McClatchy Misses on Cotton Speculators

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 30, 2011 at 07:15 PM

McClatchy investigates doings in the cotton market, which like other commodities has been roiled by volatility in recent years largely... More

UEA E-Mails Fail to Provoke

Wary of “Climategate,” reporters treat latest leak as minor news

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 30, 2011 at 02:00 PM

Uneager, perhaps, to provoke the type of criticism that followed the dreadful coverage the “Climategate,” journalists have treated the emergence... More

Tenacious

Dana Priest wants to show you how the world works

By Jill Drew   Nov 30, 2011 at 06:00 AM

Washington Post reporter Dana Priest says she has always had an insatiable curiosity. At age six, she liked climbing... More

Audit Notes: WSJ’s Facebook Non-News, Bogus Bloomberg, Tabloid Id

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 29, 2011 at 11:54 PM

Fortune's Dan Primack calls out The Wall Street Journal for hyping non-news on page one that Facebook is going to... More

Bloomberg’s Big Paulson Scoop

The former Treasury secretary told the public one thing while telling select traders another

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 29, 2011 at 07:21 PM

Bloomberg Markets reports that in July 2008 then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told a meeting of big investors, including several fellow... More

Q&A: News for All the People Co-Author Juan González

The Daily News columnist talks about race and the media

By Ernest R. Sotomayor   Nov 29, 2011 at 01:17 PM

Juan González is a staff columnist for New York’s Daily News, a two-time winner of the George Polk Award for... More

Switching Sides on Social Security

Look who’s getting rid of the payroll tax

By Trudy Lieberman   Nov 29, 2011 at 11:55 AM

What to do about those FICA contributions, aka payroll taxes, now that the supercommittee has blown up? Last Christmas the... More

Fact-checking Versus Strategy

When reporters go meta on misleading ads, readers lose

By Brendan Nyhan   Nov 29, 2011 at 10:53 AM

NEW HAMPSHIRE — In Sunday's Boston Globe, reporter Michael Levenson warned of a coming "year of mudslinging." This "rough, negative,... More

Case history: Wilmington’s “independent” newspapers

Du Pont papers in a Du Pont town

By Ben Bagdikian   Nov 29, 2011 at 10:50 AM

In 1964, Ben Bagdikian, usually CJR’s Washington correspondent, looked north to Delaware, and examined the very heavy influence of the... More

What He Knew

Anthony Shadid saw the deeper story in Iraq

By Terry McDermott   Nov 29, 2011 at 06:00 AM

Anthony Shadid is the most honored foreign correspondent of his generation: two Pulitzer Prizes, a George Polk Award, an... More

Audit Notes: Radicalized, Nonprofit Newt, Murdoch’s Wedding Singer

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 28, 2011 at 07:56 PM

Kevin Drum riffs off Bloomberg Markets story on banks' bailout profits to write about how the response to the crash... More

Bloomberg Leads on the Fed (Again)

The consequences of the central bank’s secrecy

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 28, 2011 at 03:12 PM

Bloomberg is still, thank God, hammering away at the gargantuan bank bailouts of 2008-2009. Most of those were hidden from... More

Friendly Fire

Insulting without meaning to

By Merrill Perlman   Nov 28, 2011 at 02:12 PM

As language and society evolve, words that were once considered merely slang sometimes take on an offensive odor. In the... More

Romney’s Marie Antoinette Moment

What, let them have health care?

By Trudy Lieberman   Nov 28, 2011 at 12:13 PM

The lede of the Boston Globe’s campaign story a few days ago was explicit: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney yesterday... More

Sustained Outrage

Ken Ward Jr. stayed home to make a difference

By Brent Cunningham   Nov 28, 2011 at 10:00 AM

Since he began reporting full-time, in 1991, Ken Ward Jr. has embodied the credo of Ned Chilton III, The... More

Notes From Our Online Readers

Readers respond to Erika Fry’s “Escape from Thailand”

By The Editors   Nov 28, 2011 at 06:00 AM

In September, Erika Fry, a CJR assistant editor, wrote of her “Escape from Thailand,” an ordeal that began when she... More

Letters to the Editor

Reader’s congratulations, and reactions from our September/October issue

By The Editors   Nov 28, 2011 at 06:00 AM

Fifty Candles Journalism the world over is in the midst of profound, transformative change, and it is not yet clear... More

Opening Shot

Here’s to another fifty

By The Editors   Nov 28, 2011 at 06:00 AM

C JR’s debut was mostly greeted with “bouquets,” though a few readers, our second issue noted, “reacted with unblemished hostility.”... More

The Turkey-Inflation Goblin

Supply and demand is lost on the WSJ editorial page

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 23, 2011 at 02:08 PM

Speaking of The Wall Street Journal editorial page, its Opinion Journal Live is looking for signs of runaway inflation to... More

A Columnist Recants, but the WSJ Edit Page Won’t Hear it

The paper runs a flawed column and declines to publish the retraction

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 23, 2011 at 11:39 AM

A year and a half ago, George Mason University economics professor Daniel B. Klein wrote a column about his finding... More

Covering a “National Campaign” for New Hampshire Readers

How should state press adapt to a world in which candidates bypass early primary states in favor of national debates and TV coverage?

By Brendan Nyhan   Nov 22, 2011 at 05:15 PM

NEW HAMPSHIRE — Both the Washington Post’s Dan Balz and Politico’s Maggie Haberman have argued that the 2012 GOP primary... More

AP Rings the Alarm

Story about cancers from Fukushima plays up the scare factor

By David Ropeik   Nov 22, 2011 at 04:50 PM

A lot of cancer is more newsworthy than a little cancer, or so seems to be lesson of an Associated... More

Hudson On the Systemic Corruption of the Mortgage Business

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 22, 2011 at 02:03 PM

The Center for Public Integrity Michael Hudson has another excellent installment of his investigation into the culture of fraud at... More

Zuccotti Park’s Airspace Was Never Closed

Misreporting, and misunderstanding, of the press’s right-to-fly

By Erika Fry   Nov 22, 2011 at 01:38 PM

Did the New York's police close airspace to prevent news helicopters from getting footage of police action against Occupy Wall... More

Over-the-Top Coverage of Cain’s Gaffe in Florida

His ignorance of ‘wet-foot, dry-foot’ may have said something about Cain. But the way it was covered said as much about the media

By Brian E. Crowley   Nov 22, 2011 at 12:15 PM

FLORIDA — Eleven seconds. That’s how long the exchange lasted between Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and Miami Herald political... More

The shadow of a gunman

An account of a twelve-year investigation of a Kennedy assassination film

By Maurice W. Schonfeld   Nov 22, 2011 at 11:23 AM

What happens when a hard-nosed news organization gets a hold of an amateur film that maybe, just maybe, shows a... More

Just Ask Questions

Stanley Nelson searches for truth in the past

By Hank Klibanoff   Nov 22, 2011 at 09:00 AM

Stanley Nelson is the editor of the weekly Concordia Sentinel, a 5,000-circulation newspaper in Ferriday, Louisiana. Nelson, head of... More

Editor’s Note

By Mike Hoyt   Nov 22, 2011 at 09:00 AM

This is a handsome issue, no? Two entities are responsible for that. The first is Point Five Design, our art... More

Chairman’s Note

By Victor Navasky   Nov 22, 2011 at 09:00 AM

As I write this, every day seems to yield a new story about something called Occupy Wall Street. I have... More

BW Oversells Its Story on Americans and Dirty Jobs

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 21, 2011 at 08:20 PM

This Bloomberg BusinessWork cover story from last week on "Why Americans Won't Do Dirty Jobs" takes an uneven look at... More

The Supercommittee’s Avoidable Consequences

Early coverage overstated inevitability of cuts

By Erika Fry   Nov 21, 2011 at 06:19 PM

So, it turns out the supercommittee has failed. This should surprise no one, as most in the media had been... More

There Is Bipartisan Consensus on Taxes

And it’s making it harder to close the deficit

By Greg Marx   Nov 21, 2011 at 05:43 PM

With the congressional “supercommittee” unable to agree on a deal to cut the deficit, the theme of this morning’s coverage... More

The Assassination: The Reporters’ Story

How journalists broke news of JFK’s death

By The Editors   Nov 21, 2011 at 05:08 PM

Dallas: November 22, 1963. It’s a dateline that needs little introduction. But for reporters on the scene for President Kennedy’s... More

Congress Nixes Climate Service

GOP lawmakers deny NOAA proposal to create central information hub

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 21, 2011 at 03:45 PM

Congress has denied the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) bid to create a promising “one stop shop” for data... More

Separation Anxiety

Smoothing comparative phrases

By Merrill Perlman   Nov 21, 2011 at 03:44 PM

Black Friday is coming! And this one will be as big as, if not more hyped and crowded than, Cyber... More

FT Style Undermines A Good Investigation

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 21, 2011 at 03:09 PM

The Financial Times has a good investigation today into how hedge funds are stocking their boards with directors in the... More

The Merits of the Two-Speed Model

Launch Pad: The Classical

By Bethlehem Shoals   Nov 21, 2011 at 01:11 PM

CJR’s Launch Pad feature invites new media publishers to blog about their experiences on the news frontier. Past Launch Pad... More

Will the IRS Derail Nonprofit Journalism?

At a crucial moment, the taxman drags his feet on granting tax-exempt status

By Steven Waldman   Nov 21, 2011 at 11:32 AM

In an era of newspaper closings and reporter layoffs, there has been one significant bright spot: an explosion of local,... More

Know Your Journalists

New transparency website compiles personal data on reporters

By Craig Silverman   Nov 21, 2011 at 11:10 AM

In 2006 Adrian Holovaty, then a programmer and journalist of some reputation, wrote a blog post entitled, “A fundamental way... More

The Reporter’s Voice

Seven accomplished reporters and one great photographer talk about what they do, how they do it, and why.

By The Editors   Nov 21, 2011 at 06:00 AM

Since 1961, when CJR was born, journalism has undergone all manner of seismic shifts, from hot type to wireless... More

A Different Life

Andrea Bruce was a community journalist in Iraq

By Michael Kamber   Nov 21, 2011 at 06:00 AM

Andrea Bruce is a freelance photojournalist, currently based in Afghanistan, whose powerful documentary work attempts to connect people across... More

Audit Notes: Occupy Maybelline, Abramoff on the Revolving Door, News Corp. (UPDATED)

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 18, 2011 at 07:56 PM

The Occupy Wall Street movement is already having its dissent commodified. As BagNews shows, this Maybelline commercial shows its models... More

Birmingham: newspapers in a crisis

‘The papers appear to be almost as segregated as the city itself’

By James Boylan   Nov 18, 2011 at 04:51 PM

In our Summer 1963 issue, James Boylan, CJR’s founding editor, examined how local newspapers covered the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s... More

New York Tries to Defend Journalist Arrests

Flack’s pushback ignores the biggest issue

By Erika Fry   Nov 18, 2011 at 04:33 PM

The Observer’s Megan McCarthy has already covered this matter, but we’d just like to add that this is a really... More

Skeptical and Not-So-Skeptical Coverage of Angie’s List

A hot IPO for a dot.com that loses tons of money

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 18, 2011 at 03:10 PM

Social media site Angie's List IPO'd yesterday, and the market now values it at nearly $900 million. While those are... More

What Can I Build Today?

Online startups can win the future by staying in the present

By Michael Meyer   Nov 18, 2011 at 09:00 AM

There are hundreds of local and regional online news startups in America, but only about five that media observers discuss... More

Audit Notes: Net Exposure, Crain’s Chicago Probe, Angelo’s Tumblr

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 17, 2011 at 07:50 PM

Gillian Tett of the Financial Times shows why banks hedging their European exposure with credit-default swaps aren't necessarily actually hedged.... More

WSJ Marginalizes Muller

Climate-change op-ed didn’t run in the paper’s US edition

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 17, 2011 at 05:00 PM

Media Matters, a group dedicated to bird-dogging conservative spin in the press, made a good catch last week when it... More

What I Saw at the Hyperlocal Revolution

Without journalism jobs, we don’t have journalism

By David Watts Barton   Nov 17, 2011 at 02:57 PM

When I quit The Sacramento Bee after nearly twenty-five years as a reporter and columnist in 2007, I looked like... More

Nonprofit News and the Tax Man

The IRS questions whether journalism startups qualify for tax-exempt status

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 17, 2011 at 02:28 PM

The future of nonprofit news organizations has hit an unexpected roadblock in the agency that determines their tax-exempt status: The... More

A Shoutout to MarketWatch

For a report that examined the future of long-term care

By Trudy Lieberman   Nov 17, 2011 at 01:23 PM

Last week, MarketWatch did the kind of report we have been urging the media to do on a subject they’d... More

Experiments in the Open Newsroom Concept

Swapping story scoops for reader input

By Alysia Santo   Nov 17, 2011 at 09:51 AM

OpenFile, a Canadian online-news organization, has modeled its editorial decisions around reader suggestions. The organization covers seven cities, from Halifax... More

On Facebook and Freedom

Why journalists should not surrender to the Walmarts of the web

By Justin Peters   Nov 17, 2011 at 06:00 AM

In September of this year, the Internet briefly burbled with the news that Facebook, the market leader in workday-wastery, would... More

Audit Notes: Fraud Prosecutions Plunge, Robber Barons, Zoning Fight

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 16, 2011 at 07:57 PM

Here's the chart of the day, from Syracuse's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse via The New York Times's Catherine Rampell: Prosecutions... More

Politicians and Penn State? Pass.

The presidential candidates have nothing to add to this scandal

By Erika Fry   Nov 16, 2011 at 03:19 PM

Last night, Sarah Palin told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren that if it were up to her to deal with... More

Frozen Planet Freezes Out Climate

BBC’s polar series unwisely sets apart episode about global warming

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 16, 2011 at 02:45 PM

The BBC is taking a mild pummeling for giving foreign television networks the option not to buy an episode about... More

How Do Journos Find Time to Fight Corrections?

Instead of arguing over factual errors, fix them and move on

By Justin D. Martin   Nov 16, 2011 at 02:34 PM

On November 8, I received a call in my office from a frustrated online editor at The Bangor Daily News,... More

The Computeriter revolution

A Utopian fiction

By Edward Edelson   Nov 16, 2011 at 02:32 PM

Our Spring 1963 issue included the only piece of science fiction CJR has ever published. Reporter Edward Edelson imagined with... More

Back to Watergate Era “Bags of Cash”?

NPR on what was illegal then is “fair game” now

By Liz Cox Barrett   Nov 16, 2011 at 01:50 PM

“The pre-Watergate bags of cash are back,” declares MSNBC’s First Read this morning, pointing to a New York Times piece... More

Reuters On the “Payment Protection” Scam

Plus, an American Banker columnist’s predatory-lending past

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 16, 2011 at 01:35 PM

Reuters puts the spotlight on the scam that is the multi-billion-dollar credit-card insurance industry, which promises to cover payments if... More

Money Changes Everything

Independent journalism can’t lean on a few rich donors

By Tom McGeveran   Nov 16, 2011 at 06:00 AM

In lower Manhattan as I write, thousands of protesters, recently joined by some unions, local New York politicians, and a... More

Audit Notes: Farmland Booms, Regulation and Jobs, Euro Sell-off

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 15, 2011 at 07:24 PM

The Wall Street Journal reports that farming is making something of a comeback on the edges of metro areas amid... More

Public policy in a newspaper strike

When New York City’s presses stopped, a lot went uncovered

By Clayton Knowles and Richard P. Hunt   Nov 15, 2011 at 05:02 PM

New York city newspaper workers—including journalists, delivery truck drivers, and pressmen—went on strike on November 1, 1962. They would be... More

Confused NYT Coverage of Obama Health Care Law’s Prospects

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 15, 2011 at 04:59 PM

The New York Times can't make up its mind on what a Supreme Court ruling against Obama health care plan's... More

Bloomberg Gives Newt Another Frannie Headache

Executives contradict Gingrich’s account of his advice

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 15, 2011 at 03:57 PM

Newt Gingrich has a Frannie problem. The former Speaker of the House used to work for Freddie Mac but is... More

Does a New York Times-mimicking web ad violate policy?

The paper says No. Your eyes may disagree.

By Clint Hendler   Nov 15, 2011 at 12:00 PM

The New York Times has a policy forbidding advertising that closely appropriates the paper’s design elements. From the paper’s advertising... More

Occupy Protests Present a New Terrain of Risk for Reporters

Journalists physically removed from Occupy Wall Street raid

By Natasha Lennard   Nov 15, 2011 at 11:23 AM

On the night of November 14, when the NYPD sprung a surprise raid to evict Occupy Wall Street’s foundational Zuccotti... More

In Our Time

CJR’s editor takes stock

By Mike Hoyt   Nov 15, 2011 at 06:00 AM

On my first day at the Columbia Journalism Review, the editors were reading page proofs for an upcoming issue, and... More

Insider Trading in Congress

A new book puts faces on data suggesting members enrich themselves with nonpublic information

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 14, 2011 at 07:35 PM

If I could short Congress, I would right now. Last night's 60 Minutes report, based on the work of conservative... More

Public Radio and the Freelance Journalist

Should the same code of ethics apply?

By Alysia Santo   Nov 14, 2011 at 05:22 PM

Caitlin Curran was a freelance web producer for WNYC/PRI’s radio show, The Takeaway, which has been covering the Occupy Wall... More

Television—“the President’s medium”?

How TV made JFK stronger than steel

By Ben Bagdikian   Nov 14, 2011 at 05:09 PM

Some historians credit President Kennedy’s 1960 election to his performance in his televised debates with Richard Nixon. His mastery of... More

The Times Eyes New Fees From the Banks

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 14, 2011 at 03:05 PM

Everybody who skipped Bank Transfer Day ought to read this New York Times story today on how giant banks are... More

It Wasn’t ‘Liberal Media’ That Froze Out Bachmann

And why the press is right to focus on the front-runners

By Greg Marx   Nov 14, 2011 at 02:39 PM

Over the weekend, a media micro-controversy broke out: CBS News political director and Slate reporter John Dickerson wrote in an... More

Taking the Fifth

A dictionary, updated, adds and subtracts

By Merrill Perlman   Nov 14, 2011 at 01:52 PM

The Fifth Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is out, cause for celebration for some and... More

Debating Starkman’s “Confidence Game”

Rounding up responses

By Alysia Santo   Nov 14, 2011 at 01:16 PM

Dean Starkman’s critique of future-of-news gurus Jeff Jarvis, Clay Shirky, and Jay Rosen, among others, made a bit of splash,... More

It’s Good to be the Former First Daughter

By Greg Marx   Nov 14, 2011 at 10:34 AM

Bill Carter of The New York Times writes this morning that Chelsea Clinton will be joining NBC News, effective immediately,... More

What About Modesto?

The digital-news parade threatens to pass some communities by

By The Editors   Nov 14, 2011 at 06:00 AM

In Modesto, California, the need for news far exceeds the current supply. A city of 200,000 with one midsized... More

The Voice of the People

Citizen journalists to the rescue?

By Patrick Giblin   Nov 14, 2011 at 05:00 AM

Like many communities in the United States, Modesto has seen its traditional news media diminish. The daily newspaper, The Modesto... More

Modesto, California

By the numbers

By The Editors   Nov 14, 2011 at 05:00 AM

Population 201,165 Eighteenth-largest city in California; 107th-largest city in the US, between Des Moines, Iowa, and Fayetteville, North Carolina... More

Just Press On

Templates for Anytown, USA

By Michael Stoll   Nov 14, 2011 at 05:00 AM

Nic Roethlisberger and Dhyana Levey now live in the foggy Richmond District of San Francisco, flanked by the Pacific Ocean... More

Plowing Ahead

A farm newspaper’s future

By Kristin Platts   Nov 14, 2011 at 05:00 AM

Agriculture is and always has been the backbone of the California economy. Last year, Stanislaus County exported agriculture products to... More

School’s Out

A lost generation of journalists

By Laura Paull   Nov 14, 2011 at 05:00 AM

A journalist walks across the Modesto Junior College campus in the mid-1990s and peeks in the newspaper office, where dedicated... More

Class Struggle

Tech won’t end the digital divide

By Jen Schradie   Nov 14, 2011 at 05:00 AM

Like many American cities, Modesto has been decimated by local media layoffs and cutbacks in recent years. Journalists have more... More

A Paperless Bee

Making the future online

By Rusty Coats   Nov 14, 2011 at 05:00 AM

In 1993, I was driving home to Modesto after covering a Bay Area conference on cryptography, having spent the past... More

Audit Notes: The Sovereign Risk Genie, Regulatory Complexity, Wal-Mart and Bank Fees

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 11, 2011 at 07:22 PM

The Economist's Greg Ip says the European crisis, at its core, is not about Silvio Berlusconi or even Italian debt... More

Holding Aggregators to Journalistic Standards

By Felix Salmon   Nov 11, 2011 at 04:32 PM

Now I’ve got my rant off my chest, let me try to add a bigger-picture point to the noise surrounding... More

The Romenesko Saga

Some questions for Poynter about recent changes on its fabled site

By Erika Fry   Nov 11, 2011 at 04:05 PM

Yesterday, Poynter’s Julie Moos published a controversial post on the journalism institute’s Romenesko+ blog, which she credited to my “sharp... More

The Morning Call Revisits Amazon’s Work Conditions

Allentown workers baked in the summer, froze in the winter

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 11, 2011 at 03:48 PM

Remember that Morning Call investigation a couple of months ago into an Amazon sweatshop outside Allentown, Pennsylvania? The paper showed... More

Some Thoughts on the Romenesko Affair

Examining the critical consensus

By Craig Silverman   Nov 11, 2011 at 01:49 PM

I have no other option than to start this column about Jim Romenesko with a litany of disclosures. Deep breath,... More

A Laurel to the AP

For its eye-opening story on Social Security

By Trudy Lieberman   Nov 11, 2011 at 12:18 PM

The AP’s recent story on proposed changes in the derivation of Social Security’s cost of living (COLA) formula is the... More

Puzzling Over the Flood

James Fahn pieces together the Thai disaster from international and local news

By James Fahn   Nov 11, 2011 at 12:03 PM

In the movie The Paper, a group of editors for a New York tabloid are trying to decide how prominently... More

How the Past Saw the Present

The future of journalism has always been on journalism’s mind

By Megan Garber   Nov 11, 2011 at 06:00 AM

CJR knew about the iPad a good fifteen years before there was an iPad to know about. In a... More

Jim Romenesko Leaves Poynter

And the blogosphere cries foul

By Justin Peters   Nov 11, 2011 at 02:11 AM

The most frustrating thing about the Jim Romenesko affair is the way that so many people who should know better... More

Audit Notes: Guardian Editor on Hackgate, Judge Rakoff, Confidence Game

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 10, 2011 at 07:44 PM

Read Guardian Editor Alan Rusbridger's Orwell lecture for an excellent overview and analysis of Murdoch's hacking scandal, and his paper's... More

The Big Lie of the Crisis, Called Out By the Press

The false “banks didn’t do it” meme takes hold on the right, as Romney showed last night

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 10, 2011 at 05:33 PM

At CNBC's GOP debate last night, Mitt Romney showed that he, like Michael Bloomberg, buys into the Big Lie of... More

At GOP Debate, Good Work by CNBC

Will the rest of the media take the opportunity to follow up?

By Greg Marx   Nov 10, 2011 at 05:01 PM

There’s an obvious top story coming out of last night’s Republican presidential debate: Rick Perry’s “oops” moment, which reinforced a... More

After Perry’s Gaffe, a Silence

Coverage should make room for what he meant to say

By Erika Fry   Nov 10, 2011 at 03:17 PM

It was “a cringe-worthy gaffe”, “a brain freeze”, “a political nightmare”, “a crash”, “an epic fail.” It “will likely go... More

A Post-Punk Sportswriting Site Gets Started

Launch Pad: The Classical

By Bethlehem Shoals   Nov 10, 2011 at 01:55 PM

CJR’s Launch Pad feature invites new media publishers to blog about their experiences on the news frontier. Past Launch Pad... More

Over-aggregation, Under-attribution, and Poynter

By Clint Hendler   Nov 10, 2011 at 01:13 PM

You may have seen Poynter editor Julie Moos’s quick and thoughtful response to questions posed by CJR assistant editor Erika... More

It’s About the Stories

A response to Emily Bell

By Dean Starkman   Nov 10, 2011 at 12:02 PM

I thank Emily for her critique of "Confidence Game." Alysia Santo is pulling together other responses, and I’ll get... More

More Than One Way to ‘Keep it Sparse’

By Greg Marx   Nov 10, 2011 at 10:13 AM

Among the write-ups of last night’s GOP debate is an entry from Politico that is notable because it is just... More

The Newspaper That Almost Seized the Future

The San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley’s own daily, was poised to ride the digital whirlwind. What happened?

By Michael Shapiro   Nov 10, 2011 at 06:00 AM

1. ‘It Was Written’ Randall Keith and I are talking about the past when his boss, Dave Butler, slides... More

Audit Notes: The Euro Crisis’s 1930s Parallels, Taibbi on Bloomberg

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 10, 2011 at 01:24 AM

The eurozone crisis is now at its worst point with Italy's interest rates at unsustainable rates and quite possibly past... More

The Kochs and Keystone XL

InsideClimate fails to make its case about brothers’ interest in the pipeline—but it should keep trying

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 9, 2011 at 04:45 PM

Koch Industries, a giant oil and energy conglomerate, has InsideClimate News, a four-year-old online news startup, in its crosshairs. In... More

The Blessings of Networks

Emily Bell takes on Dean Starkman’s “news gurus” argument

By Emily Bell   Nov 9, 2011 at 03:40 PM

Dean Starkman's long read on 'the news gurus' in the Columbia Journalism Review starts out with the story of the... More

NYT on How Unions Are Learning From Occupy Wall Street

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 9, 2011 at 01:41 PM

The New York Times reports on how the American labor movement, whose membership and power have crumbled over the last... More

Pulitzer’s Magazine?

Our founder reflects on CJR’s roots

By James Boylan   Nov 9, 2011 at 09:00 AM

Here is the best and here is the worst story of the day. . . . Here is the wrong of the day; here... More

Audit Notes: What Would Hammurabi Do?, WSJ + OWS, Fisking Davidson

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 8, 2011 at 08:01 PM

Nassim Nicholas Taleb doesn't pussyfoot around in his New York Times op-ed arguing that we should "End Bonuses for Bankers":... More

A Plea for the Polls

‘The press seems to behave as if it were operating in a simpler yesterday’

By Elmo Roper   Nov 8, 2011 at 05:54 PM

Elmo Roper was one of the early giants of American opinion polling. His survey work for Fortune magazine, beginning in... More

Let’s Slow Down the Cain Train

Harassment charges are important. But so is so much else.

By Erika Fry   Nov 8, 2011 at 04:11 PM

And so here we are, into the second week of Cain-demonium: the breathless reporting, speculating, and opining about the late-1990s... More

Have You Seen Fido?

Community news sites reunite pets with their owners

By Alysia Santo   Nov 8, 2011 at 03:52 PM

When a pet runs away, it can be hard for a distraught owner to know what to do first. Do... More

The SEC’s Soft Touch For Repeat Offenders

NYT and Bloomberg show how often banks violate promises not to re-commit fraud

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 8, 2011 at 03:14 PM

Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil wrote a swell column last week on the SEC's latest Citigroup wrist-slap. Weil noted that one of... More

WaPo’s Misleading Social Security Piece

Article doesn’t come close to telling the whole story

By Trudy Lieberman   Nov 8, 2011 at 11:05 AM

By now we’re aware that The Washington Post supports serious changes in Social Security. In fact, the paper editorialized Friday... More

Found: Coverage of FEC “Stalemate”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Nov 8, 2011 at 09:45 AM

ProPublica’s Marian Wang describes in a piece posted yesterday the ongoing “gridlock” at the Federal Election Commission (the agency, Wang... More

Confidence Game

The limited vision of the news gurus

By Dean Starkman   Nov 8, 2011 at 06:00 AM

“The question that mass amateurization poses to traditional media is ‘What happens when the costs of reproduction and distribution go... More

Safety Tips for Covering Occupy Wall Street

And civil disorder in general

By Judith Matloff   Nov 7, 2011 at 05:11 PM

At least half a dozen journalists have been injured or detained while covering the growing unrest in the United States.... More

Veteran Blogs Cover Occupy Wall Street

The military community takes sides

By Alysia Santo   Nov 7, 2011 at 05:03 PM

Veterans Today, an online-only publication, features writing by veterans, for veterans. The site focuses on a whole range of topics,... More

Conjunction-itis

What about ifs, ands, or buts?

By Merrill Perlman   Nov 7, 2011 at 03:45 PM

Many generations of students have had certain grammar “truths” drilled into their little heads. One is the “myth” that infinitives... More

Dirty Business (As Usual) at News Corporation

A golden parachute for Rebekah Brooks and surveillance of hacking victims’ lawyers

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 7, 2011 at 01:16 PM

You know a company has serious problems when it's unsurprising that it gives an executive a golden parachute after her... More

Timeline: Through the Years

Five decades of media history, as seen on CJR’s pages

By Clint Hendler   Nov 7, 2011 at 12:28 PM

Click here to explore CJR's 50th anniversary timeline. More

On Cain Story, Politico Had Grounds to Publish

Despite the story’s flaws

By Greg Marx   Nov 5, 2011 at 03:25 PM

Jack Shafer and Stephen Engelberg haven’t changed their minds: Politico, they still believe, made a journalistic error when it decided... More

Audit Notes: Citi’s Slaps, College Is Cheap, Voicemail Interception Compensation Scheme

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 4, 2011 at 07:38 PM

Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil has an excellent, tough column on the latest settlement between Citigroup and the SEC, which shows how... More

The Wall Street Journal Pooh-Poohs Bank Transfer Day

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 4, 2011 at 07:22 PM

This Wall Street Journal story on Bank Transfer Day, the push to get people to move their money out of... More

WSJ On MF Global and Window Dressing

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 4, 2011 at 05:25 PM

It looks like Jon Corzine's MF Global tried to hide how much risk it was taking on by temporarily lowering... More

NewsTrust Baltimore: An Experiment in Civility

But is it sustainable?

By Bruce Wallace   Nov 4, 2011 at 02:24 PM

The first thing you notice about NewsTrust Baltimore, an online aggregator of stories from local news sources, is how friggin’... More

Speech in Israel Is Not Free

There’s more to democracy than just holding regular elections

By Justin D. Martin   Nov 4, 2011 at 02:17 PM

Both Israeli and US policymakers are fond of calling Israel and the United States likeminded democracies. “America has no better... More

Misinformation Propagation

Scientists work to combat false memes

By Craig Silverman   Nov 4, 2011 at 12:18 PM

Growing up in Rome, Filippo Menczer used to watch the local con artists offer gullible tourists a chance to buy... More

On Looking into Chapman’s News

“Newspapers are not waifs. They reflect their source.”

By A.J. Liebling   Nov 4, 2011 at 11:59 AM

A. J. Liebling, the twentieth century’s foremost press critic, wrote only one piece for the Columbia Journalism Review. (He died... More

Charges dropped against first reporter arrested at Occupy Wall Street

By Erika Fry   Nov 4, 2011 at 11:17 AM

A good sign came out of New York City’s criminal court yesterday for journalists who have been swept up in... More

Hard Numbers

Markers in a changing news landscape, from sourcing to salaries to cyberspace

By Alysia Santo   Nov 4, 2011 at 09:00 AM

Typewriter sales and service shops in the Manhattan phone book: 341 (1961) 320 (1986) 25 (2011) Computer sales and service... More

Audit Notes: Toledo Blade Series, Chait on Pethokoukis, Censorship Inc.

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 3, 2011 at 07:41 PM

The Toledo Blade is running a very good series on middle class people descending into poverty. What I like about... More

Bernanke Calls for Government Spending and Much of the Press Ignores It (Again)

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 3, 2011 at 05:50 PM

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called for more fiscal stimulus yesterday in his most direct plea yet for the government... More

Live from the White House, it’s KETV

Obama goes local; local anchors land on the South Lawn

By Erika Fry   Nov 3, 2011 at 04:10 PM

The news at KETV Wednesday afternoon was much as you would expect from an ABC affiliate in Omaha. Among the... More

The Journal Fizzles on Occupy Oakland Protest

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 3, 2011 at 03:10 PM

Several thousand Occupy movement protestors shut down the Port of Oakland yesterday, a week after Oakland police attacked the protest... More

The “Government Takeover of Health Care” Is Baaaack!

Chris Christie waves the bloody shirt

By Trudy Lieberman   Nov 3, 2011 at 01:22 PM

A “government takeover of health care” is back. At least it is in the mind of New Jersey governor Chris... More

A Cook’s Tour with Molly Ivins

A recipe-laden memoir of the columnist’s life and times

By Nicola Kean   Nov 3, 2011 at 01:13 PM

Stirring It Up with Molly Ivins: A Memoir with Recipes | By Ellen Sweets | University of Texas Press |... More

Like the Odds of a Heart Attack?

The limits of medical analogies for the climate-weather connection

By Curtis Brainard   Nov 3, 2011 at 12:30 PM

With the latest death toll from floods in Thailand reaching nearly 400 people, reporters have had yet another opportunity to... More

A Reading List for Future Journalists

By The Editors   Nov 3, 2011 at 12:09 AM

We asked some of our favorite journalists, scholars, and critics to recommend books and other works that could help... More

Bloomberg on How a European AIG Would Hit the U.S.

Big U.S. banks are upping their exposure to Europe by selling credit-default swaps

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 2, 2011 at 06:57 PM

Bloomberg News has an important report on how sovereign defaults in Europe could infect the U.S. banking system via ye... More

ProPublica’s Rad Redistricting Music Video

By Liz Cox Barrett   Nov 2, 2011 at 04:07 PM

Nearly as catchy as “Fifty Nifty United States” and undoubtedly more edifying than a semester in Mr. Lewis's fourth period... More

Darts and Laurels

An exercise in humility: fifty years of journalism’s lesser angels

By Brent Cunningham   Nov 2, 2011 at 09:00 AM

An accounting of fifty years’ worth of Darts is hardly a balm for an industry careening through a wrenching transition.... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg Goes Wallison, Friedman, Golden Parachutes

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 1, 2011 at 07:48 PM

Mayor Bloomberg is supposed to be the technocratic mayor of New York City—the anti-wingnut. So what's he doing saying things... More

Subprime Déjà Vu

The Los Angeles Times investigates the Buy Here Pay Here car market

By Ryan Chittum   Nov 1, 2011 at 07:20 PM

In this market, the companies handing out loans make money whether you pay them back or not. Agents trick hard-luck,... More

Oakland Local Covers Occupy Oakland

Covering the national story in their backyard

By Alysia Santo   Nov 1, 2011 at 05:24 PM

When Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen was critically injured last week at Occupy Oakland, the eyes of the news media... More

AP Finds Republican Candidates MIA on Housing Debt

A presidential “ghost issue” demands further press attention

By Greg Marx   Nov 1, 2011 at 02:27 PM

The Associated Press put out a good story over the weekend noting that many of the “jobs plans” being pushed... More

Why a Review of Journalism?

The arguments for a critical journal far outweigh the hazards

By The Editors   Nov 1, 2011 at 01:53 PM

What journalism needs, it has been said time and again, is more and better criticism. There have been abundant... More

The Complications of our Age

What we want is a journalism to match them

By The Editors   Nov 1, 2011 at 01:53 PM

When the idea of a publication to be called the Columbia Journalism Review first came up, our founding editor... More

When Ledes Go Wrong

By Erika Fry   Nov 1, 2011 at 12:28 PM

Dear San Jose Mercury News, This is not the most politic way to begin a story about the West Nile... More