Author Archive
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Blog Report
Saddam Hussein? Or Body Double?
October 19, 2005 02:26 PMAll eyes today were on a courtroom in Baghdad where behind a barrier of white metal bars sat Saddam Hussein, in what he called "his best clothes," his hair as jet black as always (are they still letting him dye... Continue reading
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Behind the News
It’s Not Just What You Know, It’s How You Know
October 18, 2005 04:12 PMIf sometimes it seems like pundits and politicians can see what they want to when looking at Iraq, either fledgling democracy or catastrophic failure, it has to be at least partly due to the murkiness of even the most basic... Continue reading
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Blog Report
Running Amok With “Miss Run Amok”
October 17, 2005 12:37 PMThe 6,000 words that the New York Times devoted yesterday to explaining (if that's the word) Judith Miller's involvement in the Valerie Plame affair have, predictably, provided ample fodder for hundreds of bloggers -- after all, it's not every day... Continue reading
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Politics
What is John Bolton Up To at the United Nations?
October 11, 2005 01:44 PMIf you're a reader of the New York Times, you'll have to get out your magnifying glass today to find out. A small box containing a 150-word Reuters report tells us the latest doings of the controversial new U.S.... Continue reading
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Politics
Parsing the Nominee By Second-Hand Means
October 10, 2005 04:43 PMWonkette is probably right today to wonder what it says about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers that "her strongest proponent (next to the president) is her ex?" And what a proponent Nathan Hecht has been. From conference calls... Continue reading
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Politics
Got Any Specifics, Guys?
October 7, 2005 05:21 PMPresident Bush's speech yesterday to the National Endowment for Democracy was billed as a major foreign policy pronouncement on the state of the "War on Terror." But it didn't seem to contain much new. The war was framed as... Continue reading
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The Audit
Information Wants to Be - Not So Free?
October 6, 2005 04:24 PMOne glance at the "most emailed articles" list on the New York Times Web site is enough to see what an adverse effect the new pay wall, TimesSelect, is having on readership of the paper's columnists. Before, Frank Rich's... Continue reading
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Politics
Be Still, Our Heart
October 5, 2005 02:38 PMPresident Bush's Rose Garden defense of Harriet Miers yesterday hinged on his personal acquaintance with a critical piece of her anatomy: her heart. "I know her character, I know her strength, I know her talent, and I know she's... Continue reading
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Magazine Report
Auletta’s Opus, and Warring Novelists
October 4, 2005 03:42 PMKen Auletta's profile of the Los Angeles Times in this week's New Yorker offers some insight into what went wrong after the Tribune Company bought the Times five years ago from the Chandler family (unfortunately, the piece is not available... Continue reading
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Behind the News
What’s Really Up in Los Angeles?
October 3, 2005 04:10 PMTimes have been tough for newspapers lately. We wrote recently about personnel and budget cuts at some pretty prominent papers: The New York Times Company is cutting 500 jobs, 45 of them in the newsroom; the Philadelphia Inquirer is... Continue reading
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Politics
A Little Too Hidden, If You Ask Us
September 30, 2005 01:38 PMTwo weeks ago we wrote about our concern that little media attention was being paid to a massive hunger strike that had been taken up by over a quarter of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, demanding, among other improvements... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Product Placement: It’s Everywhere, It’s Everywhere
September 29, 2005 01:45 PMSo we were sipping our Starbucks macchiato, sitting in front of our Dell computer, a bottle of crystal clear Evian at our side, when we came upon this headline in the Christian Science Monitor today: "Product placement pushes into... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Setting the Record Straight
September 27, 2005 02:22 PMAs if the horror of a hurricane sweeping away an American city wasn't awful enough, in the days after Katrina barreled through New Orleans the press was filled with a man-made story almost as dramatic: the total breakdown of social... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Who Were Those Guys Behind the Curtain?
September 26, 2005 05:42 PMSaturday afternoon's mass anti-war rally in front of the White House was big news in the papers the next day. The Washington Post carried it as the off-lead, while the Los Angeles Times and the New York... Continue reading
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Politics
But Does It Work?
September 23, 2005 03:09 PMAs part of his address to the nation last week, President Bush, sleeves rolled up in an eerily lit Jackson Square in New Orleans, announced the creation of a Gulf Opportunity Zone as one of the centerpieces of post-Katrina... Continue reading
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Politics
Where Stories Go to Die: Page A23
September 22, 2005 12:36 PMOkay, you tell us if this isn't big news. Look at this lede from the back pages of the Washington Post today: "The Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Intrepid Scribes Seek Out Signs of Life in Crescent City
September 21, 2005 03:00 PMHow does one know that civilization has returned to a city that has been all but submerged for weeks? A city where, just last week, corpses littered the streets and starving people were still stranded in waterlogged houses? Why,... Continue reading
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Politics
Alas, There Were Precious Few to Check
September 20, 2005 05:36 PMPresident Bush announced today -- over the protests of disgruntled Democrats -- that Francis Fargos Townsend will head an internal White House investigation into the fiasco of the government's initial response to Hurricane Katrina. Townsend's job, as the president has... Continue reading
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Politics
Katrina Revives an Old Debate
September 19, 2005 05:49 PMOne of the beauties of the Internet is having, just clicks away, radically divergent views on any given issue. With the reconstruction of New Orleans looming larger every day, the hope -- or the specter, depending on your political persuasion... Continue reading
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Behind the News
It Must Be True. They Told Us So.
September 16, 2005 05:37 PMIt's hard to think of a more unreliable source of information on teenagers' sex life than -- well, than teenagers themselves. Come on. We were all there. The strange brew of low self-esteem, peer pressure and raging hormones doesn't exactly... 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
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