tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4 2009-11-20T20:18:46Z Movable Type 3.2 tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22597 2009-11-20T15:31:43Z 2009-11-20T20:18:46Z

MSNBC wades into new territory with environmental documentary 100 Heartbeats

Curtis Brainard While filming his new documentary, 100 Heartbeats, Jeff Corwin cut off the horn of a black rhino to protect it from poachers, broke four ribs transporting Sumatran orangutans to a wildlife sanctuary, and helped raid a Cambodian restaurant serving endangered species like pangolin and soft-shelled turtle. “I wanted to tell these stories in a way that hadn’t... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22577 2009-11-18T18:31:11Z 2009-11-20T15:31:11Z

Times keeps a needed eye on green premiums

Curtis Brainard This week, The New York Times published two much-needed articles questioning the value of programs that let consumers pay a small fee to ostensibly reduce their carbon footprints. The first, by Kate Galbraith, focused on renewable energy certificates, which allow utilities to offer their customers the choice of paying a small premium on their electricity... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22569 2009-11-17T18:48:57Z 2009-11-18T21:10:04Z

What guidelines should govern advertiser-sponsored events?

The Editors Last week, news reports revealed that, since 2007, Newsweek has sold advertising packages to the American Petroleum Industry--the oil and gas industry’s largest trade group--“that included the right to co-host forums on energy issues, including two where members of Congress sat side-by-side on panels with the association’s president.” “Newsweek and API have teamed on four forums so... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22564 2009-11-17T17:03:22Z 2009-11-18T21:10:04Z

Terry McDermott Criticism of Malcolm Gladwell, the bestselling New Yorker writer, seems to be reaching – yes! – a tipping point. The critiques have come from a variety of angles – literary critics lambast his glibness; The Daily Beast doesn’t like his dating habits; The Nation doesn’t like, well, anything about him. The New Republic’s Issac... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22544 2009-11-13T21:49:15Z 2009-11-17T14:09:45Z

Curtis Brainard That old nuisance, “balance as bias,” cropped up in the press again on Thursday in an article in the Telegraph about the theories of climate skeptic Ian Plimer, an Australian geologist. There isn’t even the pretense of a news peg. For some reason, the paper’s environment correspondent, Louise Gray, decided that Plimer’s controversial opinions needed airing... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22536 2009-11-13T16:50:23Z 2009-11-16T15:47:07Z

Greg Marx Admin4B! The federal budget deficit, it seems, is back on the White House’s agenda. David Brooks, in his column today, asserted in passing that once (if?) health care reform passes, President Obama will "pick some fights with his own party over spending." At Politico, meanwhile, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei have a full article on the new... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22525 2009-11-12T21:31:07Z 2009-11-13T21:53:41Z

Curtis Brainard Ruth Teichroeb, who worked as an investigative reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1997 until its demise in March, is not done investigating. On Wednesday she published a survey on her ironically titled blog, Safety Net, of what has become of her former colleagues in the last nine months. It’s not reassuring. Seventy-one of the 140 people laid... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22512 2009-11-11T21:36:29Z 2009-11-12T23:00:17Z

Curtis Brainard Science news aficionados that are passing through New York City this week should check out the thirty-third Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, which kicks off at the American Museum of Natural History Thursday night and runs through Sunday. Named after the famed cultural anthropologist, a former assistant curator at the museum, the annual event will feature over... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22509 2009-11-11T19:39:12Z 2009-11-12T22:40:19Z

School cites expansive value of training, diverse job possibilities

Curtis Brainard At least somebody gets it. The University of Montana in Missoula announced on Monday that it is accepting applications for a new, two-year graduate program in environmental science and natural resource journalism. The news comes less than a month after Columbia University, in New York, decided to suspend a similar and highly regarded fourteen-year-old program, citing... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22498 2009-11-10T22:45:03Z 2009-11-12T00:17:38Z

The NYT’s “Pacific garbage patch” story: a Spot.us “deliverable” that doesn’t quite deliver

Megan Garber tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22494 2009-11-10T17:55:52Z 2009-11-11T18:37:13Z

Curtis Brainard Recipients of the 2009 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards were announced this morning. “A radio broadcast on probability told through a tale about a drifting balloon, a newspaper series on the impact of a devastating genetic disease on a family in rural Montana, and a group of gracefully written stories about genetics and evolution are among the winners,”... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22476 2009-11-06T23:36:51Z 2009-11-09T20:02:03Z

Mooney and Specter debate causes and cures

Curtis Brainard Michael Specter and Chris Mooney agree that the United States is full of people who just don’t get science, and that this is a dangerous situation. In fact, they agree about a lot of things. They are the respective authors of the similarly titled Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives,... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22462 2009-11-05T21:03:33Z 2009-11-09T14:17:13Z

Terry McDermott There is in the science press a kind of gene-of-the-month club for disease cures in which scientists discover that promoting or quieting a particular gene cures this condition or that. One prominent example in recent years has been the claim of remarkable potential for a compound named resveratrol. Specifically, it has been claimed that resveratrol acts on... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22436 2009-11-03T20:48:38Z 2009-11-04T20:22:09Z

SEJ launches freelancers’ board for climate meeting

Curtis Brainard The United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen this December will undoubtedly be an international media circus of the highest order. Many of the journalists there will be wandering bards, however, reciting tales on the spot for anyone willing to listen or, God willing, pay them. In an effort to assist those lone travelers, as well as news outlets that... tag:www.cjr.org,2009://4.22408 2009-10-30T18:57:56Z 2009-11-02T22:41:22Z

A health story about germ-fighting pumpkins

Cristine Russell As trick-or-treaters ready themselves for the annual ritual that is Halloween, health and headline writers around the world have found it hard to resist a rip-and-tear story involving pumpkins: • “Pumpkins May Scare Away Some Germs” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Eco Speak blog • “Jack-O-Lanterns May Say ‘Boo’ to Microbes that Cause Yeast infections”...