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Articles by Curtis Brainard | Email the Author
NYT cancels Green blog
No explanation from editors following surprise announcement
By Curtis Brainard Mar 1, 2013 at 07:00 PM
At 5pm on Friday afternoon, The New York Times posted the following announcement: The Times is discontinuing the Green blog,... More
Brain mapping
NYT raises questions about federal project, science press provides answers
By Curtis Brainard Feb 28, 2013 at 03:00 PM
On February 17, The New York Times touched off an anxious debate in the neuroscience community with a front-page article... More
Drones and transparency
White House criticized for secrecy, PBS’s NOVA for conflict
By Curtis Brainard Feb 20, 2013 at 03:45 PM
It's no secret that journalists, especially those on the science beat, don't think that President Obama has lived up his... More
Digging for dark money
Guardian, CPI expose secretive climate-denial funding network
By Curtis Brainard Feb 19, 2013 at 03:20 PM
Just over a year ago, Peter Gleick, a scientist and climate-change activist, obtained a cache of internal documents from The... More
Meteorite steals asteroid’s thunder
Russian ‘dash cams’ fill web with amateur video
By Curtis Brainard Feb 15, 2013 at 10:45 AM
For the last week, stargazers around the world have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a 150-meter asteroid that will... More
UPDATED: All charged up
Elon Musk says NYT review of a Tesla sedan was dishonest; Broder, Sullivan fire back
By Curtis Brainard Feb 14, 2013 at 05:30 PM
[Original column posted February 12, 12:00 p.m.] Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is all charged up over a The New... More
‘I need rules’
Jonah Lehrer says he still intends to pursue writing
By Curtis Brainard Feb 12, 2013 at 06:00 PM
In his first public appearance since revelations of fabrication and plagiarism derailed his career last year, science writer Jonah Lehrer... More
Momentum becomes Ensia
Univ. of Minnesota expands its environmental magazine
By Curtis Brainard Feb 8, 2013 at 03:00 PM
A nonprofit environmental magazine published by the University of Minnesota that's been quietly racking up awards for three years is... More
Sheen before green
Entertainment news outstrips environment news 3-to-1
By Curtis Brainard Feb 1, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Celebrity and sports stories are three times more common in the mainstream media than environment stories, according to a new... More
The bird-flu blues
Short notice that research will resume leads to thin coverage
By Curtis Brainard Jan 30, 2013 at 05:15 PM
Reporters didn't have much time to react to the news that scientists in some countries will soon resume research on... More
Quinoa’s quagmire
One-sided Guardian article incites media scare
By Curtis Brainard Jan 25, 2013 at 03:05 PM
A slanted post about the quinoa craze set off a cascade of reproachful media warnings last week, telling consumers that... More
Climate policy, act two
Reactions to Obama’s second inaugural overlook Skocpol report
By Curtis Brainard Jan 23, 2013 at 11:30 AM
It was great to see The New York Times give front-page treatment to the unexpected weight that President Obama put... More
Science journalism’s great divide
Study finds pessimism in the West, optimism in the Global South
By Curtis Brainard Jan 21, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Science journalists in the West have a bleaker outlook on the future of their profession than their colleagues in the... More
Here? Now?
Media squander rare opportunity to localize climate coverage
By Curtis Brainard Jan 17, 2013 at 03:30 PM
Making climate change a local story isn't easy, but regional newspapers are, by and large, missing what is probably going... More
Faded green
Environment reporters endangered, regardless of exact number
By Curtis Brainard Jan 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM
InsideClimate News's Katherine Bagley, who broke the news last week that The New York Times is dismantling its environment desk,... More
Environment coverage TBD
The Times says it’s committed, but only time will tell
By Curtis Brainard Jan 15, 2013 at 11:00 AM
The New York Times’s decision is to dismantle its four-year-old environment “pod” has been called everything from “an unmitigated disaster”... More
Climate coverage rebound?
Maybe, but the press has a long way to go
By Curtis Brainard Jan 7, 2013 at 05:45 PM
There are signs that climate-change coverage is poised for a rebound after three years of decline, experts say, but the... More
Another round of Cosmos
An American popular scientist in the Carl Sagan tradition, Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why he tweets, and why the US needs to rediscover its space mojo
By Curtis Brainard Jan 2, 2013 at 12:00 AM
When it comes to making science popular and accessible, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson does it all. He’s the director... More
Must-reads of 2012: science
Let your dork flag fly
By Curtis Brainard Dec 27, 2012 at 06:50 AM
As 2012 draws to a close, CJR writers brainstormed the year's best reads in their beats. The dream that failed... More
Fronting for fossil fuels
A study says that the media rarely discloses think tanks’ industry funding
By Curtis Brainard Dec 21, 2012 at 02:50 PM
According to a report released in early December by the Checks & Balances Project, a self-avowed “pro-clean energy watchdog group,”... 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?
If cable is dying, why is it still making so much money?
The story behind one of the best business models in the country
What TVGuide.com watchlist data reveals about the season’s new dramas
“What was once genre is now the Zeitgeist”
Josh Barro, the loneliest Republican
What to make of the 28-year-old columnist’s contempt for the GOP—and its would-be reformers
Dowd and Fournier and countless others who have launched similar complaints are asking, “Why aren’t we getting what we were promised?”
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.
