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Articles by David Cay Johnston | Email the Author
The other IRS scandal
Required context for a controversy
By David Cay Johnston May 15, 2013 at 06:52 AM
The burgeoning "scandal" over how the IRS chose for review 75 applicants for tax-exempt status puts on full display an... More
The IRS budget and federal revenues:
Who will connect the dots?
The sequester strikes again
By David Cay Johnston May 9, 2013 at 11:00 AM
We've pointed out before that major news organizations are failing to connect the tax dots--between the sequester-caused cuts to the... More
Honey, I shrank the IRS
The administration wants more money for tax-law enforcement. Let’s ask why
By David Cay Johnston Apr 30, 2013 at 02:52 PM
Last week, we pointed to a piece of news that we have yet to read or hear from most... More
The big three miss a tax story
The IRS is furloughing workers. For a lot of reasons, that’s news
By David Cay Johnston Apr 23, 2013 at 02:51 PM
Okay, it was a big news week. There was the tragedy in Boston. In West, TX, too. And yes, there... More
Smart, straightforward sequester stories
A HuffPost survey and a close Wonkblog look at cancer treatment stand out
By David Cay Johnston Apr 5, 2013 at 05:09 PM
Covering the effect of the across-the-board federal spending cuts does not have to be expensive, and it does not have... More
Cruelest month for sequester-related cuts?
Layoffs and furloughs are going into effect—coverage needs to keep up
By David Cay Johnston Apr 1, 2013 at 03:20 PM
April Fool's Day is an important date for reporting on the meat ax cuts to federal spending resulting from the... More
Boehner’s overlooked acknowledgment
The Speaker—and Paul Ryan—say we don’t have an immediate debt crisis. Isn’t that news?
By David Cay Johnston Mar 20, 2013 at 02:50 PM
Over the past weekend, there was actually some news made on the Sunday morning talk shows for a change. Two... More
A hat-tip to Investor’s Business Daily
A sharp blog post underscores the radical vision behind the Ryan budget
By David Cay Johnston Mar 15, 2013 at 02:50 PM
Yesterday, I praised The Washington Post's Wonkblog for its coverage of Rep. Paul Ryan's latest budget proposal. But revealing insights... More
Asking the wrong question about Dell
A WSJ columnist misses the point on the CEO-led buyout
By David Cay Johnston Mar 14, 2013 at 04:46 PM
Holman Jenkins' column in The Wall Street Journal on the proposed management buyout of Dell shareholders is an excellent example... More
On Ryan budget plan, Wonkblog shines
WashPost’s crew stands above a generally middling performance by the press
By David Cay Johnston Mar 14, 2013 at 11:24 AM
On Tuesday, GOP Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, unveiled his umpteenth budget plan of the last... More
Time to leave budget biases behind
Deficits are falling and government jobs are disappearing. Is it really so obvious we have a spending problem?
By David Cay Johnston Feb 28, 2013 at 03:00 PM
With the automatic federal spending cuts known as sequestration set to take effect Friday--and plenty of other budget wars looming... More
People aren’t too worried about the sequester. Is the media to blame?
Coverage is too often dull or absent, but NYT piece on air travel is a standout
By David Cay Johnston Feb 22, 2013 at 12:14 PM
Americans are not especially worried about the mandatory federal spending cuts set to begin March 1, widely cited polling by... More
Sequester debate takes hold in the press
The good, the bad, and the indifferent in this week’s coverage—plus some resources for reporters just tuning in
By David Cay Johnston Feb 21, 2013 at 11:00 AM
With mandatory federal spending cuts looming on March 1, news organizations have finally begun running down the numbers on whose... More
One document, many interpretations
Varied takes on CBO report show “the media” is a competitive market, not a monolith
By David Cay Johnston Feb 7, 2013 at 02:30 PM
What a difference reporters and editors can make in choosing from the same report what is news and where and... More
The true cost of national security
The Pentagon and the White House focus on the core Defense budget, but that’s not the half of it
By David Cay Johnston Jan 31, 2013 at 03:02 PM
Soon, we will get the president's proposed fiscal 2014 spending plan. Much attention will focus on Social Security and... More
Praise, and criticism, for an NYT series on corporate welfare
The paper’s sources challenge some of its findings while praising attention to the issue
By David Cay Johnston Jan 29, 2013 at 02:50 PM
Many of the most important stories develop for years before they get covered because no one makes an official announcement,... More
Back to basics with Krugman
Reporters (and economists) need to take accounting identities into account
By David Cay Johnston Jan 9, 2013 at 03:10 PM
Paul Krugman on Monday delivered an excellent primer on basic economics and the importance of what economists call accounting identities.... More
What’s a trillion, anyway?
How to make scary budget numbers meaningful
By David Cay Johnston Jan 8, 2013 at 03:00 PM
Throughout the weeks of intense coverage over the scheduled end of the Bush income tax cuts and the Obama payroll... More
A thin Post piece on the cliff’s consequences
Article on purported impact of tax shift favors assumptions and anecdotes over data
By David Cay Johnston Dec 13, 2012 at 03:13 PM
Since election day, the so-called “fiscal cliff” has moved to the top of the political news agenda, and CJR has... More
Wrongheaded and Incomplete on Incomes
The Wall Street Journal, comforting the comfortable with selective data
By David Cay Johnston Sep 10, 2009 at 03:07 PM
This morning’s page-one Wall Street Journal story on incomes in America contains many bungled facts and concepts in a single... 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?
What to do if you find a baby bird
Expert advice
Inside Google’s secret lab
We might deplore the practice, but posting pictures of our food online is a way to bring everyone to the table
How the ‘World’s 50 Best’ list changed the way elite restaurants do business
“Every time the restaurant switched up its format, it got plenty of accompanying media coverage that let judges know they needed to return to see what was going on”
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.
