Author Archive
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Reports
How to Cover the Money Race
July 5, 2011 05:58 PMIf 2010’s $3.6 billion midterm elections are any gauge, reporters tasked with following the money in campaign 2012 face a tall order: unparalleled millions—much of it untraceable—spent on political communications; new breeds of intentionally opaque advocacy groups jockeying alongside corporations,... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
“The Usual Queries about Tactics, Controversies”
June 28, 2011 11:18 AMIt’s far too early in the campaign season to let one little Howard Kurtz piece turn you off campaign coverage, stir up familiar feelings of dread and pessimism about election season reporting. It’s just one columnist. One column. ... Continue reading
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The Kicker
It’s the Least CNN Could Do…
June 28, 2011 11:08 AM... name Jessica Yellin chief White House correspondent, after this back in '08: And another Yellin '08 flashback: remember when she told Anderson Cooper, on air, about "news executives" "pushing" for "positive"... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
WaPo on Bachmann’s Language
June 21, 2011 03:20 PMTwo days, two takes from The Washington Post on Michele Bachmann’s language. On Sunday, the Post coined the icky term “money blurt” to describe what it calls the “phenomenon” of “an up-and-coming politician blurt[ing] out something incendiary, provocative or... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
On Eric Bolling’s “Hizzy” Fit
June 16, 2011 09:31 AMIn the thick of the 2008 presidential election season, the Wall Street Journal detected a trend: "Television news organizations, facing unprecedented scrutiny, have often expressed contrition for poorly chosen words during this election season." (Does "Obama's Baby Mama"... Continue reading
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The Kicker
“This or That,” Circa 2007
June 14, 2011 11:57 AMCNN's John King, understandably, took some ribbing for his "this or that" series of questions during last night's Republican presidential debate, questions about which King warned the audience at the start of the debate as follows: Every... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
“What To Watch For” at GOP Prez Debate
June 13, 2011 04:47 PMFolks who wish to be told “what to look for” during tonight’s Republican presidential debate are in luck: pretty much every news organization known to humankind has a what to... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
“Cad.” “Creep.” Campaign Finance Lawbreaker?
June 8, 2011 03:21 PMOn Friday, former presidential contender John Edwards was indicted on six felony charges, including the charge that he solicited and accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations, in violation of campaign finance law, to keep his mistress... Continue reading
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The Kicker
No More Staged Presidential Address Photos!
June 1, 2011 04:05 PMLast month, I, for one, was unpleasantly surprised to learn that some news photos of President Obama addressing the nation to announce the death of Osama bin Laden were actually photos of President Obama re-reading a few sentences of... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Bloomberg Digs on Secret Money
May 24, 2011 10:54 AMA tip of the hat to Bloomberg for a recent quadruple-bylined story on the growing role of outside spending—much of it anonymous dollars—in federal elections. Noting that the “restocking of the outside-money war chests for the presidential election has... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Raising Money, Lowering Expectations
May 18, 2011 02:51 PMOf what value to readers is a story yesterday about what President Obama’s reelection team says it expects it will, eight weeks hence on the next quarterly fundraising filing deadline, report having raised in April, May, and June of 2011?... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
The Secret Money “Seduction”
May 11, 2011 03:41 PMThe Center for Responsive Politics recently published an analysis of the effects of last year's Citizens United Supreme Court decision (which, as the Center summarizes, "allowed corporations and unions to use their general treasuries to pay for political advertisements that... Continue reading
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The Kicker
What to Do Before “Returning a Reporter’s Phone Call”
May 9, 2011 04:41 PMFrom a Bloomberg profile today of Michele Bachmann (headline: “Bachmann Rocks ‘Ruling Class’ With Amens From Tea Party, Presidential Talk”): Dean Johnson, a Lutheran pastor and a former Republican leader of the state Senate, said he... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
A Photo of History Being Made (Up)?
May 4, 2011 06:07 PMOne of the images below is of President Obama delivering his historic "justice has been done" address live to the nation on Sunday night. The other image is of President Obama re-reading a portion of that address in front of... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
“I Am Not Reporting Anything to You”
May 2, 2011 06:04 PMIn the event that you were not watching cable news last night, rest assured that Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer handled the breaking Bin Laden news (specifically, the hour or so before the president actually announced that... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Flashback: Couric’s Evening News Debut, Reviewed
April 27, 2011 11:34 AMYesterday, Katie Couric confirmed that she will soon depart as anchor of CBS Evening News in pursuit of a gig that allows for "more multi-dimensional storytelling." Marketwatch.com's Jon Friedman greeted the news in much the same way he greeted... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
LAT Surveys “Parallel, Opaque System of Political Giving”
April 26, 2011 11:20 AMA tip of the hat to the Los Angeles Times for spending six months surveying the political spending disclosure practices of the seventy-five largest publicly traded energy, healthcare, and financial service companies and then rating them, spreadsheet-style, on transparency... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
One Year After the Spill…
April 22, 2011 09:49 AMA year, more or less, is apparently how much time had to pass after the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico before members of Congress felt okay about once again accepting campaign donations from BP. (Just in... Continue reading
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The Kicker
April 19, 2011 03:05 PMMy BirthdayThe Day Daddy Won a PulitzerYesterday, the Boston Globe's Sebastian Smee won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, cited for his “vivid and exuberant writing about art’’ and for “often bringing great works to life with love and appreciation." Here is the Globe's take... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
What’s With Karl Rove’s Wiki?
April 11, 2011 02:38 PMWikicountablity.org is not Karl Rove's wiki, photos of Karl Rove accompanying the New York Times's two Wikicountability stories (and my headline) notwithstanding. Wikicountability.org may not even be a wiki, if by that one means a collaborative web... Continue reading
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Desks
The Audit Business
- The impossibility of tablet-native journalism Why Murdoch’s The Daily didn’t make it
- Anti-paywall dead-enders Why worry about evidence when you can argue against straw men?
The Observatory Science
- Dull news from Doha UN climate summit a ho-hum affair for the press
- Highway to the danger zone Following Sandy, HuffPo and NYT dig into the folly of coastal development
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- NBC News sets good example for Medicare reporting People perspective leads to clear explanation of impact of proposed changes
- In Pennsylvania, a niche site with wide reach PoliticsPA drives political conversation in Keystone State
Behind the News The Media
Blog
The Kicker last updated: Mon 11:37 AM
- Farewell to The Daily
- Must-reads of the week
- The media news cycle is bananas
- Pass the #popcorn
- Must-reads of the week
The Future of Media
News Startups Guide last updated: Thu 10:24 AM
- TRVL A free iPad travel magazine
- TheDigitel A small chain of local news sites/ aggregators in South Carolina
