Romney’s Hispanic Support: About That Florida Poll

Reporters must tell readers about polls’ shortcomings

By Brian E. Crowley   Jan 31, 2012 at 12:19 PM

FLORIDA—Late Saturday night, the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald released the results of a new Mason-Dixon survey of... More

Why Aren’t More Arab Americans Working in Mainstream Journalism?

Group remains underrepresented in US newsrooms

By Justin D. Martin   Jan 31, 2012 at 11:21 AM

There are anywhere between 3.5 and 5.1 million Americans of Arab descent, according to figures from the Arab American Institute,... More

A Laurel to The Record

For a disturbing tale of sickness and medical expense

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 31, 2012 at 11:15 AM

Lindy Washburn’s piece in the Bergen Record about medical debt and how it can cripple even those people with health... More

Las Vegas Review-Journal Asks Four Key Questions…

…But doesn’t help readers evaluate candidates’ answers

By Jay Jones   Jan 31, 2012 at 09:34 AM

NEVADA — “Is it safe?” It’s the short question a former Nazi dentist asks of a grad student (Dustin Hoffman)... More

The Algorithm Method

Making news decisions in a clickocracy

By Michael Schudson and Katherine Fink   Jan 31, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Journalists relate to their audiences differently in the age of online news, according to C. W. Anderson, in recent articles in... More

Audit Notes: Data Pool 3, The UK Prints, Copyright

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 30, 2012 at 07:56 PM

Scotland Yard arrested four top current and former Sun journalists and a cop. The Guardian's Nick Davies gives us the... More

ProPublica and NPR on Freddie Mac’s Conflicts

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 30, 2012 at 04:34 PM

Why haven't Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae been much more aggressive about refinancing the mortgages they hold? That's a $50... More

Updating the Privacy Protection Act for the Digital Era

Law protecting journalists from searches didn’t anticipate cloud computing

By Jonathan W. Peters   Jan 30, 2012 at 01:46 PM

Cloud computing is all the rage. Traditionally, people had to store, manage and process data on a personal computer or... More

Medicare Versus Obamacare

The fight begins in Florida

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 30, 2012 at 12:22 PM

In the last few days, three mainstream news outlets elevated “Medicare: The Political Story” into the headlines. It was good... More

Houses of Straw

Flimsy votes and arguments

By Merrill Perlman   Jan 30, 2012 at 12:20 PM

Though we’re thick in the primary and caucus season, the testing of the political winds actually began months ago, with... More

Friday Night Bytes

In Texas, high school football is the killer app

By Jake Batsell   Jan 30, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Brimming with swagger, the top-ranked Allen High Eagles burst from an inflatable tunnel, rip through a paper banner, and sprint... More

Audit Notes: Fukayama on the Crisis, WSJ on Exec Pay, Nonprofit News

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 27, 2012 at 06:14 PM

The Browser has a great interview with Francis Fukayama on his five favorite financial-crisis books. Here he is on whether... More

Evangelicals, Mormons, and Mitt Romney

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 27, 2012 at 06:06 PM

The New York Times runs an op-ed headlined "Why Evangelicals Don't Like Mormons," which takes on an important issue but... More

The Presidential Energy Narrative

Campaign coverage takes on a green hue

By Curtis Brainard   Jan 27, 2012 at 05:30 PM

In the last week, President Obama has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, focused his first campaign ad on clean energy,... More

RIP: Jonathan “Jack” Idema, Media Con Man

By Mike Hoyt   Jan 27, 2012 at 04:32 PM

In April 2004, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier named Jonathan Keith Idema started shopping a sizzling story to the... More

For Obama’s Vegas Visit, Competing Press Angles

As Sun explores natural gas agenda, Review-Journal delves into the “briar patch”

By Jay Jones   Jan 27, 2012 at 03:26 PM

This post has been updated since it was first published to include discussion of the first Review-Journal story. NEVADA —... More

Tin Soldier

An American Vigilante In Afghanistan, Using the Press for Profit and Glow

By Mariah Blake   Jan 27, 2012 at 02:39 PM

In April 2004, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier named Jonathan Keith Idema started shopping a sizzling story to the... More

In Florida, the GOP Woos Hispanic Voters

Can the press push the candidates past pandering?

By Justin Peters   Jan 27, 2012 at 01:48 PM

MIAMI, FLORIDA — The Hispanic Leadership Network is a center-right political advocacy organization that, in its single year of existence,... More

Charlie Rose’s Weak Q&A With the SEC’s Khuzami

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 27, 2012 at 01:13 PM

Audit contributing editor Felix Salmon, writing this morning about Channel 4 reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy's tough questioning of Larry Summers, asked,... More

Summers: “Inside Job had essentially all its facts wrong”

By Felix Salmon   Jan 27, 2012 at 10:49 AM

In mid-2009, I went on a search for apologies, from the people who laid the intellectual and regulatory foundations... More

Edsall: ‘Newt Gingrich’s History is Fair Game’

And other thoughts on when the press should examine the private lives of public figures

By Erika Fry   Jan 27, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Last week, at CNN’s “First in the South” debate in Charleston, Newt Gingrich ripped into moderator John King for beginning... More

The Jury is in

On “jury-rigged” and “jerry-built” confusion

By Merrill Perlman   Jan 27, 2012 at 06:00 AM

An article about a rundown neighborhood said that “most of the buildings are jerry-rigged structures of corrugated aluminum.” Another article... More

Audit Notes: Mortgage Bonds, Junkets, Digital Hype

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 26, 2012 at 08:54 PM

Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism flags what she calls a "bombshell" analyst report on the mortgage-backed securities market. The report... More

Julian Assange’s New Platform: RT

By Ann Cooper   Jan 26, 2012 at 04:12 PM

So here’s a partnership we might have seen coming: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will host a TV talk show that... More

Local TV Stations Rally to Oppose Media Transparency

What exactly are their “public interest obligations”?

By Steven Waldman   Jan 26, 2012 at 03:16 PM

Local television stations have now rallied against the key elements of the Federal Communications Commission’s media transparency proposal, which would... More

Wealthy Bloomberg Subscribers Call for Higher Taxes

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 26, 2012 at 03:00 PM

Bloomberg News had a good idea for a poll: Ask 1,200 of its $20,000-a-year subscribers whether the carried-interest tax break,... More

Get Ready, Buckeyes—The Campaigns Are Coming!

Ohio’s political press prepares for the message war

By T.C. Brown   Jan 26, 2012 at 02:32 PM

OHIO — They’re coming. And the press in Ohio is starting to gear up. Ohio’s March 6 primary is just... More

Who is Sheldon Adelson? Florida Needs to Know

State’s newsrooms haven’t focused their resources on the super PAC story

By Brian E. Crowley   Jan 26, 2012 at 11:36 AM

FLORIDA — Who is Sheldon Adelson, and why does he matter to the presidential campaign? If you are a Florida... More

Waiting for Newt in Naples

Just because the candidate’s not there doesn’t mean there’s not a story

By Justin Peters   Jan 26, 2012 at 06:56 AM

NAPLES, FLORIDA — It is late Tuesday afternoon in Naples, and a few thousand people have gathered around the Cambier... More

The Lower Case

Headlines that editors probably wish they could take back

By The Editors   Jan 26, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Elderly woman found using GPS—The Herald News (Fall River, MA) 10/8/11 SARGEANT: Victim donated to charity—The Journal News (White Plains,... More

Audit Notes: Subpar Tom Friedman, Big Lie of the Crisis, Obama on Fraud

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 25, 2012 at 09:34 PM

Today's Tom Friedman column is even worse than usual: In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job,... More

The Journal Takes Us Inside the Google Drugs Sting

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 25, 2012 at 06:36 PM

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent page-one story today on how federal agents caught Google deliberately breaking the law... More

Voters to Press: Tell Us Where the Candidates Stand

In South Carolina, readers look to local papers for the basics

By Erika Fry   Jan 25, 2012 at 03:43 PM

One of the main media frames for the 2012 presidential campaign is the way in which media frames are changing.... More

About that Univision debate boycott …

By Erika Fry   Jan 25, 2012 at 02:14 PM

Remember that ugly incident back in October when Republican candidates Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum pledged to boycott... More

The Colorado Columnist on the Bus

A look at the Denver Post’s choice to send a liberal columnist (only) to cover a GOP primary

By Mary Winter   Jan 25, 2012 at 01:15 PM

COLORADO — The Denver Post’s decision to send just one writer, Mike Littwin, to cover the New Hampshire GOP presidential... More

Jon Stewart Takes on Sebelius

What Madame Secretary didn’t say

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 25, 2012 at 12:38 PM

Jon Stewart welcomed Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius to The Daily Show Monday night, and it was great... More

When the 99% Had a Paper

The brief, wondrous life of PM

By Christopher B. Daly   Jan 25, 2012 at 06:00 AM

For months, the journalism world had been abuzz with the rumor that Ralph Ingersoll, the editorial genius behind Time,... More

Audit Notes: Dimon the Persecuted, Mitt’s Taxes, Minimum Wage

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 25, 2012 at 02:32 AM

Yesterday we heard press favorite Jamie Dimon sputtering about how swipe-fee regulations, which capped how much big banks could gouge... More

Keystone XL Jobs Bewilder Media

Reporters still fumbling numbers in wake of pipeline’s rejection

By Curtis Brainard   Jan 24, 2012 at 04:30 PM

God help the poor news consumers of America, especially the would-be voters. President Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL... More

Mitt Romney’s Taxes

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 24, 2012 at 04:21 PM

All the major papers are devoting lots of resources to covering Mitt Romney's tax return, putting the national spotlight on... More

A Trail of Unexpected Costs on the Campaign Trail

Price-gouging in the primary states

By Ben Adler   Jan 24, 2012 at 03:30 PM

My first visit to New Hampshire in this election cycle came just days before the Iowa caucuses. With most political... More

Teaching Cyber-Security

Confidentiality promises often require technical skill

By Alysia Santo   Jan 24, 2012 at 01:38 PM

Since 2007, Steve Doig, an investigative journalist, has been giving a talk called “Spycraft: Keeping your sources private.” He’s presented... More

Stories I’d Like to See

More primary math, Boeing’s second chance, and DHS mission creep

By Steven Brill   Jan 24, 2012 at 12:05 PM

In his weekly “Stories I’d Like to See” column, journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill spotlights topics that, in his opinion,... More

Confidence Trick

Scams ‘R’ Us

By Merrill Perlman   Jan 24, 2012 at 11:51 AM

In an episode of Dragnet from the late nineteen-sixties, Joe Friday is assigned to the “bunco squad,” where he and... More

A State of the Union Media Prebuttal

Instead of overhyping the SOTU, here’s what reporters should do

By Brendan Nyhan   Jan 24, 2012 at 11:43 AM

NEW HAMPSHIRE—Tonight, President Obama will address Congress and the nation in his 2012 State of the Union address. The SOTU... More

The Velvet Rope

Why do journalists still care about seeing their name in print?

By Janet Paskin   Jan 24, 2012 at 06:00 AM

If print media is truly in an advanced stage of decline, if journalism’s great hope is online, why do... More

Audit Notes: Kim Dotcom and SOPA, Private Equity, Swipe Fees

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 23, 2012 at 07:58 PM

The Kim Dotcom story is fascinating, and not just because the FBI had to get dozens of cops in New... More

Patent Trolls 4 News Paywalls

Nathan Myhrvold makes some common errors about the newspaper industry

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 23, 2012 at 05:30 PM

As far as voices of support go, the news business probably wishes it could do better than a patent troll... More

How Sharing Disrupts Media

By Felix Salmon   Jan 23, 2012 at 01:45 PM

I’m at DLD in Munich, where David Karp of Tumblr and Samir Arora of Glam Media helped me understand the... More

Romney’s History on Medicare

How he came to accept “premium support”

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 23, 2012 at 12:19 PM

CNN’s exit poll Saturday told us that abortion, the budget deficit, the economy, and illegal immigration were the top voter... More

Newt Gingrich, Media Critic

Primary night in South Carolina, Gingrich and supporters sound off on press

By Erika Fry   Jan 23, 2012 at 06:00 AM

COLUMBIA, S.C. — All campaign long, Newt Gingrich has been known to knock the media, but at his victory party... More

The Ring is Counted Out

Boxing’s duplicity devours an honest magazine

By Ivan G. Goldman   Jan 23, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Let’s get two things straight. One, last September I was fired from The Ring, the venerable boxing magazine, along... More

Audit Notes: Justice’s Revolving Door, GE Probed, iBooks Author

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 20, 2012 at 09:43 PM

Reuters's Scot J. Paltrow reports that Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder and the head of his criminal division worked for... More

What I Saw at the South Carolina Debate

Or, how campaign coverage is like industrial farming

By Erika Fry   Jan 20, 2012 at 03:12 PM

SOUTH CAROLINA — The campaign media horde congregated in Charleston Thursday night for the Republican presidential debate, eagerly billed by... More

Two Days, Two Good Investigations From Mollenkamp

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 20, 2012 at 02:31 PM

Carrick Mollenkamp is getting his post-WSJ days off to quite the start. On Wednesday, he wrote, with Lauren Tara LaCapra... More

Local TV Stations Rally to Oppose Media Transparency

What exactly are their “public interest obligations”?

By Steven Waldman   Jan 20, 2012 at 12:11 PM

Local television stations have now rallied in opposition to the Federal Communications Commission’s media transparency proposal, which would require broadcasters... More

In South Carolina, Another Hospital/Journo Alliance

New twist, old problem

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 20, 2012 at 11:50 AM

Gary Schwitzer at Health News Review raised a question about journalistic ethics the other day when he took a whack... More

A Day in the Life of South Carolina’s ‘Sic Willie’

How the Palmetto State’s most read, most ribald politics blogger goes about his work

By Erika Fry   Jan 20, 2012 at 06:00 AM

SOUTH CAROLINA — On most days, you will find Will Folks, aka “Sic Willie”—South Carolina’s blogger provacateur, the prolific... More

Notes From our Online Readers

Readers respond to Erika Fry’s “The Romenesko Saga”

By The Editors   Jan 20, 2012 at 06:00 AM

In early November, CJR’s Erika Fry contacted the Poynter Institute with questions about new aggregation practices at its popular Romenesko+... More

Audit Notes: News Corp. Coverup, GOP and the Unemployed, SOPA

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 19, 2012 at 09:24 PM

Murdoch's hacking scandal flared up again today, as News Corporation paid out millions of pounds worth of settlements to victims... More

Does Big Pharma Pay Your Doctor?

New federal database could be a boon for reporters … but it needs their input

By Curtis Brainard   Jan 19, 2012 at 02:30 PM

How useful would a database cataloguing the money that doctors receive from medical drug and device makers—for speaking, research, meals,... More

Looking for Lessons in the Swift Boat Saga

Is Ohio’s press corps prepared for the 2012 campaign?

By T.C. Brown   Jan 19, 2012 at 01:57 PM

OHIO — In 2004, it was the Swift Boat ads. Today in Ohio, we’ve seen the Swift Beard ads. During... More

On Debt, Mitt’s of Two Minds

A career built on it and a campaign that rails against it

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 19, 2012 at 12:08 PM

Jesse Eisinger has a smart New York Times column on how Mitt Romney, fittingly perhaps, is running on debt while... More

On Bain Claims, Will Local Press Rise to the Challenge?

Connecting regional audiences to the national story is hard work. It’s also important.

By Mary Winter   Jan 19, 2012 at 06:00 AM

COLORADO — When a big national story breaks, job one for a city or metro editor is to make it... More

Reading Room

An illustrated review of The Occupied Wall Street Journal

By Ted Rall   Jan 19, 2012 at 06:00 AM

. More

Audit Notes: Gapper on SOPA, Japan’s Papers, Credit Card Antitrust

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 18, 2012 at 09:24 PM

The reaction from internet evangelists over the Stop Online Privacy Act and the Protect IP Act has bordered on hysteria.... More

Medicare Vouchers Explained

A conversation with the Brookings Institution’s Henry Aaron

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 18, 2012 at 03:27 PM

In the Republican presidential debate Monday, Mitt Romney came out in favor of a "premium support program, which allows people... More

Will Fact-Checking Go the Way of Blogs?

By Felix Salmon   Jan 18, 2012 at 02:37 PM

Lucas Graves has by far the best and most sophisticated response to NYT ombudsman Arthur Brisbane’s silly question about “truth... More

The Road Book

Before Ernie Pyle went to war, he wrote about America

By Kevin Coyne   Jan 18, 2012 at 06:00 AM

In the spring of 1932, Ernie Pyle took over as the new managing editor of The Washington Daily News,... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg’s BW Investment, Jobs For Robots, NCAA Injustice

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 17, 2012 at 08:02 PM

Chris Roush of TalkingBizNews looks at new Association of Magazine Media data and finds that business magazines are doing well—better... More

Stories I’d Like to See

Campaign questions, the world’s worst government agency, and medical lobbies

By Steven Brill   Jan 17, 2012 at 04:28 PM

In his weekly "Stories I'd Like to See" column, journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill spotlights topics that, in his opinion,... More

What Scientist Shortage?

The Johnny-can’t-do-science myth damages US research

By Beryl Lieff Benderly   Jan 17, 2012 at 01:45 PM

On July 28, 2011, Senator Chuck Schumer, a democrat from New York, opened a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on high-skill... More

Paywalls: Maybe Not So Complicated After All

Thinking over Clay Shirky’s piece on the success of the NYT model

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 17, 2012 at 01:21 PM

Clay Shirky, a leading paywall skeptic, deserves credit for grappling with what is now generally conceded to be the clear... More

Intoxicating

Deriving ‘drink’

By Merrill Perlman   Jan 17, 2012 at 12:37 PM

No one needs to be told that the present tense of the verb “to drink” is “drink.” But what about... More

The Out-of-Context Quote as Gaffe

A closer look at coverage of “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me’”

By Brendan Nyhan   Jan 17, 2012 at 06:00 AM

NEW HAMPSHIRE — Michael Kinsley famously wrote that "A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth—some obvious truth he... More

Get Real

The unlikely marriage of documentary filmmakers and reality TV

By Alissa Quart   Jan 17, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Dionicio is a heroin addict who was terribly abused as a child and turned to drugs and crime when... More

The State endorses Huntsman … for the day

By Erika Fry   Jan 16, 2012 at 02:38 PM

Yesterday, under the headline, "Huntsman could bring us back together," The State, South Carolina’s largest newspaper, endorsed Jon Huntsman: We... More

Legal Immigrants Win in Massachusetts

But the political press misses the story

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 16, 2012 at 12:34 PM

Today we begin a series of occasional posts that bring Campaign Desk readers up-to-date on the workings of Massachusetts health... More

Saturation Point

A plethora of news outlets doesn’t mean deeper coverage

By Michael Meyer   Jan 16, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Consider the situation in many local news markets—some coverage from a newspaper, some from television, maybe one online outlet making... More

Audit Notes: Triple Dip; Bloomberg Terminals; Goldman, AIG, and the Fed

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 13, 2012 at 09:45 PM

Jeffrey Verschleiser is in the news for renting out the entire ninety-four room Hotel Jerome this weekend for his daughter's... More

The Times and the Jews

A vocal segment of American Jewry has long believed that the paper has been unfair to Israel. Here’s why—and why they’re wrong.

By Neil Lewis   Jan 13, 2012 at 04:20 PM

During the winter of 1974, Seymour Topping, the assistant managing editor of The New York Times, and his wife, Audrey,... More

Famous Last Words From the Fed

Assessing coverage of newly released transcripts from just before the crash

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 13, 2012 at 02:28 PM

The big papers go page one today, as they should, with reports on newly released transcriptions from 2006 Federal Reserve... More

An Image Reconsidered

By Mike Hoyt   Jan 13, 2012 at 02:23 PM

The story, "The Times and the Jews" in our January/February issue is a fascinating, nuanced, and important read. We’re proud... More

In Florida, a Media Crush but Little News

Best coverage embeds Romney’s rally in more far-reaching reporting

By Brian E. Crowley   Jan 13, 2012 at 12:20 PM

FLORIDA — Reporters on either side of me were frantically jotting down quotes, desperately hoping that Mitt Romney would make... More

Critical Juncture for HuffPo Science

With new section, David Freeman has an opportunity to raise the bar

By Curtis Brainard   Jan 13, 2012 at 12:00 PM

The Huffington Post’s announcement last week that it had launched a new section intended to be a “one-stop shop for... More

Hard Numbers

Some stats and figures on the news industry

By The Editors   Jan 13, 2012 at 06:00 AM

105 number of countries with freedom of information laws; The Associated Press sent each a request on terrorism arrests and... More

Audit Notes: Romney’s Black Box, Banker Probe, Laffer Curveball

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 12, 2012 at 08:01 PM

Politico makes a good point about how reporters are having something of a hard time assessing Mitt Romney's tenure at... More

Tell Me a Secret

Soliciting leaks has its rewards, and challenges

By Alysia Santo   Jan 12, 2012 at 03:27 PM

When news website 100Reporters launched this past October, it had everything you’d expect from a promising journalistic startup: top journalists,... More

Misleading Readers on Romney’s “$12 Million Teardown”

The value is almost all in the land

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 12, 2012 at 02:43 PM

We've heard a lot about $12 million teardowns lately. Tiger Woods's ex-wife Elin Nordegren is tearing down her $12 million... More

Gender Imbalance on the Campaign Trail

Voters skew female; reporters still do not

By Meryl Gordon   Jan 12, 2012 at 01:23 PM

MANCHESTER, NH — The sea-green and white concrete gymnasium at Saint Anselm College was transformed this past Saturday night into... More

Two Years Later, Haitian Earthquake Death Toll in Dispute

Journalists can do a better job reporting controversial numbers in disaster zones

By Maura R. O'Connor   Jan 12, 2012 at 01:04 PM

Fifteen miles north of the National Palace in Port au Prince, along Haiti’s azure coastline, is a place called Titanyen.... More

Nevadans Need a Closer Look at Romney’s Record

Some “facts and figures” might help make the Bain debate accessible to readers

By Jay Jones   Jan 12, 2012 at 12:07 PM

NEVADA — There’s one critical question on the minds of many Nevadans these days: Will the jobs picture improve during... More

A.G. Sulzberger is getting chewed up

By Erika Fry   Jan 12, 2012 at 10:44 AM

It’s beginning to look a lot like a Stephen Bloom reprise. Not even a month after Bloom, a New Jersey... More

In the Dark

The campaign to weaken campaign-finance disclosure laws

By The Editors   Jan 12, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Journalists are big believers in the First Amendment; its legal force undergirds the fearless journalism that democracy requires. But... More

North Korean Newspaper Goes English on Web

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jan 11, 2012 at 11:05 PM

Last month, on the occasion of the passing of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, I reviewed the 1983 Pyongyang-published book,... More

The Banker Finds Possible “Trouble” at Chase (UPDATED)

Debt-collection lawsuits dry up in at least five states, raising questions about past practices

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 11, 2012 at 02:13 PM

Back in June, The Wall Street Journal reported a big scoop that press favorite Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan Chase had dropped... More

“Firing” your insurance in Romney’s Massachusetts

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 11, 2012 at 12:59 PM

Romney’s remark Monday about firing your insurance company apparently harmed him little yesterday in the New Hampshire primary. But as... More

Primary Night on Elm Street

A nightmare assignment finally draws to a close

By Justin Peters   Jan 11, 2012 at 12:44 PM

NEW HAMPSHIRE — Rich Girard, former Manchester alderman, is the host of Girard at Large, a Manchester-based current events talk... More

Why Might the Docs Be in a Fix?

A context-light, anecdote-heavy CNNMoney story fails to mention US’s high medical costs

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 11, 2012 at 11:49 AM

Sacre bleu! Docs are going broke! Or so says CNNMoney in a story that is a great example of a... More

Media Made Hawking Famous

Amid 70th birthday adoration, reporters ignored their role in the physicist’s celebrity

By Declan Fahy   Jan 11, 2012 at 10:15 AM

The extensive coverage of Stephen Hawking’s seventieth birthday on January 8 focused on the physicist’s status as the world’s most... More

The Tea Party Paradox

A democratic movement that is anti-democratic at heart

By Elbert Ventura   Jan 11, 2012 at 06:00 AM

It remains one of the mysteries of our political age: How did a Wall Street-spawned meltdown and the worst recession... More

Audit Notes: Kent State Court, Corporate Taxes, the Communion Wafer Industry

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 10, 2012 at 07:31 PM

Hats off to The Daily Kent Stater and reporter Doug Brown for exposing how the university was about to name... More

Twenty-Nine Hours on the Campaign Trail

And all I got was lost. (And, chicken fingers.)

By Justin Peters   Jan 10, 2012 at 04:00 PM

NEW HAMPSHIRE — When covering New Hampshire, as with any primary, the general journalistic strategy is to trail the candidates... More

Wall Street’s Toxic Touch

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 10, 2012 at 03:22 PM

Bloomberg View's Mark Whitehouse points to a fascinating report on new evidence showing how badly Wall Street screwed investors in... More

Political Reporters Must Be “Good Tour Guides”

A Denver Post column takes readers into the weeds

By Mary Winter   Jan 10, 2012 at 01:11 PM

COLORADO — “Inside baseball” is a term journalists sometimes toss out when they’re deciding if an idea is story-worthy. “Is... More

Down, But Not Out?

A closer look at the quantity of climate coverage in 2011

By Curtis Brainard   Jan 10, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Just how scarce was climate-change coverage in 2011? It’s hard to get a fix on the details, but the broad... More

Forget the Debates—Focus on the Air War!

Journalists are looking for attacks in all the wrong places

By Brendan Nyhan   Jan 10, 2012 at 06:00 AM

NEW HAMPSHIRE — Over the weekend, media coverage of the Republican presidential race focused on the lack of conflict in... More

Letters to the Editor

Readers respond to our 50th anniversary issue

By The Editors   Jan 10, 2012 at 06:00 AM

At Fifty Congratulations on the publication of your recent fiftieth anniversary issue (CJR, November/December 2011). It was truly the finest... More

Audit Notes: Swiped, Hit List, Journo Demographics

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 9, 2012 at 07:59 PM

Bloomberg News has an interesting story on a dispute between a Utah restaurant and Visa and Mastercard. The card companies... More

And the Word of the Year Is…

Words that topped the lists

By Merrill Perlman   Jan 9, 2012 at 04:49 PM

Lots of people and organizations have issued their “words of the year” lists. Whether some of the words they chose... More

It’s the WSJ’s Turn on Romney’s Private Equity Record

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 9, 2012 at 02:34 PM

Mitt Romney's tenure at private-equity firm Bain Capital is the gift that will keep on giving for journalists. Reuters reported... More

Spying on Journalists is Easy

Lax computer security creates easy targets

By Alysia Santo   Jan 9, 2012 at 12:42 PM

When promising anonymity, discreetly stashed notes and a tight lip are the precautions of journalism’s past. Reporters have gone to... More

Santorum Goes After Social Security

The AP covers Rick’s empty rhetoric

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 9, 2012 at 12:29 PM

Noting the media’s trivial pursuit of rising star Rick Santorum, my colleague Erika Fry has called for more substantive reporting... More

A Narrowed Gaze

How the business press forgot the rest of us

By Dean Starkman   Jan 9, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Steve Lipin didn’t fit the profile of a transformative media figure when he took over the mergers-and-acquisitions beat for... More

A Night Out with National Review

Watching the GOP debate with the conservative flagship

By Justin Peters   Jan 8, 2012 at 04:21 PM

MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE — Last night, finding myself unable to get tickets to the monster truck rally in the downtown... More

Searching for Santorum

After his surge, it’s hard to find much needed coverage of who he is and what he wants

By Erika Fry   Jan 7, 2012 at 10:18 AM

Here’s what we know about Rick Santorum: He wears sweater vests, at least when members of the media first noticed... More

Audit Notes: GE and Subprime, WaPo on Recess, Fed Fumes on Housing

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 6, 2012 at 08:04 PM

The Center for Public Integrity’s Michael Hudson continues one of the most important series of the last year, on how... More

Playing the Expectations Game in New Hampshire

The Union Leader creates an arbitrary threshold for Mitt Romney

By Brendan Nyhan   Jan 6, 2012 at 03:37 PM

NEW HAMPSHIRE — After finishing the Iowa caucus in a virtual tie with former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney... More

Reuters on Romney’s Private-Equity Past

How Bain Capital profited as workers got crushed

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 6, 2012 at 03:15 PM

Reuters has a great look today at how Mitt Romney's Bain Capital loaded up a steel company with debt, mismanaged... More

Twifficult

Tweeting the change you wish to see is easy. Global attention is as elusive as ever

By Justin D. Martin   Jan 6, 2012 at 02:02 PM

I was alone on a drive from Maine to Massachusetts in early December when a crazy idea hit me. Listening... More

The Bloodying of PolitiFact

What is Medicare, anyway?

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 6, 2012 at 01:48 PM

Now it’s my turn to weigh in on the “Lie of the Year,” the gimmick PolitiFact uses to highlight the... More

Assessing the Cordray Coverage in Ohio

Most papers missed a chance to go beyond the partisan rhetoric

By T.C. Brown   Jan 6, 2012 at 12:03 PM

OHIO —President Obama visited the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio Wednesday to tout his economic policy, but the press... More

Opening Shot

Show us how the game is rigged

By The Editors   Jan 6, 2012 at 06:00 AM

On November 26, 2011, The New York Times published an investigation of Ronald Lauder’s aggressive use of strategies available... More

Audit Notes: Citi Fees, A Bipartisan Bloomberg Dream, The Toil Index

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 5, 2012 at 08:16 PM

Felix Salmon reports on an awful new fee Citigroup has cooked up to milk its customers. The bank will charge... More

Darts and Laurels

Univision, The Miami Herald, and Marco Rubio, the GOP’s rising star

By Erika Fry   Jan 5, 2012 at 05:00 PM

In December 1987, federal police in Miami made their biggest drug bust of the year. Dubbed “Operation Cobra,” agents arrested... More

The WSJ Eyes Analyst-Shopping

By Ryan Chittum   Jan 5, 2012 at 03:17 PM

Call me naive, but I didn't know that companies launching IPOs were still overtly shopping around for banks with favorable... More

Lackluster Caucus Coverage in Florida

The Tampa Bay Times stands above the field

By Brian E. Crowley   Jan 5, 2012 at 10:42 AM

FLORIDA — By the end of this month, the contest for the Republican presidential nomination will move to the Sunshine... More

What the Fact-Checkers Get Wrong

The language of Politifact and its peers doesn’t match their project

By Greg Marx   Jan 5, 2012 at 06:00 AM

In the waning days of 2011, Politifact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking site, brought the wrath of the liberal blog world... More

Executive Editor’s Note

Welcome Cyndi Stivers, our new editor in chief

By Mike Hoyt   Jan 5, 2012 at 06:00 AM

This is the first issue of the Columbia Journalism Review’s second half century, and already you’ll find a significant change... More

When Elections Decide Nothing

The maddening inevitability of momentum

By Clint Hendler   Jan 4, 2012 at 04:52 PM

“The margin of victory is razor thin but a win is a win and Mitt Romney will take it.” -Nora... More

Climate Coverage Crashes

Downward spiral in English-language news media continued in 2011

By Curtis Brainard   Jan 4, 2012 at 04:45 PM

Twelve months ago, The Daily Climate, a website that produces and tracks media stories about climate change, declared that 2010... More

A Long Day—and Night—Covering the Caucuses

Patriotic popcorn, Google swag, and the ubiquitous Chuck Todd

By Erika Fry   Jan 4, 2012 at 04:05 PM

DES MOINES, IOWA — On Tuesday, I spent more than 13 hours in the “official media hub” for the Iowa... More

Rick’s Relevant Now

By Greg Marx   Jan 4, 2012 at 12:46 PM

How far has Rick Santorum come to his place in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney at the Iowa Republican... More

A Good Payroll Tax Piece from the Post

Finally, some balance from WaPo

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 4, 2012 at 12:46 PM

At last The Washington Post, which shaped much of the media coverage of the defcit and entitlement discussion last year,... More

Scene From Gingrich HQ on Caucus Night

A dozen reporters waited (and, waited)

By Andrew Duffelmeyer   Jan 4, 2012 at 10:58 AM

DES MOINES, IOWA — In a ballroom at the Iowa Events Center in downtown Des Moines last night, a dozen... More

The Girl Who Loved Journalists

Stieg Larsson’s posthumous gift to an embattled industry

By Eric Alterman   Jan 4, 2012 at 06:00 AM

For a profession whose entire raison d’être is communication, American journalists sure have done a lousy job of explaining... More

You’ve Got (Candidate) Mail(ers)

A look at the direct mail deluge in Iowa

By Erika Fry   Jan 3, 2012 at 05:05 PM

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA — Perhaps you've heard non-Iowans grumble about the attention lavished on Iowa for its first-in-the-nation caucus. Residents... More

Best of 2011: Liz Cox Barrett

From Nevada to Paint Creek, Barrett picks her top stories from 2011

By Liz Cox Barrett   Jan 3, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Unpacking Rory Reid’s 91 PACs Maneuver Where there are campaign finance laws, there are work-arounds. And Jon Ralston, as... More

Best of 2011: Trudy Lieberman

CJR’s health and entitlements reporter picks her top stories from the past year

By Trudy Lieberman   Jan 2, 2012 at 05:48 PM

Peter G. Peterson Goes to School: Organizations funded by Peter G. Peterson, a former Wall Street investment banker and long-time... More

The Post-Iowa Challenge

Providing information or constructing a narrative?

By Brendan Nyhan   Jan 2, 2012 at 04:20 PM

NEW HAMPSHIRE — Over the last week, much of the nation's political press corps has headed to Iowa to cover... More

A VIP Pass to Cover the Caucuses

Credentials offer access, amenities for a cost, but some reporters take a pass

By Erika Fry   Jan 2, 2012 at 01:57 PM

IOWA — There are a lot of journalists in Iowa right now. But on Tuesday night, when results of the... More

Best of 2011: Lauren Kirchner

From AOL to HuffPo, Kirchner picks her top CJR stories from the past year

By Lauren Kirchner   Jan 2, 2012 at 06:00 AM

Salon and Slate in the Way-Back Machine: When The Daily launched early this year—to great hype and then to great... More