tag:www.cjr.org,2011-09-12://4 2012-12-13T20:26:13Z Columbia Journalism Review: The future of media is here Movable Type Pro 4.34-en tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.33073 2012-12-11T20:04:09Z 2012-12-13T20:26:13Z

Journos get on board the Let’s-Whack-Entitlements train

Trudy Lieberman Shortly after the election, the MSM quickly turned from the presidential horse race to the “fiscal cliff.” And soon, news outlets began passing along what has become conventional political wisdom in the Beltway—that something must be done about the deficit, and fast, and that cutting entitlements, namely Social Security and Medicare, must be part of any deficit-reduction package. Hardly a tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.33037 2012-12-07T16:00:00Z 2012-12-07T15:55:36Z

We need better insider reporting about the "fiscal cliff"

Brendan Nyhan We've just finished an election in which quantitative analysis provided far more accurate predictions than pundits and reporters, who frequently offered claims and analysis that were not informed by high-quality poll averages or basic political science. As a result, traditional journalists are licking their wounds and trying to re-evaluate how they can add value to campaign coverage. Almost as quickly, tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.33026 2012-12-06T19:50:00Z 2012-12-11T16:09:21Z

The Guardian follows the saga of Liz Fowler, healthcare lobbyist extraordinaire

Trudy Lieberman Leave it to the Brits to tell us Americans about our healthcare system. In this case the telling is done by Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald (an American, by the way), who takes us back into the world of revolving-door lobbyists—the ones who come from industry, do a stint of government service for much lower pay, and then when it’s kosher tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.33008 2012-12-05T11:50:26Z 2012-12-05T15:43:55Z

"Dr. Politics" advice—avoid horse-race journalism, but bring on the well-reported profiles

Walter Shapiro Dear Dr. Politics, I am writing about a problem that has become as annoying as stores playing Christmas carols while they are still selling Halloween candy. Three days after the election, Politico was already out with a major story emblazoned with this headline: “2016 Election: Hillary Clinton vs. Jeb Bush?” Even though Politico seems obsessed with jumping the calendar three tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32994 2012-12-04T16:00:56Z 2012-12-04T22:13:22Z

White House Press Secretary sees GOP operatives in good journalism

Curtis Brainard Last week, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney blamed GOP operatives for revealing that Susan Rice, President Obama’s presumed favorite to become the next Secretary of State, has significant investments in the Canadian oil industry. “I would commend Republican opposition researchers for the intellectual bandwidth that is required to read a financial disclosure form,” he said, when asked about Rice’s tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32973 2012-11-30T19:50:00Z 2012-11-30T20:01:12Z

People perspective leads to clear explanation of impact of proposed changes

Trudy Lieberman As tax and spending talks grind on in Washington, The New York Times tells us Friday that in his latest proposal, President Obama has “embraced $400 billion in savings from Medicare and other entitlements to be worked out next year with no guarantees.” Guarantees or not, that means the reporters on the Medicare beat will have plenty to report on tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32967 2012-11-30T16:00:00Z 2012-11-30T16:13:11Z

PoliticsPA drives political conversation in Keystone State

Ken Knelly PENNSYLVANIA — Whether it is a presidential swing state or not, Pennsylvania is always a political battleground. With countless boroughs, school districts, the state legislature, and more in a near-constant state of electing, there is never a shortage of campaign news. What there can be is a shortage of boots on the ground, particularly those with broader statewide perspectives. So tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32951 2012-11-29T19:50:00Z 2013-01-17T02:03:14Z

Here's what journalists should learn from the 2012 campaign

Brendan Nyhan As journalists close the books on 2012 and look forward to coverage of a second Obama administration, one important question is where the factchecking movement goes from here. The general election campaign was unquestionably the most intensively factchecked in history. While factchecking did not eliminate falsehoods from our politics, this was always an unrealistic expectation. The relevant question is whether tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32942 2012-11-29T16:00:00Z 2012-11-29T15:59:24Z

So far, the press has given this public policy concern the brush off

Trudy Lieberman This post is the first of several primers on Social Security we will publish in the coming weeks to help journalists report on this topic. The Washington Post, whose news columns and opinion pieces have beat the drum for entitlement reform and cutting the federal deficit, banged out an editorial Sunday making a case for changing the way the cost-of-living tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32928 2012-11-27T21:00:00Z 2013-01-17T01:47:27Z

Is the editor-in-chief of Gallup’s warning a nightmare vision or… sort of beguiling?

Walter Shapiro As a feud, it does not rise to the level of Lyndon Johnson versus Bobby Kennedy or even Jack Benny’s radio war with Fred Allen. But, still, anyone organizing a post-election panel discussion might be wise to put a few chairs between New York Times polling guru Nate Silver and Frank Newport, the editor-in-chief of Gallup. The triggering events were tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32913 2012-11-27T11:50:00Z 2012-11-27T12:46:01Z

What’s to become of Cleveland’s daily, a bright spot in Ohio's coverage of election 2012?

T.C. Brown OHIO — The frenzy of presidential candidates and entourages overrunning the Buckeye State is history, but questions about how Ohio’s largest newspaper will cover future political campaigns loom large. Managers of The Plain Dealer of Cleveland—the 19th largest newspaper in the nation and the place I spent 17 years covering Ohio politics and government—are primed to make a major announcement tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32908 2012-11-26T12:00:00Z 2012-11-26T11:59:30Z

Denver's KUSA says newsroom's "Truth Tests" set high bar for campaign-ad vetting

Mary Winter COLORADO — Barack Obama wasn’t the only winner in the 2012 campaign here. The state’s TV stations—especially those in Denver, the dominant media market—did pretty well, too. Political groups spent roughly $86 million on election ads in this battleground state, Denver Post TV critic Joanne Ostrow reported earlier this month. According to Ostrow’s source—an anonymous “knowledgeable local TV source”—perhaps $68 tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32902 2012-11-23T15:45:00Z 2012-11-23T15:43:26Z

A veteran journalist and a young reporter talk about lessons learned

Anna Clark MICHIGAN — It was hard. That’s how Marisa Schultz, political reporter for The Detroit News, sums up the experience of covering her first presidential campaign. Or, to put it another way: “It was the toughest professional job I’ve ever done.” From wading through back-and-forth rhetoric to getting beyond the agenda at campaign events to finding time for deep reporting on tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32877 2012-11-20T21:00:00Z 2012-11-20T21:03:08Z

Four issues Pennsylvania’s political press should stay on

Ken Knelly PENNSYLVANIA — Political reporters and commentators here will continue to ponder, as the Philadelphia Inquirer did on November 9, Pennsylvania’s future swing state status. Even so, there are other key issues confronting the Keystone State and its political press corps—issues that will continue to be clouded by inflamed rhetoric and political money. Here are four evolving stories Pennsylvania’s political reporters tag:www.cjr.org,2012://4.32871 2012-11-20T16:15:10Z 2012-11-20T16:16:14Z

The real story: how some employers are still working to undermine Obamacare

Trudy Lieberman The media have latched onto the story of John Schnatter. That’s the John of Papa John’s Pizza, a CEO with an Ebenezer Scrooge approach to his employees and customers. He is vowing to reduce employee hours and wages while jacking up the price of his pepperoni pies—all because of Obamacare. The press has presented the story as sort of funny