Author Archive
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Politics
Congress Pumps a Little Gas Itself
April 28, 2006 05:36 PMHypocrisy in Washington is not a new story. And yet it never ceases to amaze how politicians do such a poor job covering their own tracks as they try to maintain the appearance that they live by the principles they... Continue reading
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Behind the News
We Are the Decider, and We Decide This is Fluff
April 26, 2006 01:51 PMWe have a disturbing trend to report: It seems the creeping Sunday Stylization of the New York Times has accelerated to a lope and invaded even the national section of the weekday Times. An article in... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Mary McCarthy: The Media Martyr Who Wasn’t
April 25, 2006 03:27 PMYesterday's denial by Mary McCarthy that she was the source for Dana Priest's Pulitzer Prize-winning story about secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe not only robbed the left and right of, respectively, a new hero and a new villain... Continue reading
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The Audit
Chicago Trib Demands More Junk Food for Kids
April 21, 2006 03:33 PMWhile reading the Chicago Tribune's take on Kraft Foods' recent financial woes, our teeth started to hurt. Maybe it was a cavity forming, but more likely we were just grinding them in mad frustration. The article... Continue reading
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The Audit
Nuw Yerk Tumes Names Sulzburger as Chairmun
April 20, 2006 12:50 PMYesterday provided a serious reality check for Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company. In what could only be an act of protest against the junior Sulzberger's leadership, public investors controlling more than a quarter of... Continue reading
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The Audit
Is Page Six Really All that Different?
April 18, 2006 02:35 PMIn his always engaging column yesterday, David Carr of the New York Times presented his take on the Page Six scandal that erupted two weeks ago, arguing that we shouldn't ignore the real power and influence that the... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Sonia Nazario on Riding the Rails to Retrace the Steps of One Illegal Immigrant
April 14, 2006 06:27 PMSonia Nazario (left) Sonia Nazario has been a reporter at the Los Angeles Times since 1993. She was the recipient of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for a... Continue reading
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Politics
Blogosphere Discovers Iran
April 13, 2006 04:19 PMIran is very much on bloggers' minds this week. Specifically, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's surprise revelation that his country is now capable of enriching uranium, a first step towards the A-bomb or, as the Terror of Tehran put it this... Continue reading
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Politics
Bloggers Pounce on Wobbly-Legged Frogs
April 12, 2006 05:25 PMIn the minds of many Americans, Europe can sometimes be a place as virtual as the blogosphere -- not a complex, breathing, multifaceted collection of populations, not an actual location, but rather a reflection of one's own political beliefs and... Continue reading
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Behind the News
What Does “Thursday Styles” Have in Common With Katie Couric?
April 11, 2006 12:27 PMThe absurdity that is the Thursday Styles section of the New York Times is not exactly news to us. Still, we were tickled to see The New Republic spend 4,000 words on the matter in its typically wonky pages.... Continue reading
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Politics
Seymour Hersh Has Both Right And Left Apoplectic
April 10, 2006 05:09 PMBloggers -- and at least one newspaper columnist -- are taking Seymour Hersh's alarming new piece in The New Yorker very seriously. The man who brought us the My Lai massacre and, more recently, the Abu Ghraib abuses,... Continue reading
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Politics
Bush Bats Away Fly, Media See Epic Struggle
April 7, 2006 04:36 PMOne of the Bush administration's defining qualities has been, since day one, its extraordinary ability to stay "on message." The press, naturally, has found this extremely frustrating. Thus, the recent set of unscripted town hall-style meetings -- during which President... Continue reading
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Politics
McCain, Reconsidered
April 6, 2006 04:45 PMIn an online Q & A that accompanied her May 2005 New Yorker profile of John McCain, Connie Bruck was asked why the Arizona senator claimed Teddy Roosevelt as his hero and role model. Among other things, Bruck... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Is Jill Carroll Really Iraq’s Patty Hearst?
March 31, 2006 02:32 PMWe were thrilled yesterday to hear the news that the sweet-faced, intrepid Jill Carroll had been freed in Iraq. (This reporter was even heard to exclaim something about a marriage proposal to Ms. Carroll.) It isn't hard to understand why,... Continue reading
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Politics
Just Because They’re Not Shouting, it Doesn’t Mean They Don’t Care
March 28, 2006 12:37 PMThe press' instinct to apply simple narratives to complex stories isn't limited to American politics. Apparently, members of the media are just as happy to impose superficial storylines on international politics, too. Over the past few days, a... Continue reading
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Politics
U.S. Pulls Plug on Iraqi Reconstruction, Press Yawns
March 24, 2006 04:51 PMUSA Today is the only paper to lead today with what, in our estimation, is pretty big news. The head of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq has declared that America is done paying the bills to rebuild the country.... Continue reading
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Behind the News
The Attack on the Press in Iraq, Part Two
March 23, 2006 05:25 PMIt was one of the last questions yesterday at another of the town hall meetings that President Bush has been filling his schedule with lately -- this one in West Virginia. A woman stood up and first let Bush... Continue reading
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Politics
Are You Going to Believe “Images” or Words?
March 21, 2006 05:15 PMWe've had a strange but persistent thought these past few days watching administration officials try to make the case that the U.S. is actually winning the war in Iraq as it enters its fourth year: George Bush, Dick Cheney and... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Marilyn Johnson on Writing About the Dead, Not the Dying
March 17, 2006 05:02 PMMarilyn Johnson (Rob Fleder) Marilyn Johnson's new book The Dead Beat explores the world of obituaries -- both the journalists who write them and the readers who... Continue reading
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Politics
Saying Nothing, Making Page One Anyway
March 10, 2006 04:04 PMThe Washington Post peaked our interest this morning by fronting a story headlined, "U.S. Sets Plans to Aid Iraq in Civil War." Was the administration admitting that the sectarian violence of the past few... 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
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