CJR : Behind the Newstag:www.cjr.org,2008://12008-05-16T19:06:01ZMovable Type 3.2Making it in (and out of) Myanmartag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.157992008-05-16T16:06:19Z2008-05-16T19:06:01ZCNN's Dan Rivers, now safe, speaks with CJRMariah Blake
Aid workers aren’t the only ones having trouble getting into Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis. The nation’s secretive military regime is withholding visas from journalists and going to unusual lengths to root out those foreign reporters who manage to slip into the country. CNN correspondent Dan Rivers, just back from Yangon, spoke with Mariah Blake about close calls, lucky breaks, and...
Stars and Stripes forevertag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.157842008-05-14T22:01:36Z2008-05-16T16:32:18ZClint Hendler
In January, I wrote about the complicated contracting relationship between Stars and Stripes, the military-backed paper that insists on its editorial independence, and “America Supports You,” a Pentagon public affairs initiative created under Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber that’s been described as a pro-war propaganda. While details weren’t clear, the paper, which operates with a freer hand in...
Before Benedicttag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.156562008-04-28T14:05:53Z2008-04-30T07:54:15ZThere’s nothing new about the press’s adulation of the PontiffAdam Rose
Jon Stewart had a lot of fun mocking the media over the fawning coverage they gave the pope's recent visit. Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee parodied the ecstatic inarticulateness of commentators by telling Stewart that “to witness the pope's visit is a transcendent experience” that “transcended even my most reverential witnessing.” And it’s true. A papal visit seems to...
Dancing with the Stars: The Trade Summit Editiontag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.156122008-04-22T20:08:46Z2008-04-24T12:31:16ZWhen Bush and NAFTA dance together, the president leads Megan Garber
I’m here, with political reporters, in New Orleans—where, for the past two days, President Bush has been in summit meetings with Felipe Calderón, president of Mexico, and Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, discussing NAFTA. The NOLA setting is, of course, fraught with meaning, particularly for President Bush, and the summit provides a much-needed opportunity for both the president and...
The Papal Visit: By the Numberstag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.156002008-04-21T21:31:26Z2008-04-23T15:09:57ZCounting the coverage of Benedict XVI's U.S. trip Megan Garber
60,000 rough number of people who came to see Pope Benedict XVI celebrate Mass at New York’s Yankee Stadium on Sunday 57,545 seating capacity of Yankee Stadium 128 references to the Popemobile in the past week, in print media (newspaper and wire service) coverage of Benedict’s visit 2,095 Popemobile references in television and radio coverage 175 references, in...
Newspapers' Sad Sisterstag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.155712008-04-17T17:22:34Z2008-04-21T12:49:22ZOn the (empty) floor at NEXPOMichael Meyer
NEXPO, still the largest newspaper equipment trade show of the year, kicked off Saturday at D.C.’s massive Washington Convention Center. In years past, it had been a place where companies would spend upwards of a half million dollars to cart in, assemble, and thoroughly hock entire working presses to clients from around the country. Firms would attempt to one-up each...
The Rather Suit: What Was Dismissedtag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.155132008-04-10T22:18:08Z2008-04-14T17:59:20Z...and what remainsMegan Garber
As has been reported here and elsewhere, Justice Ira Gammerman—the judge hearing Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS—today issued a motion to dismiss four of the seven counts of the suit. The three remaining counts, however, encompass the $70 million in damages—$20 million in compensatory and $50 million in punitive—that Rather is seeking from CBS. Gammerman dismissed the claims...
Flame-agandatag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.154952008-04-09T16:29:02Z2008-04-10T21:00:09ZMegan Garber
Pop quiz! Match the headline to the news outlet that produced it: 1. Security concerns high as Olympic torch arrives in San Francisco after chaos in Paris relay 2. San Francisco Protests, Vigil Surround Olympic Torch Relay 3. 3 layers of cops to protect torch 4. Security Tightened As San Francisco Girds for Protests Along Olympic...
Dr. King's Last Momentstag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.154562008-04-04T18:17:05Z2008-04-08T00:25:18ZMemphis magazine provides a moving tick-tockMegan Garber
Much of today’s coverage of the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination examines the reverend’s legacy through the telescopic lens of American culture: from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis has grown a forty-year-old dialogue about race and equality whose rhetoric is often as lofty as that of the man who inspired it. And rightly so: lyrical...
Newsflash: HUD Scandal Broke Last Falltag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.154192008-04-01T21:20:16Z2008-04-03T15:32:47ZNational Journal series was largely ignored by rest of the pressClint Hendler
Yesterday, Alphonso Jackson, Bush’s HUD secretary, resigned. “His tenure,” as the AP put it, was “tarnished by allegations of political favoritism and a criminal investigation.” On February 4, The Washington Post began a series of embarrassing articles based on public court documents filed in Philadelphia. Jackson stonewalled a congressional committee, and senators called for his resignation. Typical D.C. scandal cycle,...
What Can be Learned from Lichtblau?tag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.153942008-03-28T19:49:02Z2008-04-02T15:58:52ZReading the NSA tea leaves rightClint Hendler
Yesterday, Slate published a 1,733 word adapted-extract from Eric Lichtblau’s upcoming book, Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice. The section, while full of other interesting nuggets, is notable for its insider account of the tense moments leading up to The New York Times’s belated decision to publish Lichtblau and James Risen’s blockbuster December 16, 2005 story on...
Annie Squalltag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.153932008-03-28T19:41:06Z2008-04-01T14:58:09ZHas the famous photog blown her cover? Megan Garber
The Vogue controversy continues. The magazine made much of its April issue featuring basketball star LeBron James - the third man ever to grace a Vogue cover, and the first black man to do so. Many, however, found the cover "racially insensitive" and condemned its Fay Wray-esque depiction of the athlete and his co-model, Gisele Bündchen. The image "screams...
Trailer Mixtag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.153902008-03-27T19:33:32Z2008-03-31T23:44:43ZTNR spoofs the spoilersMegan Garber
To generalize only a bit, movie trailers suck. When they’re not completely obscuring a film they’re meant to promote, disguising its plot and its purpose in a fog of cheesy music and even cheesier special effects, they’re summarizing the entire plot of a movie, rendering the actual watching of that movie almost pointless. Why buy the cow? Props, then, to...
Blind Spottag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.153632008-03-21T21:29:24Z2008-03-26T19:32:28ZWhat the Times is and isn’t asking about the Spitzer caseClint Hendler
I’ve previously raised a glass to The New York Times’s impressive reporting on Eliot Spitzer and his entanglement in a prostitution bust waged by federal law enforcement. But one thing we haven’t seen out of the Times is any reporting on the very federal law enforcement and prosecutors who caught Spitzer. That is, we hadn’t seen it until this...
On The Ground: the Grunts and the Presstag:www.cjr.org,2008://1.153602008-03-21T18:15:23Z2008-03-26T16:05:08ZSome thoughts on the disconnect, and how it could be differentPaul McLeary
This month marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. For many of the journalists who have covered it, it has been the story of their lifetime, but we’ve nevertheless seen coverage of the war slip off the front pages over the last few months. While there are still plenty of reporters risking their lives doing great work in...