Timesmen Type Up Intel CEO’s Excuses on Jobs

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 31, 2010 at 06:25 PM

There's no need for me to reiterate what others like Dean Baker, Yves Smith, and Andrew Leonard have already written... More

Ayn Rand: “A Greatness Stunted by Hate”

By Justin Peters   Aug 31, 2010 at 04:35 PM

In the August 30 issue of National Review, Jason Lee Steorts has a good and thoughtful piece on "The Greatly... More

“Electoral Armageddon” For Dems

Poll sets tongues wagging, knees shaking

By Joel Meares   Aug 31, 2010 at 03:00 PM

Gallup’s latest polling on the Generic Ballot—which measures whether registered voters would rather vote for a Republican or Democrat in... More

Q & A: Brian Herbert, Developer for Ushahidi

Free crowdmapping software every news website can use right now

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 31, 2010 at 02:36 PM

Ushahidi, a word that means “testimony” in Swahili, is the name of a group of computer programmers and human rights... More

Crowd Sourcing

Should reporters bother estimating crowd size at rallies?

By The Editors   Aug 31, 2010 at 02:23 PM

At the beginning of his “Restoring Honor” rally in D.C. last weekend, Fox News’s Glenn Beck joked, “I have just... More

Glenn Beck Reimagines Whiteness

And the media can’t cope

By Lester Feder   Aug 31, 2010 at 01:18 PM

It’s rare that an event can provoke columns that carry such contradictory teasers as “Don’t ridicule Glenn Beck’s tribute to... More

A Poor FT Page-One Pay Story

Pushing the big-business line in a lobbying campaign on pay disclosure

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 31, 2010 at 11:38 AM

Boy, sometimes it's just flat out hard to figure the Financial Times—a smart newspaper that not infrequently does dumb things,... More

Q&A: The Washington Post’s Chief Maryland Reporter, John Wagner

“If the Republican wins in Maryland then it’s going to be a big night for Republicans in the country.”

By Joel Meares   Aug 31, 2010 at 10:48 AM

After stalking John Edwards as part of the Raleigh News and Observer’s Washington bureau, reporter John Wagner moved to The... More

Audit Notes: Our Glass Jaw, Financial Crises, Extend and Pretend

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 30, 2010 at 10:42 PM

If you're looking for a single anecdote to sum up the demise of the American economy, you could do worse... More

Two Can Play That Game, Rupert

The Times has the smarter strategy in the head-to-head with The Wall Street Journal

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 30, 2010 at 05:09 PM

Rupert Murdoch has de-emphasized business coverage in The Wall Street Journal since buying the paper in 2007, something that The... More

The Glenn Beck Numbers Game

The number matters, but which number?

By Joel Meares   Aug 30, 2010 at 04:02 PM

With no official headcounter at the National Mall, Glenn Beck’s determinedly non-political “Restoring Honor” rally has the media dusting off... More

Audit D.C. Notes: Kurtz Conflicted, Citizens United Reconsidered, Privatization Debated

By Holly Yeager   Aug 30, 2010 at 04:02 PM

Howard Kurtz’s dual roles as Washington Post media writer and CNN host have come under plenty of scrutiny before. But... More

Are Disclaimers Enough for WaPo When it Comes to Kaplan?

By Justin Peters   Aug 30, 2010 at 04:01 PM

On August 22, The Washington Post ran an editorial about the Obama administration's plans to further regulate for-profit colleges--a move... More

Reporter Gives Money to Panhandlers, Watches What They Spend

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 30, 2010 at 02:43 PM

Jim Rankin, a reporter for The Toronto Star, found an interesting way to profile some of his city’s neediest citizens.... More

Susanne Craig leaving WSJ for the NYT

A blow to the Journal

By Dean Starkman   Aug 30, 2010 at 01:59 PM

Susanne Craig, one of The Wall Street Journal’s star Wall Street reporters, is moving to The New York Times, a... More

Universal Blues

James Baldwin’s prose still speaks volumes about race, class, and America

By Kimberly Chou   Aug 30, 2010 at 01:03 PM

The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings | By James Baldwin | Pantheon Books | 320 pages, $26.95 To introduce The... More

You Said What?

Words that have changed meaning

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 30, 2010 at 12:55 PM

Kenn Fong wonders about words whose meanings have been co-opted by popular culture. “The other day a friend spoke of... More

The Times Retargets the Zappos Ads Story

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 30, 2010 at 12:50 PM

The New York Times steps onto the online privacy beat this morning (the one put on the front burner recently... More

Gasp! The Third Edition of the OED May Never Be Printed

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 30, 2010 at 12:35 PM

Logophiles, put your down your magnifying glasses! The Oxford English Dictionary will not print another edition. Because of the Internet’s... More

Can Yahoo Woo San Francisco?

Search giant readies a hyperlocal network

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 27, 2010 at 04:30 PM

Following rival AOL’s lead, Yahoo has started a hyperlocal rollout. First stop: San Francisco. Yahoo purchased online publisher (content farm)... More

Audit D.C. Notes: Maddow on Katrina, WaPo on Mystery Dems, What Dodd Didn’t Ask

By Holly Yeager   Aug 27, 2010 at 03:45 PM

It’s good to see all the coverage of New Orleans five years after Katrina. But Rachel Maddow’s show Thursday night... More

Longshot Wants Your Stories (Right Away)

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 27, 2010 at 03:05 PM

The Magazine Formerly Known As 48 HR (before a cease-and-desist letter from CBS made them change their name) is back!... More

ProPublica and Planet Money Find the Keys to the Kingdom

By Dean Starkman   Aug 27, 2010 at 12:21 PM

Mark Pittman: Where is this demand coming from? How can you guys sell this issue in thirty minutes? Who the... More

HuffPo a Stripper Wearing Reading Glasses?

By Joel Meares   Aug 27, 2010 at 11:58 AM

One of the glories of the digital age—at least for those who wish Elizabeth Taylor had have been able to... More

“Radical” Restructuring, Layoffs at USA Today

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 27, 2010 at 11:54 AM

USA Today, the second-largest newspaper in the country after The Wall Street Journal, is undergoing a company-wide shift in focus... More

Why We’re Suing

Let’s see those e-mails, governor

By The Editors   Aug 27, 2010 at 11:15 AM

Today, the Columbia Journalism Review will file a lawsuit in an Albany court, seeking to compel New York state to... More

The Challenge of Verifying Crowdsourced Information

A better way to sift through a river of data

By Craig Silverman   Aug 27, 2010 at 11:14 AM

Shortly after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti in January, a small team of workers with Ushahidi, a project that enables... More

A Profile Written Through Tweets

By Joel Meares   Aug 27, 2010 at 08:52 AM

File this under: Why Didn’t I Think of That? Yesterday Slate published a pretty fab profile of manic, press-averse rap... More

Audit Notes: WSJ Drives BP Story, NYT is better on Wal-Mart, Insurance, Alabama, Da Bears

By Dean Starkman   Aug 26, 2010 at 07:00 PM

—The WSJ continues its strong BP coverage, a story on which it has simply excelled. Today my old paper examines... More

The Fastest-Growing Media Companies in America

Community news in Texas, private mags for colleges

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 26, 2010 at 03:49 PM

Inc. magazine has released its annual list of the 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the country. Sadly, but perhaps not... More

NYT Blurs the Debt Debate

How lonely is the bow-tied Blumenauer?

By Holly Yeager   Aug 26, 2010 at 03:46 PM

The New York Times poses an interesting question today: “Is there a strong liberal argument to be made for attacking... More

Alan Simpson Does it Again

This time the press pays attention—sort of

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 26, 2010 at 02:22 PM

Alan Simpson, the co-chair of the president’s deficit commission, came up with another doozy Monday when he told Ashley Carson,... More

Mehlman Comes Out

And the press reacts

By Joel Meares   Aug 26, 2010 at 01:14 PM

The NFL’s David Kopay broke sports barriers when he came out of the closet in 1975; Martina Navratilova did the... More

The Oil Plume Paradox

Coverage of various studies engenders frustration

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 26, 2010 at 11:54 AM

Pinpointing the amount of oil lingering in the Gulf of Mexico continues to be a source of frustration for journalists... More

Fortune With a Stellar Probe into J&J

By Dean Starkman   Aug 26, 2010 at 10:47 AM

Now playing in Fortune, a honey of a probe into pharma icon Johnson & Johnson. Written by Mina Kimes, it... More

Audit Notes: WSJ on FASB; More on Auditors; the Demand Side, etc.

By Dean Starkman   Aug 25, 2010 at 06:45 PM

—I'd like to know more about the rushed retirement of the chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which The... More

Legal Aid

By Rachael Scarborough King   Aug 25, 2010 at 05:59 PM

The need for press freedom and government transparency is as urgent today as ever, but the newsrooms that long defended... More

2010 APME Awards Announced

Here are the winning stories

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 25, 2010 at 05:28 PM

The Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) has posted the winners of its 2010 contests. But we’ve got the links! Congratulations... More

Knight Funds Tech Initiatives for Community-Building

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 25, 2010 at 04:40 PM

The Knight Foundation’s Technology for Engagement Initiative, which will fund organizations using technology in the most creative and viable ways,... More

Bloggers at the Treasury

By Dean Starkman   Aug 25, 2010 at 02:32 PM

Last week, small groups of bloggers were ushered into the Treasury Department for quasi-off-the-record meetings with Tim Geithner and other... More

Tuesday’s “Shocking,” “Surprising,” “Stunning” Primary Results

The night that defied and confirmed the media’s expectations

By Joel Meares   Aug 25, 2010 at 02:02 PM

Read the paper today? If you did, you’ll see yesterday’s primary results were a victory for incumbents, anti-incumbents, the establishment,... More

Isolate at Your Own Peril

Journalists and media critics must increase their global expertise

By Justin D. Martin   Aug 25, 2010 at 01:26 PM

CAIRO—Even if you deeply love journalism and you’re good at it, you might not be able to find a gainful... More

TBD Invites Readers to Map Metro Problems

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 25, 2010 at 12:39 PM

With the new service Crowdmap, TBD is collecting information from readers about Washington D.C.’s Metro system. Commuters write in about... More

CJR Holds a Missouri Town Hall Meeting

Not many are wild about health reform

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 25, 2010 at 11:09 AM

Last August I visited the college town of Columbia, Missouri, and did man-on-the street interviews with small business owners, college... More

Six Steps to Build a Faux News Story

By Joel Meares   Aug 25, 2010 at 10:12 AM

D.C.-based journo Julian Sanchez has articulated what many of us have been thinking for the last few years: that there... More

Audit Notes: Pittman Suit Advances, FT’s nifty banking graphic, Shareholder Activists Gain, etc.

By Dean Starkman   Aug 24, 2010 at 06:30 PM

—The full federal appeals court in New York refused to reconsider a lower court ruling ordering the Fed's board of... More

Mitt Romney’s Tousled Hair

The Globe’s early look at the candidate’s changed style

By Joel Meares   Aug 24, 2010 at 05:20 PM

Just over two months out from the midterms and The Boston Globe is already restlessly fixating on 2012. Yep, the... More

Patch’s Problematic Redesign

Blurring the lines between edited and user-generated content

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 24, 2010 at 04:29 PM

AOL’s Patch Media launched its 100th hyperlocal news site last week in Morristown, New Jersey, and is apparently planning on... More

Covering Cordoba House

How do you cover the “Ground Zero Mosque”?

By The Editors   Aug 24, 2010 at 02:04 PM

Strange it might be, but Cordoba House has become a major story—at the moment perhaps the biggest story in the... More

Tug of War at the Fed

Journal pulls back the curtain

By Holly Yeager   Aug 24, 2010 at 12:52 PM

The Wall Street Journal does good work today with a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the August 10 meeting of the... More

Boehner Monologue Called Out

Reporting on political theater? Acknowledge the theatrical

By Joel Meares   Aug 24, 2010 at 12:07 PM

Seems a lot of people are talking about the speech John Boehner gave today in Ohio—the supposedly candidate-defining oration we... More

Denver Gets a 21st Century Newsstand

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 24, 2010 at 10:26 AM

The Denver Post reports that entrepreneur Molly Graham is self-funding a new “21st-century” newsstand, called the NewsCube, to open in... More

In an SEC Filing Against Countrywide, a Press Win

By Dean Starkman   Aug 24, 2010 at 10:17 AM

The Wall Street Journal this morning reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission has now explicitly alleged what that newspaper... More

Florida, Florida, Florida!

The inside/out take on Florida’s primary

By Joel Meares   Aug 24, 2010 at 08:30 AM

The story on the recount state’s primary even before a single vote has been counted seems to be: we got... More

Audit D.C. Notes: The End of the Affair, Stimulus Situation, Cantor on the Trail

By Holly Yeager   Aug 23, 2010 at 05:06 PM

The August lull is giving The New York Times a chance to point out just how much our economic lives... More

Look It Up!

A dictionary by any other name…

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 23, 2010 at 03:43 PM

Twitter was all, ah, atwitter last week because a new edition of a dictionary came out, adding about 2,000 words... More

Audit Notes: High Priests, Feed the Meter, Correlation and Causation, Etc.

By Dean Starkman   Aug 23, 2010 at 03:10 PM

—Chrystia Freeland ruminates on business journalism's image problem in the Times Book Review, and argues against the good-guys-vs.-bad-guys construction of... More

Post-Election Analysis, Pre-Election

Where to find Arizona’s primary story so far

By Joel Meares   Aug 23, 2010 at 01:12 PM

It’s primary day in the Grand Canyon state tomorrow, and no one’s exactly riveted. All eyes are on a senate... More

We Need a “FailFaire” for Journalism Startups

Most experiments fail, but we can learn from mistakes.

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 23, 2010 at 12:38 PM

Last week we read in The New York Times about a recurring failure-themed party called “FailFaire.” The gathering is meant... More

Mortgage Fraud Still Tiny

By Dean Starkman   Aug 23, 2010 at 12:34 PM

No matter what The Wall Street Journal says. Not to make too much of this. It's the summer doldrums, after... More

A Local Look at Small Business and Hard Money

Over the transom from the Audit/SABEW local business-press initiative

By Dean Starkman   Aug 23, 2010 at 09:50 AM

As some Audit readers know, we’ve started a push with the Society of American Business Editors and Writers to try... More

Audit Notes: Goldman and Geithner, Meaningless WSJ Numbers, Freeland

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 20, 2010 at 06:59 PM

The New York Times runs a pretty amusing story on Tim Geithner's Goldman past—you know, the one he never had.... More

An Afghan In-flight Has Lessons to Teach

By Joel Meares   Aug 20, 2010 at 03:21 PM

The Journal’s Michael M. Phillips’s “An Airline Magazine That Makes Travelers Want to Pull the Rip Cord” is an interesting... More

Bill O’Reilly’s Stock Tips

Probably not a good idea

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 20, 2010 at 01:04 PM

Kathy Kristof nails Bill O'Reilly for lending his mug and voice to a cockamamie investment newsletter touted by right-wing news... More

Exterminate! Exterminate!

By Joel Meares   Aug 20, 2010 at 11:44 AM

They’re in your bed! They’re in your cinema chair! They’re chewing on the Brooklyn district attorney! They’re even flitting around... More

German Paper Tries Augmented Reality for Print

And we aren’t sure why

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 20, 2010 at 11:33 AM

A post on Techcrunch Europe yesterday alerted us to an experiment by the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung to animate their... More

Lights, Camera, Fact Check!

We talk to the creators of the Web series FCU: Fact Checkers Unit

By Craig Silverman   Aug 20, 2010 at 11:18 AM

In the 1950s, NBC aired a show called the Adventures of Hiram Holliday. The titular hero was a geeky, Coke-bottle... More

Obama Not Muslim, Islam Not Bad

Yesterday’s survey results suggest coverage of Islam could be better

By Joel Meares   Aug 20, 2010 at 07:48 AM

The Pew Research Center Survey Report showing more Americans than ever believe President Obama is a Muslim is disheartening, outraging,... More

Today in Let Them Eat Cake

The Times and the Journal on what the out-of-touch super-rich are up to

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 19, 2010 at 06:32 PM

What critically important new trends are sweeping the overclass now in our angry, unemployed, bankrupt, two-war country? The New York... More

Gulf Coast Guessing Game

Fresh wave of articles highlight uncertainty about lingering oil

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 19, 2010 at 05:15 PM

More scientific criticism of a government report that attempted to calculate the amount oil left in the Gulf of Mexico... More

The Too-Modest Times

A super investigation results in unheard-of fraud charges against the state of New Jersey

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 19, 2010 at 01:34 PM

Sometimes newspapers are just too modest. Like The New York Times today. The SEC sued New Jersey for fraud for... More

Those Social Security Code Words Again

The meaning behind the tweaks, privatization, and modest changes

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 19, 2010 at 01:11 PM

The Hill yesterday set the standard for coverage of the president’s remarks in a Columbus, Ohio, backyard town hall meeting.... More

Q & A: David Plotz and Chris Wilson on Slate Labs, Part Two

“There’s no programming function that causes your computer to catch on fire.”

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 19, 2010 at 12:05 PM

Last week, Slate launched Slate Labs, a collection of their “experiments in multimedia journalism.” Curated by programmer-journalists Chris Wilson and... More

A Picture With Your Thousand Words

By Joel Meares   Aug 19, 2010 at 11:59 AM

In a trend we’re not sure we’d like to see extended to our own newsroom, The Orange County Register will... More

Police? There’s a Man Who Looks Like Anderson Cooper on my Lawn

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 19, 2010 at 09:18 AM

Today, the New York Times has an interesting piece describing the complex task the jurors on the Blagojevich case faced.... More

Audit Notes: Unemployment and Suicide, China Trade, Greece Simmers

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 18, 2010 at 09:22 PM

Annie Lowrey has a must-read story in The Washington Independent on unemployment and suicide. She digs up some stories of... More

A Paper-Thin FT Page-One Story on Outsourcing

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 18, 2010 at 08:28 PM

Rarely will you see a front page story as thin as this one, and if you do it will probably... More

Murrow, Cronkite, Slideshows

CBS News’s embarrassing trove of online click-getters

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 18, 2010 at 06:06 PM

Ahh, CBS News. Illustrious home of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Daniel Schorr, George Polk, Eric Sevareid. The Tiffany Network.... More

Jay Rosen in Oz: Horse-Race Journalism an “International Phenom”

Don’t tell us who’s going to win our vote, help us decide whom to vote for

By Joel Meares   Aug 18, 2010 at 02:29 PM

Last week I wrote about the political differences between Australia and the U.S.; specifically, the perils of drawing any too... More

Blame the Borrowers, Part 1,429

Is it Breakingviews or Bankingviews?

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 18, 2010 at 12:42 PM

Reuters Breakingviews would like you to know that crazed borrowers are responsible for the housing crisis—or at least a good... More

Q & A: David Plotz and Chris Wilson on Slate Labs

“When you build the data yourself, you can be fairly certain no one else is going to have the story.”

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 18, 2010 at 12:28 PM

Last week, Slate launched Slate Labs, a collection of their “experiments in multimedia journalism.” Curated by programmer-journalists Chris Wilson and... More

Blago in Bold, The Morning After

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 18, 2010 at 09:43 AM

A selection of front pages from Chicago-area newspapers today, the morning after a jury found former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich... More

I Know It’s August, But…

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 17, 2010 at 11:25 PM

Did The Wall Street Journal really need to go six columns with a picture of the Colombia plane crash that... More

Audit Notes: What If?, Middle Class Struggles, LAT on Teachers

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 17, 2010 at 09:53 PM

Barry Ritholtz has a smart post up about the what-ifs of the bailouts. As he points out, the question is... More

The Fed’s Bubble Brains

False equivalence on the housing crash prognosticators

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 17, 2010 at 08:08 PM

The Financial Times's Alphaville and Reuters's Felix Salmon take down both sides of a Boston Federal Reserve paper finding that... More

“Hello, yarn hipster hat,” “I’m that obnoxious meat hipster”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 17, 2010 at 04:18 PM

As Joel noted, the New York Times’s Philip B. Corbett has added “hipster” to the newspaper's Official Words To Now... More

New York’s Too-Hip Times

By Joel Meares   Aug 17, 2010 at 02:26 PM

Well, the gray lady has successfully shaken off its stodgy rep. A little too successfully it would appear. The Times’s... More

More on Extreme Weather

Day Two stories go a step farther in drawing connection to climate change

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 17, 2010 at 01:40 PM

Stories exploring a possible connection between climate change and extreme weather around the world continued over the weekend, with some... More

More Codes in the Social Security War

WaPo unravels one and misses another

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 17, 2010 at 01:28 PM

The Washington Post, which at times has acted like the head media cheerleader for the president’s deficit commission, appeared to... More

Where Snark Can Do Some Good

A Politico satire eerily like the real thing

By Joel Meares   Aug 17, 2010 at 01:01 PM

Hats off to the very clever Roger Simon, Politico’s chief political columnist. He got me good this morning with this... More

Watching My Story Go Viral in Twenty-Four Hours

How Debrahlee Lorenzana became the banker heard ‘round the world

By Elizabeth Dwoskin   Aug 17, 2010 at 10:59 AM

Earlier this summer, I was afforded an experience that is a dream for many journalists: a story I wrote went... More

Sell That to the Judge

Another SEC settlement is slapped back

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 17, 2010 at 10:51 AM

Last month the SEC slapped Citigroup on the hand for misleading its shareholders—and everyone else—in 2007 about its subprime exposure.... More

“You Love Journalism… But You Love Your Life More”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 17, 2010 at 09:58 AM

Another chilling report from the LA Times's "Mexico Under Siege" series, this one, by Tracy Wilkinson, focusing on what Wilkinson... More

News Corp.’s Digital Gamble

Predictions for Murdoch’s tablet-only newspaper

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 17, 2010 at 08:00 AM

Last week, Rupert Murdoch announced his latest scheme to develop a new national daily newspaper, to be distributed through subscription... More

Audit Notes: Deleveraging, Schwarzman Serves Up a Softball, PE

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 16, 2010 at 07:33 PM

Bloomberg has some excellent coverage of the bond market, reporting that despite the flood of U.S. government borrowing, overall bond... More

Takeaways from Week One of the Petraeus Press Blitz

Four things we learned from the General this weekend

By Joel Meares   Aug 16, 2010 at 03:16 PM

The latest Petraeus media blitz began Sunday with NBC’s special edition of Meet The Press from Afghanistan. It continued today... More

AP Calls It: “Name-Calling is Winner This Campaign Season”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 16, 2010 at 03:02 PM

With no precincts reporting, the AP is projecting that name-calling has won the 2010 election. From a piece headlined "Insults... More

Double Word Score

The same word, only different

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 16, 2010 at 02:37 PM

The truck on the highway carrying dangerous chemicals usually carries a notice that its contents are “inflammable.” If the truck... More

Drew Links

Links mentioned in Jill Drew’s piece from the September/October issue of CJR

By Jill Drew   Aug 16, 2010 at 02:06 PM

TK More

Google as Big Brother

A Journal op-ed interview finds Eric Schmidt embracing the role

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 16, 2010 at 01:20 PM

Google's Eric Schmidt just can't keep his foot out of his mouth. The guy has a proclivity for giving Big... More

Statistician Says Obama’s Mosque Comments Not So Risky

Nate Silver praises a Fox News poll

By Joel Meares   Aug 16, 2010 at 12:26 PM

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has an interesting take on Obama’s “risky” speech on the proposed community center and mosque near... More

Love Letters to Punctuation Marks

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 16, 2010 at 11:52 AM

Some people really get excited by punctuation, whether it’s an apostrophe, commas, ellipses…or exclamation points! Inspired by author Ben Greenman’s... More

Social Security in the Heartland: Lonnie Judy

What Social Security means to real people

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 16, 2010 at 11:19 AM

Before the year ends, the president’s fiscal commission will bring forth a plan for cutting the deficit. While commission co-chairs... More

Q & A: New York Times Reporter Michael Powell, Part Two

“As you continue to mature intellectually, you start to become much more comfortable in gray.”

By Joel Meares   Aug 16, 2010 at 11:12 AM

The New York Times’s Michael Powell leapt from the metro pages to the business section this May—a place he never... More

The O’Reilly Factor

How the Fox host used raw corporate power to crush a critic

By Terry Ann Knopf   Aug 16, 2010 at 10:35 AM

Whenever they say ‘it’s not about the money,’ it is about the money.” - Fred W. Friendly It was a... More

Gallup: Americans Lack Confidence in Banks, Newspapers, TV News

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 16, 2010 at 10:02 AM

From Gallup's annual "Confidence in Institutions" survey: Americans continue to express near-record-low confidence in newspapers and television news -- with... More

Audit Notes: All-L.A. Times Edition

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 13, 2010 at 08:01 PM

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at OneUnited Bank, which Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters helped get bailout money and... More

What Is the Social Security Trust Fund, Exactly?

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 13, 2010 at 07:24 PM

I have to confess that I've never understood the Social Security trust fund, and I suspect that you don't either.... More

Sloppy Journalism Might Rate a Warning Sticker

By Joel Meares   Aug 13, 2010 at 12:43 PM

Warning: This article is just a highlights reel of a much funnier person’s—U.K. comedian Tom Scott’s—recent blog post. But hey,... More

The Great Typo Hunt

Two friends, one summer, 400 error-ridden signs

By Craig Silverman   Aug 13, 2010 at 11:29 AM

It’s undoubtedly a small subset of people who could be described as “grammar vigilantes,” and it’s an even smaller slice... More

Q & A: New York Times Reporter Michael Powell

“My tendency is to want to go longer, to zig rather than zag.”

By Joel Meares   Aug 13, 2010 at 10:53 AM

The New York Times’s Michael Powell leapt from the metro pages to the business section this May—a place he never... More

The C-Word

A bleak outlook from a WSJ columnist

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 13, 2010 at 10:49 AM

One of the business press's institutional biases is the bullish. It sells magazines, provides happy newshole for advertiser to pitch... More

Audit Notes: Tom Frank Exits, Ayn Rand, Illegal Immigrants, Rubin

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 12, 2010 at 11:03 PM

Thomas Frank is the sole liberal on the Wall Street Journal's editorial pages, and one of the few liberal columnists—perhaps... More

Summer Reading List Revisited

CJR’s summer reading list for journalists

By The Editors   Aug 12, 2010 at 04:01 PM

Recently, we asked readers to recommend a book to members of the journalistic community for their summer vacations. Below, we... More

Temperate Coverage of Extreme Weather

Media put heat, floods in proper climatic context

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 12, 2010 at 03:56 PM

More and more, reporters have been asking whether or not climate change could be responsible for this summer’s extreme weather.... More

The WSJ Goes Overboard on the HP Sex Scandal

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 12, 2010 at 02:41 PM

Could you be any less interested in the Hewlett-Packard scandal? The Wall Street Journal doesn't think so. It's still throwing... More

The “JetBlue Election”?

By Joel Meares   Aug 12, 2010 at 12:35 PM

There’s a phrase likely to inspire fear in anyone who’s been to an airport lately. It also might inspire a... More

The Crystal Ball for Chris Dodd

Will it be a big bank, a hedge fund, or a lobbying gig?

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 12, 2010 at 12:12 PM

Ever since Chris Dodd announced his retirement from the Senate in January, my question has been: Which part of the... More

The Write Stuff

Has Yahoo created an AP stylebook for the digital age?

By Bill Grueskin   Aug 12, 2010 at 11:11 AM

The Yahoo Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World | St. Martin’s... More

Touring Gitmo (“Rules Inconvenience Reporters”)

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 12, 2010 at 09:54 AM

From the New York Times's Jeremy W. Peters, who recently took a "media tour" of Guantánamo Bay: Several times a... More

Audit Notes: Overdraft Profiteering, Why the Complacency, ExecuLie Detector

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 11, 2010 at 07:09 PM

The Associated Press reports that a federal judge has slammed too-big-to-fail bank Wells Fargo for "gouging and profiteering" via overdrafts.... More

WSJ Privacy Series Raises Questions on Google’s Power

The bedrock principles of the Googleplex were built on sand, after all

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 11, 2010 at 04:25 PM

A lot of times you see these multipart newspaper series bring diminishing returns after the first day or two. Not... More

Victory to the Wonks?

Political scientists saw Tuesday’s meme-shaking results coming

By Joel Meares   Aug 11, 2010 at 04:07 PM

The anti-incumbency meme hit a bit of a wall yesterday, according to those who’ve often been the ones pushing it... More

Food Stamps and Health

Let’s not forget the connection between the two

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 11, 2010 at 03:52 PM

It’s hardly surprising that the nation’s news media haven’t sent forth a flood of stories about how Congress has cut... More

Lack of Diversity at the NYTBR?

By Joel Meares   Aug 11, 2010 at 02:43 PM

Media watchdog FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) has published a report titled “Who Gets to Review and Be... More

Gibbs Gaffes Again, Tradition Continues

A look back at some choice press secretary faux pas

By Joel Meares   Aug 11, 2010 at 01:55 PM

Robert Gibbs had clearly come down with an acute case of “being human” when he spoke to The Hill’s Sam... More

News Broker/Newsbreaker Larry Garrison’s Next Get?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 11, 2010 at 12:06 PM

Among the 177 (and counting) mentions on cable news over the past two days of The World's Most Famous Ex-Flight... More

Investigation: Town Cars Idle Outside Condé Nast Building

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 11, 2010 at 09:40 AM

For an investigation of MTA buses and livery cabs idling in violation of New York City law (there is a... More

Audit Notes: Credit Due, MoJo Impact, Audit on the Radio

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 10, 2010 at 10:16 PM

In June, when I announced that Dean Starkman's "Power Problem" article had snagged a National Press Club award, I neglected... More

The Senator in Full

The press must fight the impulse to whitewash Ted Stevens’s record

By Zachary Roth   Aug 10, 2010 at 03:30 PM

The Associated Press confirmed this afternoon that former Alaska senator Ted Stevens has died in a plane crash in his... More

Untangling the “Influence Web” (With a Click)

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 10, 2010 at 03:27 PM

For your reading and reporting tool box, an addition: an influence detector, as Poligraft is described by its creator, the... More

Saint Wolf shines in The Baltimore Sun

By Joel Meares   Aug 10, 2010 at 03:18 PM

It took us a while to pick up on this tasty little story on CNN’s Wolf Isaac Blitzer, by Baltimore... More

The Journal’s Op-Ed Page In Fine Form

A misleading column blames the government for what it costs to employ a worker

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 10, 2010 at 02:27 PM

The Wall Street Journal editorial page is like the proverbial fish in a barrel. If I ever lack material to... More

Editor’s Notebook: Great Possibilities

A new publisher’s arrival prompts a fresh case of optimism

By Mike Hoyt   Aug 10, 2010 at 01:18 PM

My co-pilot at this magazine, Brent Cunningham, CJR’s managing editor/print, has a slightly darker view of this world than my... More

Meet the General

What would you ask David Petraeus?

By The Editors   Aug 10, 2010 at 01:04 PM

General David Petraeus will likely show more restraint than his predecessor when he kicks off a series of media interviews... More

Palin, Handel, Huckabee, and Deal

A brief primer on the Georgia primary runoff

By Joel Meares   Aug 10, 2010 at 12:38 PM

A quick scan of the blogosphere and you might think Sarah Palin was running against Mike Huckabee in today’s Georgia... More

The First Amendment to the Continents

Demands for global free speech don’t amount to imperialism

By Justin D. Martin   Aug 10, 2010 at 12:21 PM

CAIRO—Traveling in the developing world, I’m regularly challenged over my defense of free speech. One Egyptian government sympathizer once told... More

NYT: Merrill’s CDO Self Dealing Kept the Bubble Going

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 10, 2010 at 11:42 AM

The late Mark Pittman told me this a year and a half ago about the fraud at the heart of... More

Q & A: Christopher Keating, The Hartford Courant

“I would say that this year is the best political year in Connecticut in forty years.”

By Joel Meares   Aug 10, 2010 at 10:21 AM

Long Island-born political reporter Christopher Keating has been The Hartford Courant’s capitol bureau chief since 1995. He’s never been busier... More

Boston Globe Damning CNN With Faint Praise?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 10, 2010 at 09:35 AM

The Boston Globe has an editorial today (via Romo) headlined, "Back off, critics-- TV news benefits from fresher voices," addressing... More

Audit Notes: Poor Employers, Unions Matter, SEC Claws

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 10, 2010 at 02:42 AM

Are employers really having a tough time finding people to hire in this economy? The New York Times claimed that... More

Reporting on the “Almost Irrelevant”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 9, 2010 at 08:18 PM

Here's Politico's John Harris, during a roundtable on yesterday's This Week (with "globe-trotter Fancy-Pants" Christiane Amanpour), chiming in on the... More

The Medicare Sales Job Moves Along

More media skepticism needed

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 9, 2010 at 03:25 PM

In his radio message this weekend, the president focused on Medicare, trying as hard as he might to convince skeptical... More

Will the Shield Bill Become Law?

Despite WikiLeaks, reporter’s privilege has path to passage

By Clint Hendler   Aug 9, 2010 at 02:53 PM

On December 10, 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the Free Flow of Information Act for consideration before... More

Capital Losses

When a noun is proper, or not

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 9, 2010 at 12:23 PM

The coming fall elections promise a lot of intrigue. We will read in The New York Times all about the... More

Apples and Oranges; Grizzlies and Koalas

Why the Australian election is no preview for the midterms

By Joel Meares   Aug 9, 2010 at 12:07 PM

I’ve recently noticed a few articles hopping roo-like across the Net pushing the idea that the Australian federal election this... More

The Economist’s Success Is Not a Marketing Story

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 9, 2010 at 11:17 AM

It's a miserable time for the press, so it's somewhat annoying to see The New York Times's take this morning... More

Q & A: New CJR Publisher Cathryn Cronin Cranston

The former Harvard Business Review publisher talks about her plans for CJR’s future

By Mike Hoyt   Aug 9, 2010 at 09:00 AM

The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) announced today (PDF) that Cathryn Cronin Cranston, former publisher of the Harvard Business Review, has... More

Retraction Action

Oransky and Marcus keep tabs on retracted scientific papers

By Craig Silverman   Aug 9, 2010 at 06:00 AM

Late last month, the editors of The Lancet Oncology published an “expression of concern” regarding a paper published in 2007.... More

Weigel at WaPo, on Tea Party

By Joel Meares   Aug 6, 2010 at 11:45 AM

Good to see Slate’s David Weigel wearing his old WaPo jersey today, penning a Tea Party primer that breaks down... More

Forbes.com Gets a New Slant

Lewis Dvorkin’s bloggy overhaul of the Internet continues

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 6, 2010 at 10:49 AM

On Thursday, Forbes.com launched a new blog page utilizing the platform first developed by the blog network True/Slant, which it... More

Mag du jour

By Joel Meares   Aug 6, 2010 at 10:25 AM

It’s better than staff cuts, we guess… News came yesterday that Condé Nast is launching a new division, Condé Nast... More

Consumer Advice for Retirement Savings

What was the Times trying to tell us?

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 6, 2010 at 10:20 AM

“Social Security Jitters? Better Prepare Now,” read the headline of a money story in the New York Times last Saturday.... More

Media Scrutinize Spill Report

Day Two coverage quotes wider array of scientists

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 5, 2010 at 04:02 PM

Many marine scientists lack complete faith in a federal report tracking the fate of the roughly 4.9 million barrels of... More

Wolff mauls CNN

By Joel Meares   Aug 5, 2010 at 03:58 PM

There’s been a lot of CNN-bashing going on lately, some lamentations, and even the odd defense. Now comes Michael Wolff’s... More

Time’s Aisha back in the frame

By Joel Meares   Aug 5, 2010 at 03:14 PM

We didn’t chime in on last week’s controversial Time cover showing eighteen-year-old Afghan girl, Aisha, whose nose and ears had... More

Audit D.C. Notes: Going Against the Meme, Mortgage Madness, Summer Reading

By Holly Yeager   Aug 5, 2010 at 02:30 PM

Christopher Beam does a nice job at Slate, throwing cold water on the anti-incumbency meme that’s been dominating election coverage.... More

Audit Notes: Spruced Up Reform, HAMP Failure, Cramdown

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 5, 2010 at 02:06 PM

David Weidner nails it with a piece on financial reform. I'm glad someone else agrees with me on this: Financial... More

Prop 8: The Morning After the Strike-down

A look at some of the papers’ coverage of the California decision

By Joel Meares   Aug 5, 2010 at 12:51 PM

A study from the September edition of The Social Science Journal comparing the coverage of gay marriage in the Chicago... More

Will Haiti Be “At the Mercy of a Mediagenic Person?”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 5, 2010 at 10:45 AM

The New York Times reports today on "Haitian-American hip-hop artist" Wyclef Jean's plans to run for president of Haiti: Revealingly,... More

Covering the $531,378 a Day Campaign

KQED’s John Myers talks Meg Whitman v. Jerry Brown

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 5, 2010 at 10:33 AM

On Monday, statewide candidates in California, including gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman (R) and Jerry Brown (D), filed campaign finance disclosure... More

Q & A: The Huffington Post’s Arthur Delaney

“It’s like the government is schizophrenic about what it wants to do to alleviate the jobs crisis.”

By Joel Meares   Aug 5, 2010 at 08:00 AM

The Huffington Post’s Arthur Delaney is becoming a prominent voice on the unemployment debate consuming the Capitol. Referred to by... More

Audit Notes: What They Know, Taleb and Blinder, No FDR

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 4, 2010 at 08:40 PM

The Wall Street Journal prints the third installment to its excellent What They Know series, this one on how data... More

The Newsweek Numbers

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 4, 2010 at 07:55 PM

If you want to see why the business model of the so-called legacy media is screwed, look no further than... More

MoJo Muckrakes the Foreclosure Sweatshops

The old predatory lending practices now used to take from homeowners

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 4, 2010 at 02:42 PM

Mother Jones has the must-read of the week: A superb investigation by Andy Kroll into one of the nation's biggest... More

Audit D.C. Notes: State Stats, Jobs Plan, Card Clues

By Holly Yeager   Aug 4, 2010 at 02:40 PM

USA Today does good work with its own state-by-state analysis of the stimulus program and the relationship between state unemployment... More

Risky Business

Times jumps the gun, irresponsibly dismisses threat of remaining oil

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 4, 2010 at 01:45 PM

On Monday, I posted a story complaining that, following federal authorities’ announcement that the oil slicks on surface waters were... More

Harman’s Hopes for Newsweek

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 4, 2010 at 11:53 AM

Newsweek has posted a video of their new owner Sidney Harman’s speech to the staff on Monday. The complete video... More

People, US, Levi, and “Lies”

By Joel Meares   Aug 4, 2010 at 11:31 AM

People trumped US Weekly this week, scoring a Levi-Bristol split headline some three weeks after US’s Levi-Bristol-back-together cover story. In... More

“Anchor Babies” is Not…

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 4, 2010 at 09:50 AM

... a new show on Nickelodeon starring baby BriWi and pals (per last night's Daily Show): If only. Who are... More

Washington as Baghdad

Inside George Packer’s excellent profile of the Senate

By Joel Meares   Aug 4, 2010 at 07:30 AM

When New Yorker staff writer George Packer started on the Washington beat about nine months ago, a “senior administration official”... More

Audit Notes: KKR Tax Avoidance, Manufacturing Politics, Freelancing

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 3, 2010 at 08:51 PM

Fortune's Allan Sloan has a good column this week examining how Henry Kravis of KKR and others in the private-equity... More

The Afternoon Beast

By Joel Meares   Aug 3, 2010 at 05:02 PM

A quick Dart and Laurel to Tina Brown’s online mag. Laurel first. The Daily Beast has just run an... More

The New New Newsweek?

What is the value of a newsweekly in a 24/7 media world?

By The Editors   Aug 3, 2010 at 02:57 PM

On Monday, The Washington Post Co. announced that it will sell Newsweek to stereo equipment magnate Sidney Harman, the husband... More

The Journal Is Mixed on Deutsche Bank Conflicts

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 3, 2010 at 02:37 PM

The Wall Street Journal has a long page-one look at Deutsche Bank and how it played both sides of the... More

Blazing Trails, Changing Paths

Lessons from the first year in the life of Investigate West

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 3, 2010 at 12:48 PM

When Investigate West, an investigative journalism site, sprung up last summer after the virtual collapse of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, we... More

The Peterson Dilemma

A funded fellow wrestles with a funder’s influence

By Holly Yeager   Aug 3, 2010 at 11:42 AM

A story in The Fiscal Times recently caught my eye. But even before I could decide whether to write about... More

Social Security in the Heartland Archive

A complete archive of Trudy Lieberman’s “Social Security in the Heartland” articles

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 3, 2010 at 11:05 AM

This is a complete archive of Trudy Lieberman's "Social Security in the Heartland" articles, listed in descending order. 12/22/10: Social... More

Dear Sidney Harman…

The pros give advice for the future of Newsweek

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 3, 2010 at 10:52 AM

On Monday, The Washington Post Company announced that it had sold Newsweek to ninety-two-year-old stereo mogul Sidney Harman. Although Mike... More

Social Security in the Heartland: Jennifer Tayabji

What Social Security means to real people

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 3, 2010 at 10:38 AM

Before the year ends, the president’s fiscal commission will bring forth a plan for cutting the deficit. While commission co-chairs... More

Accessory to the Candidate

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 3, 2010 at 09:25 AM

In anticipation of Florida's primary day, August 24, the St. Petersburg Times on Sunday helped acquaint readers with the wives... More

Audit Notes: Brits on America, Credit Cards and Subprime, Interchange

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 2, 2010 at 08:14 PM

Edward Luce of the Financial Times on Saturday had one of the better stories I've read lately on the plight... More

Hurray for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For puncturing the secrecy around doctors’ mistakes

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 2, 2010 at 04:05 PM

It’s not often that editors let their reporters detail the steps they took to report a story, but a wonderfully... More

Q & A: Nir Rosen on Afghanistan and WikiLeaks

“I think undermining that war in any way possible is a good thing.”

By Joel Meares   Aug 2, 2010 at 03:30 PM

If anyone should be unsurprised by material in the WikiLeaks war logs dump, it’s reporter Nir Rosen—the New York-based freelance... More

Shotgun!

A look at the race for the briefing room front seat

By Joel Meares   Aug 2, 2010 at 03:19 PM

In what might be the White House equivalent of a student government election, the James S. Brady Briefing Room was... More

WSJ Turns Over the Privacy Rock Online

An excellent investigation shows the alarming amount of info Web sites collect about you

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 2, 2010 at 03:13 PM

The Wall Street Journal kicked off a series on online privacy this weekend with outstanding coverage of how the ad... More

NYT Subscriber Survey Hints at Paywall Strategy

Encouraging both print and online subscriptions

By Lauren Kirchner   Aug 2, 2010 at 03:10 PM

Ever since The New York Times announced in January that it would install a paywall by early 2011, speculation about... More

Sworn Out

How vulgar can you be?

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 2, 2010 at 01:21 PM

Caution: Adult content ahead! Only a dork or scumbag wouldn’t acknowledge screwing up, though admitting error really sucks. And only... More

Digital Killed the Biblio Crescent

A bell toll for Arab book reading?

By Justin D. Martin   Aug 2, 2010 at 12:37 PM

CAIRO, Egypt—Nicholas Carr argues in his new book The Shallows that the short and never-ending flashes of information we receive... More

Missouri Senate Race: Three Things You Oughta Know

Barack Obama, the Tea Party, and the all-important southwest

By Kathy Gilsinan   Aug 2, 2010 at 12:03 PM

On Tuesday, August 3, Missouri will hold its U.S. Senate primaries. In November, the victors will face off to fill... More

More Songs For Amanpour

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 2, 2010 at 10:29 AM

One TV critic's "panache and briskness" is another's "shrill and showy." Some of the very things that the New York... More

“Missing” the Point

Absence of evident oil is not evidence of absent oil

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 2, 2010 at 09:24 AM

Last week, the news media was awash with stories giving readers the impression that the Gulf of Mexico is no... More