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Articles by Brendan Nyhan | Email the Author
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
How to cover the presidential results
A guide for journalists on election fundamentals and campaign effects
By Brendan Nyhan Nov 7, 2012 at 01:18 PM
One of the most fascinating parts of the aftermath of an election is the construction of post-hoc narratives to "explain"... More
Pundits versus probabilities
The misguided backlash against Nate Silver
By Brendan Nyhan Oct 30, 2012 at 02:50 PM
Who will win the presidential election next Tuesday? Until recently, the market for analysis of questions like these has been... More
The momentum behind a misleading narrative
Why reporters have been getting the polls wrong in the presidential race
By Brendan Nyhan Oct 26, 2012 at 11:00 AM
On Thursday night, Politico beat a retreat in the great momentum debate of 2012. The site's Glenn Thrush and Jennifer... More
All good debate coverage is local?
Failings of the national press not mirrored in NH
By Brendan Nyhan Oct 16, 2012 at 11:00 AM
NEW HAMPSHIRE — If you cover politics for a national publication, the story of the debates so far has been... More
Enabling the jobs report conspiracy theory
The consequences of careless coverage of Friday’s unemployment numbers
By Brendan Nyhan Oct 8, 2012 at 12:15 PM
NEW HAMPSHIRE — Media ethics pop quiz: When conspiracy theories started circulating on Twitter claiming that Friday's jobs report had... More
Breaking the pack journalism paradigm
What would happen if reporters covered debates without access to the spin?
By Brendan Nyhan Oct 3, 2012 at 11:10 AM
NEW HAMPSHIRE — As tonight's presidential debate approaches, the chattering classes are pondering whether it will change the dynamics of... More
Will Obama really ‘break the fever’?
Why more journalists should question the President’s second-term claims
By Brendan Nyhan Sep 24, 2012 at 11:10 AM
With the media focused on the horse race (and Mitt Romney's ongoing tactical miscues), the claims by President Obama and... More
Jumping the gun on the Romney ‘47%’ video
In early coverage, reporters overstated the meaning and impact of Romney’s comments—and left out out key context
By Brendan Nyhan Sep 18, 2012 at 01:15 PM
NEW HAMPSHIRE — Yesterday, Mother Jones released a secretly-recorded video of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney making the following comments... More
When factcheckers get trigger-happy
A checklist to help journalists decide when to take aim
By Brendan Nyhan Sep 6, 2012 at 04:10 PM
Is there such a thing as too much factchecking? Factcheck.org described former President Bill Clinton's speech to the Democratic convention... More
Ignored factchecks and the media’s crisis of confidence
Whatever campaigns may do, aggressive truth-telling is the right approach for reporters
By Brendan Nyhan Aug 30, 2012 at 11:05 AM
Can the media stop politicians from misleading the public? That's the question on the minds of many journalists and commentators... More
Conventions: A great learning opportunity for voters
Why the debate over a lack of news misses the point
By Brendan Nyhan Aug 28, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Every four years, the two presidential candidates do battle in a series of high-stakes televised events that could shape the... More
Another factchecking fiasco
Journalistic failure in coverage of Harry Reid and his mysterious source
By Brendan Nyhan Aug 7, 2012 at 01:00 PM
A week ago, The Huffington Post's Sam Stein and Ryan Grim published an article repeating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's... More
The Gore-ing of Mitt Romney
Poisonous cycle of gotcha coverage and access restrictions recalls an earlier campaign
By Brendan Nyhan Aug 2, 2012 at 02:58 PM
The profane confrontation between one of Mitt Romney’s press aides and reporters at the end of the presumptive GOP nominee’s... More
Woman’s work - The twisted reality of an Italian freelancer in Syria
Sourcing Trayvon Martin ‘photos’ from stormfront - Not a good idea, Business Insider
Elizabeth Warren, the antidote to CNBC - The senator schools the talking heads on bank regulation
Art Laffer + PR blitz = press failure - The media types up the retail lobby’s propaganda
Reuters’s global warming about-face - A survey shows the newswire ran 50 percent fewer stories on climate change after hiring a “skeptic”
Barack Obama: ‘those old times aren’t coming back’
“It used to be there were local newspapers everywhere. If you wanted to be a journalist, you could really make a good living working for your hometown paper”
The Guardian’s editor opens up on Reddit
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, answered questions in an Ask Me Anything
The (almost) lost speech of Justice Anthony Kennedy
How his insightful remarks about the Constitution inadvertently make the case for a Supreme Court “media pool”
Fox News sues TVEyes for copyright infringement
Says subscription service sells access to its content without permission nor compensation
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
ACEsTooHigh.com – Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
