Sound Off

How audience reaction distorts political debates

By Erika Fry   Sep 21, 2011 at 11:20 AM

Ah, another week, another gimmick-ridden Republican debate. Tomorrow’s, in Orlando, is billed as the Fox News/Google debate and is held... More

On priorities and presidents

By Erika Fry   Sep 19, 2011 at 05:09 PM

If you tuned into one of the Sunday morning talk shows yesterday—that most coveted of political press spots, conveying what... More

Palin’s Basketball Diaries

By Erika Fry   Sep 15, 2011 at 05:54 PM

Yes, we've been reviewing the media's coverage of social security and health care and the jobs plan, but we've also... More

Diverse Concerns

The unfortunate messages sent by Telemundo’s debate treatment

By Erika Fry   Sep 8, 2011 at 04:55 PM

Among the stranger moments of the MSNBC-Politico debate last night was the brief cameo of a Spanish-language journalist—the “Brian Williams... More

Escape From Thailand

A simple story about plagiarism forced me to flee a country I love

By Erika Fry   Sep 2, 2011 at 03:31 PM

Editors’ Note: this is a companion piece to the Darts & Laurels column that appears in the September/October 2011 issues... More

Escape From Thailand

A simple story about plagiarism forced me to flee a country I love

By Erika Fry   Sep 2, 2011 at 02:17 PM

Editors’ Note: this is a companion piece to the Darts & Laurels column that appears in the September/October 2011 issue... More

The Parallax View (1974)

(Sometimes) Good Guys Finish Last: Pakula’s sober counterpoint to All The President’s Men

By Erika Fry   Sep 1, 2011 at 06:09 PM

It’s the Fourth of July in Seattle. We’re on the scene with Lee Carter, a young television reporter, who is... More

Missing the Bus

NYTimes overly focuses on one pratfall facing young campaign reporters

By Erika Fry   Aug 31, 2011 at 04:54 PM

There was a silly story on the front page of the The New York Times Wednesday morning. With its title... More

Money Talks

Why do we never hear from the working class on op-ed pages?

By Erika Fry   Aug 24, 2011 at 12:39 PM

Last week, eighty-year-old billionaire Warren Buffett whipped up a media frenzy when, in an op-ed for The New York Times... More

The Provo Papers

Utah TV reporter tracks down two million-dollar Romney donors

By Erika Fry   Aug 18, 2011 at 02:46 PM

A couple weeks ago, NBC News’s national investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff broke a story—“a bombshell-of-a-scoop” termed Mother Jones; a political... More

Campaigning Between Covers

Why do presidential wannabes write books?

By Erika Fry   Aug 17, 2011 at 05:26 PM

In 1935, James Harold Wallis wrote in The Politician: His habits, outcries and protective coloring: Only a very shrewd politician... More

Iowan Silos

In debate analysis, journalists should use locals for more than just color

By Erika Fry   Aug 12, 2011 at 04:56 PM

There was a debate last night out in Iowa, hosted by Fox News and The Washington Examiner. And sure enough,... More

Straw Dogs

Why the press can’t quit Ames, Iowa

By Erika Fry   Aug 10, 2011 at 01:07 PM

Iowa has never been much of a tourist destination. The state’s main attractions are fictions (Riverside, Iowa: The Birthplace of... More

Hanging by the Telephone

A NYTimes account is mum on Strauss-Kahn accuser’s phone call

By Erika Fry   Aug 5, 2011 at 11:12 AM

On Monday, The New York Times had an exclusive for its subscribers: an e-mail promising, as its title read, “The... More

Mapping Violence Against Journalists in Afghanistan

By Erika Fry   Aug 1, 2011 at 01:13 PM

Last week, Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a 25-year old stringer for the BBC, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in... More