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Articles by Gal Beckerman | Email the Author

 

1. Politics

   Day One’s Stand-Up Guy Becomes Day Two’s Shifty Weasel

   September 15, 2005 03:05 PM

   Finally, yesterday, Judge John Roberts gave those brave American citizens struggling to keep their eyes open during his soporific confirmation hearing a piece of critical insight into his elusive mind: His favorite films are "Doctor Zhivago" and "North by Northwest."... Continue reading

2. Politics

   What’s Going On At Gitmo?

   September 14, 2005 03:01 PM

   Amidst the post-Katrina coverage, the Roberts confirmation hearing, and the latest devastatingly deadly suicide attack in Iraq, a big story was lost in the fog today: apparently one-fourth of the 502 inmates at Guantanamo are on a hunger strike. ... Continue reading

3. Behind the News

   Is It Gonzo — Or Is It Just So Much Gas?

   September 13, 2005 02:59 PM

   We saw something on television this weekend that would likely have made George Plimpton and Hunter S. Thompson, up there in Gonzo Heaven, choke on their respective drinks. Charlie LeDuff, a New York Times reporter with more celebrity cache... Continue reading

4. Behind the News

   A Press That Walks and Chews Gum at the Same Time? Not Likely

   September 12, 2005 05:34 PM

   Generals are forever fighting the last war, the saying goes. Well, Senators sitting on the Judiciary Committee, grilling potential justices for the Supreme Court, are apparently always fighting yesterday's judicial battles. John Roberts' confirmation hearing to become the 17th... Continue reading

5. The Water Cooler

   Mike Keller on Dancing With Katrina

   September 9, 2005 03:38 PM

   When Mike Keller graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism in May, he figured that, like most rookie reporters, he would have to start off covering mundane municipal meetings or arranging "grip 'n grin" photos for the inside pages of... Continue reading

6. Blog Report

   Blame Game Subsumes Blogosphere

   September 8, 2005 01:26 PM

   Have you ever played The Blame Game? It's fun. You should try it. The White House apparently doesn't want to play. Scott McClellan made that clear at a press conference yesterday, where he mentioned The Game eight times ("We... Continue reading

7. Politics

   The Veil Falls Yet Again

   September 7, 2005 02:42 PM

   In her New York Times column today, Maureen Dowd delights in the fact that, for the Bush Administration, Hurricane Katrina might mean that the chickens might finally be coming home to roost. "But now, when W., Mr. Cheney, Laura,... Continue reading

8. Blog Report

   Blog Nation Pauses to Remember … Gilligan

   September 7, 2005 12:19 PM

   The blogosphere mourned the passing of a great man today, one who will be missed by many. No, not William Rehnquist. Bob Denver. To quote Chez Pinkgoose, a French blogger: "Gilligan est mort! Bob Denver n'est plus!" In typical... Continue reading

9. Behind the News

   Moribund Patient Lurches Awake

   September 6, 2005 05:06 PM

   What exactly happened to broadcast and cable news last week? On Monday, when Hurricane Katrina touched ground, we did little more than yawn (and, admittedly, giggle a bit) watching station after station slip into numbingly predictable bad-weather mode. You know... Continue reading

10. Politics

    Faulkner They Ain’t

    September 2, 2005 05:45 PM

    As soon as New Orleans began looking like some kind of awful latter-day Atlantis earlier this week, the inevitable mawkish, maudlin elegies to the Lost City came wafting in. New Orleans, it seems, was a fantasyland, full of earthly pleasures... Continue reading

11. Politics

    By Omission, Not Commission

    September 1, 2005 06:07 PM

    NBC photojournalist Tony Zumbado looked visibly shaken this afternoon when he spoke on MSNBC with Alison Stewart. It's no wonder. He had just filmed the chaos at the New Orleans convention center where hundreds of people had been, by... Continue reading

12. Politics

    David Brooks Examines New Orleans’ “Unacknowledged Inequalities”

    September 1, 2005 11:36 AM

    For a few days now, since Katrina slammed her way across the Gulf Coast, we've been harping on the need for reporters to acknowledge the underlying class issues that determined who was saved and who was damned. Lo... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    When Good News Trumps Bad News - And Vice Versa

    August 31, 2005 04:00 PM

    It was somehow fitting that the Census Bureau's latest poverty numbers came out yesterday. After all, on the front page we were provided with a pretty extreme illustration of what it means to be poor in this country: In New... Continue reading

14. Politics

    A Little Transparency, Please

    August 30, 2005 03:53 PM

    In recent days, Peter Galbraith has become a go-to analyst on Iraq's constitutional squabbles. By his own account, as he told Brian Lehrer on WNYC yesterday, he sat through nearly all the testy negotiations over the final draft. His... Continue reading

15. Behind the News

    Fire Ants Eat Citizens, Just Before Toxic Soup Burns City to Ground!

    August 29, 2005 03:58 PM

    Clearly, New Orleans is in bad shape. As of 2:00 p.m. today, levees were breaking, winds well over 100 mph were whipping through the bars and bordellos of the French Quarter, and the Superdome, where 10,000 were taking refuge, had... Continue reading

16. Politics

    Who Are Those People?

    August 29, 2005 01:38 PM

    As thousands of weary and anxious people streamed into New Orleans' Superdome in advance of Hurricane Katrina yesterday, dragging their few pieces of luggage behind them, one fact went strangely missing in most news reports: they are poor. USA Today's... Continue reading

17. Behind the News

    Let’s Report More, Take Credit Less

    August 22, 2005 05:22 PM

    Journalists love thinking that they can save lives. What could be more purifying, more self-affirming, after days spent wading in muck and sensation, than the feeling that, like doctors, you too can stave off death? When a skeletal, dying African... Continue reading

18. Politics

    Saving Perspective for the Editorial Page

    August 18, 2005 04:38 PM

    Epic drama like this doesn't come around every day. Jews barricaded in a synagogue, many wrapped in prayer shawls, refusing to leave. Settler women thrusting babies into the faces of young, weeping soldiers sent to evacuate them. Whole families... Continue reading

19. Bio

    Gal Beckerman

    Gal Beckerman is a former staff writer at CJR.

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