Does Rick Perry Have Fire in His Belly?

How could The Washington Post possibly know?

By Greg Marx   Oct 14, 2011 at 03:20 PM

Other than the continuing gravity-defying nature of Herman Cain’s book tour run for president, the big horse race story of... More

Politico Primary: Down the Rabbit Hole

Only in DC could Hillary, Condi, and Erskine be considered a break from the ‘governing class’

By Greg Marx   Oct 7, 2011 at 02:18 PM

I don’t begrudge the folks at Politico their decision to launch a gimmicky new feature called “Politico Primary,” in which... More

Once Again, No Housing Questions for Obama

White House press corps doesn’t follow up on ProPublica story

By Greg Marx   Oct 6, 2011 at 04:06 PM

Much of President Obama’s press conference earlier today was devoted to the latest partisan fight in DC over the American... More

TNR Highlights Perry’s ‘Crony Capitalist’ Past

Will his indifference to ideology present a primary problem?

By Greg Marx   Sep 29, 2011 at 04:12 PM

Former Washington Post reporter Alec MacGillis, who has joined The New Republic to cover the 2012 campaign, has his first... More

Norm Ornstein Gets Congress; WaPo Doesn’t

Result of Republican FEMA brinksmanship described as ‘almost accidental’

By Greg Marx   Sep 29, 2011 at 01:50 PM

Remember that New York Times story earlier this week on the (since-resolved) showdown over federal disaster aid—the one that misleadingly... More

Does This Mean the Iowa Caucuses Are Like eHarmony?

By Greg Marx   Sep 29, 2011 at 10:47 AM

Web headline on the lead campaign story in The New York Times today: “Romney Waits as G.O.P. Flirts with Alternates.”... More

HuffPost Goes Deep On Google

Too deep, in fact. Arianna, how about hiring an editor?

By Greg Marx   Sep 27, 2011 at 03:26 PM

The Huffington Post trio of Ryan Grim, Zach Carter, and Paul Blumenthal dropped their 6,800-word take on “Google, Microsoft, and... More

‘Congress’ Not to Blame for FEMA Feud

New York Times channels misplaced ‘pox-on-both-their-houses’ anger

By Greg Marx   Sep 26, 2011 at 03:23 PM

A memo to reporters who write about federal policy disputes: “Congress” is not an actor. “Congress” has no mind. “Congress”... More

This Time Around, Little Traction for ‘Class Warfare’

By Greg Marx   Sep 21, 2011 at 04:51 PM

This bit of faint praise may reflect—to borrow a phrase—the soft bigotry of low expectations, but I’ll offer it anyway:... More

Passing Interference

As politicians find new ways to connect with voters, journalists need a fresh playbook

By Greg Marx   Sep 20, 2011 at 10:44 AM

At the Poynter site last week, Jason Fry had a sharp post about a major change reshaping the sports journalism... More

Witnessing Somalia

By Greg Marx   Sep 16, 2011 at 02:57 PM

Just a quick note: Jeffrey Gettleman's New York Times article from yesterday on famine in Somalia merits an appreciation. It's... More

Parsing Perry’s ‘Ponzi’ Claim

By Greg Marx   Sep 15, 2011 at 11:49 AM

My short post last week on the failure of a CBS News story to assess the accuracy of Rick Perry’s... More

Rhetorical Differences

Drew Westen misses the constraints on Obama’s presidential oratory

By Greg Marx   Sep 13, 2011 at 11:04 AM

About five weeks ago, the psychology professor Drew Westen published a very long and not very persuasive essay in The... More

Shouldn’t All Stories be ‘Fact-Check’ Stories?

By Greg Marx   Sep 8, 2011 at 04:55 PM

On the subject of fact-checking the presidential debates, it’s worth noting that while the proliferation of “fact-check” stories over the... More

An Inflated Claim

After Republican debate, facts needed on monetary policy

By Greg Marx   Sep 8, 2011 at 04:33 PM

Last night was debate night for the Republican presidential contenders, which means today is “fact-check” day for the political press.... More

A More Than Marginally Embarrassing Mistake

USA Weekend caught flatfooted on tax goof

By Greg Marx   Sep 6, 2011 at 03:45 PM

See update at bottom of this post. I don’t want to encroach too far onto Craig Silverman’s territory, but USA... More

In Defense of (the Right Kind of) Horse Race Journalism

When primaries decide party priorities, voters should be brought in on the conversation

By Greg Marx   Sep 6, 2011 at 11:18 AM

Horse race journalism has a bad reputation among press critics. The NYU professor Jay Rosen, in a recent talk on... More

Leonhardt’s Sharp Look at the Mind of the Fed

Why has debate at the central bank been so constrained?

By Greg Marx   Aug 31, 2011 at 02:15 PM

It’s a few days old now, but David Leonhardt had a great column in the Sunday Review section of The... More

More Unsettling Insights from Perry’s Eggheads

Politicians are learning more about how to work the media. Can the press push back?

By Greg Marx   Aug 25, 2011 at 01:39 PM

A Campaign Desk post the other day noted an interesting claim by Sasha Issenberg, the author of a new ebook... More

Covering the Fringe Candidates

How should the press decide which dissents to take seriously?

By Greg Marx   Aug 23, 2011 at 12:15 PM

Jon Huntsman’s campaign for president doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, so why does he retain his commanding lead in... More