The Kickstarter Chronicles

Printing the Internet and updating an office

By Sara Morrison   Aug 31, 2012 at 02:50 PM

Each week, dozens of journalistic endeavors turn to Kickstarter for funding. Pitching media projects to this online community brings another... More

Parsing Romney on healthcare

Chris Wallace gets a C minus

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 31, 2012 at 11:16 AM

Before Chris Wallace got to the soft stuff of his Fox News Sunday interview last week with The Family Romney... More

The Wall Street Journal lets Paul Ryan go all but unchecked

Misleading claims get ignored or given he said-she said treatment

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 31, 2012 at 11:07 AM

The Wall Street Journal's coverage of Paul Ryan's speech to the Republican National Convention Wednesday, which was packed with one... More

A dart to the AP—and a laurel!

Good work on fact-checking speeches; on Social Security, not so much

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 31, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Dart The Associated Press misled its many readers, unfortunately, about what is a Social Security benefit cut and what... More

Audit Notes: Wall Street sheriffs, preprints, Globalization and workers

Supposedly in a “race to investigate, indict, subpoena and fine”

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 31, 2012 at 11:00 AM

The Wall Street Journal would have you believe Wall Street is running scared from all the financial cops in New... More

One last night on the outskirts in Tampa

Welsh cakes, a protest that wasn’t, and the rest of the scene from the RNC

By Justin Peters   Aug 31, 2012 at 08:48 AM

This post has been updated. TAMPA — It's 6:30 p.m. on the final night of the Republican National Convention, and... More

Read? Listen? Who has the time?

At political conventions, journalists get preliterate

By Walter Shapiro   Aug 31, 2012 at 06:50 AM

TAMPA—Sitting in my motel room Thursday on the fringes of Tampa, maybe 20 miles and three weather systems away from... More

Don’t posit ‘what women think’ without quoting any

Coverage of Ann Romney’s RNC speech said she connected with women, but no female voices in the stories verified the claim

By Jennifer Vanasco   Aug 31, 2012 at 06:50 AM

In her column, Minority Reports, Jennifer Vanasco analyzes how the mainstream media covers social minorities. Immediately after Ann Romney’s speech... More

Required skimming: food politics and policy

If you believe you are what you eat, you’ll want to read these

By Brent Cunningham   Aug 31, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Water woes

Regional papers turn out series on sea level, drought

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 30, 2012 at 04:30 PM

Exposés about the changing climate in the polar north are great, and all the more important in light of reports... More

How ‘half true’ happens

Our correspondent sits in as PolitiFact editors rate Nikki Haley’s claim

By Justin Peters   Aug 30, 2012 at 04:09 PM

TAMPA — “Perhaps if we all ignore PolitiFact, they'll eventually go away," went the lede of a Weekly Standard story... More

Checking the foundation of ‘We Built It’

In many Virginia papers, coverage of McDonnell’s convention speech is a let-down

By Tharon Giddens   Aug 30, 2012 at 03:00 PM

VIRGINIA — The Republican National Convention may be happening in Tampa, but the theme for the gathering’s opening Tuesday night—“We... More

Ignored factchecks and the media’s crisis of confidence

Whatever campaigns may do, aggressive truth-telling is the right approach for reporters

By Brendan Nyhan   Aug 30, 2012 at 11:05 AM

Can the media stop politicians from misleading the public? That's the question on the minds of many journalists and commentators... More

Audit Notes: Murdoch’s hacking scandal, revolving door, Obama’s AMA

Two more arrests, including one for computer hacking

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 30, 2012 at 11:00 AM

As Rupert Murdoch tells the world to go see Dinesh D'Souza's "scary" 2016 propaganda (read my 2010 takes on the... More

In Florida, convention coverage ranges from abundant to absent

The Tampa papers go all-in, while the Sun Sentinel goes missing

By Brian E. Crowley   Aug 30, 2012 at 06:50 AM

TAMPA — On Wednesday, the morning after the first night of the Republican National Convention, the front page of the... More

Are you too drunk to edit?

A journalistic sobriety test for night editors, bloggers, and anyone covering an event with an open bar

By Ann Friedman   Aug 30, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Is there a test that you can self-administer to determine if you are too drunk to write or edit a... More

Required skimming: data journalism

Learn how the experts make numbers look pretty

By Anna Codrea-Rado   Aug 30, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Following up on a promise of jobs

The Salisbury Post in North Carolina talks to manufacturing workers still waiting on a call back to work

By Andria Krewson   Aug 29, 2012 at 03:00 PM

NORTH CAROLINA — Kudos to the scrappy little Salisbury Post in Salisbury, North Carolina, for its story Sunday detailing the... More

Finding the local in vast swathes of data

An NPR map of 2010 census information is a great example of how reporters can make big data locally relevant

By Anna Codrea-Rado   Aug 29, 2012 at 02:50 PM

Census data was made for mapping, showing the relationship between data points over a geographical area. In 2010, when the... More

CNBC: kid gloves for bankers, boxing gloves for bank critics

Interviews with Barofsky, Spitzer, and Krugman underscore the network’s capture

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 29, 2012 at 12:13 PM

We're all for aggressively skeptical interviewing—I've often wished we could import Brits to do our presidential interviews, for instance. But... More

How journalists helped stabilize a new Colombia

Overcoming mountains and militias

By Justin D. Martin   Aug 29, 2012 at 11:13 AM

BOGOTA, Colombia—Here are two headlines from two decades apart: A headline 20 years ago in the Milwaukee Journal—Who’s in charge:... More

A celebration of access in Tampa

Conventions are about getting in to the place worth being

By Justin Peters   Aug 29, 2012 at 11:00 AM

TAMPA — It only took me two minutes to get kicked out of Liberty Plaza. Liberty Plaza, sponsored by various... More

Audit Notes: the national debt, Bailout, ProPublica on campaign finance

GOP jujitsu on Obama and deficits

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 29, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Ezra Klein, anticipating a lot of Republicans disingenuously blaming Obama for the national debt, points to a Center on Budget... More

Required skimming: journalism business models

All the things I could do/If I had a little money

By Michael Meyer   Aug 29, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

The NYT’s weak coverage of rental-car consolidation

With Hertz/Dollar Thrifty deal, three companies would have 94 percent of the market

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 28, 2012 at 11:12 PM

The rental car business is a highly concentrated industry controlled by four companies. It's about to get much more concentrated,... More

It’s morning in the Tampa Convention Center

Swing States Project’s Florida correspondent takes it all in

By Brian E. Crowley   Aug 28, 2012 at 03:55 PM

TAMPA — In a large room, just off the main floor of the Tampa Convention Center, there are about 100... More

Conventions: A great learning opportunity for voters

Why the debate over a lack of news misses the point

By Brendan Nyhan   Aug 28, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Every four years, the two presidential candidates do battle in a series of high-stakes televised events that could shape the... More

Stories I’d like to see

How would a woman “prove” rape to qualify for Romney’s abortion exception?

By Steven Brill   Aug 28, 2012 at 10:52 AM

In the wake of the Todd Akin firestorm, Mitt Romney and a flip-flopping Paul Ryan have emphasized that their anti-choice... More

Journalism crash course in Jersey

Program shows young reporters the ropes, with an aim to “diversify college and professional newsrooms”

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 28, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Imagine that it is days after the shootings at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, WI, earlier this month, and... More

Audit Notes: GOP gold bugs, too big to fail, Niall Ferguson

The myth of hard money

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 28, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The Republicans have put the gold standard (or at least a commission to study the idea) back in their party's... More

Required skimming: tech

For everyone’s inner geek

By Sang Ngo   Aug 28, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Multiples choice

Some singular help with plural possessives

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 27, 2012 at 03:00 PM

Last week we dealt with some possessive questions when there were plural possessors. Now we’ll deal with other possessives, which... More

Pasadena publisher launches a system for outsourcing local news

“I’m looking for individuals I can pay a lower rate to do a lot of work,” says Journtent founder James Macpherson

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 27, 2012 at 02:47 PM

A publisher in Pasadena, CA, who said he received death threats when he started hiring workers in India to write... More

In defense of convention coverage

Thoughts from a veteran political reporter who still gets butterflies

By Walter Shapiro   Aug 27, 2012 at 11:00 AM

For me, the malady known as Convention Anxiety is a quadrennial affliction that begins around March of every presidential election... More

Rethinking objectivity: a recall case

An intern gets canned in Wisconsin because she signed a petition. Why?

By Kathleen Bartzen Culver   Aug 27, 2012 at 10:52 AM

As partisan activity and open hostility climbed toward their peak in Wisconsin’s recent recall election, one of my students lost... More

Audit Notes: China slows, Romney’s taxes, copyright

Inventories pile up, posing another threat to the global economy

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 27, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The New York Times looks at a glut of goods clogging up Chinese warehouses—an ominous sign for the global economy:... More

Tampa Bay Times’s convention-eve welcome

The paper’s Sunday piece is strong (cringe-making Florida boosterism aside)

By Brian E. Crowley   Aug 27, 2012 at 06:50 AM

TAMPA — Wince. That was my first reaction as I started to read a Sunday story about the Republican National... More

Is Project Runway saving criticism?

It may well be, Reality Check columnist Alissa Quart says

By Alissa Quart   Aug 27, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This Thursday, I was watching an episode of the 10th season of the now ancient and seemingly irrelevant Lifetime show... More

Required skimming: journalism’s funny

Laughing so we don’t cry, or drink

By Kira Goldenberg   Aug 27, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Zenawi’s legacy and the future of free press in Ethiopia

The architect of press-squelching laws is gone, but his policies seem to be thriving

By Mohammed Ademo   Aug 25, 2012 at 04:08 PM

Ethiopia’s new rulers waited just one day after the death of dictator Meles Zenawi was announced to confirm that little... More

Michigan media on Romney’s birth certificate ‘joke’ (UPDATED)

Some news outlets let it slide—unexplained, unchallenged

By Anna Clark   Aug 24, 2012 at 05:40 PM

MICHIGAN — Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan brought the Republican presidential ticket to Commerce, Michigan today in an event billed... More

A laurel to Jackie Calmes of The New York Times

She begins to X-ray the Romney/Ryan Medicare plan

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 24, 2012 at 04:04 PM

This week’s laurel goes to Jackie Calmes of The New York Times for reporting the increasing skepticism in health... More

The Kickstarter Chronicles

Punching up community radio in Iowa and punching out Mike Tyson in 8 bits

By Sara Morrison   Aug 24, 2012 at 02:50 PM

Each week, dozens of journalistic endeavors turn to Kickstarter for funding. Pitching media projects to this online community brings another... More

Realtime tips on how not to report a shooting

As journalists started covering chaos at the Empire State Building on social media, some started covering the coverage

By Kira Goldenberg   Aug 24, 2012 at 12:23 PM

After a lone gunman allegedly killed a former colleague in the vicinity of New York's Empire State Building on Friday... More

The word on the street: apprehensive

Listening to voters talk about Medicare in St. Louis

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 24, 2012 at 11:47 AM

The idea of privatizing Medicare is not winning popularity contests with voters. A Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday found... More

WaPo dings the ‘give-it-away-free approach’

A mess of a story on Facebook

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 24, 2012 at 06:50 AM

There's all kinds of irony about the Washington Post slapping a company for a "give-it-away-free approach" that has hurt share... More

Akin was wrong

And journalists should’ve said so from the get-go, rather than simply reporting his comment

By Jennifer Vanasco   Aug 24, 2012 at 06:50 AM

In her column, Minority Reports, Jennifer Vanasco analyzes how the mainstream media covers social minorities. One of the biggest surprises... More

Required skimming: fossil fuels

Drill, baby, drill

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 24, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Audit Notes: Gawker’s Bain scoop, file sharing and record sales, Niall Ferguson

A document dump raises questions about tax strategies

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 24, 2012 at 01:55 AM

Gawker's John Cook got hold of 950 pages of confidential Bain Capital documents related to Mitt Romney and put them... More

Review: Dennis Drabelle’s The Great American Railroad War

How Frank Norris and Ambrose Bierce helped keep a crooked railroad honest

By Bill Marx   Aug 23, 2012 at 03:05 PM

The Great American Railroad War: How Ambrose Bierce and Frank Norris Took on the Notorious Central Pacific Railroad | By... More

Fake military news site gains traction

The Duffel Blog is becoming a satirical support source for soldiers

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 23, 2012 at 03:00 PM

When a former Marine started writing Onion-style stories on the satirical military news site he launched in March, he had... More

Backstory: the reporter who interviewed Akin

The Jaco Report reconsiders the moment

By Mike Hoyt   Aug 23, 2012 at 11:46 AM

As transitions go, it was pretty jagged, a classic of the “moving right along” category. Answering a question about abortion... More

CBS goofs up the green beat

Network fails to disclose M. Sanjayan’s affiliation and ties to source

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 23, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Only two months after hiring him, CBS News has already botched a report from its new science and environment contributor,... More

The New Yorker on Obama as fundraiser (UPDATED)

Fascinating reporting but an overly sympathetic portrayal

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 23, 2012 at 11:00 AM

It's hard to read Jane Mayer's New Yorker piece on campaign fundraising without thinking about how embarrassing and corrupting it... More

To sell out or not to sell out?

Is a journalism job you hate better than no journalism job at all?

By Ann Friedman   Aug 23, 2012 at 07:05 AM

I'm 22 and a recent NYC transplant. I'm interning at a pretty well-known magazine, working with some great editors, learning... More

Required skimming: entertainment industry

Get the inside scoop on all the Botoxed faces

By Sara Morrison   Aug 23, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Covering the databases

Why journalists should be leading by example in the open data debate

By Anna Codrea-Rado   Aug 22, 2012 at 04:45 PM

Data journalism and information visualization is a burgeoning field. Every week, Between the Spreadsheets will analyze, interrogate, and explore emerging... More

Embed moderator

Only in Limbaugh land could Martha Raddatz be a lefty

By Michael Massing   Aug 22, 2012 at 03:23 PM

By this point, I thought there was nothing Rush Limbaugh could say that would surprise me, but he did with... More

Medicare and the $716 billion bogeyman

Will a new version of a half-truth work for the GOP?

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 22, 2012 at 11:17 AM

It’s been hard to escape from Medicare in the 11 days since Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan burst into the news... More

Last week’s GOP local TV blitz

What did candidates—and viewers—get from it?

By Tharon Giddens   Aug 22, 2012 at 11:00 AM

VIRGINIA — The word “exclusive” is routinely devalued in broadcast political reporting and last week was no exception. Republicans Mitt... More

Pomp and circumstance: How do Americans see the Brits?

Two American correspondents tell how they explain British idiosyncrasies

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 22, 2012 at 11:00 AM

It took the Olympics to prove it: Britain might as well be Middle Earth to most Americans. Only that could... More

Audit Notes: Newsweek standards, Luddite fallacy, crowdfunding scams

Everyone but the magazine fact checks Niall Ferguson

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 22, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Paul Krugman asks: We know what Ferguson is going to do: he’s going to brazen it out, actually boasting about... More

Required skimming: Euro crisis

Understand all the overseas finance stuff that nobody gets

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 22, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Candidates clam up on climate

Reporters call out Obama and Romney’s silence

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 21, 2012 at 03:00 PM

Nary a word has been spoken about climate change on the presidential campaign trail, and it’s a silence that some... More

‘That muddy water’ of fairness

With “Line of Attack,” Sun evaluates “legit,” “laughable” campaign claims

By Jay Jones   Aug 21, 2012 at 03:00 PM

NEVADA — I can’t recall who came up with the idea of a digital video recorder that automatically skips past... More

The latest on Slatest

Slate’s news aggregation blog’s revamp goes for quality over quantity

By Sara Morrison   Aug 21, 2012 at 11:15 AM

There’s a new Slatest in town: the third version of Slatest, Slate's aggregated news blog, launched Monday. Though some Slatest... More

Newsweek’s Niall Ferguson debacle

A misleading cover story gets the wrong kind of buzz for Tina Brown’s mag

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 21, 2012 at 11:00 AM

It's been a long time since I've seen a cover story so comprehensively demolished as Newsweek's disengenuous anti-Obama piece by... More

Stories I’d like to see

Fareed Zakaria’s “mistake”

By Steven Brill   Aug 21, 2012 at 10:49 AM

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

Audit Notes: Fake or real Jeff Jarvis?, Wolf on Ryan, robots and labor

Replacing copyright with something called “creditright”

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 21, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This may seem like a Fake Jeff Jarvis post, but it's real-life Jeff Jarvis: Creators don’t need protection from copying.... More

Required skimming: media news aggregators not named Romenesko

(Only because everyone knows about him already)

By Michael Meyer   Aug 21, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Pluralistic

Those pesky possessives

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 20, 2012 at 03:00 PM

Two of the longest sections in most grammar and style guides concern how to form plurals and how to form... More

Local news sites form new trade association

“We are the future” says LION chairman Dylan Smith

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 20, 2012 at 03:00 PM

Next month, at the annual Block by Block conference for local news sites, around 100 independent publishers will celebrate... More

Misleading and incomplete coverage of Apple’s ‘record’ value (CORRECTED)

Microsoft’s 1999 market cap still, by far, bigger

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 20, 2012 at 02:06 PM

The big market news today is about Apple's gargantuan market capitalization reaching a new, stunning high: Bloomberg News: Apple Becomes... More

Profits vs. patients: The Tampa Bay Times complicates a story

The truth in medical disputes can be hard to find

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 20, 2012 at 11:32 AM

The Tampa Bay Times, formerly known as The St. Petersburg Times, deserves a shout-out for jumping on the local angle... More

Audit Notes: Newspapers v. Postal Service, student debt, taxes

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 20, 2012 at 11:00 AM

The newspaper industry's situation is already apocalyptic, but the Associated Press reports it could be about to get worse. The... More

What makes Mitt tick?

We need more tick-tock from the press pack about why Romney chose Paul Ryan

By Walter Shapiro   Aug 20, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The faster-than-a-tweet, fleeter-than-a-sound-bite pace of the presidential campaign upends our basic conceptions of time and duration. It is disconcerting to... More

Required skimming: pop culture

More than enough snark to get you through a workday

By Sara Morrison   Aug 20, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

The Red and Black debacle

An alumna of the University of Georgia’s student paper weighs in on the battle between student editors and the board

By Andria Krewson   Aug 19, 2012 at 07:40 AM

Mid-week at the University of Georgia at Athens, where I went to undergraduate journalism school, a group of top editors... More

UPI shirks responsibility

Raeburn takes wire to task for cribbing from Science News

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 17, 2012 at 04:10 PM

The plagiarism, or problematic paraphrasing, parade continued on Thursday as several reporters from Science News complained on Facebook that the... More

A laurel to The Atlantic’s Garance Franke-Ruta

For calling on reporters to repeat the truth as often as needed, and showing how to do it

By Greg Marx   Aug 17, 2012 at 03:43 PM

This week’s laurel goes to Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic, whose astute web piece “What to Do With Political... More

The Kickstarter Chronicles

Watching homicides in DC and a good dam love story in NC

By Sara Morrison   Aug 17, 2012 at 02:58 PM

Each week, dozens of journalistic endeavors turn to Kickstarter for funding. Pitching media projects to this online community brings another... More

When hospital profits clash with patient care: an investigation

The Times exposes questionable care at HCA hospitals

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 17, 2012 at 11:24 AM

This week The New York Times concluded a rare look at the inner workings of the country’s biggest for-profit hospital... More

Darts and Laurels

Sterile cuckoo

By Erika Fry   Aug 17, 2012 at 10:55 AM

In August 2002, Winston-Salem Journal reporter John Railey was part of a team of reporters assigned to a story... More

Chinese media push: background to today’s NYT story

A recent CJR piece recounted a visit to Beijing’s media headquarters

By Kira Goldenberg   Aug 17, 2012 at 06:51 AM

The New York Times has a story today about the overseas expansion of Chinese media. It focuses on the growing... More

SmartMoney is confused on wages, inflation

When prices matter and when they don’t

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 17, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This SmartMoney post on "Why You're Not Getting a Raise" doesn't make sense. The lede: Didn’t get a raise this... More

Covering Romney in Ohio’s coal country

Visit draws sharp questions from across state line, and solid stories from big-city papers

By T.C. Brown   Aug 17, 2012 at 06:50 AM

OHIO — When Mitt Romney’s campaign bus rolled into the tiny Appalachian town of Beallsville in the eastern part of... More

Required skimming: unemployment

Get the facts about the jobs figures

By Dean Starkman   Aug 17, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

The media’s ‘happily ever after’

Why are women like Jennifer Aniston portrayed as sad and lonely if they aren’t married?

By Jennifer Vanasco   Aug 17, 2012 at 06:50 AM

In her column, Minority Reports, Jennifer Vanasco analyzes how the mainstream media covers social minorities. Jennifer Aniston is one of... More

Standards and double standards

The New York Times lets some swears slide, but not others

By Sara Morrison   Aug 16, 2012 at 06:38 PM

In March 2009, B (who prefers to remain anonymous) found that her social media feeds were inundated with updates from... More

In NYT’s search for transformation, Thompson a surprising choice

“If Thompson manages more than failure, it will, in some ways, be an astonishing achievement”

By Emily Bell   Aug 16, 2012 at 05:48 PM

Is Mark Thompson the right person to be chief executive of The New York Times? The cynical might note that,... More

Thompson has digital cred but faces challenges at NYT

The former BBC director general was hired to guide the Times to a cross-platform future

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 16, 2012 at 04:45 PM

On Tuesday, The New York Times named Mark Thompson, the outgoing director general of the BBC, as its new chief... More

Ryan re-energizes coverage

VP candidate brings fossil fuels, alternatives back into focus

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 16, 2012 at 04:30 PM

Paul Ryan’s selection as the GOP’s candidate for vice president has renewed debate about, and coverage of, the stark differences... More

Straight news from the citizens of Syria

How reporters sort, organize—and verify—a flood of information from a chaotic civil war

By James Miller and Matt Sienkiewicz   Aug 16, 2012 at 03:37 PM

On June 5th, the never-ending Twitter discussion on #Syria moved in a shocking new direction. According to numerous accounts, violence... More

Review: The Year of the Gadfly

A teenage journalist finds herself in Jennifer Miller’s resonant first novel

By Matt B. Weir   Aug 16, 2012 at 03:32 PM

The Year of the Gadfly | By Jennifer Miller | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 384 pages, $24.00 “Even Edward R.... More

A super resource on super PACs in Virginia

Early coverage puts VPAP database to good use, but there are opportunities to do more

By Tharon Giddens   Aug 16, 2012 at 03:00 PM

VIRGINIA — Super PACs have been pouring money into Virginia for months, now, seeking to sway the presidential contest and... More

The WSJ editorial page and Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan

Bogus numbers and rewritten history

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 16, 2012 at 11:06 AM

The Wall Street Journal editorial board's Joseph Rago makes a whopper of an error in a column Tuesday extolling Paul... More

What’s in My…Purse

Mimi Swartz, Texas Monthly

By Meghan Sikkel   Aug 16, 2012 at 10:58 AM

She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker and Talk, autopsied the Enron scandal from the inside out... More

Required skimming: design

All the pretty things

By Molly Mirhashem   Aug 16, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Five types of problem writer

And how to deal with each of them

By Ann Friedman   Aug 16, 2012 at 06:50 AM

What's the best way to get through to stubborn writers? —Kjerstin Johnson, Portland, OR The editing process should be a... More

Audit Notes: Bill Black on CNBC, LAT eyes Ryan’s budget, robosigning

The ex-regulator might as well have been beamed in by the Curiosity rover

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 16, 2012 at 02:44 AM

Bill Black goes on CNBC and shreds Maria Bartiromo and Bethany McLean on whether Goldman Sachs (and others) could and... More

UPDATED: Crime and punishment

As Zakaria stands trial, Lehrer gets an undeserved pardon

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 15, 2012 at 04:30 PM

As Fareed Zakaria’s trial-by-blogosphere for alleged plagiarism continues, Jonah Lehrer, whom the same jury convicted of fabricating quotes last month,... More

Show, don’t tell

Sometimes the way data is visualized is as important as the data itself

By Anna Codrea-Rado   Aug 15, 2012 at 04:30 PM

Data journalism and information visualization is a burgeoning field. Every week, Between the Spreadsheets will analyze, interrogate, and explore emerging... More

Medicare, Paul Ryan, and beyond: a primer

Here’s context to clarify the big entitlements debates

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 15, 2012 at 03:25 PM

Mitt Romney’s choice of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee elevates Medicare and Medicaid (along with Social... More

Don’t just look at the money—follow it!

Can Michigan media tell us why a bailout opponent is collecting big bucks from Wall Street?

By Anna Clark   Aug 15, 2012 at 03:08 PM

MICHIGAN — One of the old standbys of political journalism—“follow the money”—sometimes gives way to something simpler: “look at the... More

Old time, real time

What if Jessica Mitford had been on Twitter?*

By Justin Peters   Aug 15, 2012 at 11:08 AM

*Mitford's tweets are actual quotes. More

A sharp Herald item on Ryan’s surprising Cuba record

Keyed to local community, paper digs up veep pick’s past opposition to embargo

By Brian E. Crowley   Aug 15, 2012 at 11:00 AM

FLORIDA — Tucked somewhere into the recesses of the hidden place where only those with knowledge of the secret handshake... More

The media’s Internet infatuation

Much of the coverage makes claims “that are grand, outlandish, and ultimately unverifiable”

By Michael Massing   Aug 15, 2012 at 06:51 AM

The New York Times finds the Internet, and the business and culture surrounding it, endlessly fascinating. When Marissa Mayer was... More

Audit Notes: Romney’s taxes, NBC’s win, turning off the Web

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 15, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Joe Nocera writes about the sharp choice facing voters in November, and so it is. But this strikes me as... More

Required skimming: the neat-o list

Collectors of the cool, strange, and mind-expanding

By Sang Ngo   Aug 15, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Sources for the information in Support Reporting video

By Steven Waldman   Aug 14, 2012 at 10:53 PM

Click the following links to explore the sources behind the information presented in the Support Reporting video. Note: The FCC... More

What You Can Do

By Steven Waldman   Aug 14, 2012 at 10:48 PM

For several years, media practitioners have debated the best ways to protect, sustain, and nourish healthy journalism. Advice aplenty has... More

Fake Finke goes down (Updated)

The Fake Nikki Finke Twitter account has been suspended

By Sara Morrison   Aug 14, 2012 at 04:23 PM

Twitter took action Monday night following CJR's recent article about the two Nikki Finke Twitter accounts (one real, one fake,... More

Assignment desk: The authoritative take
on Colorado’s controversial secretary of state

A closer look at Scott Gessler could bring readers past the voter-fraud boilerplate

By Mary Winter   Aug 14, 2012 at 03:00 PM

COLORADO — The framing of a late July story from NBC News was striking: Scott Gessler, the no-name secretary of... More

Stories I’d like to see

Questions for Ryan, working for welfare, updates on Olbermann and Facebook

By Steven Brill   Aug 14, 2012 at 11:32 AM

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

Estimating crowds: size matters

Reporters wrestle with the numbers as Romney and Ryan draw larger audiences

By Andria Krewson   Aug 14, 2012 at 11:11 AM

NORTH CAROLINA — The day after Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his vice presidential pick, the two traveled here... More

Impeccable until the end

Columbia Journalism School Dean Nicholas Lemann remembers Helen Gurley Brown, who died on Monday

By Nicholas Lemann   Aug 14, 2012 at 10:54 AM

I didn’t encounter Helen Gurley Brown, who passed away Monday morning at the age of 90, until she was well... More

Brief Encounters

Short reviews of Out on Assignment and Famous Long Ago

By James Boylan   Aug 14, 2012 at 10:49 AM

Out on Assignment: Newspaper Women and the Making of Modern Public Space | By Alice Fahs | University of North... More

A critical eye on the ‘skills gap’

The Free Press, Star Tribune, and USA Today ask questions

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 14, 2012 at 06:50 AM

There's no shortage of uncritical reporting on the notion that employers, and particularly manufacturers, can't find enough qualified workers even... More

Egyptian journos wary of recent government actions

Newly appointed editors at state-owned publications and a court-ordered newspaper confiscation have journalists worried about press freedoms

By Jared Malsin   Aug 14, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Egyptian journalists are outraged over a pair of government decisions last week which they say curb media freedom and independence.... More

Required skimming: how campaigns work

Learn how the wonks view the horse race

By Greg Marx   Aug 14, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Audit Notes: Romney’s Ryan taxes, FDR or Ayn Rand, Morton Mintz

The Atlantic on what would be Mitt’s “Path to Prosperity”

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 14, 2012 at 01:56 AM

The Atlantic's Matthew O'Brien has the best snap financial analysis of Mitt Romney's pick of Paul Ryan as a running... More

This is CNN?

The third-place news channel may be forced to change up its format

By Sara Morrison   Aug 13, 2012 at 07:10 PM

CNN may be responding to the reality of its falling ratings with reality tv programming. Previous attempts to stem the... More

HuffPost Live Launches

It’s about conversations rather than citizen journalism, says founding editor Roy Sekoff

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 13, 2012 at 05:11 PM

When Huffington Post Live launched on Monday morning, its founding editor, Roy Sekoff, quickly found reasons to be proud of... More

Lucky strike

Not all fortunes are good

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 13, 2012 at 03:03 PM

As Evan Jenkins wrote here in 1997, “fortuitous,” strictly speaking, does not mean “lucky”; it means “by chance.” So when... More

The man who explains politics in—and to—PA

When reporters need “here’s-what-it-all-means” context, they call Terry Madonna

By Ken Knelly   Aug 13, 2012 at 03:00 PM

PENNSYLVANIA — When it comes to understanding the foundations of Keystone State politics—and how citizens process rhetoric and choose candidates—one... More

Drugs and the Olympics

What if reporters imbedded with athletes during training?

By Robert Weintraub   Aug 13, 2012 at 02:56 PM

The first week of the Olympics is traditionally given over to complaints about NBC’s coverage, as we discussed last week.... More

Media restrictions tighten in Ethiopia

One of the last remaining independent newspapers was recently shuttered by the government

By Mohammed Ademo   Aug 13, 2012 at 10:58 AM

Government charges against one of Ethiopia’s last remaining independent newspaper editors on Friday and a recent forced shutdown of that... More

Boy on the bus

Kid reporters hit the campaign trail

By The Editors   Aug 13, 2012 at 10:44 AM

Z ach Dalzell is 13 and covering his first presidential campaign. You might think that his observations on the political... More

Covering Paul Ryan’s big day in Virginia

The Times-Dispatch casts a wide net to deliver a strong package for its readers

By Tharon Giddens   Aug 13, 2012 at 07:00 AM

VIRGINIA — You expect nuance and quantity from The Washington Post and The New York Times when it comes to... More

CNNMoney can’t find the workers, either

A model story for the iffy skills-gap meme

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 13, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Now it's CNNMoney's turn to spread the "can't find workers" meme. The headline reads "Northeast Indiana: Hundreds of factory jobs... More

Collapsing the line between documentary and fiction

A new film, The Ambassador, exhibits “performance journalism,” a combination of art and reporting

By Alissa Quart   Aug 13, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This week, you can on-demand a documentary that uses insanely unorthodox methods to get at the truth and judge for... More

Required skimming: higher education

As back-to-school time approaches, here’s how to stay educated about education

By Peter Sterne   Aug 13, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Audit Notes: Google moves on copyright, The Daily Shoe, Olympics

As its business interest aligns with content producers

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 10, 2012 at 09:28 PM

Google will finally begin to penalize pirate sites in its search algorithm. What took so long? The Wall Street Journal... More

The Kickstarter Chronicles

Two region-focused publications: one in New York, the other in the Upper Midwest

By Sara Morrison   Aug 10, 2012 at 05:00 PM

Each week, dozens of journalistic endeavors turn to Kickstarter for funding. Pitching media projects to this online community brings another... More

Sex and sensationalism

Researchers accuse press of ‘licentious’ coverage of animal studies

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 10, 2012 at 04:30 PM

“The media loves to sensationalize research” on same-sex sexual behavior among animals, according to an analysis published this week in... More

The best political listening tour

“Ordinary person” quotes in political stories can be banal. But when reporters invest the time, they can hear so much more

By Walter Shapiro   Aug 10, 2012 at 03:00 PM

It is the paradox of political journalism: The most important aspect of a presidential campaign—how flesh-and-blood voters make up their... More

False balance on Romney’s bogus welfare reform attack

He said-she said from the FT, and a weak showing from the WSJ

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 10, 2012 at 03:00 PM

This Financial Times coverage of Mitt Romney's false attack on an Obama administration move on welfare reform is a classic... More

Back from the dead

Zombie mags!

By The Editors   Aug 10, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Not long ago, the print magazine, flush and glossy, was journalism’s most vibrant arena—the place where big writers went... More

Defining ‘open and accessible’ in Charlotte

Why reporters should write about the obstacles to covering the Democratic convention

By Andria Krewson   Aug 10, 2012 at 06:50 AM

In a special package looking ahead to the Democratic convention next month, Politico published an Aug. 2 opinion piece by... More

Covering the Sinai Peninsula

As the need for information grows, so do the reporting risks

By Jared Malsin   Aug 10, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Armed assailants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers waiting to break the day’s Ramadan fast in the Sinai Peninsula on Sunday. The... More

Required skimming: space and astronomy

Satisfy your “Curiosity” about space

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 10, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Audit Notes: WSJ forgets climate change, Reuters results, Murdoch hides

A story on the record heat wave omits global warming

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 10, 2012 at 01:24 AM

The Wall Street Journal writes 640 words on how last month was the hottest July on record—and fails to mention... More

A tale of two Finkes

Deadline Hollywood doyenne Nikki Finke is not amused by the fake Twitter account in her name

By Sara Morrison   Aug 9, 2012 at 08:44 PM

The real Nikki Finke (@NikkiFinke) is the founder and editor in chief of Deadline Hollywood, a website that has become,... More

In Ohio, misleading messages about military voting

The state’s major papers challenge claims about the motives behind an Obama lawsuit

By T.C. Brown   Aug 9, 2012 at 03:30 PM

OHIO — The heat of the rhetoric tossed around by the presidential campaigns here seems to be perfectly in tune... More

How to measure the worth of Social Security

The AP rehashes an old idea

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 9, 2012 at 02:50 PM

Is Social Security a good deal for workers? That’s the question the AP posed in an August 5 piece dredging... More

Language Corner

Author! Author!

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 9, 2012 at 11:18 AM

People who write are “writers,” though many call themselves “authors,” especially if their products are books, or legislation. More and... More

I tweet therefore I can

Whose job is it to make sure tweeters stay within the law?

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 9, 2012 at 10:42 AM

Twitter now boasts 140 million active users, many of whom have used the social messaging service in the last two... More

The New York Times prepares to leave the content farm

The sale of About.com would leave a pure-play newspaper company

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 9, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The New York Times Company looks set to exit the content-farm business, with AllThingsD's Peter Kafka reporting that the company... More

Journalists vs. curators

Can’t we all just get along?

By Ann Friedman   Aug 9, 2012 at 06:50 AM

What's the difference between a journalist and a curator? —David Johnson, Berkeley, CA As David Carr of The New York... More

Required skimming: hyperlocal

Where to learn about game plans for covering local news in an ever-more-digital world

By Kira Goldenberg   Aug 9, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

NYT uses false balance while reporting on false balance

Wonder if the “news media critic in chief” spotted that?

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 8, 2012 at 05:55 PM

From today’s New York Times, we learn that “Obama Is An Avid Reader, and Critic, of the News,” as the... More

Between the Spreadsheets

CJR and the Tow Center’s new column on data visualization takes on the Olympics

By Anna Codrea-Rado   Aug 8, 2012 at 04:30 PM

Data journalism and information visualization is a burgeoning field. Every week, Between the Spreadsheets will analyze, interrogate, and explore emerging... More

On Vegas reporters on Reid on Romney

How Reid’s evidence-free claims about Romney’s taxes were covered in the Senate Majority Leader’s home state

By Jay Jones   Aug 8, 2012 at 03:00 PM

NEVADA — Last week, The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein and Ryan Grim reported that Harry Reid told them that a... More

A welcome spotlight on trade deals

Reuters’s Johnston goes to Korea to look at the prospects of a new agreement

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 8, 2012 at 11:00 AM

In March, the Obama administration implemented a trade agreement with South Korea that it promised, implausibly, would create tens of... More

All on the same page

A new essay collection suggests technology will enhance book culture, not kill it

By Michael Meyer   Aug 8, 2012 at 10:31 AM

Mark Bauerlein, an english professor at Emory University and the author of the 2004 National Endowment for the Arts study... More

The science of performance

Reuters writer reviews the research amid London Olympics

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 8, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Does sex diminish athletic vigor? Does athletic tape enhance it? These are just a few of the questions that one... More

Required skimming: healthcare politics and policy

Channeling the inner wonk

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 8, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

What makes Paul Ryan tick?

The New Yorker defines the man who would remake the government

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 8, 2012 at 06:50 AM

For those closely observing the attacks on Medicare and Social Security, Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker profile piece in the August... More

Audit Notes: Auditor conflicts, Frannie holdup, London Whale pressured

The latest money-laundering scandal points to problems with a business model

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 8, 2012 at 01:11 AM

Francine McKenna looks at Deloitte's role in the latest money-laundering scandal and how it points to conflicts of interest in... More

‘Open’ in the age of live tweeting

How UNITY 2012’s student newsroom taught NAHJ a lesson about social media

By Sara Morrison   Aug 7, 2012 at 03:53 PM

A routine board meeting became the biggest story of last week's UNITY convention after the National Association of Hispanic Journalists... More

Breaking news: This minority group is different

There are many times that journalists can cover non-mainstream communities, not just during a crisis

By Tanveer Ali   Aug 7, 2012 at 02:50 PM

One thing evident about the coverage of the Sikh Temple shooting in Wisconsin on Sunday that left seven dead, including... More

Another factchecking fiasco

Journalistic failure in coverage of Harry Reid and his mysterious source

By Brendan Nyhan   Aug 7, 2012 at 01:00 PM

A week ago, The Huffington Post's Sam Stein and Ryan Grim published an article repeating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's... More

Remembering Judith Crist

In addition to her career as a critic, Crist will be remembered by over half a century’s worth of students

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 7, 2012 at 12:53 PM

Judith Crist, the influential film critic, died today at her home in Manhattan. She was 90, and known to millions... More

Sounds about right

Talking up talk radio

By Michael Schudson and Katherine Fink   Aug 7, 2012 at 10:56 AM

Occasional advertising boycotts of Rush Limbaugh’s program notwithstanding, political talk radio has been wildly successful in recent years—in terms of... More

Audit Notes: Singing on Libor, another bank scandal, Star Tribune

The NYT on how banks are turning each other in

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 7, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The New York Times, in a good page-one story, reports that giant banks are selling each other out trying to... More

Required skimming: music

Great reads about great listens

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 7, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Shhh! It doesn’t matter

A “moot” discussion

By Merrill Perlman   Aug 6, 2012 at 04:28 PM

The silence is deafening. All over the Internet and printed publications, people are making “mute points”: • A press release... More

Muller’s media circus

Did the press fall for a climate-change publicity stunt?

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 6, 2012 at 12:00 PM

UC Berkeley physicist Richard Muller was all over the media last week talking about his “total turnaround” from global-warming skeptic... More

ESPN’s Tim Tebow lovefest

Shut out of the Olympics, the ‘Worldwide Leader In Sports’ puts NFL front and center

By Robert Weintraub   Aug 6, 2012 at 11:11 AM

US sports coverage last week was split neatly into two distinct, Jungian halves, represented by those sportscasting sweethearts, married couple... More

Behind Big Oil, the original big business

A review of Steve Coll’s Private Empire

By Gloria Dawson   Aug 6, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power | By Steve Coll | Penguin Press HC | 704 pages, $36 When the... More

Deconstruction boom

Barlett & Steele hammer away, again, at the middle-class decline

By Julia M. Klein   Aug 6, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Meet Barbara Joy Whitehouse, known as Joy, whose life story seems to constitute a catalogue of misfortune. The widow of... More

Romney likes Israeli healthcare

And the press takes a look at what it is. Whoa!

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 6, 2012 at 06:50 AM

Thanks to Mitt Romney’s laudatory remarks about the Israeli health system during his trip to Israel, we now know a... More

Required skimming: Libor

Understand and keep up to speed with England’s bank rate rigging scandal

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 6, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

Audit Notes: California’s Enron echoes, Sox toolbox, the Dow’s decade

LAT on allegations that JPMorgan manipulated markets

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 5, 2012 at 06:50 AM

— Michael Hiltzik had a good column two weeks ago on allegations that JPMorgan Chase manipulated California energy markets: The... More

The Washington Post’s not-so-good earnings report

The paper puts a positive spin on another poor quarter

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 3, 2012 at 03:39 PM

Here's how the Washington Post covers its namesake parent company's dismal second-quarter earnings report: Washington Post Co. second-quarter profit up... More

Title Search

Taxonomist

By Jay Woodruff   Aug 3, 2012 at 03:15 PM

Barbara McGlamery is a taxonomist at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. A semantic Web specialist, she has worked as an... More

For Obama in Ohio, a mix of substance and pageantry

In Akron, coverage leans too far toward softer stuff, but other outlets do better

By T.C. Brown   Aug 3, 2012 at 03:00 PM

OHIO — These days there’s no danger of an Ohio news editor barking at a political reporter for hanging around... More

The Kickstarter Chronicles

Time-lapse videos of tilt-shifted fish and books about hyperlocal architecture

By Sara Morrison   Aug 3, 2012 at 02:50 PM

Each week, dozens of journalistic endeavors turn to Kickstarter for funding. Pitching media projects to this online community brings another... More

Would the GOP turn away from the uninsured?

NPR identifies the party’s new thinking

By Trudy Lieberman   Aug 3, 2012 at 11:26 AM

NPR’s Julie Rovner deserves a shout-out for identifying what may be the GOP’s new thinking about healthcare—abandon the goal of... More

Why did Mitt Romney really go to Israel?

Despite what you read, it probably had little to do with wooing undecided Jewish voters

By Walter Shapiro   Aug 3, 2012 at 11:03 AM

With Mitt Romney in Israel last weekend, it seemed like the irresistible sidebar. So news organizations like The Washington Post... More

The Olympics’s women coverage

It should be about female athletes’ achievements, but it’s often more focused on their chromosomes

By Jennifer Vanasco   Aug 3, 2012 at 06:50 AM

In her column, Minority Reports, Jennifer Vanasco analyzes how the mainstream media covers social minorities. Gender issues were threaded throughout... More

Required skimming: literary criticism

Keep abreast of what the bookish thinkers are thinking

By Justin Peters   Aug 3, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers' beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

The Gore-ing of Mitt Romney

Poisonous cycle of gotcha coverage and access restrictions recalls an earlier campaign

By Brendan Nyhan   Aug 2, 2012 at 02:58 PM

The profane confrontation between one of Mitt Romney’s press aides and reporters at the end of the presumptive GOP nominee’s... More

Cell coverage

How a convicted murderer found his true calling as a jailhouse reporter and prisoners’ rights crusader

By Alysia Santo   Aug 2, 2012 at 11:15 AM

Paul Wright began his journalism career behind bars. When he was 21, Wright killed a man in Federal Way,... More

In sports or politics, you can’t tell the players without a scorecard

Times-Dispatch coverage of voter registration controversy skimps on partisan angle

By Tharon Giddens   Aug 2, 2012 at 11:00 AM

VIRGINIA — No matter the game, you’ve got to know who’s on whose team to keep up with the action.... More

The AP’s North Korea bureau

Yep, they’ve had one, based in the country’s capital, for seven months

By Hazel Sheffield   Aug 2, 2012 at 11:00 AM

North Korea was just two weeks out of a national period of mourning the death of Kim Jong-il in January... More

Work/life trend pieces and when journalistic heroes fall, literally

Ann Friedman answers all your (journalism) questions

By Ann Friedman   Aug 2, 2012 at 06:50 AM

What's the deal with articles about CEOs/leaders/politicians only mentioning "work/life balance" if the subject is a woman? Where are the... More

Audit Notes: Taibbi on TBTF, the paranoid rich, Olympics

An NYT op-ed elides some critical context

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 2, 2012 at 06:50 AM

It's unclear why The New York Times is running op-eds on finance from a guy who is still operating under... More

Required skimming: campaign finance

Here’s how to follow the money

By Liz Cox Barrett   Aug 2, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers' beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More

The bright-young-things hypothesis

Jonah Lehrer’s mistakes are not our fault

By Curtis Brainard   Aug 1, 2012 at 05:30 PM

The downward spiral of Jonah Lehrer’s career over the last month has shocked his peers and instilled in them a... More

Dart to HuffPo for ‘awesome scoop’

For enabling Harry Reid’s game of telephone sourcing on Romney’s taxes

By Liz Cox Barrett and Greg Marx   Aug 1, 2012 at 05:15 PM

Yesterday, The New York Times published an op-ed by Columbia tax law professor Michael J. Graetz, exploring, as the... More

The Times airbrushes Tiger Fund’s flop

A needlessly flattering hedge fund profile omits the basics

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 1, 2012 at 11:10 AM

The New York Times posts a flacktacular Business Day piece on a new hedge fund named Falcon Edge. This new... More

Hard Numbers

How genuine are those followers on Twitter?

By The Editors   Aug 1, 2012 at 11:08 AM

140 million monthly active Twitter users 340 million tweets sent per day 25 million+ followers of Lady Gaga, the current... More

Audit Notes: News Corp.’s board, Romney’s taxes, NBC’s Olympics

The paper reports prosecutors are examining whether to charge Murdoch’s directors

By Ryan Chittum   Aug 1, 2012 at 06:50 AM

The Guardian's Nick Davis, with David Leigh, has another stunner on the hacking scandal. They report that Britain's Crown... More

Required skimming: sports

The Olympics pass through periodically, but obsessive sports coverage is forever

By Brent Cunningham   Aug 1, 2012 at 06:50 AM

This month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers' beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food.... More