Author Archive
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Campaign Desk
Factchecking the ‘gifts’ theory of politics
November 15, 2012 03:10 PMThe big electoral politics story of the day (well, ok, of late Wednesday) is the news that Mitt Romney, on a phone call with contributors to his campaign, attributed his loss to the Obama administration’s strategy of giving “gifts” to... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Who really holds leverage on Bush tax cuts?
November 13, 2012 06:50 AMMy Friday post about how reporters are missing a big part of the “fiscal cliff” story—the leverage President Obama and congressional Democrats can gain in the debate over rich people’s taxes by not doing anything until after the... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
The fiscal whatchamacallit
November 9, 2012 11:57 AMWith Election Day behind us, all of Washington is suddenly focused on a looming issue that drew little notice during the campaign: the “fiscal cliff” of tax hikes and spending cuts that are scheduled to occur on Jan. 1, and... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
Laurels to Politico and National Journal
October 18, 2012 11:30 AMBack in April, an excellent column by Walter Shapiro here at CJR urged reporters on the money-in-politics beat to display some “skepticism about the self-interested role of political insiders and campaign consultants in ballyhooing... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
Ask Obama This: Where’s your short-term jobs plan?
October 5, 2012 06:50 AMOver the final month of the campaign, CJR will run a series of posts under the headline “Ask Obama This” and “Ask Romney This,” suggesting questions that reporters should pose to the presidential candidates. This initial installment focuses on a... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
A laurel to The Denver Post
September 20, 2012 03:00 PMThe secret video recording of Mitt Romney’s now-infamous “47 percent” comment went live on the Mother Jones website at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday. Within a few hours—if that—the political Twittersphere could speak of nothing... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
Romney’s welfare ads: Whom do they affect?
September 17, 2012 02:59 PMOver the past month, many journalists have identified a new development in the presidential campaign: Mitt Romney’s decision to begin making coded racial appeals to the white working class. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank was one of the first on... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
A laurel to FlackCheck.org
September 14, 2012 05:50 PMThe recent journalistic debate about factchecking has prompted some compelling discussion about different strategies, different methods, and what works (e.g., here and here.) But much of that discussion—and we’re as guilty of... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
A laurel to The Atlantic’s Garance Franke-Ruta
August 17, 2012 03:43 PMThis week’s laurel goes to Garance Franke-Ruta of The Atlantic, whose astute web piece “What to Do With Political Lies,” offered some simple, useful advice for how journalists can better respond to misleading and... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Required skimming: how campaigns work
August 14, 2012 06:50 AMThis month, CJR presents “Required Skimming,” a daily miniguide to our staffers’ beats and obsessions, ranging from finance to food. If we overlooked any of your must-read destinations, please tell us in the comments. • Jonathan Bernstein (@jbplainblog): At... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
The real question about Romney’s Bain career
July 23, 2012 06:50 AMThe debate over Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital has been a series of cul-de-sacs and rabbit-holes. When the Republican primary contest was roiled by an argument over how many jobs Bain’s companies had created or destroyed, factcheckers and other... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
The Globe advances the Romney/Bain story
July 20, 2012 03:02 PMThis post has been updated (see bottom of second page). In the great politico-media debate over Mitt Romney, Bain Capital, and outsourcing, writers here at CJR have generally come out in support of the factchecking sites... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
Rehashing the debate about when Romney left Bain
July 12, 2012 05:12 PMThis post has been updated. The big political story of the day is a front-page article in The Boston Globe presenting evidence that Mitt Romney remained chief executive and chairman of Bain Capital until 2002, three years after... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
In defense of covering position papers and official statements
July 9, 2012 06:50 AMIn his latest Swing States column, Walter Shapiro grapples with the question of why campaign issue coverage is not only “yawn-inducing” but also, often, wrong about what future presidents will do in office. He pins the blame on... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
The new media narrative: ‘no-policy’ Romney
June 27, 2012 03:00 PMLately, Mitt Romney is losing his reputation in the media as a politician who constantly flip-flops from one policy position to another—and gaining one as a politician who won’t take a position at all. The shift has been sparked by... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Tucker Carlson on the virtue of interruptions
June 15, 2012 04:30 PM“Most speakers hate to be interrupted, but I enjoy it, having spent about 10 years in cable news getting interrupted and yelled at by a large bald man from Louisiana called James Carville. It actually makes me uncomfortable if people... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Sunlight’s Scout is a promising new tool
June 15, 2012 12:43 PMThe busy folks at Sunlight Labs recently unveiled a nifty new feature that should be useful for advocates, policy wonks, and journalists alike. Scout, which was first introduced in beta back in April, is sort of... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
Smart Post piece asks: Do campaign ads work?
June 15, 2012 12:15 PMI’m late to this, but The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi had a sharp piece the other day about the uses and limits of campaign ads in presidential elections. Farhi gets to the main point right at the outset:... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
How to cover the birthers? Denver Post shows what not to do
June 1, 2012 06:50 AMOn Thursday, CJR published pieces by Walter Shapiro and Brendan Nyhan that grapple with the question of how journalists can responsibly cover outlandish claims by newsworthy figures, like Donald Trump’s birther comments. They each seek to... Continue reading
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Swing States Project
LA Times tries to unmask dark money donors
May 30, 2012 04:11 PMEarlier this week, Matea Gold and Joseph Tanfani of the Los Angeles Times teamed up for a sharp article about the Center to Protect Patient Rights (CPPR), an opaque nonprofit institution that helped steer about $55 million in... Continue reading
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The Kicker last updated: Mon 11:37 AM
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