Medicare Uncovered: the insurers’ latest campaign

The press is AWOL on a PR and lobbying effort—and so is the context

By Trudy Lieberman   Mar 29, 2013 at 03:05 PM

Last week Katharine Raley, who heads the Ventura, CA, office of the state's Health Insurance Advocacy and Counseling Program, got... More

A good AP follow-up on North Carolina’s ‘sweepstakes’ story

In the face of crackdowns, an industry with deep pockets refuses to go away

By Greg Marx   Mar 29, 2013 at 11:00 AM

In his post yesterday about what North Carolina reporters can learn from their South Carolina colleagues about covering the video... More

Must-reads of the week

Marriage equality, endurance athletes, Holocaust dwarves, butt dialers

By The Editors   Mar 29, 2013 at 11:00 AM

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

Flipboard upgrades, Guardian signs on

The Guardian gives social sharing another try

By Sara Morrison   Mar 29, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Flipboard, the app that calls itself "your social magazine," introduced version 2.0 on Tuesday. Where the first generation created magazines... More

And that’s the way it was: March 29, 1999

Dow Jones closes above the 10,000 mark for the first time

By The Editors   Mar 29, 2013 at 06:49 AM

On Monday, March 29, 1999, the Dow Jones Industrial Average--the most famous stock market index--closed above the symbolic 10,000 mark... More

Tar Heel reporters can look south for lessons on ‘sweepstakes’ story

Says The State’s Cindi Ross Scoppe: “We fell into the trap of I already said that.”

By Corey Hutchins   Mar 28, 2013 at 03:15 PM

COLUMBIA, SC -- North Carolina's Republican governor, Pat McCrory, this week found himself giving back campaign contributions tied to so-called... More

Pity the nutgraf

The AP’s argument that ledes are the heart of its stories helped win a copyright case

By Sarah Laskow   Mar 28, 2013 at 02:50 PM

When a reporter writes a story, what is the heart of the work? Is it this paragraph--the lede? This isn't... More

Audit Notes: The Times-Picayune, Dimon’s hubris, the QuikTrip model

Shakeups in the Louisiana newspaper war

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 28, 2013 at 12:22 PM

Gambit's Kevin Allman reports that the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Baton Rouge bureau chief is out after six months. My long... More

HeLa-cious coverage

Media overlook ethical angles of Henrietta Lacks story

By Curtis Brainard   Mar 28, 2013 at 11:00 AM

A New York Times bestseller about the most widely used human cell line in biological research has inspired wide-ranging debates... More

Quotas get results

A chat with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on tapping sources more diverse than the usual pool of white dudes

By Ann Friedman   Mar 28, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Let's face it: The conversation about diversity in journalism is mostly boring hand-wringing. With each new byline count, it's easy... More

Paywalls rise

Breaking out sticks as well as carrots to get readers to pay

By Felix Salmon   Mar 28, 2013 at 06:50 AM

It's paywall season right now: The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Telegraph, the Sun—all have recently announced plans... More

And that’s the way it was: March 28, 1979

Nuclear accident at Three Mile Island

By The Editors   Mar 28, 2013 at 06:50 AM

On March 28, 1979, one of the nuclear reactors on Three Mile Island, PA, suffered a partial meltdown due to... More

Flooding the apathy zone

The Los Angeles Times sends a team of reporters and a star columnist to battle civic disengagement, with impressive results—even if turnout was only 16 percent

By John Mecklin   Mar 27, 2013 at 03:00 PM

SANTA BARBARA, CA -- Let's get an understatement out of the way: Your average citizen of Los Angeles is not... More

Reporting on trauma

It’s a necessary beat—one that should be done with care

By Kira Goldenberg   Mar 27, 2013 at 02:57 PM

In the wake of widespread criticism of the media's reporting on rapes in Steubenville, OH, and Torrington, CT, it could... More

French antipiracy efforts unsuccessful

The French government started cracking down on illegal downloading, so users switched to illegal streaming

By Alison Langley   Mar 27, 2013 at 02:50 PM

Hadopi--a wildly unpopular French antipiracy agency charged with seeking out illegal downloaders for prosecution--may be reorganized, assigned with new duties,... More

The great hospital ratings derby—a second look

A laurel to Kaiser Health News

By Trudy Lieberman   Mar 27, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Bravo for Jordan Rau, the author of a piece produced by Kaiser Health News, that at last untangles the... More

Audit Notes: Columbia navel-gazing edition

A tech site takes down Michael Wolff’s thoughts on Twitter

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 27, 2013 at 06:50 AM

It's always fun to see a Michael Wolff trolling get demolished. This one's at the hands of PandoDaily's Hamish McKenzie.... More

And that’s the way it was: March 27, 1947

Walt Mossberg, reporter and technology columnist, is born

By The Editors   Mar 27, 2013 at 06:49 AM

He's been called "arguably the most powerful arbiter of consumer tastes" in personal technology. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Eric... More

Kenya: a public editor learns her value

In developing nations, ombudsmen are on the rise. An American in Nairobi finds out why

By Karen Rothmyer   Mar 26, 2013 at 03:10 PM

Shortly after I became the Kenya Star's public editor in early 2011, the paper published a story under the... More

Exchange Watch: Navigating the insurance jungle

How to cover your local healthcare exchange: a primer

By Trudy Lieberman   Mar 26, 2013 at 10:59 AM

Not surprisingly, the topic of the new Obamacare state insurance exchanges--called Health Insurance Marketplaces by the feds--came up at a... More

Stories I’d like to see

Obamacare and hospital costs, sourcing Leno stories, and firing civil servants

By Steven Brill   Mar 26, 2013 at 10:57 AM

In his "Stories I'd like to see" column, journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill spotlights topics that, in his opinion, have... More

IPOs for the masses

A global business leader wants IPOs for his countrymen, in Quartz

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 26, 2013 at 06:50 AM

When Quartz launched, it said that its "mission is to serve today's new class of global business leaders" who "have... More

And that’s the way it was: March 26, 1812

Boston newspaper coins the term “gerrymander”

By The Editors   Mar 26, 2013 at 06:49 AM

The word gerrymander, meaning to manipulate the boundaries of an electorate to favor one party or class, originally appeared in... More

The trouble with Torrington

A small-town paper calls out minors who bully a rape victim online. Is that fair game?

By Mariah Blake   Mar 25, 2013 at 03:15 PM

In some ways, the Torrington, CT case that ricocheted through the press last week looks a lot like the ugly... More

Unpalatable

A plateful of similar words

By Merrill Perlman   Mar 25, 2013 at 03:00 PM

The artists were being praised for their technique in which, the article said, they "use only pallet knives, not brushes."... More

LSR to become German law

Search engines and news aggregators will have to pay to use others’ original content

By Alison Langley   Mar 25, 2013 at 02:50 PM

The Leistungsschutzrecht, a controversial German proposal that would force for-profit companies to pay for using short snippets of news content,... More

About those ‘Glory Days of American Journalism’

Matthew Yglesias retreats from his argument, but not far enough. He forgot state and local reporting.

By Steven Waldman   Mar 25, 2013 at 12:45 PM

Matt Yglesias has more or less conceded that there is a flaw in his argument--that we are living in the... More

Audit Notes: Different than you and me, Google as utility

Political discourse disproportionately follows the whims of the wealthy

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 25, 2013 at 06:50 AM

The Los Angeles Times runs a fascinating op-ed by Benjamin I. Page and Larry M. Bartels on the policy preferences... More

And that’s the way it was: March 25, 1934

Gloria Steinem is born in Toledo, OH

By Kira Goldenberg   Mar 25, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Gloria Steinem, journalist-turned-feminist icon and a cofounder of Ms. magazine, was born 79 years ago today in Toledo, OH. Ms.... More

The most political science-friendly reporter in America

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Craig Gilbert takes an unusual approach to covering politics

By Brendan Nyhan   Mar 25, 2013 at 06:50 AM

One of the most encouraging trends in journalism over the past few years has been the tentative embrace of political... More

Hiking America’s food deserts

The Food Police (part 2): Tools for adding context to stories about the soda-ban battle, and other tales of nutrition

By Sibyl Shalo Wilmont   Mar 22, 2013 at 02:57 PM

This is the second installment in an occasional series that will examine media coverage of public initiatives aimed at... More

Must-reads of the week

Tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, the Steubenville rape, a new Pew report on the state of journalism

By The Editors   Mar 22, 2013 at 02:50 PM

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

‘The Finkbeiner Test’

Seven rules to avoid gratuitous gender profiles of female scientists

By Curtis Brainard   Mar 22, 2013 at 11:00 AM

There's still a gender gap in the sciences, with far fewer women than men in research jobs, and those women... More

Personal finance experts of the day

Some baffling editorial judgment in the The Wall Street Journal

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 22, 2013 at 06:50 AM

The Experts: Should People Buy Long-Term-Care Insurance? That's the headline of a The Wall Street Journal article out yesterday--the kind... More

Dismal Steubenville coverage

The media can, and must, do better when covering assaults

By Jennifer Vanasco   Mar 22, 2013 at 06:50 AM

It isn't just CNN. Over the past few days, there has been a lot of anger directed at the cable... More

And that’s the way it was: March 22, 1948

American journalist Wolf Blitzer is born

By The Editors   Mar 22, 2013 at 06:49 AM

Happy birthday to Wolf Isaac Blitzer, host of CNN's The Situation Room. Wolf Blitzer was born in Augsburg, Germany and... More

A close watch on Scott Walker’s jobs pledge

For PolitiFact Wisconsin’s “Walk-o-meter,” the key innovation is sustained attention

By Anna Clark   Mar 21, 2013 at 02:50 PM

DETROIT, MI -- When Scott Walker campaigned to become the governor of Wisconsin in 2010, there was one promise that... More

Medicare Uncovered: Smoke signals from Fox News Sunday

You might want to watch your wallet: Dems and the GOP hint they are close on cuts

By Trudy Lieberman   Mar 21, 2013 at 11:09 AM

There was no mistaking the message that two members of the Senate sent forth Sunday morning. In an interview on... More

How hard should it be for the government to read your email?

Harder than it is right now

By Sarah Laskow   Mar 21, 2013 at 11:00 AM

In 1986, it would have been strange to keep an email for longer than six months. First of all, not... More

Greedy Geezers, redux

Trudy Lieberman on WBUR

By Mike Hoyt   Mar 21, 2013 at 09:20 AM

Lately parts of the press have been helping spread the idea that the young and the old in America... More

Audit Notes: WaPo hamster wheel, weather.com, bureaucracy’s upside

“At least a dozen pieces of content per day”

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 21, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Poynter's Andrew Beaujon reports this internal want ad for the Washington Post's once-vaunted Style section: This blogger should be able... More

The slush pile

Why most cold submissions don’t stand a chance

By Ann Friedman   Mar 21, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Recently, fiction writer David Cameron decided to try a little experiment: I grabbed a New Yorker story off the web... More

And that’s the way it was: March 21, 1965

Martin Luther King, Jr. leads the third civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, AL

By The Editors   Mar 21, 2013 at 06:49 AM

On March 21, 1965, 3,200 civil rights demonstrators led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. began a "freedom march"... More

Boehner’s overlooked acknowledgment

The Speaker—and Paul Ryan—say we don’t have an immediate debt crisis. Isn’t that news?

By David Cay Johnston   Mar 20, 2013 at 02:50 PM

Over the past weekend, there was actually some news made on the Sunday morning talk shows for a change. Two... More

For mugshots, privacy v. public interest

Reporters are fighting recent restrictions on releasing federal mugshots

By Tracie Powell   Mar 20, 2013 at 02:48 PM

Open records advocates, including the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, are working to get congressional support to... More

Nuclear knowledge

Reams of useful data now flowing from global monitoring system designed to detect weapons tests

By Peter Rickwood   Mar 20, 2013 at 11:35 AM

At the height of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in 2011, whose second anniversary passed on March 11, journalists and... More

The GOP updates its media roadmap

In 2014 and 2016, changing strategies present new story lines

By Sasha Chavkin   Mar 20, 2013 at 10:58 AM

On Monday, the Republican National Committee released a sweeping postmortem of the party's 2012 election losses and called for... More

And that’s the way it was: March 20, 2004

The American military charges six soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq

By The Editors   Mar 20, 2013 at 06:49 AM

It came to light in early 2004 that US military police personnel had committed human rights violations against detainees held... More

You buy it, you own it

The Supreme Court rules it’s legal to resell here a copyrighted item from abroad

By Sarah Laskow   Mar 19, 2013 at 03:30 PM

Supap Kirtsaeng came to the United States from Thailand in 1997 to study at Cornell University and, later, earned his... More

Meet the people who know Texas politics

The newspaper columnists of the Lone Star state

By Richard Parker   Mar 19, 2013 at 03:14 PM

AUSTIN, TX--When you think about newspaper columnists and the central role they've played in covering American politics, you wind up... More

James Goodale: It’s a bad time for press freedoms

A Q&A with the former chief counsel to The New York Times

By Susan Armitage   Mar 19, 2013 at 02:50 PM

James Goodale has a message for journalists: Wake up. In his new book, Fighting for the Press (CUNY Journalism Press,... More

Stories I’d like to see

Presidential aloofness, a patent rush, and disclosing Washington corruption

By Steven Brill   Mar 19, 2013 at 11:00 AM

In his "Stories I'd like to see" column, journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill spotlights topics that, in his opinion, have... More

All thumbs, none green

Environment coverage is down at the Times, even if it wasn’t supposed to be

By Curtis Brainard   Mar 19, 2013 at 06:58 AM

Two weeks ago, I excoriated The New York Times for canceling its Green blog a month after it had dismantled... More

And that’s the way it was: March 19, 2003

President George W. Bush announces the start of the Iraq War

By The Editors   Mar 19, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, the US's most controversial armed conflict since... More

WaPo will, finally, charge online

Anti-paywall forces routed in the US; attention shifts to Kings Cross

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 18, 2013 at 03:55 PM

The Washington Post is making it official: It will put up a metered paywall sometime this summer, the paper reports.... More

The trouble with Aaron’s Law

The proposed law honoring the legacy of Aaron Swartz is trying to be too many things to too many people

By Sarah Laskow   Mar 18, 2013 at 03:40 PM

On Friday, the American Library Association honored Aaron Swartz, the young Internet activist who committed suicide in January, with its... More

Worldly goods

Badly needed reminders

By Merrill Perlman   Mar 18, 2013 at 03:00 PM

English teachers used to drill into students that they did not "feel good." They "felt well." It was the corollary... More

Let’s get real about guns

Wanted: context and numbers. What would these reforms achieve?

By Walter Shapiro   Mar 18, 2013 at 02:59 PM

In the three months since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, daily coverage of the gun issue has... More

CAR hits the mainstream

Computer-assisted reporting is being recognized as an important journalistic discipline

By Susan McGregor   Mar 18, 2013 at 02:55 PM

It's been more than a year since The New York Times declared this The Age of Big Data, but for... More

Insult to injury: stolen wages, weak enforcement

A Laurel to In These Times for a solid expose

By Corey Hutchins   Mar 18, 2013 at 11:16 AM

On the cover of this month's issue of In These Times, a progressive magazine based out of Chicago, is... More

The Cyprus bailout fiasco

Get ready for a week (if we’re lucky) of euro crisis news

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 18, 2013 at 06:50 AM

The major news over the weekend was the continuing incompetence of Europe's policymakers, who seem determined to make the euro... More

And that’s the way it was: March 18, 2008

Presidential candidate Barack Obama gives a speech in Philadelphia on racial division

By The Editors   Mar 18, 2013 at 06:49 AM

During the 2008 Democratic Primary, Senator Barack Obama came under fire for incendiary remarks made by his former pastor, the... More

No progress for female bylines

VIDA’s latest byline count shows “gross (& indecent) neglect of female writers’ work”

By Sara Morrison   Mar 15, 2013 at 03:15 PM

VIDA's third annual survey of female representation at several prominent print publications -- "The Count" -- was released on March... More

Must-reads of the week

Do you remember where you were when Google Reader was cancelled?

By The Editors   Mar 15, 2013 at 02:50 PM

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

A hat-tip to Investor’s Business Daily

A sharp blog post underscores the radical vision behind the Ryan budget

By David Cay Johnston   Mar 15, 2013 at 02:50 PM

Yesterday, I praised The Washington Post's Wonkblog for its coverage of Rep. Paul Ryan's latest budget proposal. But revealing insights... More

Poor coverage of Google’s Street View scandal settlement

Incomplete accounts make the story more favorable to Mountain View

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 15, 2013 at 12:32 PM

Google paid $7 million to 38 states earlier this week to settle its Street View privacy scandal. This was a... More

Take this fiscal pop quiz

Test your knowledge about federal spending—and federal-spending myths

By Trudy Lieberman   Mar 15, 2013 at 11:00 AM

From Henry Aaron, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, comes a pop quiz that's fun to take and tests... More

Open government?

Some progress, on paper at least

By Curtis Brainard   Mar 15, 2013 at 06:58 AM

Since President Obama came to the White House in 2009, federal regulatory and science agencies have taken measurable steps--on paper,... More

More women are needed in investigative journalism

It’s time for the media to counteract institutional barriers to women’s entry in the field

By Jennifer Vanasco   Mar 15, 2013 at 06:50 AM

In a recent blog post, Lyra McKee tells a story that took place at a feminist-run charity when she was... More

And that’s the way it was: March 15, 1985

The first Internet domain name is registered

By Sang Ngo   Mar 15, 2013 at 06:49 AM

The Internet domain symbolics.com was registered on March 15, 1985, making it the first domain name in history. The domain... More

Reuters deputy social media editor indicted

Matthew Keys faces up 25 years in jail and $750,000 in fines

By Sara Morrison   Mar 14, 2013 at 08:32 PM

Matthew Keys, Reuters's deputy social media editor since January 2012, was indicted today by the Justice Department. Huffington Post's Ryan... More

Boston Phoenix, down in flames

The death of a stellar weekly

By Justin Peters   Mar 14, 2013 at 06:16 PM

On Thursday afternoon, Boston Phoenix publisher Stephen Mindich announced that the 47-year-old alt-weekly would cease publication effective immediately. The past... More

Asking the wrong question about Dell

A WSJ columnist misses the point on the CEO-led buyout

By David Cay Johnston   Mar 14, 2013 at 04:46 PM

Holman Jenkins' column in The Wall Street Journal on the proposed management buyout of Dell shareholders is an excellent example... More

The enduring myth of the Greedy Geezer

The press too easily accepts the young vs. old frame on the Social Security debate

By Trudy Lieberman   Mar 14, 2013 at 03:32 PM

A meme that has been bubbling up in the media for months goes something like this: The elderly have... More

Ed, out

Schultz’s working-man style was eclipsed by MSNBC’s wonky liberal brand

By Michael Meyer   Mar 14, 2013 at 12:35 PM

Last night, after getting the scoop of his life with an exclusive interview of the long-mysterious videographer behind the "47-percent"... More

On Ryan budget plan, Wonkblog shines

WashPost’s crew stands above a generally middling performance by the press

By David Cay Johnston   Mar 14, 2013 at 11:24 AM

On Tuesday, GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, unveiled his umpteenth budget plan of the last... More

Mixing business with pleasure

When journalists date other journalists, what are the rules?

By Ann Friedman   Mar 14, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Any journalist working in the media-saturated cities of New York and DC has probably at least toyed with the idea... More

Audit Notes: Weil embarrasses DOJ, Business Insider, revolving door

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 14, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil makes an amazing catch on the latest Ernst & Young wrist slap from the Justice Department, this... More

And that’s the way it was: March 14, 1921

Architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable is born in New York, NY

By The Editors   Mar 14, 2013 at 06:49 AM

Ada Louise Huxtable (née Landman) was born on March 14, 1921, and grew up in Manhattan's Upper West Side. She... More

Friend-me journalism

After a rough start, Connie Schultz and a rookie reporter exchange tips and praise

By Sara Morrison   Mar 13, 2013 at 05:37 PM

Columnist Connie Schultz posted a link for her 113,000 Facebook followers on Wednesday afternoon to a Sun Star-Courier article about... More

Windmills, tourism, and transparency

Maine blogger’s ongoing conflict-of-interest problems spark concern

By Curtis Brainard   Mar 13, 2013 at 04:00 PM

The former executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, who's now a fulltime media personality covering travel and outdoors... More

Fashion critics defend their craft

At a panel Tuesday night, three noted journalists spoke to the importance of covering the fashion industry

By Kira Goldenberg   Mar 13, 2013 at 03:50 PM

Fashion critics encounter naysayers about their beat in every direction. It's not serious; it's elitist; it's a fluffy, feminine topic.... More

Special interests and Obama’s political advocacy group

Here are four ways lobbyists and corporations can still influence Organizing for Action

By Sasha Chavkin   Mar 13, 2013 at 03:10 PM

Tonight, President Obama will address the "founders summit" of Organizing for Action, the political advocacy group created to promote his... More

The crime that altered India

In the wake of a brutal rape, a flawed media led a national self-examination

By Sambuddha Mitra Mustafi   Mar 13, 2013 at 02:58 PM

In Delhi, according to the police, a woman is raped every 18 hours, on average. So it is worth... More

Joe Nocera’s big (old) Goldman scoop

NYT’s revealing reporting gets almost no play elsewhere

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 13, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Whoever thought the plight of executives and investors at eToys--one of the signal flops of the high tech bubble era--would... More

And that’s the way it was: March 13, 1964

Kitty Genovese is murdered in Queens, NY

By The Editors   Mar 13, 2013 at 06:49 AM

At 3:15am on March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was sexually assaulted and killed in front of her home... More

Attack of the climate-denial books

Conservative think tanks fuel publishing boom that spreads misinformation

By Cristine Russell   Mar 12, 2013 at 03:00 PM

If you find Red Hot Lies in an airport bookstore or online bookseller, don't expect a juicy account of a... More

Stories I’d like to see

Congress’s friendly skies, and battle of the dumb lawyers

By Steven Brill   Mar 12, 2013 at 11:18 AM

In his "Stories I'd like to see" column, journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill spotlights topics that, in his opinion, have... More

That’s not a factcheck!

How punditry undermines the mission of journalistic watchdogs

By Brendan Nyhan   Mar 12, 2013 at 11:00 AM

What, exactly, is a "serious" plan to resolve the budget impasse in Congress? It's not clear how to define adjectives... More

An ugly bit of blame-the-borrowers

Predatory lending is real, contra RealClearMarkets, and it particularly targets minorities

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 12, 2013 at 06:50 AM

John Tamny of RealClearMarkets and Forbes really didn't like my take last week on that awful Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover. Here's... More

Hiring at Al Jazeera America: 18,000 applicants for 170 jobs

The company’s executive director of international operations gives a peek into the network’s new cred among Americans

By Tracie Powell   Mar 12, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Up until a few short years ago, when recruiters with Al Jazeera attended American journalism job fairs, hardly anyone seemed... More

And that’s the way it was: March 12, 1933

FDR broadcasts the first of his “fireside chats”

By The Editors   Mar 12, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Sunday, March 12, 1933. Over the radio, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt speaks to the nation for the first time. It... More

Covetous

The difference between ‘jealousy’ and ‘envy’

By Merrill Perlman   Mar 11, 2013 at 05:42 PM

The pope gets to wear nice red shoes, and a friend said, "I'm really jealous of those!" But, technically, she... More

The Rise of Longform Newspaper Writing, 1950s-2003

Fink and Schudson document the rise of “contexual journalism” before the longform meltdown.

By Dean Starkman   Mar 11, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Katherine Fink and Michael Schudson have a fantastic new paper called "The Rise of Contextual Journalism, 1950s-2003," to be... More

Audit Notes: Noonan forgets the stimulus, native ads, Mary Jo White

The WSJ columnist says Obama should have done things he actually did

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 11, 2013 at 06:50 AM

It's hard to pick the worst sentence in Peggy Noonan's Wall Street Journal column this weekend, so let me just... More

And that’s the way it was: March 11, 1702

The Daily Courant, one of the world’s first regular daily newspapers, is published for the first time

By Sang Ngo   Mar 11, 2013 at 06:49 AM

The Daily Courant was England's first national daily newspaper. It was first published on March 11, 1702 by Edward Mallet... More

Nate Thayer: freelance plagiarist?

Sloppy, yes. Plagiarist … doesn’t look like it.

By Sara Morrison   Mar 8, 2013 at 04:00 PM

To follow up on Thursday's post about the plagiarism accusations against freelancer Nate Thayer made by author Jeremy Duns and... More

Must-reads of the week

Digital freelancing edition

By The Editors   Mar 8, 2013 at 02:58 PM

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

Exchange Watch: half a story in Connecticut

On insurance affordability, the Hartford Courant falls short

By Trudy Lieberman   Mar 8, 2013 at 02:58 PM

This is the second in a series we're calling Exchange Watch, which will keep an eye on the rollout of... More

Audit Notes: paywall time machine, Times-Picayune, Elizabeth Warren

What digital subscriptions could have done for newspapers a decade ago

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 8, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Ken Doctor writes a fantastic piece for Nieman Lab on charging for news. He notes that leaky paywalls are working... More

Dow 36,000, just around the corner (again)

Fourteen years after an infamous book and still 22,000 points down

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 8, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Back in 1999, two American Enterprise Institute guys, James K. Glassman and Kevin Hassett, wrote a book called Dow 36,000:... More

Writing about powerful women

The media should stop treating Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer as though they represent their whole gender

By Jennifer Vanasco   Mar 8, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Why do we in the media try to make some women standard bearers for all women? That's the problem, really,... More

And that’s the way it was: March 8, 1978

The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is broadcast

By Sang Ngo   Mar 8, 2013 at 06:49 AM

Douglas Adams's comic science fiction series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, began its life in the universe as a... More

Nate Thayer accused of plagiarism [UPDATED]

“I will defend to the death my reporting and attribution of this piece”

By Sara Morrison   Mar 7, 2013 at 05:26 PM

Nate Thayer's post on Monday about how much TheAtlantic.com was willing (or, more accurately, not willing) to pay for a... More

Post Newtown, AP adds ‘mental illness’ entry

Guidelines warn against conflating mental illness and violence

By Kira Goldenberg   Mar 7, 2013 at 03:22 PM

After Adam Lanza killed 20 children on December 14, a host of subsequent coverage of the Newtown, CT, massacre focused... More

A laurel to WLTX meteorologist Jim Gandy

For tackling climate change science in a red state where politics can polarize it

By Corey Hutchins   Mar 7, 2013 at 03:00 PM

COLUMBIA, SC -- Four years ago, an academic climate change researcher and a Washington, DC-area meteorologist were looking to... More

Freelancing for free

Sometimes—and only sometimes—it makes sense to write for free

By Ann Friedman   Mar 7, 2013 at 11:00 AM

I used to be an editor with a tiny budget who was constantly apologizing for our rates. Now I'm a... More

Audit Notes: too big to prosecute, the techno-utopian backlash

Attorney General Holder admits Wall Street gigantism deters Justice charges

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 7, 2013 at 07:40 AM

Lanny Breuer all but admitted it, but his former boss Eric Holder went all the way yesterday, telling Congress the... More

And that’s the way it was: March 7, 1994

The Supreme Court rules that parody is protected under fair use

By Sarah Laskow   Mar 7, 2013 at 06:50 AM

On this day 19 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that "Pretty Woman"--2 Live Crew's parody of the classic "Oh,... More

Green drones?

Unmanned aerial vehicles poised to enhance environmental coverage

By Curtis Brainard   Mar 6, 2013 at 04:56 PM

As the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prepares to allow the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for a wide array of... More

In Kenya’s election, reporting what’s there, not what’s assumed

Much western coverage has seemed like a cheerleading competition for violent news

By Mohammed Ademo   Mar 6, 2013 at 04:37 PM

During Kenya's post-election crisis in 2007, which saw thousands dead and many more displaced, inflammatory messages sent via SMS and... More

Paying for freelance journalism

An email correspondence between a freelancer and an editor has ignited a widespread discussion in the business

By Kira Goldenberg   Mar 6, 2013 at 03:50 PM

On Monday, journalist Nate Thayer published email correspondence with an Atlantic editor. She asked if he would shorten one of... More

Progress with pertussis: Is it goodbye?

In the sequestration era, reporters need to stay on the whooping cough story

By Sibyl Shalo Wilmont   Mar 6, 2013 at 11:00 AM

In a recent piece for msnbc.com, Geoffrey Cowley paints a dark picture of the impact sequestration cuts will have on... More

No sweat on ESPN’s brow

Fox Sports 1 won’t be able to paint itself as the ‘fair and balanced’ alternative

By Robert Weintraub   Mar 6, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Terry Bradshaw. Erin Andrews. Tim McCarver. Even Regis Philbin. All the stars in the Fox Sports galaxy gathered Tuesday afternoon... More

And that’s the way it was: March 6, 1981

Walter Cronkite signs off as host of CBS Evening News for the last time

By The Editors   Mar 6, 2013 at 06:49 AM

On Friday, March 6, 1981, Walter Cronkite did his last broadcast as anchorman for the CBS Evening News. During his... More

About those prostitutes

In the Menendez affair, ABC News is looking better and better for having stepped away from a story that the Daily Caller is still trying to flog

By Mariah Blake   Mar 5, 2013 at 04:27 PM

For the last two months, the press has been rehashing allegations that Senator Robert Menendez slept with prostitutes, some... More

Brill’s big breakthrough

A Time manifesto on healthcare costs smashes fences that have constricted this conversation for far too long

By Trudy Lieberman   Mar 5, 2013 at 02:58 PM

Steven Brill's taboo-busting X-ray of the US medical system, "Bitter Pill," has a chance to reframe the way we... More

Stories I’d like to see: crafting ‘A Bitter Pill’

Since this is supposed to be a column about good story ideas, I’ll use it to explain the genesis of my Time cover story in more detail

By Steven Brill   Mar 5, 2013 at 11:00 AM

In his "Stories I'd like to see" column, journalist and entrepreneur Steven Brill spotlights topics that, in his opinion, have... More

Content economics, part 2: payments

How and why people fork over money for media

By Felix Salmon   Mar 5, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Apologies for the delay between part 1 and this: I wanted to wait until Amanda Palmer's TED talk appeared... More

Sen. Manchin’s ‘no gun questions’ Q&A

A West Virginia paper lands a sit-down with its senator—with conditions

By Corey Hutchins   Mar 5, 2013 at 06:50 AM

COLUMBIA, SC -- On Sunday, The Journal in Martinsburg, WV, published a question-and-answer interview with Democratic US Sen. Joe Manchin,... More

And that’s the way it was: March 5, 1957

Broadcast journalist Ray Suarez is born in Brooklyn, NY

By The Editors   Mar 5, 2013 at 06:49 AM

Happy birthday to Ray Suarez, one of the best known faces and voices of American public media in the last... More

Eilperin leaving the green beat

Washington Post reporter joins the paper’s new “Digital Strike Force”

By Curtis Brainard and Cristine Russell   Mar 4, 2013 at 07:30 PM

Juliet Eilperin, one of the country's leading environment reporters, is switching beats at The Washington Post, moving to a newly... More

Cardinal rules

A real ‘conclave’ is at hand

By Merrill Perlman   Mar 4, 2013 at 04:24 PM

Betsy Wade was ecstatic. "At last!" she exclaimed. "For the next few weeks people will be using the word conclave... More

Anatomy of a so-called scandal (UPDATED)

On the Sen. Menendez story, flimsy prostitution claims vs. stronger allegations of influence-peddling. Guess which gets more play?

By Mariah Blake   Mar 4, 2013 at 03:30 PM

Update, 3/4, 7:15 pm: Less than two hours after this article was posted, The Washington Post published a story on... More

Crediting the source code

While most of us recognize that text and images are protected by copyright laws, code copyright is less understood

By Michael J. Bellantoni and Shiwani Neupane   Mar 4, 2013 at 02:50 PM

Open Google Chrome and go to your favorite website. Right click, scroll down, and select "Inspect Element." The lower-third of... More

How we hired that reporter

A newspaper, a university, an investigative center, and donors find a new way

By Charles Lewis   Mar 4, 2013 at 11:57 AM

It was something like a triple bank shot in billiards, but quite a lot more valuable and satisfying. For the... More

Journalism startups struggle to get nonprofit designation

Council on Foundations’s report details how outdated tax codes stymy donation-funded journalism

By Sara Morrison   Mar 4, 2013 at 09:00 AM

As for-profit journalism's revenues have shrunk, nonprofit organizations have increasingly stepped up to provide local communities with the kind of... More

Audit Notes: NYT softballs, ad inventory, the future of the LAT

The Justice Department’s Lanny Breuer gets another weak exit interview

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 4, 2013 at 06:50 AM

How many parting kisses can outgoing senior administration officials collect from the press? Lanny Breuer, already given the puff treatment... More

On leaning in

Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, out on March 11, has already provoked much argument

By Kira Goldenberg   Mar 4, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is an idealist, or at least an optimist. Lean In, her charming, self-deprecating book that lands... More

Do we still need a black media?

A vibrant black media and a more inclusive mainstream media should both be available to the public

By Lori Tharps   Mar 4, 2013 at 06:50 AM

At the end of January, I organized and moderated a panel at Temple University's School of Media and Communications called... More

And that’s the way it was: March 4, 1974

People magazine premieres

By Sang Ngo   Mar 4, 2013 at 06:49 AM

For those of us who didn't live through it, it's hard to intuitively grok the squalor of the 1970s. On... More

NYT cancels Green blog

No explanation from editors following surprise announcement

By Curtis Brainard   Mar 1, 2013 at 07:00 PM

At 5pm on Friday afternoon, The New York Times posted the following announcement: The Times is discontinuing the Green blog,... More

Documenting domestic violence

A Time photo slideshow obscures as much as it reveals

By Jina Moore   Mar 1, 2013 at 03:15 PM

Wednesday, as the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act was still less than certain, Time magazine published Sara Naomi... More

German copyright bill passes parliament

Leistungsschutzrecht calls for charging aggregators that repost publishers’ content

By Alison Langley   Mar 1, 2013 at 02:50 PM

Germany's national parliament approved a controversial bill on Friday that would require news aggregators, such as Google, to pay for... More

Must-reads of the week

J-school workshops on managing old men who have no game

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 02:50 PM

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

Opening shot

Separating fact from fiction in the immigration debate

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

The immigration debate is riven by strong emotion and partisan ideology that can obscure the relevant facts. Do undocumented... More

The middle distance

Defining middle class is the first step toward rebuilding it

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama said "our generation's task" is to rebuild "a rising, thriving... More

Aspiring line

Why a young lefty writer let a conservative brahmin make a monkey out of him—over and over again

By Eric Alterman   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

When William F. Buckley Jr. died in February 2008, I happened to be in another of the endless arguments... More

Fair share

How can we improve American media’s coverage of race, class, and social mobility? Let’s ask some of the brightest minds in this business.

By Farai Chideya   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

[Update, April 15] While we took our opening comment in the Herald-Leader at face value in the piece below,... More

Look who’s talking

Meet the 18 journalists who weighed in on coverage of race, class, and social mobility in CJR’s cover story

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Tristan Ahtone (@tahtone) works as Poverty and Public Health reporter for KUNM in Albuquerque. A member of the Kiowa Tribe... More

Dark shadows

In Washington, murder turns out to be color-coded

By Clay Shirky   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

It's been a big year for Homicide Watch. Last summer's Kickstarter campaign succeeded admirably, raising $47,450. The website went from... More

Inside stories

Nearly 1 in 100 Americans is incarcerated. But how well can journalists cover prisons if they can’t get past the gates?

By Beth Schwartzapfel   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

When Rob Wildeboer, a criminal-and-legal-affairs reporter for public radio WBEZ in Chicago, read a report from a local watchdog... More

Fortresses of solitude

Even more rare: journalist access to prison isolation units

By James Ridgeway   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Supermax prisons and solitary confinement units are our domestic black sites--hidden places where human beings endure unspeakable punishments, without... More

Made in America

Portraits of American workers

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

You could call Carl Corey's work derivative, and mean no disrespect. His current project, "Blue: A Portrait of the American... More

Big talker

How a right-winger from Fargo became a star of the liberal airwaves

By Michael Meyer   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Among highly paid primetime cable hosts who commute weekly by private jet between rural Minnesota and Manhattan, Ed Schultz... More

The battle of New Orleans

Is Advance Publications securing the future of local news—or needlessly sacrificing it?

By Ryan Chittum   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In May, as the New Orleans Times-Picayune put to bed an epic, eight-part investigation into Louisiana's prison system, its... More

No more sugar daddies

Andrew Sullivan turned his popular blog into an independent, reader-supported site

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Andrew Sullivan's decision in January to leave the Daily Beast and turn his popular blog, The Dish, into an... More

Letters to the editor

Readers respond to our January/February issue

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Duck and cover After Ricky Gervais and now the bikini and sensational headlines, may I please request a coverless subscription?... More

Open Bar

The Newsroom Pub

By Jim Nelson   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

The Newsroom PubMilwaukee Press ClubMilwaukee, WI Year opened 1885; in current location since 2000 Who drinks here Journalists, tourists,... More

Language Corner

Wether or not

By Merrill Perlman   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

A "bellwether" is an indication of what is to come ("Are rising home prices a bellwether for the economy?") or... More

Sree tips

Social-media etiquette for journalists

By Sree Sreenivasan   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Q: What's the etiquette about including your company name in your Twitter handle? A: Some news organizations force, or strongly... More

Hard Numbers

Land of opportunity

By Sara Morrison   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

2.9 percentage of full-power commercial US TV stations in the US owned by Latinos 0.7 percentage of full-power commercial US... More

Frontiers

Blinded by the white

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In 2004, at a fundraising dinner for the antiracism group Facing History And Ourselves, the filmmaking team of Whitney... More

Title Search

Digital executive producer

By Jay Woodruff   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Hooshere Bezdikian is an executive producer and vice president of digital at People's Choice Awards. She parlayed her religious... More

The way we were

‘Monumentally frightening’

By Dina Weinstein   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In 1962, the year before the University of Alabama integrated, Melvin Meyer was the 20-year-old editor of the student... More

Class warriors

Creators of the late Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University discuss class in America

By Brent Cunningham   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In 1996, Sherry Linkon and John Russo led the effort to create the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown... More

Out with a bang

In their final issue, LA Youth’s writers discuss what it means to be poor

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

For 25 years, LA Youth, a nonprofit newspaper written by and for teens in and around Los Angeles, helped... More

The Lower Case

Headlines that editors probably wish they could take back

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

- San Jose Mercury News, 10/27/12 - The New York Times, 1/12/13 - The New York Times, 1/15/13 -... More

Gorky peek

The Second Russian Revolution gave viewers an unprecedented glimpse inside a rapidly liberalizing Soviet Union

By Ann Cooper   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In the spring of 1989, after decades of being kept out in the cold by Communist secrecy and propaganda,... More

Hard lessons

Finding hope in the effort to reform America’s public schools

By Julia M. Klein   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

The desperate condition of many of America's urban schools is captured by an anecdote Ron Berler relates near the... More

Holy mess

Lawrence Wright unpacks the mysteries of Scientology

By Lindsay Beyerstein   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In mid-January, The Atlantic, which famously pledged in 1857 to be "the organ of no party or clique," was... More

Fast women

Phileas Fogg had nothing on pioneering female journalists Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland

By Daniel Luzer   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Ah, stunt journalism. where would America's airport bookstores be without it? Let's see if I can read an entire... More

Brief encounters

Short reviews of After Visiting Friends, The Art of Controversy, and Tupelo Man

By James Boylan   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story | By Michael Hainey | Scribner | 306 pages | $26 Robert C. Hainey... More

And that’s the way it was: March 1, 1995

Yahoo Inc. is incorporated

By The Editors   Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Yahoo, the Internet behemoth best known for its Web portal and search engine, incorporated on March 1, 1995. Founded by... More