Author Archive
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The Audit
Botching the Pesky but Basic Details on a Big Story
March 24, 2006 12:33 PMIn a startling attempt to save their own hides, General Motors and Delphi announced this week that they will offer buyouts and early retirement packages to more than 125,000 workers, with GM set to pay between $35,000 and $140,000 to... Continue reading
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The Audit
Baseball No Longer the Simple Pastime of Yesteryear
March 22, 2006 01:59 PMThe inaugural World Baseball Classic came to an exciting close Monday night before 42,000-plus fans in San Diego, as Japan finally pulled away from a persistent Cuban team with four runs in the top of the ninth to seal a... Continue reading
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Behind the News
AP Story Serves as Political Rorschach Blot
March 20, 2006 05:11 PMToday may be the first day of spring, but the interminable snowball fight among partisan bloggers in the 'sphere shows little sign of thawing. With the three-year anniversary of the war in Iraq upon us, Donald Rumsfeld's guest... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Newspapers: Dying All the Way to the Bank
March 9, 2006 02:37 PMMainstream media print journalists tend to be a pessimistic bunch, especially when it comes to newspaper companies and, say, their future. But with Knight Ridder's likely sale imminent, bloggers are taking care of the doom and gloom quite nicely by... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Bonds’ Hall of Fame Prospects Torn to Shreds, Ungrateful Sports Bloggers Yawn
March 8, 2006 01:55 PMThe hammer came down on Barry Bonds yesterday, as Sports Illustrated published a damning excerpt from an upcoming book by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters which lays out in exhaustive detail the doping program -- including steroids and human growth... Continue reading
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Behind the News
The Three Newsweeklies Head Off in Three Different Directions
March 7, 2006 02:15 PMA mere five and a half weeks after Oprah Winfrey scolded James Frey on national television, U.S. News & World Report takes the opportunity offered by that news peg to examine a weighty, wordy industry that (like newspapers) is struggling... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Story Based on Leaks Stirs Up Debate About Leakers and Leakees
March 6, 2006 02:00 PMFar and away the most talked-about news on Technorati at the moment is a front-page Sunday story from the Washington Post, "White House Trains Efforts on Media Leaks." "The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information,... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Antarctica Gets a Bit Smaller
March 3, 2006 05:30 PMYesterday two scientists at the University of Colorado announced their finding that Antarctica's massive ice sheets are shrinking by 36 cubic miles a year, the first evidence that the continent's ice mass is shrinking significantly. While it is... Continue reading
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Behind the News
How Does a Lady Get Any Sleep Around Here?
March 2, 2006 05:33 PMBy all accounts, yesterday afternoon's special session at the Supreme Court was tough to get through. As the court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of Tom DeLay's 2003 Texas redistricting plan, one justice in particular had a difficult time... Continue reading
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Behind the News
In a Party Mood, USA Today Gets It All Wrong
March 1, 2006 12:24 PMYesterday, as New Orleans celebrated the climax of its first Mardi Gras since Katrina, USA Today ran a cheery front-page story headlined "In New Orleans, 4 out of 5 want to stay there." Based on the <a... Continue reading
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The Audit
Guessing What Apple Has Up Its Sleeve
February 28, 2006 12:35 PMA certain popular computer company based in Cupertino, Calif. is set to reveal "some fun new products" today -- reason enough for some business journalists to unthinkingly publish regurgitated rumors and speculation. Last October, we described... Continue reading
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Behind the News
NPR, Reuters and CNN Highlight An Astonishing Story Ignored By Others
February 24, 2006 04:16 PMSometimes a story comes over the wires that is so astonishing, so hard to conceive, that it stops us cold. Such was the case yesterday afternoon when we spotted a Reuters report headlined "Thousands escape rape, murder... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Summers Resigns, and the Big Guns (and Little) Are All Over It
February 22, 2006 05:01 PMSomething incredible happened at Harvard yesterday: the university's president was forced out of office decades before his time. That happens less than once in a lifetime, so we eagerly turned to the papers today to see what they... Continue reading
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The Audit
To BusinessWeek, Up Is Down, and Down Is Up
February 17, 2006 04:45 PMAs if we needed any more convincing, BusinessWeek provided yet more evidence yesterday that the media's obsession with short-term stock prices does not make any sense. In its self-consciously pithy roundup, "The Business Week," the magazine congratulated... Continue reading
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The Audit
It Takes Two to Tell Boston Airport Story
February 17, 2006 04:05 PMWith big-city American newspapers at a critical juncture, two-newspaper towns increasingly seem to be an anachronism. Denver's two competing papers have been bleeding readers at an extraordinary rate. In Cincinnati, the Post, like many afternoon papers before it, seems... Continue reading
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Behind the News
ABC Gives a Free Handout to “Wolves”
February 16, 2006 12:16 PMReporting on the success of a commercial product is always a tricky enterprise. When considering the news value of a hot consumer product or a movie hit, journalists ought to tread carefully in order to report the phenomenon without stepping... Continue reading
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The Audit
Barron’s Bashes Google, Just for Kicks
February 15, 2006 10:36 AMThe financial press has plenty of faults, but it also wields incredible power. A single negative story can cost a corporation billions, and a journalist's armchair analysis can cause wild swings in a company's stock. Increasingly, reporters who cover the... Continue reading
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The Audit
There’s Money in Fear, But Don’t Tell CNN
February 10, 2006 06:45 PMA couple weeks ago we critiqued a rather outlandish Fortune article that asked readers, "Ready for $262/barrel oil?" We were not ready at all, and took some comfort from the discovery that Nelson Schwartz's piece (carried by mother... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Ginger Thompson on Haiti’s Chaos and Courage, and Calling Gang Members
February 10, 2006 05:30 PMGinger Thompson, the New York Times' Mexico City bureau chief, has been reporting from Haiti on that country's presidential election this week. In a string of stories, she has described... Continue reading
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Blog Report
Mass Alarm Over Mass Data Sweep of Blogs and Email
February 9, 2006 12:59 PMThe Christian Science Monitor broke a big story on its front page today, reporting that the "U.S. government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and... Continue reading
Desks
The Audit Business
- Reuters’s OKC gusher Its outstanding Chesapeake Energy investigation turns toward the gas driller SandRidge
- Audit Notes: insider trading versus CDO fraud, 401(k)s, lead and crime Rough treatment for inside-trading suspects contrasts with CDO probes
The Observatory Science
- Environment coverage TBD The Times says it’s committed, but only time will tell
- Call in the math club Science reporters can help ward off a “Big Data bubble”
United States Project Politics & Policy
- The Frank Luntz script for Congressional Republicans A guide to phrases journos should look for (and scrutinize)
- Hey readers: They’re bluffing! (maybe) The need to put political bargaining positions in context
Behind the News The Media
- German bill would charge for aggregation The potential law would provide content creators with a portion of the profits search engines make by aggregating them
- Gun permit data wasn’t maximized The choice that faced the Journal News was not simply whether to map gun permit holders’ addresses, but how
Blog
The Kicker last updated: Wed 12:13 PM
- Pass the #popcorn
- Should Center Square Journal shut down?
- Must-reads of the week
- WaPo: Got agency?
- On building trust
The Future of Media
News Startups Guide last updated: Mon 3:27 PM
- ACEsTooHigh.com Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma
- ACEsConnection.com A niche social network for professionals working in science, education, and policy related to childhood trauma
