Author Archive
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Behind the News
If the networks and the Pentagon hate it, ‘Hometown Baghdad’ is surely must-see TV
May 15, 2007 03:39 PMAdel, the rock star of the three, with his big black shades, spiky hair, and goatee, looks at the camera and describes how his date went last night. "The vast majority of girls will not allow you to get where... Continue reading
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Politics
Look Who’s Dining with the Queen
May 8, 2007 04:12 PMRemember the sturm und drang two weeks ago following the annual Washington Correspondents Association dinner? The capital press corps was chastised once again for their coziness to power, a few scathing columns attacked a culture of journalistic complacency, and eventually... Continue reading
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Behind the News
The Organic Link Between Books and Newspapers
May 1, 2007 01:45 PMGive the Los Angeles Times some credit. Rather than fight its critics, it sometimes gives them the opportunity to sound off in its own pages. Such was the case this past weekend when Michael Connelly, a writer of mystery novels,... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Counting the Dead in Iraq
April 27, 2007 12:00 PMThe tug-of-war over the releasing or withholding of civilian death tolls in Iraq is one we've watched closely over the years. Not only because these numbers are an important marker of how the war is going, but because the decision... Continue reading
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Politics
The Sun’s Wafer-thin Attack on Elliott’s Pulitzer Piece
April 20, 2007 04:23 PMThe New York Times' sole Pulitzer prize this year went to Andrea Elliott, a young metro reporter at the paper, for a series she wrote about the imam of a Brooklyn mosque. The portrait of Sheikh Rada Shata revealed... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Fox News Takes Vonnegut’s Bait, One Last Time
April 17, 2007 01:13 PMIn an essay in 2004, Kurt Vonnegut, doing one of the things he did best, distilled in a single phrase what television (and, we would add, cable TV in particular) had done to our species: "Thanks to TV and for... Continue reading
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Politics
Politico’s One-Source Wonder
March 22, 2007 04:36 PMHow often have we opened a newspaper and seen these words: "My apologies to our readers for passing on bad information"? Um, never. So, first things first: Ben Smith, of the brand new Politico Web site... Continue reading
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Politics
Do You Know Why the U.S. Attorneys Were Canned?
March 15, 2007 03:02 PMWith the release earlier this week of e-mails from the Justice Department about the firings and hirings of eight U.S. attorneys last year, it's become clear that politics played a critical role in the affair. No one can seriously question... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Want a Well-Designed Newspaper? Go to Europe.
March 12, 2007 01:18 PMEvery year, the Society for News Design, an international organization based in Syracuse, New York, hands out awards for excellence in what it calls "visual journalism"--all the elements, beyond the words, that go into creating a newspaper. The most prestigious... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Kurt Eichenwald, $2K and the Curious Ways of Investigative Reporters
March 8, 2007 12:22 PMWe can't help but cheer when good investigative journalism actually does what it's supposed to do -- raise awareness about issues previously ignored, expose bad guys, shine that proverbial spotlight of truth into dark places. Kurt Eichenwald's New York Times... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Forget the Peripheral Stuff at Gitmo. The Story Is Who’s There and Why?
February 28, 2007 12:24 PMThe editors of the New Republic tout a story by Jeffrey Rosen on the cover of this week's magazine, a first-hand account they've decided to call "My Gitmo Vacation." They sure love their counterintuitive stories over there. In the... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Beware the Bloggers
February 21, 2007 02:25 PMIt's kind of disconcerting -- or should be -- to see Tony Snow, the president's press secretary, sitting snuggly, legs crossed, hands daintily on his knees, next to one of the more prominent (and pugnacious) members of the Washington press... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Truth and Consequences
February 16, 2007 04:21 PMWe wish we had come up with the expression first, but it was only a matter of time before someone did. In the end, Karen DeYoung at the Washington Post gets the prize, calling it the "Iraq Syndrome." <br... Continue reading
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Politics
Fool Me Once …
February 12, 2007 05:47 PMMedia critics were on full alert today with worries that the latest administration claims of Iranian involvement in Iraq, reported over the weekend, are being treated with a similar lack of skepticism as the evidence of Iraq's WMD in 2002... Continue reading
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Behind the News
The Importance Of “Seeing” The War
February 3, 2007 01:19 AMThe most shocking, and simultaneously compelling, aspect of the Baghdad dispatch in the New York Times this past Monday was its intimate close-up of one soldier’s death. It was impossible not to feel frustrated by the story of Hector... Continue reading
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Politics
Will The Politico Foster More Horse Race Coverage?
February 1, 2007 03:30 PMDo you care about which legislative aide to Senator Carl Levin writes the senator's questions for his Armed Services Committee grillings? What about whom Nancy Pelosi might endorse for president? Or why Representative Loretta Sanchez quit the Congressional Hispanic Caucus?... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Is Technology Ruining Your Morals?
January 19, 2007 04:57 PMWe are hoping that Lakshmi Chaudhry is ninety years old. Somehow misanthropy, a deep mistrust of technology, and a snarling skepticism about the ability of the masses to make good decisions for themselves goes down a little easier coming from... Continue reading
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Behind the News
To NYT and CBS, All Single Women Look Like Carrie and Angie
January 17, 2007 05:05 PMWe love us a good trend story as much as the next media critic. Give us a quirky New York Times Sunday Style section article to eat -- as Brian Williams recently wrote on his blog, like "dessert on... Continue reading
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Politics
Cordesman’s Op-Ed Belongs On Page 1
January 12, 2007 05:14 PMEven though almost everyone knew by Wednesday exactly what the president's prescriptions for Iraq were going to be, there was a feeling of anticipation as we waited to hear the words actually form on his lips, and to see exactly... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Parsing the “Surge”
January 9, 2007 05:05 PMThe Bush administration has aggressively refined the art of distilling any new initiative presented to the public into a single word or phrase that at once defines the idea while obscuring its various downsides. Orwell coined the everlasting expression for... 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
