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Articles by Brendan Nyhan | Email the Author
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
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
Covering ‘The American Presidency’
Fiction vs. reality in coverage of the White House
By Brendan Nyhan Apr 30, 2013 at 11:00 AM
In Hollywood and the accounts of many of the nation's leading journalists, events in Washington revolve around the president, who... More
Fast and wrong beats slow and right
The incentives for speed-induced misinformation in Boston bombings coverage
By Brendan Nyhan Apr 22, 2013 at 10:45 AM
Breaking news addicts were glued to their screens last week as developments in the Boston bombings case flooded cable news... More
Bill Adair, setting pants ablaze no more
The PolitiFact founder on his move to academia and the state of the factchecking movement
By Brendan Nyhan Apr 8, 2013 at 06:50 AM
The Tampa Bay Times announced last week that Bill Adair, the newspaper's Washington bureau chief and the founder and editor... 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
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
The Green Lantern Theory of Sequestration
Hey, pundits: President Obama can’t magically solve the budget impasse in Washington
By Brendan Nyhan Feb 27, 2013 at 10:40 AM
One of the recurring themes in commentary on national politics is the demand for the president to change politics as... More
The third party fever dream, revisited
Five points for reporters to consider about third party prospects
By Brendan Nyhan Feb 19, 2013 at 12:30 PM
National Journal's Ron Fournier has posted a gracious reply to my CJR column challenging what I considered to be his... More
The third party fever dream
Why do some journalists keep predicting a major challenge to the two-party system?
By Brendan Nyhan Feb 15, 2013 at 03:30 PM
National Journal editorial director Ron Fournier is a respected journalist with years of distinguished service as an Associated Press correspondent... More
State of the Union media prebuttal II
What reporters should do instead of overhyping the SOTU
By Brendan Nyhan Feb 12, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Early each year, I brace myself for an onslaught of poorly informed commentary and polling about the effects of the... More
Boosting the Sandy Hook truther myth
The dangers of covering fringe misperceptions
By Brendan Nyhan Jan 22, 2013 at 11:00 AM
In the weeks since the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, fringe conspiracy theorists have suggested... More
Hey readers: They’re bluffing! (maybe)
The need to put political bargaining positions in context
By Brendan Nyhan Jan 15, 2013 at 03:00 PM
Insider reporting is vital to understanding what The Wall Street Journal's Gerald Seib describes as the "'Groundhog Day' loop of... More
Fast-tracking the truth in IPAB coverage
How to cover a key ACA provision without making misinformation worse
By Brendan Nyhan Jan 14, 2013 at 11:15 AM
One of the most underrated political stories of the next year is the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (also... More
If you were John Boehner, you’d cry too
Why journalists should put the struggles of the House speaker in a larger context
By Brendan Nyhan Jan 4, 2013 at 11:00 AM
On Thursday, John Boehner survived some conservative defections to narrowly win re-election as Speaker of the House, prompting a predictable... More
Beware Green Lantern thinking in gun policy coverage
The president isn’t as powerful as you think
By Brendan Nyhan Dec 20, 2012 at 11:24 AM
In a riff inspired by the blogger Matthew Yglesias a few years ago, I proposed what I called the Green... More
Addressing the asymmetry question
Factchecking is the wrong format
By Brendan Nyhan Dec 11, 2012 at 03:10 PM
Factchecking made great strides during the 2012 campaign, but were those advances compromised by the pressure to maintain partisan balance?... More
Cracking open Congress
We need better insider reporting about the “fiscal cliff”
By Brendan Nyhan Dec 7, 2012 at 11:00 AM
We've just finished an election in which quantitative analysis provided far more accurate predictions than pundits and reporters, who frequently... More
The future of factchecking
Here’s what journalists should learn from the 2012 campaign
By Brendan Nyhan Nov 29, 2012 at 02:50 PM
As journalists close the books on 2012 and look forward to coverage of a second Obama administration, one important question... More
Predictable in retrospect
The dangers of hindsight bias in election postmortems
By Brendan Nyhan Nov 13, 2012 at 02:55 PM
The media has undergone a strange change of mindset. Immediately before last Tuesday's election, many reporters and commentators ignored or... 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
#Realtalk: This is the best moment to be in journalism - The old stuff isn’t coming back, but that’s okay
Streams of consciousness - Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism?
Sticking with the truth - How ‘balanced’ coverage helped sustain the bogus claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism
An ink-stained stretch - Can Aaron Kushner save the Orange County Register—and the newspaper industry?
This is the best moment to be in journalism (25)
The WSJ editorial page hits rock bottom (19)
Stop with the Jew-ranking already!
“There are some lists that have helped Jews in the past, including, most notably, Schindler’s, but…”
Please continue pronouncing ‘gif’ any way you please
We are all correct
The New York Times told me to take this down
“If you wouldn’t mind using another publication to advertise your infringement tool, we’d appreciate it”
In AP, Rosen investigations, government makes criminals of reporters
“[A]s flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration”
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
