Audit Notes: Goldman dissembles, Corporate taxes, Silicon Valley

Bloomberg View shreds the bank’s too-big-to-fail apology

By Ryan Chittum   May 31, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Goldman Sachs issued a report recently claiming to debunk the fact that too-big-to-fail banks like itself get implicit taxpayer subsidies... More

Disability, Social Security, and the missing context

As a trustees report comes out, a This American Life piece provides an unfortunate example of incomplete reporting

By Trudy Lieberman   May 31, 2013 at 06:57 AM

Today, the trustees of the Social Security system will issue their annual report card on the trust funds that... More

What the government isn’t telling us

The Declassification Engine is a new project using statistical and machine learning to help reveal secrets

By Sarah Laskow   May 31, 2013 at 06:50 AM

You probably haven't heard of "Operation Boulder," a Nixon-era program that scrutinized the activities of Arab Americans and profiled visa... More

Civil Beat says aloha to Huffington Post

Outlets team up to create new HuffPost Hawaii vertical

By Sara Morrison   May 30, 2013 at 05:22 PM

The Huffington Post and Honolulu Civil Beat are teaming up to create a HuffPost Hawaii vertical, the new partners announced... More

The undercovered dark cloud in the shrinking-deficit story

Flurry of articles was welcome, but some cautionary notes deserved greater play

By David Cay Johnston   May 30, 2013 at 03:08 PM

The federal budget deficit has been shrinking like a wool sweater in a clothes dryer, but that fact seems mostly... More

Journalistic generalization disorder

David Brooks attacks, then defends, psychiatry’s shortcomings

By Curtis Brainard   May 30, 2013 at 03:00 PM

On Monday, David Brooks weighed in on the debate about the merits of the latest edition of the DSM-5, psychiatry's... More

No, it’s not another housing bubble

Hysteria in pockets of the press over a long-awaited recovery

By Ryan Chittum   May 30, 2013 at 11:00 AM

The top story in all the major papers on Wednesday was news that home prices jumped 11 percent in the... More

Accessible scandal coverage in Utah

The Salt Lake Tribune continues to lead on the evolving Utah attorney general scandal—with help from some simple web tools

By Joel Campbell   May 30, 2013 at 11:00 AM

PROVO, UT -- For several months now, a political scandal has been brewing here involving Utah Attorney General John Swallow,... More

The art of the interview

Asking the hard questions about asking the hard questions

By Ann Friedman   May 30, 2013 at 06:50 AM

I'm on deadline for a long feature, so I've been transcribing a lot of interviews lately. And after listening to... More

New light on the emergency room

A RAND study finds that the ER is not such a healthcare-spending villain after all

By Trudy Lieberman   May 29, 2013 at 02:51 PM

Yes, I know we don't like "study sez" stories; that is unless they trumpet a new cancer drug or a... More

When a journalist calls [Updated]

Ed Yong counsels scientists on giving comments to reporters

By Curtis Brainard   May 29, 2013 at 12:15 PM

[Original post, May 28, 5pm] There is no shortage of advice for scientists on talking to journalists. Just look at... More

Promiscuous media

Publishing content where it fits best

By Felix Salmon   May 29, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Two years ago, when I wrote about the death of blogging, I contrasted the decline of old-fashioned reverse-chronological blogs with... More

Libel convictions face resurgence in Italy

For the second time in the past couple years, Italian journalists have faced jail time for defamation

By Alison Langley   May 29, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Three Italian journalists were sentenced to prison terms Friday in Milan for libeling a prosecutor. Andrea Marcenaro and Riccardo Arena... More

Between ‘us’ and ‘I’

Getting stuck on plurals

By Merrill Perlman   May 28, 2013 at 03:00 PM

The editors were discussing a story about the health benefits of a particular type of cactus, and maybe others. The... More

Stories I’d like to see

Justice Department overreach, and a rudderless IRS

By Steven Brill   May 28, 2013 at 12:45 PM

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

The other James Rosen

Dispatch from the Fox News reporter’s friend and byline twin

By James Rosen   May 28, 2013 at 11:20 AM

WASHINGTON -- I was at home, putting the finishing touches on an article for the Columbia Journalism Review, when my... More

Citizen Wanes

The Bay Citizen brand winks out—and leaves behind a lesson about nonprofit governance

By John Mecklin   May 28, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Way back in the distant mists of mid-2010, The Bay Citizen, a San Francisco experiment in nonprofit civic journalism, launched... More

Must-reads of the week

Obama’s war on journalism

By The Editors   May 24, 2013 at 02:56 PM

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

Live from Corruption County!

A Charleston TV station reports on an investigation in southern West Virginia, and a local paper goes on the attack

By Corey Hutchins   May 24, 2013 at 02:06 PM

On Thursday, the Williamson Daily News in southern West Virginia unleashed a spirited and somewhat bizarre attack on an unnamed... More

How West was spun

Mistakes were made, and one narrative too readily embraced, in coverage of the blast. Meanwhile, The Dallas Morning News excelled

By Richard Parker   May 24, 2013 at 11:00 AM

AUSTIN, TX -- At 7:30 pm Eastern time on May 16, Erin Burnett turned toward the camera in CNN's New... More

Fortune goes long on Amazon and taxes

How the retailer manipulated a broken government system to get an unfair advantage

By Ryan Chittum   May 24, 2013 at 06:50 AM

I've been following the Amazon tax-avoidance story for years now, and I haven't seen it better-told than it is on... More

More than just marriage

A guide to covering other issues that affect the LGBT community

By Jennifer Vanasco   May 24, 2013 at 06:50 AM

There's been a diversity of gay news this month covered in the major media, from the rash of NYC hate... More

Rooting out bad science

Big scandals grab headlines, but journalists can do more to expose misconduct

By Declan Fahy   May 23, 2013 at 04:17 PM

The extraordinary case of academic fraudster Diederick Stapel followed the typical narrative of a scientific scandal. A professor of social... More

Who’s filibustering Medicaid expansion in Nebraska?

A group of lawmakers is blocking a key healthcare bill, but reporters are not naming names

By Deron Lee   May 23, 2013 at 03:00 PM

FAIRWAY, KS -- On May 15, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the state Capitol in Lincoln, NE, to protest the... More

The weekly grind

How to feed and maintain a weekly opinion column

By Ann Friedman   May 23, 2013 at 10:15 AM

A writer I greatly admire, Ta-Nehisi Coates, once offered this exercise in understanding what it's like to produce a weekly... More

How extreme is that legislator, really?

A new data set on lawmakers’ ideology can bolster reporting at the state level

By Brendan Nyhan   May 23, 2013 at 07:25 AM

When Republican Scott Brown faced Democrat Martha Coakley in a January 2010 special election for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, he... More

Audit Notes: The IRS story in context, Silicon Valley oligarchs

Necessary context from ProPublica and the NYT on the overblown scandal

By Ryan Chittum   May 23, 2013 at 06:50 AM

The bulk of the IRS scandal press coverage has been seriously devoid of the kind of context that tells readers... More

Pass the #popcorn

ICYMI: “Snow Fall” creates an avalanche of copyright questions

By Sara Morrison   May 22, 2013 at 06:05 PM

According to a recent Pew study, 16 percent of adults online use Twitter -- 8 percent daily. I'm pretty sure... More

In Pittsburgh campaign, ad buy files prove mayor’s involvement

Post-Gazette reporter: online access to records was “huge”

By Anna Clark   May 22, 2013 at 02:50 PM

DETROIT, MI -- About three weeks before the May 21 mayoral primary in Pittsburgh, an attack ad against a leading... More

Silver linings newscasts

Down with forced positivity in TV news coverage of Moore, OK

By Jane McManus   May 22, 2013 at 12:00 PM

Like everyone else this week, I was transfixed by the tragedy in Moore, Oklahoma. The devastation was quick and, in... More

True the Coverage

Some of the organizations targeted for scrutiny by the IRS actually deserve scrutiny—a nuance that is getting lost

By Mariah Blake   May 22, 2013 at 11:40 AM

Just about everyone in Washington agrees that the IRS's blanket targeting of Tea Party groups by keying on words in... More

Bloggers for hire on a penny-stock pump and dump

The Motley Fool digs into a brazen and successful scheme to manipulate share prices

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

The Motley Fool's Brian Richards posts a fascinating look inside the pump and dump world of penny-stock promoters, reporting how... More

Copyright 101.2

How CopyrightX managed to convince hundreds of online students to stick with a course on copyright law

By Sarah Laskow   May 21, 2013 at 02:56 PM

CopyrightX, an online course run out of Harvard this spring as part of the EdX program, was unusual in a... More

Medicare Uncovered: Who should pay? Who can pay?

A shout-out to Marketwatch for a thorough report that challenges the “skin-in-the-game” theory

By Trudy Lieberman   May 21, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Elizabeth O'Brien's May 15 Marketwatch piece on proposed changes for Medicare is one of the best I have seen since... More

OKC’s TV news excels in another disaster

Life-saving information before the tornado, essential reporting afterward

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

In Oklahoma, particularly in the springtime, dangerous weather is a part of life. And so are the local TV news... More

Under the bridge

Climate Desk tracks down its ‘most pernicious’ troll

By Curtis Brainard   May 21, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Frustrating as they may be, every journalist wonders at some point about the identity of his or her most devoted... More

A hat tip to The State in South Carolina

The paper offers a solid opening salvo in a new series, “SC State House for Sale”

By Corey Hutchins   May 20, 2013 at 03:15 PM

COLUMBIA, SC -- The State newspaper, South Carolina's capital city daily in Columbia, gave uncharacteristically prominent play Sunday to the... More

Pleas-ing words

Prepositions and crime

By Merrill Perlman   May 20, 2013 at 03:00 PM

One man "pleaded guilty to DWI." Another "pled guilty of DWI." A third "entered a plea of guilty to DWI... More

How technology redefines norms

Reasonable resistance to the upending of cultural mores is not “technopanic”

By Felix Salmon   May 20, 2013 at 12:40 PM

Jeff Jarvis reprints the clip above, in an article dismissing the privacy concerns surrounding Google Glass. The Victorian attitudes... More

Scandal!

Walter Shapiro’s Rough Rules for Responsible Mongering

By Walter Shapiro   May 20, 2013 at 11:15 AM

I have been commenting on Washington scandals for nearly four decades--ever since the dead-drunk Wilbur Mills, the unduly lionized chairman... More

Audit Notes: WSJ on the IRS, countering Kinsley, Cramer gets an ‘F’

The paper mishandles news on the Tea Party targeting story

By Ryan Chittum   May 20, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Rupert Murdoch must have loved his Wall Street Journal front page on Saturday. Editors splashed this headline across the top... More

‘We are all journalists now’

140 Journos and Turkey’s “counter-media” movement

By Deirdre Dlugoleski   May 20, 2013 at 06:50 AM

In a 2011 court case in Diyarbakır, Turkey, a student is on trial for membership in a terrorist organization. The... More

Anything but dull

The House kicks off its review of copyright by finding out how limited agreement about the law is

By Sarah Laskow   May 17, 2013 at 04:09 PM

Rep. Howard Coble knows the reputation of intellectual property law--that it is dull and boring. But at a Congressional hearing... More

Must-reads of the week

“Time passes very slowly when you’re in a hippo’s mouth”

By The Editors   May 17, 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

Covering facts versus the ‘narrative’

The challenge for journalists when scandal fever hits

By Brendan Nyhan   May 17, 2013 at 11:00 AM

The dilemma for journalists this week: How should you cover a series of proto-scandals with seemingly little in common? As... More

Peggy Noonan loses it on the IRS story

The Journal columnist draws an evidence-free connection to the White House

By Ryan Chittum   May 17, 2013 at 06:50 AM

We are in the midst of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. That's Peggy Noonan today in The Wall Street... More

Social minority issues in perspective

Recent stories that flesh out important topics

By Jennifer Vanasco   May 17, 2013 at 06:50 AM

The media covers social minorities regularly in the daily churn of news. A lot of that coverage just skims the... More

The insanity of hospital pricing

The academics are wrong and the press is right: wildly varying healthcare billing is a very big deal

By Trudy Lieberman   May 16, 2013 at 03:08 PM

Last week's release of the wildly varying prices that hospitals charge Medicare may no longer be news du jour, but... More

Q&A: Shaun McKinnon, veteran water reporter

An Arizona Republic reporter and self-described “water geek” on how to cover western water issues

By Joel Campbell   May 16, 2013 at 11:00 AM

PROVO, UT -- Water issues may not be the sexy beat to which young journalists first aspire, but here in... More

The other IRS target: the press

The nonprofit news experience undermines the Tea Party targeting outrage

By Ryan Chittum   May 16, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Conservatives are howling about the IRS targeting Tea Party groups applying for nonprofit tax exemptions. Well, welcome to our world.... More

What to do when you get fired

A post-layoff strategy for the future-minded journalist

By Ann Friedman   May 16, 2013 at 06:49 AM

Last week, my declaration that this is the best moment to be working in journalism was met with some side-eye... More

AP phone records seizure reveals telecom’s risks for journalists

What is constitutionally protected, and what isn’t

By Susan McGregor   May 15, 2013 at 04:20 PM

Many journalists may be shocked by Monday's revelation that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) used a subpoena to obtain... More

Political ad windfall drives local TV consolidation

As a trend accelerates, industry and activists disagree about the consequences

By Sasha Chavkin   May 15, 2013 at 02:55 PM

As campaign ads saturated the airwaves during the 2012 campaign, and piles of campaign cash buoyed stations' balance sheets, media... More

Less is more with mobile visualizations

As readers shift to tablets and smartphones, interactive newsrooms need to re-focus on the basics

By Barrett Sheridan   May 15, 2013 at 11:00 AM

To walk through San Francisco is to examine the area's lurid, sometimes brutal mid-nineteenth-century origins. Each street has a story.... More

The other IRS scandal

Required context for a controversy

By David Cay Johnston   May 15, 2013 at 06:52 AM

The burgeoning "scandal" over how the IRS chose for review 75 applicants for tax-exempt status puts on full display an... More

Audit Notes: Student loan profits, paywall incentives, postal banking

The Huffington Post on a government bonanza

By Ryan Chittum   May 15, 2013 at 06:50 AM

The Huffington Post's Shahien Nasiripour comes up with a great angle on news that the Education Department expects to make... More

‘How do you deport three-fifths of a family?’

One undocumented immigrant’s race against the clock, told in real time by the Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo

By Adam Weinstein   May 14, 2013 at 04:30 PM

MIAMI, FL -- Miami Herald political reporter Marc Caputo didn't expect high drama when he ventured into a community immigration... More

Pass the #popcorn

ICYMI: Mickey Kaus takes on BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith and his Koch-funded immigration summit

By Sara Morrison   May 14, 2013 at 04:00 PM

According to a recent Pew study, 16 percent of adults online use Twitter -- 8 percent daily. I'm pretty sure... More

Stories I’d like to see

The commencement speech market, Obamacare job bonanza, and recess appointment gridlock

By Steven Brill   May 14, 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

The Bloomberg terminal scandal

Not nearly in the Murdoch hacking league, but it requires a cultural shift

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

The Bloomberg terminal-snooping story is a serious ethics problem, but I've read some awfully hysterical takes on it in the... More

Beholding thinspiration

Slate’s decision to publish an image of a recovering anorexic is problematic

By Kira Goldenberg   May 13, 2013 at 07:08 PM

In the latest post on its Behold photo blog, Slate waded into ongoing debates around "thinspo"--pro-anorexia imagery posted to foster... More

Grammar police

Zealousness over correctness

By Merrill Perlman   May 13, 2013 at 03:00 PM

The New York Times recently posted an opinion piece and a short film about a "vigilante copy editor" who was... More

Untangling Obamacare: What’s behind the rate increases?

To report on rising premiums you need to understand them. A primer for reporters

By Trudy Lieberman   May 13, 2013 at 12:38 PM

Rate hikes just keep coming. The latest we've heard about come from Blue Cross Blue Shield in North Carolina, which... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg apologizes, Snow Fall re-imagined, Carr on Advance

Winkler admits reporters should never have had access to customer data

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

Bloomberg News has gotten a big black eye for snooping on its customers, and Editor-In-Chief Matt Winkler apologizes in a... More

A bogus boycott

The GOP hijacks the transparency debate as the EPA calls for a ‘reset’ with reporters

By Curtis Brainard   May 10, 2013 at 03:00 PM

At Gina McCarthy's congressional confirmation hearing in early April, questions about transparency at the Environmental Protection Agency, which she'd been... More

Must-reads of the week

The Great Gatsby, the Washington photobomb, Pigford, the high five

By The Editors   May 10, 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

Backsliding on the ‘death panels’ myth

The need for caution—and avoiding “he said,” “she said”—in reporting on IPAB

By Brendan Nyhan   May 10, 2013 at 11:53 AM

House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a letter on Thursday stating that they would not... More

Just passing through

As major tax-cut plans zoom through Midwest statehouses, reporters scramble to stay ahead of the story

By Deron Lee   May 10, 2013 at 11:00 AM

FAIRWAY, KS -- In late 2012 and early 2013, reporters in Kansas began to take note of an oddity in... More

Audit Notes: Bloomberg snoops, Alan Abelson, Niall in denial

And the New York Post scoops

By Ryan Chittum   May 10, 2013 at 06:50 AM

The New York Post reports that Goldman Sachs complained to Bloomberg that its reporters were spying on it via the... More

When only The Onion tells it like it is

Chris Brown assaulted Rihanna, and most “real” outlets keep overlooking it

By Jennifer Vanasco   May 10, 2013 at 06:50 AM

The parody newspaper The Onion isn't a news organization, of course. But once in awhile, it tells a truth that... More

And that’s the way it was: May 10, 2006

A. M. Rosenthal, former NYT executive editor, dies in Manhattan

By The Editors   May 10, 2013 at 06:49 AM

On this day seven years ago, legendary New York Times executive editor Abraham Michael "A.M." Rosenthal died at the age... More

StateImpact makes its mark, but won’t expand

As NPR exits the ambitious project, director says, “we changed the way reporting is done”

By Anna Clark   May 9, 2013 at 02:50 PM

Two years ago, with statehouse bureaus taking huge cuts in a contracting media landscape, National Public Radio designed the StateImpact... More

The WSJ editorial page hits rock bottom

And that’s saying something

By Ryan Chittum   May 9, 2013 at 01:14 PM

I'm still trying to reattach my jaw after reading this op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal today. It's shameful... More

The IRS budget and federal revenues:
Who will connect the dots?

The sequester strikes again

By David Cay Johnston   May 9, 2013 at 11:00 AM

We've pointed out before that major news organizations are failing to connect the tax dots--between the sequester-caused cuts to the... More

Audit Notes: Farm labor fight, government debt, dumb-question headlines

Americans sue to get farm jobs from Mexican guest workers

By Ryan Chittum   May 9, 2013 at 06:50 AM

The New York Times is good to go page one with a story on a fascinating lawsuit in Georgia that... More

This is the best moment to be in journalism

The old stuff isn’t coming back, but that’s okay

By Ann Friedman   May 9, 2013 at 06:50 AM

I've spent the past two months on the conference circuit. I spoke to groups of journalists in San Francisco, Boston,... More

And that’s the way it was: May 9, 1918

60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace is born

By The Editors   May 9, 2013 at 06:49 AM

Television broadcast journalist Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace was born on this day in 1918. During his 60-year career in broadcasting,... More

The Plain Dealer columnist who knew Amanda Berry’s mother

“Imagine the worst day of your life and then repeat it every day for three years. That’s how she lived. Until she died.”

By Sara Morrison   May 8, 2013 at 05:00 PM

Needless to say, the kidnapping case in Cleveland has garnered a ton of media attention now that the three women... More

The Advocate raids the Picayune

Major defections from the New Orleans paper intensify a newspaper war

By Ryan Chittum   May 8, 2013 at 04:36 PM

I wrote this last week about the South Louisiana newspaper war: "It will also not have a hard time poaching... More

Little green in Arab Spring

Egypt Independent’s closure a blow for environmental coverage

By Curtis Brainard   May 8, 2013 at 03:00 PM

Last month's closure of the Egypt Independent, a weekly newspaper and website, was a setback for progressive journalism in the... More

A new ‘golden era’?

Nautilus is the latest in a proliferation of science-news sites

By Curtis Brainard   May 8, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Nautilus, a new science magazine whose first issue appeared online April 29, has New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye, one... More

And that’s the way it was: May 8, 1984

Lila Bell Wallace, cofounder and publisher of Reader’s Digest, dies of heart failure

By The Editors   May 8, 2013 at 06:49 AM

Born Lila Bell Acheson, she married DeWitt Wallace in 1921. The two went on to found Reader's Digest, the monthly... More

Da Mayor, da columnist, da questions

Legendary political deal-maker Willie Brown writes a column in the San Francisco Chronicle, raising eyebrows higher than the Golden Gate Bridge

By John Mecklin   May 7, 2013 at 03:00 PM

SANTA BARBARA, CA -- Former mayor, ex-state Assembly speaker, clothes horse, raconteur, and legendary political power-player Willie Brown has been... More

Stories I’d like to see

The compensation racket, Al Jazeera’s plans, and Boston health costs

By Steven Brill   May 7, 2013 at 11:49 AM

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

Business Insider goes native

All but erasing the line between editorial and marketing

By Ryan Chittum   May 7, 2013 at 06:50 AM

Here's a Business Insider vertical called the "Future of Business." Let's hope it's not the future of news. The problems... More

And that’s the way it was: May 7, 1945

Germany signs unconditional surrender, ending European conflict of World War II

By The Editors   May 7, 2013 at 06:49 AM

On May 7, 1945, Germany signed the terms for unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, thus putting an... More

ESPN’s interchangeable women

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

By Robert Weintraub   May 6, 2013 at 03:51 PM

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

CPJ’s Impunity Index updates

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

By Sara Morrison   May 6, 2013 at 03:30 PM

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

Letter perfect

Why English is so hard

By Merrill Perlman   May 6, 2013 at 03:00 PM

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

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

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

By Corey Hutchins   May 6, 2013 at 11:00 AM

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

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

The Hindenburg disaster

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

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

Finding James Foley

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

By Curtis Brainard   May 3, 2013 at 06:00 PM

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

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

A survey provides a new snapshot

By Lawrence Pintak   May 3, 2013 at 02:52 PM

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

Must-reads of the week

Stuffed Banana with Dreadlocks Edition

By The Editors   May 3, 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

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

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

By Trudy Lieberman   May 3, 2013 at 11:09 AM

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

The corrupt City culture behind the Libor scandal

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

By Ryan Chittum   May 3, 2013 at 06:50 AM

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

Will Wall Street’s cop go after dark money?

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

By Sasha Chavkin   May 3, 2013 at 06:50 AM

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

How not to report on a transgender victim

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

By Jennifer Vanasco   May 3, 2013 at 06:50 AM

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

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

The first piece of email spam is sent

By The Editors   May 3, 2013 at 06:49 AM

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

Keeping it chronic

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

By Sibyl Shalo Wilmont   May 2, 2013 at 03:10 PM

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

Reinventing Audubon

Mark Jannot to craft new content, communications strategy

By Curtis Brainard   May 2, 2013 at 03:00 PM

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

The systemic plight of labor

A revealing Thomas Friedman column on 401(k)s

By Felix Salmon   May 2, 2013 at 11:59 AM

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

Covering somebody who’s suing you

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

By Ryan Chittum   May 2, 2013 at 11:22 AM

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

Digital Public Library of America wants to lend copyrighted works

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

By Sarah Laskow   May 2, 2013 at 11:00 AM

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

Those immobile newspaper companies

Only 22 percent of a big sample even offer mobile products

By Dean Starkman   May 2, 2013 at 11:00 AM

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

Branded but ‘independent’ media

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

By Ann Friedman   May 2, 2013 at 06:50 AM

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

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

Good Housekeeping magazine is first published

By The Editors   May 2, 2013 at 06:49 AM

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

Local reporting at its grandest

When the weather warms up, oddities emerge

By Kira Goldenberg   May 1, 2013 at 04:00 PM

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

Untangling Obamacare: Rate shock!?

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

By Trudy Lieberman   May 1, 2013 at 02:28 PM

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

Opening Shot

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

In December, as an impromptu inside joke, British designer and journalist Martin Belam took 10 minutes to craft a... More

Empty calories

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

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

If you've spent time with anyone under 25 recently, you will have noticed that they get their news from... More

Letters to the editor

Readers respond to our March/April issue

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

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

An ink-stained stretch

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

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

Rob Curley, one of the more prominent digital journalists of the last decade, had just about had it with... More

Sticking with the truth

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

By Curtis Brainard   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In 1998, The Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals, published a study by lead author Andrew Wakefield,... More

On the job

Tight shots

By Michael Kamber   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Michael Kamber's new book, Photojournalists on War: The Untold Stories from Iraq, is a vital record of a conflict... More

More of Jessica Lum’s work

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

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

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

‘See you on the other side’

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

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

On September 22, 2012, Jessica Ann Lum took the stage to accept her award for Best Feature in the... More

The back page

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

By Jeffrey Robinson   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

They're going to bury my newspaper. The International Herald Tribune is dead. Once upon a time, this wonderful, irreverent,... More

Streams of consciousness

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

By Ben Adler   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

My first encounters with journalism were the same as most American males: through the sports pages. Sometime in middle... More

Hard numbers

Pew, that’s a lotta research!

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

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

Old news

The journalism business has evolving for years, if not quite as cataclysmically as it is now. Ben Adler is a 31-year-old freelance writer; his father, Jerry Adler, 63, had a long, distinguished career at Newsweek. Here are highlights of a recent Gchat about their media consumption.

By Ben Adler and Jerry Adler   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

This article ran in CJR's May/June 2013 edition as a sidebar to Ben Adler's cover story on how millennials... More

Cause and affect

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

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

Who says kids are apathetic and don't care about the news? Well, kids do--but their behavior suggests otherwise. A... More

That’s incredible

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

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

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

Open Bar

The Gandamack

By Sabra Ayres   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

Language Corner

Plum loco

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

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

Sree Tips

Social-media etiquette for journalists

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

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

The Buzz

They’re back!

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

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

The Conversation

Sports section 2.0

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

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

Strange but true

More tales from the beat

By Marla Jo Fisher   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

What’s in my … rolling briefcase

Micheline Maynard

By Melissa Richards   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

Darts & Laurels

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

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

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

Future shock

Predictions from the past

By Burt Dragin   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In 1923, The World, Joseph Pulitzer's raucous daily, published a series of predictions from experts in various fields about... More

The Lower Case

Headlines that editors probably wish they could take back

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

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

Home truths

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

By James Marcus   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

Turn on, log in, opt out?

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

By Lauren Kirchner   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

It doesn’t add up

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

By Beryl Lieff Benderly   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In late February, Christine Miller and Sona Shah went to the Capitol Hill office of Miller's senator, Barbara Mikulski,... More

The natural

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

By Terence Smith   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

‘Minority’ rules

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

By Brendan Fitzgerald   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

For our March-April issue, CJR asked 18 journalists to answer a question: "How can we improve coverage of race,... More

Brief encounters

Short reviews of Fighting for the Press and America 1933

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

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

Exit Interview - FCC ya later!

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

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

Julius Genachowski's four years as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission had a little something for everyone. There was... More

That’s incredible

How kids get their news

By Shivonne Logan   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

That’s incredible

How kids get their news

By Stephenie Zhang   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

That’s incredible

How kids get their news

By Ariya Momeny   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

That’s incredible

How kids get their news

By Maya Kandell   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

That’s incredible

How kids get their news

By Julia Kwasnick   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

That’s incredible

How kids get their news

By Jamie Har   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

That’s incredible

How kids get their news

By James Pedersen   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

That’s incredible

How kids get their news

By Nikhil Rajaram   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

That’s incredible

How kids gets their news

By Heather Strathearn   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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

That’s incredible

How kids get their news

By Angela Stern   May 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

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