Author Archive
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Behind the News
Nancy Grace Shreds the Envelope
July 21, 2006 04:49 PMJust how mindlessly callous can cable news get? We were provided with a pretty good example the other day by CNN's Nancy Grace, self-proclaimed purveyor of "television's only justice-themed/interview/debate show" (whatever that means). Grace snagged an interview... Continue reading
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Behind the News
About Those Photos of Little Girls and Artillery Shells …
July 20, 2006 05:44 PM(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner;click for larger image) (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner;click for larger image) The sweet-faced little Israeli girls drawing with markers... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Lebanon Is More Than Just Orange Fireballs
July 14, 2006 04:41 PMTelevision loves explosions. It doesn't get much better for broadcast news than when bombs are falling -- the shock and the awe is something that words and photos can't capture quite as well as video and audio. And Israel, true... Continue reading
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Politics
The New York Times: This Summer’s Pinata
July 12, 2006 12:43 PMAs soon as the New York Times revealed, late last month, the existence of a government program to comb through the bank records of millions of people as a way of catching terrorists, it was it was a given that... Continue reading
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Behind the News
A Failure to Compare and Contrast
July 7, 2006 02:39 PMThe White House might have hit a hypocrisy high water mark yesterday with this comment from press secretary Tony Snow about the administration's unwillingness to confront North Korea about its July 4th seven-missile surprise: "The U.S. response is we're working... Continue reading
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The Audit
Letter to the Editor: More Rubbish, Please
July 3, 2006 08:30 AMWhat would make you send a letter to the New York Times? Well, basically anger -- a mighty sense of outrage that one of the most influential papers in the country has committed a grave injustice, a gross defamation, a... Continue reading
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Behind the News
The Challenge With Anonymice Is Getting a Lot of Them
June 30, 2006 05:05 PMRon Suskind's new book, The One Percent Doctrine, has been a conversation starter for the two weeks since its publication. Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, got deep inside the workings of the CIA and Bush administration in the... Continue reading
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The Audit
The Journal Reports That Good Deeds Are Bad
June 28, 2006 04:19 PMWarren Buffett's groundbreaking decision this week to donate most of his wealth to charity (and specifically to his buddy Bill Gates' charity) was roundly greeted with applause and respect. It was hard to find anything really negative to say; the... Continue reading
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Politics
Daily Kos For Sale?
June 22, 2006 03:40 PMIt might not actually be the discovery of "The Blogosphere's Smoke-Filled Backroom," as Jason Zengerle writes on The Plank, but charges of some light corruption by the eminent Markos Moulitsas (or, simply, Kos) have gained a head of steam... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Exit Rather, Enter Coop and Plump Lips
June 21, 2006 12:41 PMFor those bloggers who seem to be in a permanent state of hand-wringing about what they see as broadcast journalism's plummeting standards, yesterday was a bonanza. Not only did Dan Rather, the last of the "voice of God" troika announce... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Time on Terror, Atlantic Monthly on One Terrorist
June 20, 2006 03:20 PMWe fearful, anxious masses can never get enough information on how the War on Terror is being fought. What is happening behind the scenes? Is our phone being tapped and our email intercepted -- or not? Who are the personalities... Continue reading
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Behind the News
World Cup Captivates (Some) U.S. Bloggers
June 19, 2006 02:03 PMAnyone who thinks that Americans have yet to embrace the beautiful game of soccer and are basically ignoring the World Cup should check out the blogosphere. We already know, via the New York Observer and Slate respectively, that... Continue reading
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Politics
Press Politicizes, Instead of Examining, Death Toll In Iraq
June 16, 2006 04:16 PMThe death toll for American soldiers in Iraq hit the 2,500 mark yesterday with the national press not particularly eager to make much of it. It was a sharp contrast with last October, when, as we noted <a... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Guantanamo: The Elephant in the Newsroom
June 14, 2006 10:30 AMWe don't think we can put it any better than the New York Times editorial page did Monday, so we won't even try: "The news that three inmates at Guantanamo Bay hanged themselves should not have surprised anyone who... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Zarqawi: Master of the Massacre, or Inept Dolt?
June 9, 2006 04:44 PMWho was Musab al-Zarqawi? Evil mastermind or bumbling fool? Intelligent or doltish? Enterprising terrorist or al Queda puppet? As the bloated, bloody face of America's enemy number one in Iraq dominated the front pages of newspapers today, reporters on the... Continue reading
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Politics
Press Pounces to Over-Interpret California Race
June 8, 2006 01:55 PMJournalists are always hungry for some politics. And you could see the saliva practically dripping off the page this morning in stories about the first congressional election of 2006 - to fill the seat of disgraced and imprisoned Rep. Randy... Continue reading
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Behind the News
The Toronto Star Dazzles on Terrorists Story
June 7, 2006 08:00 AMIt's the kind of situation that can leave a newspaper reeling with embarrassment -- a major story with international implications breaks in that paper's backyard and catches editors and journalists off-guard, unprepared to describe and explain what they should know... Continue reading
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Behind the News
One Reporter’s Layered, Nuanced Work from Darfur
June 2, 2006 01:05 PMThe situation in Darfur is as dire as ever. As the New York Times reported Wednesday, there has been a drying up of the aid money that has maintained refugee camps and critical medical services for over 2.5 million... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Times Fails to Get Even a Cliché Right
May 31, 2006 01:37 PMThere are a number of great seasonal clichés in journalism: the Christmas shopping story, the back-to-school story, the "spring is here" story. And, of course, there is the Memorial Day story, usually some kind of speculation about how crowded the... Continue reading
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Behind the News
What the F—k Are They Driving At?
May 26, 2006 04:12 PMIt's not that we're particularly titillated by dirty words. And we can understand why most newspapers, for the sake of decorum, feel the need to ban them from their pages. Still, when a newsmaker uses the f-word, or any other... 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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