Author Archive
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The Kicker
Does This Mean the Iowa Caucuses Are Like eHarmony?
September 29, 2011 10:47 AMWeb headline on the lead campaign story in The New York Times today: “Romney Waits as G.O.P. Flirts with Alternates.” Web headline on the lead campaign story in The Washington Post today: “Mitt Romney, never Republicans’... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
HuffPost Goes Deep On Google
September 27, 2011 03:26 PMThe Huffington Post trio of Ryan Grim, Zach Carter, and Paul Blumenthal dropped their 6,800-word take on “Google, Microsoft, and the War for the Web” Sunday night, and like all of HuffPost’s deep dives, the piece was chock-full... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
‘Congress’ Not to Blame for FEMA Feud
September 26, 2011 03:23 PMA memo to reporters who write about federal policy disputes: “Congress” is not an actor. “Congress” has no mind. “Congress” does not make decisions, and “Congress” does not cast votes. If you are writing about some important legislative event that... Continue reading
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The Kicker
This Time Around, Little Traction for ‘Class Warfare’
September 21, 2011 04:51 PMThis bit of faint praise may reflect—to borrow a phrase—the soft bigotry of low expectations, but I’ll offer it anyway: when Republican officials started pushing the risible claim that President Obama’s latest deficit reduction plans are an exercise in “class... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Passing Interference
September 20, 2011 10:44 AMAt the Poynter site last week, Jason Fry had a sharp post about a major change reshaping the sports journalism landscape. The endless MSM-vs.-bloggers feuds are fading, Fry writes, as a new development comes to the fore: That... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Witnessing Somalia
September 16, 2011 02:57 PMJust a quick note: Jeffrey Gettleman's New York Times article from yesterday on famine in Somalia merits an appreciation. It's unbelievably grim, but really well-explained, and most importantly, written not to be "worthy" but to be compelling—i.e., it's... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Parsing Perry’s ‘Ponzi’ Claim
September 15, 2011 11:49 AMMy short post last week on the failure of a CBS News story to assess the accuracy of Rick Perry’s characterization of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” generated some objections in comments, one of which... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Rhetorical Differences
September 13, 2011 11:04 AMAbout five weeks ago, the psychology professor Drew Westen published a very long and not very persuasive essay in The New York Times arguing that Barack Obama’s presidency has fallen short of his supporters’ expectations because he has... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Shouldn’t All Stories be ‘Fact-Check’ Stories?
September 8, 2011 04:55 PMOn the subject of fact-checking the presidential debates, it’s worth noting that while the proliferation of “fact-check” stories over the last few years is probably a step in the right direction, it does come with a risk—that by... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
An Inflated Claim
September 8, 2011 04:33 PMLast night was debate night for the Republican presidential contenders, which means today is “fact-check” day for the political press. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press are all in... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
A More Than Marginally Embarrassing Mistake
September 6, 2011 03:45 PMSee update at bottom of this post. I don’t want to encroach too far onto Craig Silverman’s territory, but USA Weekend is in the middle of an error/inaction/flawed correction episode that is the model of how to make... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
In Defense of (the Right Kind of) Horse Race Journalism
September 6, 2011 11:18 AMHorse race journalism has a bad reputation among press critics. The NYU professor Jay Rosen, in a recent talk on how political coverage is “broken,” included horse race coverage in his list of media sins. Search <a... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Leonhardt’s Sharp Look at the Mind of the Fed
August 31, 2011 02:15 PMIt’s a few days old now, but David Leonhardt had a great column in the Sunday Review section of The New York Times about the Federal Reserve—specifically, about how the debate within the Fed on ways to get... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
More Unsettling Insights from Perry’s Eggheads
August 25, 2011 01:39 PMA Campaign Desk post the other day noted an interesting claim by Sasha Issenberg, the author of a new ebook about the research-informed campaign strategies of Rick Perry. Four political scientists were invited to use Perry’s 2006 gubernatorial... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Covering the Fringe Candidates
August 23, 2011 12:15 PMJon Huntsman’s campaign for president doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, so why does he retain his commanding lead in the magazine profile primary? At his Atlantic blog, Conor Friedersdorf has some sharp thoughts on the... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Post Takes a Look at the ‘Texas Miracle’
August 22, 2011 01:41 PMIn The Washington Post over the weekend, Michael Fletcher did what CJR urged reporters to do last week: he noted that the employment growth behind the “Texas miracle,” which forms part of the argument for Gov. Rick... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Unsettling Insights from Perry’s Eggheads
August 22, 2011 12:23 PMAt the New York Times site today, David Leonhardt has a very interesting Q-and-A with Sasha Issenberg, the former Boston Globe reporter whose forthcoming e-book on the social-scientific campaign stylings of Rick Perry is creating buzz among politics... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
HuffPost and Patch Look for Primary Power Brokers
August 18, 2011 04:36 PMEarly last month, CJR published an interview with Hans Noel, a Georgetown University political scientist and co-author of The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform. The “key insight” of the book, in Noel’s words,... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
A State-Backed Miracle
August 17, 2011 10:04 AMWith Rick Perry now officially in the presidential race, there’s a spate of coverage and commentary about how much credit the governor of the Lone Star State can claim for the purported “Texas miracle”—the fact that during the dismal recovery... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Debunking the Myth of an Independent President
August 11, 2011 04:03 PMBecause it’s only a matter of time before another pundit delivers a half-baked column fantasizing about an independent presidential candidate, it was good to see the Los Angeles Times give some op-ed space to political scientists Seth Masket... Continue reading
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The Audit Business
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