Friday, August 02, 2013. Last Update: Fri 6:50 AM EST

Monthly Archive

May 2012

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ESPN’s interchangeable women

To the Bristol brass, it’s the network, not the talent, that makes the star

In recent months, ESPN has taken a distinctly Bill Belichick-ian approach to its on-air talent, in particular its female announcers.... More

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CPJ’s Impunity Index updates

Iraq tops the list of countries where murders of journalists have gone unsolved

The Committee to Protect Journalists updated its Impunity Index last week. The Index calculates the number of unsolved murders of... More

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Letter perfect

Why English is so hard

The cashier at the fancy foods store was from Bosnia. "I have so much hard time with English," she said.... More

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Busted bet: AP reveals sweepstakes industry’s cash-o-matic in North Carolina

Reporters discuss a series of scoops uncovering possible campaign-finance violations

COLUMBIA, SC -- Last Wednesday, the newly-appointed State Board of Elections in North Carolina convened for the first time. Following... More

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And that’s the way it was: May 6, 1937

The Hindenburg disaster

On this day in 1937, the German passenger zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire, crashed, and burned down to nothing but its... More

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Finding James Foley

GlobalPost tracked down its missing reporter in Syria—now to bring him home

After 162 days with no information about his whereabouts, GlobalPost announced Friday that James Foley, an American journalist who went... More

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Inside the Indonesian Newsroom:
the good, the bad, the hopeful

A survey provides a new snapshot

Indonesia remains a nation in flux. So, too, its journalism. Fifteen years after the country's long-time strongman and president,... More

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Must-reads of the week

Stuffed Banana with Dreadlocks Edition

Culled from CJR’s frequently updated “Must-reads from around the Web,” our staff recommendations for the best pieces of journalism (and... More

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Planet 401(k): Tom Friedman’s bleak vision

Elites are debating the shape of our future. It’s time for some mainstream reporting to deepen the discussion

It's pretty clear by now that elite media, in their news columns and opinion pages, have had a big... More

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The corrupt City culture behind the Libor scandal

The Wall Street Journal’s excellent investigation digs up the dirt

In the real word, big conspiracies are hard to maintain. People talk. Disagreements develop. Word tends to get out. But... More

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Will Wall Street’s cop go after dark money?

The campaign for the SEC to force disclosure of corporate political spending, explained.

During the 2012 elections--and ever since--coverage of campaign finance has focused heavily on the role of "dark money": the unlimited... More

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How not to report on a transgender victim

Cemia Acoff identified as a woman in life and should have been in death, too

Sometime between the end of March and the end of April, an Ohio transgender woman was brutally murdered--she was stabbed... More

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And that’s the way it was: May 3, 1978

The first piece of email spam is sent

On an evil day, 35 years ago today, a sinister pair of hands typed and sent out the first ever... More

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Keeping it chronic

Local coverage explores ways to keep ‘super-users’ out of the hospital, driving costs down and outcomes up

The emergency department (ED) is not only the most inappropriate and expensive place to deliver primary healthcare, it's a gateway... More

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Reinventing Audubon

Mark Jannot to craft new content, communications strategy

There's new vigor at the 108-year-old National Audubon Society, a nonprofit environmental group focused on birds, which is in the... More

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The systemic plight of labor

A revealing Thomas Friedman column on 401(k)s

It's May Day, and Henry Blodget is celebrating -- if that's the right word -- with three charts, of... More

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Covering somebody who’s suing you

The WSJ sticks it to Sheldon Adelson by keeping a reporter on the beat

Francine McKenna asked a good question on Twitter the other day about Wall Street Journal coverage of Sheldon Adelson's Las... More

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Digital Public Library of America wants to lend copyrighted works

The DPLA launched last month offering access to public-domain materials, but founders want to expand its purview

Last month, the Digital Public Library of America introduced its discovery portal to the Internet. It invited users in, to... More

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Those immobile newspaper companies

Only 22 percent of a big sample even offer mobile products

One of the truisms of digital journalism, and one that happens to be true, is that mobile is a big... More

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Branded but ‘independent’ media

The pros and cons of trying to do real journalism at a non-media company

Jessica Bennett worked for seven years at journalistic stalwarts like The Boston Globe, the Village Voice, and Newsweek. But after... More

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And that’s the way it was: May 2, 1885

Good Housekeeping magazine is first published

Founded in 1885 by Clark W. Bryan, Good Housekeeping was purchased in 1911 by the Heart Corporation, which still owns... More

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Local reporting at its grandest

When the weather warms up, oddities emerge

The local news in Florida is likely full of "truth is stranger than fiction" tales all year round because it's... More

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Untangling Obamacare: Rate shock!?

Understanding the direction of insurance premiums is not easy, let alone explaining it. But…

Covering Obamacare poses big challenges for journalists, from piercing government spin and deciphering GOP rhetoric to unraveling and simplifying... More

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Opening Shot

I'm not you, babe When Thatcher passed away, some tweeters who opposed her politics celebrated using the hashtag #nowthatchersdead.... More

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Empty calories

To feed young minds, let’s add some nutrition to social media

(Illustration by Daniel Chang) If you've spent time with anyone under 25 recently, you will have noticed that they... More

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Letters to the editor

Readers respond to our March/April issue

Editor in chief's note 'The journalism community deserves diversity, but why aren't we getting it?" asked Farai Chideya, moderator of... More

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An ink-stained stretch

Can Aaron Kushner save the Orange County Register—and the newspaper industry?

Betting man Kushner bought the Register cheap and is investing in it heavily, including one of the biggest hiring... More

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Sticking with the truth

How ‘balanced’ coverage helped sustain the bogus claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism

The damage done A study by Andrew Wakefield, right, helped fuel media attention to the vaccine-autism story, until Brian... More

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On the job

Tight shots

Ground war Following a raid in Ramadi in 2006, a US soldier watches over an Iraqi man who collapsed... More

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More of Jessica Lum’s work

Jessica Lum’s life and career were cut short, but she left a lot behind

Jessica Lum's life and career were cut short, but she left a lot behind. Here's a sampling of some of... More

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‘See you on the other side’

Meet Jessica Lum, a terminally ill 25-year-old who chose to spend what little time she had practicing journalism

Her time Jessica Lum was a journalist for the new century, an empathic reporter who told timeless stories with... More

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The back page

A feature writer at the erstwhile International Herald Tribune remembers the glory days, when presses were on the premises and the paper left ink on your hands

Bonjour, cherie, get me rewrite On a good night, as deadline neared in the bullpen on the rue de... More

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Streams of consciousness

Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism?

(Daniel Chang) My first encounters with journalism were the same as most American males: through the sports pages. Sometime... More

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Hard numbers

Pew, that’s a lotta research!

72 percent of all US adults who say the most common way they hear about news from family and friends... More

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Cause and affect

DoSomething.org’s surveys of teens suggest that the voters of tomorrow do actually care about current affairs

(Data courtesy of DoSomething.org) Who says kids are apathetic and don't care about the news? Well, kids do--but their... More

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That’s incredible

How students at one California high school are learning to discern what is (and isn’t) news

"A lot of students believe all news is created equal," says Alan Miller of the News Literacy Project, which helps... More

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Open Bar

The Gandamack

Sabra Ayres Gandamack Lodge Kabul, Afghanistan Although the bar's official name is the Hare and Hound Watering Hole, most... More

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Language Corner

Plum loco

The witness, according to the news story, said the robbers were "plum crazy." Not unless they were robbing a green... More

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Sree Tips

Social-media etiquette for journalists

Q: There seem to be new social media platforms released every week. How do you decide which ones, if any,... More

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The Buzz

They’re back!

After 17 years underground, a brood of cicadas is emerging from the soil this spring, from the Carolinas to... More

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The Conversation

Sports section 2.0

After two years as deputy editor, Jason Stallman took over in January as The New York Times sports editor... More

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Strange but true

More tales from the beat

Lea Thompson, Dateline NBC We once conducted an entire interview in Dallas using a "bra cam." We were exposing a... More

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What’s in my … rolling briefcase

Micheline Maynard

Micheline Maynard is something of a renaissance woman. The former New York Times Detroit bureau chief covers the auto industry,... More

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Darts & Laurels

The Phoenix’s ashes, Weil’s catch, the WSJ’s ‘experts,’ etc.

Laurel to In These Times, for exposing how, in the face of tough economic times, state legislatures are slashing budgets... More

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Future shock

Predictions from the past

Visionaries The World's city room in the 20th century. (Library of Congress) In 1923, The World, Joseph Pulitzer's raucous... More

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The Lower Case

Headlines that editors probably wish they could take back

--Daily News Record (Harrisonburg, VA), 3/2/13 --The Denver Post (Harrisonburg, VA), 2/12/13 --The Athens (NY) Messenger, 2/22/13 --Orange County... More

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Home truths

For the essayist Albert Murray, the South was a state of mind

There is nothing quite so liberating for a journalist as failing to carry out an assignment. I'm not talking... More

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Turn on, log in, opt out?

Morozov, Lanier, and others consider the future of the Internet

At a tech conference in Lake Tahoe three years ago, Eric Schmidt gave a talk that included a startling statistic.... More

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It doesn’t add up

A science writer questions the conventional wisdom of US-born STEM workers

Homegrown President Obama, seen here visiting at technical college in North Carolina, supports bringing more foreign STEM workers to... More

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The natural

Red Smith made it look easy, even when it wasn’t

"Give us this day our daily plinth," my father, Red Smith, and his pal, Joe Palmer, the racing columnist,... More

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‘Minority’ rules

In case you missed it: a recap of our Newseum panel on race, class, and social mobility

Wise wordsFrom left, Raquel Cepeda, Jeff Yang, Gene Policinski, and Richard Prince fielded questions from moderator Farai Chideya. For... More

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Brief encounters

Short reviews of Fighting for the Press and America 1933

Fighting for the Press: The Inside Story of the Pentagon Papers and Other Battles | By James C. Goodale |... More

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Exit Interview - FCC ya later!

Julius Genachowski delivers his stump speech on four years at the FCC

(US Mission Geneva / Eric Bridiers) Julius Genachowski's four years as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission had a... More

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That’s incredible

How kids get their news

High schoolers get news from a wide variety of sources, and are especially vulnerable to believing less credible sources, or... More

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That’s incredible

How kids get their news

I was once searching for news online outside of my reliable aggregate of The Economist, New Yorker, New York Times,... More

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That’s incredible

How kids get their news

Most teenagers get their news from social networking sites nowadays. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, or maybe from little news ticker... More

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That’s incredible

How kids get their news

Teens get news today in a variety of different forms. I don't think many teens get real "news" on Facebook... More

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That’s incredible

How kids get their news

Every day, thousands of newsworthy events occur. However, few people actually learn of said events from a reputable news source... More

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That’s incredible

How kids get their news

Today, most teenagers only care about news that relate to them. They do not actively buy newspapers, go online to... More

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That’s incredible

How kids get their news

The ways teens get the news today is different than how they got it 75 years ago. Today, most teens... More

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That’s incredible

How kids get their news

Most teenagers nowadays are out of touch with world news, even though they are very involved in media. I would... More

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That’s incredible

How kids gets their news

Like many of my fellow students, I get my news from a variety of sources, including my cell phone, the... More

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That’s incredible

How kids get their news

Not uncommonly, as a teenager in today's society, I spend a great deal of time every day on my cell... More

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The Advocate vs. the Times-Picayune

A New Orleans businessman fires up the newspaper war with the Newhouses

The Louisiana newspaper war just got a lot more interesting. It's been a poorly kept secret in New Orleans media... More

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The importance of counting stories

Schiffrin and Fagan quantify weaknesses in coverage of the stimulus

One of the cold, hard facts of media punditry is that no one can read everything—or should be expected... More

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Honey, I shrank the IRS

The administration wants more money for tax-law enforcement. Let’s ask why

Last week, we pointed to a piece of news that we have yet to read or hear from most... More

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Room for two

New Yorker, Grantland go head to head on Iditarod coverage

Certainly a thousand-mile race across the vast empty expanse of the Alaskan wilderness has room for two massive, longform articles... More

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Covering ‘The American Presidency’

Fiction vs. reality in coverage of the White House

In Hollywood and the accounts of many of the nation's leading journalists, events in Washington revolve around the president, who... More

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Participial con-fusion

When possession is the law

WARNING: Grammar lesson ahead. If you ever knew what a "participle" was, you may have forgotten. Same with the word... More

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In the Egypt Independent’s closure, an end of a beginning

The paper was a symbol of Egypt’s new freedom of the press, which appears to be diminishing

Like many things in Egypt these days, the fight to save the Egypt Independent from termination went viral almost instantly.... More

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And that’s the way it was: April 30, 1993

“WorldWideWeb” software enters the public domain

In 1993, computer users all over the world were still working out how best to share information over the Internet.... More

Barack Obama: ‘those old times aren’t coming back’

“It used to be there were local newspapers everywhere. If you wanted to be a journalist, you could really make a good living working for your hometown paper”

The Guardian’s editor opens up on Reddit

Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, answered questions in an Ask Me Anything

The (almost) lost speech of Justice Anthony Kennedy

How his insightful remarks about the Constitution inadvertently make the case for a Supreme Court “media pool”

Fox News sues TVEyes for copyright infringement

Says subscription service sells access to its content without permission nor compensation

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The Business of Digital Journalism

A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

Study Guides

Questions and exercises for journalism students.