All Eyes On Gaga

What the popstar reveals about some lazy fashion reporting

By Joel Meares   Jul 16, 2010 at 04:30 PM

Okay, did that get your attention? Good. It was meant to. Now, hate to break it to you, but this... More

Saying Something New

Two reporters on the challenges of writing a fresh political profile

By Joel Meares   Jul 16, 2010 at 02:42 PM

Midterms are on the horizon—though you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d hit the shore—and reporters are stalking, scrutinizing, and sometimes... More

“Hi, welcome to this esteemed mainstream media institution.”

By Joel Meares   Jul 15, 2010 at 02:34 PM

If you haven't seen this video, "Working for the MSM: Day One," produced using the xtranormal text-to-movie Web site, do... More

Goodbye Girl Power, Hello Cat Fighting

LA Times piece substitutes one female pol storyline for another

By Joel Meares   Jul 15, 2010 at 12:34 PM

Sunday’s Los Angeles Times story on the history of tensions between California’s leading ladies, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, seems... More

An Oddly Weightless Times Profile

But was it a beat sweetener?

By Joel Meares   Jul 15, 2010 at 11:50 AM

Slate’s Press Box blogger Jack Shafer took a hacksaw to the Times’s Saturday profile of National Security Council chief... More

CNN’s Got Talent?

An surprise choice for Larry King’s chair may have unsurprising results

By Joel Meares   Jul 14, 2010 at 01:43 PM

Our first reaction to news that America’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan will probably take Larry King’s chair at CNN?... More

See Alabama Run

Catch up on coverage of today’s Alabama primary runoffs

By Joel Meares   Jul 13, 2010 at 12:47 PM

Voters of both political persuasions decide several primary runoffs today in the Yellowhammer State. There’s a bunch of interesting tussles... More

Mika’s Grumpy, Meta Morning

By Joel Meares   Jul 12, 2010 at 03:01 PM

Morning Joe host Mika Brzesinski channeled the Greek chorus this morning as she juggled MSNBC’s morning madness without usual desk... More

PolitiFact, Pedantry, and Rolling Heads

Pols’ complaints about fact-checking site miss the mark

By Joel Meares   Jul 12, 2010 at 02:03 PM

PolitiFact, the fact-checking Web site created by the St. Petersburg Times—whose dispute with Arianna Huffington we noted last week—has been... More

Steele Trap

The press knew what the RNC chief was saying, but internecine warfare is a better story

By Joel Meares   Jul 9, 2010 at 04:20 PM

Michael Steele had a rough holiday weekend. The right’s media heavies called for the RNC chairman’s resignation, GOP senators kicked... More

Viva Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Sun reporter keeping candidates in check

By Joel Meares   Jul 9, 2010 at 04:17 PM

The president visited Sin City yesterday to bolster support for hot midterm target Harry Reid, drawing our attention to coverage... More

Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda at Politico

Reporters reach to tie Obama administration to Blagojevich business

By Joel Meares   Jul 9, 2010 at 10:48 AM

Assuming perhaps that we’d all been missing the sight of Lego-haired former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich—or at least missing out... More

Picturing Kagan’s Future

By Joel Meares   Jul 8, 2010 at 04:57 PM

We lamented the glut of coverage of the Kagan hearings in an earlier posting, so it may seem a tad... More

Truth Be Told

Huffington’s post on PolitiFact misses the mark

By Joel Meares   Jul 8, 2010 at 02:40 PM

Arianna Huffington used her holiday Monday to belatedly attack the St. Petersburg Times’s PolitiFact Web site for its unfavorable... More

“Supreme Court Nomination Hearings Are Funny Things”

Enough already about Elena Kagan’s sense of humor

By Joel Meares   Jul 8, 2010 at 12:36 PM

Almost a year ago to the day, my colleague Greg Marx wrote on the peculiar relationship reporters have with Supreme... More