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Articles by David Cay Johnston | Email the Author
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
Welcome to the Jungle
Journalists, meet the all-or-nothing job market
By David Cay Johnston May 22, 2009 at 11:20 AM
Reporter Dan Browning's piece on coming newsroom cuts at the St. Paul Pioneer-Press contains a curious detail that perhaps will... More
A Tale of Two Papers
P-I offers reporting, San Francisco Chronicle offers flackery
By David Cay Johnston Mar 17, 2009 at 03:52 PM
The starkly different ways in which two Hearst properties—the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the San Francisco Chronicle—have been informing readers of... More
A Great City Forced to Read Flackery
Is the San Francisco Chronicle a news organization or a publicity service?
By David Cay Johnston Feb 25, 2009 at 03:56 PM
The number-two story on the front page of SFGate.com Tuesday night, and evidently given prominent play in Wednesday's print version... More
Who’s Undercutting Obama?
For the moment, at least, it’s his press office
By David Cay Johnston Jan 29, 2009 at 01:25 PM
It’s 3 p.m. and the phone in the White House press secretary’s office is ringing. It rings and rings and... More
Attitude Adjustment
How the Internet could usher in a new golden age of consumer journalism
By David Cay Johnston Sep 1, 2008 at 11:28 AM
Like the air that sustains life, facts that would help hard-pressed consumers are all around us. Instead of gathering and... More
My Facts, Your Facts
America and the pursuit of willful delusion
By David Cay Johnston Jul 31, 2008 at 09:00 AM
Reader comments posted on digital news sites are often heavy on invective, hurled from noms d’Internet that allow people to... 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”
In one tweet
Luke Russert is the Golden Boy of DC
And it drives young journalists crazy
It’s official: We never need to worry about the future of journalism again!
The NYT shows us why
Why does Florida produce so much weird news? Experts explain
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.
