Author Archive

Articles by Michael Massing | Email the Author

 

1. The Kicker

   Why Fox is essential viewing

   September 5, 2012 03:16 PM

   The Republican convention brought more evidence of The New York Times’s soft spot for Fox News. On Friday, the paper offered a glowing profile of Carl Cameron, Fox’s chief political correspondent. “Propelled by a boundless enthusiasm for presidential... Continue reading

2. The Kicker

   Embed moderator

   August 22, 2012 03:23 PM

   By this point, I thought there was nothing Rush Limbaugh could say that would surprise me, but he did with his comments last week about the four moderators selected for the presidential debates. Jim Lehrer, he declared, is... Continue reading

3. The Kicker

   The media’s Internet infatuation

   August 15, 2012 06:51 AM

   The New York Times finds the Internet, and the business and culture surrounding it, endlessly fascinating. When Marissa Mayer was named CEO of Yahoo last month, the paper devoted more than a dozen pieces to the event, pondering everything from... Continue reading

4. The Kicker

   Movie violence chic

   July 25, 2012 06:50 AM

   In recent weeks, while watching baseball games, The Daily Show, and (I admit) some Seinfeld reruns, I saw what seemed a never-ending reel of trailers for The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Savages. And I became disgusted by... Continue reading

5. The Kicker

   Thomas Friedman’s fantasy America

   July 11, 2012 02:58 PM

   Thomas Friedman was delighted by the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the healthcare law. And he was positively thrilled with John Roberts. In a June 30 column for The New York Times (“Taking One for the Country”),... Continue reading

6. The Kicker

   The two David Carrs

   June 27, 2012 05:22 PM

   Since joining The New York Times in 2002, David Carr has become America’s most visible and influential writer on the media. His weekly “Media Equation” column is closely followed by people in the industry. Last year, he was... Continue reading

7. The Kicker

   Dumb and dumber

   June 12, 2012 02:50 PM

   In April, CNN recorded its lowest monthly ratings in more than 10 years. In May, it recorded its lowest monthly primetime ratings in more than 20 years. It’s now regularly eclipsed not only by Fox News (long the leader in... Continue reading

8. The Kicker

   When watchdog meets lapdog

   June 4, 2012 02:50 PM

   The New York Times's report last week on the Obama administration's secret "kill list" of Al Qaeda suspects and the president's personal involvement in managing it set off a torrent of commentary among national-security watchers, with some very different... Continue reading

9. Feature

   The Accidental Correspondent

   February 6, 2012 06:00 AM

   Few Western correspondents have a background as unique as Ghaith Abdul-Ahad’s. A native of Iraq at the time of the US invasion, he was working as an architect in Baghdad while dodging the draft. When American forces... Continue reading

10. Massing on Media

    Libya and the Arab Street

    March 25, 2011 01:17 PM

    On Wednesday, I went to hear Ayman Mohyeldin, the Cairo correspondent for Al Jazeera English, speak at the office of the Committee to Protect Journalists. His subject was the risks and realities of covering the Mideast, and at one point... Continue reading

11. Massing on Media

    Is This the Best You Can Do, NBC?

    November 25, 2009 10:00 AM

    Whenever I’m home at 6:30, I try to watch the evening news. Not out of any genuine desire—I rarely learn anything new—but out of duty. Even with their rapidly shrinking audiences, ABC, CBS, and NBC together reach some 20 million... Continue reading

12. Massing on Media

    Black Hawk Up

    October 27, 2009 09:21 AM

    What a delight it must be to be a columnist for a major American newspaper. When traveling to distant, war-torn lands, you can enlist America’s top generals to show you around. That’s what David Ignatius of The Washington Post did... Continue reading

13. Behind the News

    Howard Kurtz, Missing in Action

    October 22, 2009 09:18 AM

    Howard Kurtz scored a coup on his CNN show “Reliable Sources” two Sundays ago when White House communications director Anita Dunn came on to knuckle-rap Fox News, saying that the network often operates almost as either the... Continue reading

14. Behind the News

    Iraq’s Missing Iraqis

    October 14, 2009 01:05 PM

    David Finkel’s book The Good Soldiers, about the experiences of a US Army battalion during the surge in Iraq, is getting standout reviews. The Good Soldiers "captures the surreal horror of war,” Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New... Continue reading

15. Behind the News

    The Most Misreported Country

    October 7, 2009 09:37 AM

    Which country is most routinely miscovered in the U.S. press? There are clearly many candidates, but for me one stands out: Mexico. My judgment has no doubt been affected by the fact that I spent a year in that country... Continue reading

16. Behind the News

    Eyes Wide Shut on Iran

    September 30, 2009 11:10 AM

    Listening to the CBS Evening News on Friday, I was roused from the slumber that program so often induces by a comment from Juan Zarate, a national security analyst for the network. He was discussing the Obama administration’s... Continue reading

17. Behind the News

    Katie and Diane: The Wrong Questions

    September 23, 2009 12:49 PM

    Michael Massing’s voice has long been part of the Columbia Journalism Review in print. He is a columnist, a former executive editor, an active contributing editor, and a longtime friend and adviser of the print magazine. Now he is trying... Continue reading

18. Essay

    Un-American

    January 23, 2009 10:59 AM

    In the weeks following the election, the debate over the issue of media bias, and of whether the press was overly kind to Barack Obama, has continued to swirl. Much less attention has been paid to another, more troubling aspect... Continue reading

19. Essay

    Blind Spot

    September 4, 2008 10:00 AM

    Over the last five years, as I’ve consumed one dispatch after another from journalists embedded with U.S. soldiers in Iraq, I’ve wondered how accurate a picture of events such reports provide. Given the stark dangers journalists face in Iraq,... Continue reading

20. Essay

    Out of Focus

    March 11, 2008 09:00 AM

    Recently, I attended a screening of the documentary Meeting Resistance, an inside look at the Iraqi insurgency. I was eager to see it. Few Western journalists had managed to penetrate the insurgency, and the glimpse offered in the documentary... Continue reading

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