas press corps, I... More

The Siphoning Solution

More on “kinky math” and mechanical Band-Aids for the oil spill

By Curtis Brainard   Jun 7, 2010 at 03:34 PM

On Monday afternoon, BP reported that it was capturing about 11,000 barrels per day of the oil that has been... More

A Risky Time for Rep. Rangel?

Times, Politico differ on whether longtime pol is in peril

By Greg Marx   Jun 7, 2010 at 03:32 PM

There's a pair of dueling articles out today about the political fortunes of Charlie Rangel, one in Politico and the... More

Those Who Play Spray Together…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 7, 2010 at 01:46 PM

What do you get when you bring together a water slide, Wolf Blitzer (among other journalists), water guns, and Rahmbo... More

HHS Gets Tough With Execs. What About the SEC?

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 7, 2010 at 12:19 PM

The Department of Health and Human Services is getting aggressive at rooting out fraud in Big Pharma, Fortune reports. From... More

Proof

Is ‘proved’ the same as ‘proven’?

By Merrill Perlman   Jun 7, 2010 at 11:30 AM

A basic tenet of the court system, going back to British common law, is that a suspect is “innocent until... More

Arrest in WikiLeaks killing video probe

By Clint Hendler   Jun 7, 2010 at 10:03 AM

Wired posted quite a scoop last night: Specialist Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old Army soldier deployed to Iraq, has been arrested... More

“When Jesus Rode a Gay Dinosaur That Had Breast Cancer…”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 7, 2010 at 09:39 AM

... to See a Historically Famous American President." David Carr's (slightly?) exaggerated stab at a typical newsweekly "single topic" cover... More

Audit Notes: Around and a Roundup, Fed Capture, Newsday Cashflow

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 4, 2010 at 06:11 PM

The Journal has a good, creepy story on how the chemical companies are planning to take advantage of blowback from... More

Ending “Lame” Data

Aneesh Chopra gives an update on the Open Government Directive

By Clint Hendler   Jun 4, 2010 at 02:01 PM

This morning, Aneesh Chopra, who as the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer was charged with the development of the Obama... More

USAT vs. the Job-Training Myth

By Holly Yeager   Jun 4, 2010 at 12:41 PM

USA Today does good work on the unemployment beat, looking at the promise of job training—and the disappointment that often... More

WSJ Finds Some Traders Getting a Sneak Peek at Prices

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 4, 2010 at 12:30 PM

The Wall Street Journal has a new angle on high-frequency trading today, reporting that some trading firms pay exchanges for... More

The Myth of Tiananmen

And the price of a passive press

By Jay Mathews   Jun 4, 2010 at 11:00 AM

Mathews is an education reporter for The Washington Post. He was the paper's first Beijing bureau chief and returned in... More

Toxic Twins

When words are similar in spelling but very different in meaning

By Craig Silverman   Jun 4, 2010 at 10:32 AM

Utter the phrase “toxic twins” and most people immediately think of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. (Just ask... More

A Conversation with KQED’s Sarah Varney

How do you keep a story fresh?

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 4, 2010 at 10:14 AM

Now that the great health care reform effort is over—or just beginning, depending on your point of view—the media face... More

Audit D.C. Notes: Who’s Unemployed, What’s Obama Saying, Where’s Washingtonpost.com’s Congress News?

By Holly Yeager   Jun 3, 2010 at 04:30 PM

The long-term unemployment scene just keeps getting worse, and The Wall Street Journal is good to highlight the problem: The... More

Mechanical Band-Aids

Press wrestles with techno-optimism while BP seeks to stop oil spill

By Curtis Brainard   Jun 3, 2010 at 03:06 PM

Thank God or whomever. The nuclear option has never been, and never will be, on the table amongst other options... More

Ellsberg and Assange

America’s most famous leaker meets a WikiLeaks founder

By Clint Hendler   Jun 3, 2010 at 02:23 PM

It was a meeting across generations and technology. Daniel Ellsberg, who made his name nearly forty years ago by providing... More

Audit Notes: Fan/Fred Still?, Zuck Shucked, Labor-Standards Arbitrage

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 3, 2010 at 02:13 PM

Some people are still hauling out the false argument that Fannie and Freddie caused the housing bubble and thus, the... More

Context M.I.A.

M.I.A. may not get her story straight—but neither does Lynn Hirschberg

By V.V. Ganeshananthan   Jun 3, 2010 at 01:53 PM

This week’s New York Times Magazine left lots of readers thinking that controversial recording artist M.I.A. doesn’t always know what... More

The Blogs Blast Buffett

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 3, 2010 at 12:44 PM

The news reporting this morning on Warren Buffett's testimony doesn't exactly move me. But the blogs sure are fun. Edmund... More

Audit Notes: Gasparino, Claman, and Buffett; McClatchy; Labor Demonization

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 2, 2010 at 08:29 PM

Charlie Gasparino of Fox Business News rakes Warren Buffett over the coals today for his hypocrisy on Moody's. This is... More

FT Gives a New Starbucks the Section-Front Treatment

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 2, 2010 at 03:37 PM

It's not like there's a dearth of stories in financial journalism these days. So what is the Financial Times doing... More

WaPo Crunches Leadership PAC Numbers

By Holly Yeager   Jun 2, 2010 at 02:34 PM

The Washington Post shines a light on an increasingly important fixture in Washington’s money and politics scene, the leadership PAC.... More

Seeping Questions

What do you want to know about the Gulf oil spill?

By The Editors   Jun 2, 2010 at 02:32 PM

Six weeks after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has... More

NYT Sourcing: An “Internet Link” “Alleges…”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 2, 2010 at 01:50 PM

How's this for sourcing (flagged by a tipster) in the New York Times's A1 story today, "Turkish Funds Helped Group... More

With Graduation Series, NPR’s Anecdotes Tell Only Part of the Story

By Holly Yeager   Jun 2, 2010 at 01:18 PM

NPR is marking graduation season with a series on recent grads and “the frustrations and fears they face as they... More

Another Take on the Times’s Memphis Piece

And the Social Security connection

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 2, 2010 at 11:10 AM

The New York Times’s excellent piece Sunday—already praised by our Holly Yeager—ended with an unsettling conclusion: Blacks in Memphis are... More

WSJ iPad Numbers Are Looking Good

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 2, 2010 at 10:48 AM

Rupert Murdoch says The Wall Street Journal has 10,000 subscribers paying for the paper on the two-month-old iPad. That's an... More

Fineman on Gores: “Finally”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 2, 2010 at 09:29 AM

The "surprise" of it all. That has been the overwhelming theme in the (unsurprising) flurry of awkward, speculative commentary from... More

Audit Notes: Goldman’s Wells Notice, BP’s Wells Permits, Dogpile

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 1, 2010 at 05:31 PM

Matthew Goldstein of Reuters reports that Goldman Sachs told Calpers, the California public-pension giant, in March that it wasn't under... More

How Big Is Big?

When numbers are meaningless

By Merrill Perlman   Jun 1, 2010 at 04:52 PM

It’s that time of year again. Wildfires are starting to spread, well, like wildfires. And meaningless measurements of the size... More

Audit D.C. Notes: WaPo on the Debt Dilemma, CAP Previews the FinReg Conference, Rachman on Happy Warriors, Etc.

By Holly Yeager   Jun 1, 2010 at 04:01 PM

The Washington Post does well today with a nice plain-English look at a contemporary conundrum: The U.S. government debt is... More

Sequestered in Memphis

The NYT does strong reporting on blacks’ vanishing gains

By Holly Yeager   Jun 1, 2010 at 01:38 PM

The New York Times continues its excellent series on The New Poor with a look at Memphis, and the socioeconomic... More

Nick Carr and How Links Hurt Reading

Yes, embedded links are distracting

By Ryan Chittum   Jun 1, 2010 at 12:57 PM

Nicholas Carr has a fascinating book excerpt in this month's Wired looking at what the Internet does to how we... More

Turner on CNN: More Green Journalism; “Less Yellow Journalism”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 1, 2010 at 12:56 PM

CNN is 30 years old today! The on-air celebration has been, so far, low key. There was birthday cake at... More

Meet the “Shadow Congress”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jun 1, 2010 at 10:30 AM

TPM's Zachary Roth (formerly of CJR) and Justin Elliott have put together an interactive map of the "Shadow Congress," the... More

What Congress Giveth, It Also Taketh Away

Farewell, COBRA extensions?

By Trudy Lieberman   Jun 1, 2010 at 08:53 AM

Much of the health news coverage of late has tracked the topics that administration officials, notably HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius,... More

Embrace the Wonk

A new opportunity for reporters and political scientists

By Greg Marx   Jun 1, 2010 at 08:00 AM

On January 8, Marc Ambinder, the widely-read political reporter and blogger for The Atlantic, found a copy of Game Change,... More