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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author

 

1. The Audit

   Audit Notes: The Costs of Trade, WSJ Op-Ed Page, Frontier Days

   September 27, 2011 07:53 PM

   The Wall Street Journal covers an MIT study that found the downsides of trade with China have been worse than previously known (amongst economists, that is. Workers have long understood this): A pattern emerged, with areas where factories were... Continue reading

2. The Audit

   How Not to Cover Your Paper’s New Owner

   September 27, 2011 06:34 PM

   The Oklahoman recently profiled Philip Anschutz, who bought the paper from the Gaylord family, which had owned it for 108 years. Actually, "profile" is being kind—it's more like a list of stuff Anschutz owns and a blog post about... Continue reading

3. The Audit

   Boom Towns Amid the Bust

   September 27, 2011 12:20 PM

   This paragraph jumps out from an NPR's All Things Considered report on an oil boom town in North Dakota: Two years ago, America was importing about two thirds of its oil. Today, according to the Energy Information Administration, it... Continue reading

4. The Audit

   LAT On Why Solyndra Dazzled the Private and Public Sectors

   September 26, 2011 06:23 PM

   The Los Angeles Times has a really good look at the failure of Solyndra, the solar-power company that went bankrupt earlier this month despite a $528 million Department of Energy loan two years ago. This isn't a story about... Continue reading

5. The Audit

   The Morning Call’s Amazon Sweatshop Probe

   September 23, 2011 07:52 PM

   What's going on with labor in Pennsylvania? It was just last month that foreign students working at Hershey's for the summer went on strike over poor labor conditions. Now, a huge investigation in the Allentown Morning Call shows... Continue reading

6. The Audit

   ProPublica Shines a Light on Secret Gerrymandering Money

   September 23, 2011 01:48 PM

   Every ten years, politicians get together in statehouses and redraw congressional districts to squeeze their opponents and entrench themselves in power. And they get scads of corporate and union money (but mostly corporate money, it seems) to do it. Redistricting... Continue reading

7. The Audit

   ESPN Obscures Its Own Role in the Conference Realignment Mess

   September 22, 2011 06:34 PM

   If you cover college sports for ESPN, you've got a real problem right now. The biggest story these days is the conference realignment that's bringing tectonic shifts to the NCAA landscape, ending century-old rivalries, and setting longtime partners at each... Continue reading

8. The Audit

   The Countrywide Fraud Machine

   September 22, 2011 12:28 PM

   The Center for Public Integrity's Michael Hudson, who's done as much as any journalist—both before and after the crash—to expose how fraud was endemic to the mortgage industry, has a big investigation out today reporting on how... Continue reading

9. The Audit

   Audit Notes: Bloomberg Headlines, Bad Ad News, Wall Street Protests

   September 21, 2011 06:53 PM

   The Audit has a love-hate reading relationship with Bloomberg News's wacky headlines. Here are a few we've flagged over the years: Savannah Cries Over Bicycle Lost After Subprime Reset Profit `Not Satanic,’ Barclays Says, After Goldman Invokes Jesus Think About... Continue reading

10. The Audit

    The SEC’s Madoff Mess Gets Worse

    September 20, 2011 07:33 PM

    Louise Story and Gretchen Morgenson report that the SEC's inspector general is referring the David M. Becker case to the Justice Department for possible criminal investigation. That's a very big deal. Back in February, Madoff victims' trustee Irving Picard... Continue reading

11. The Audit

    Some Context With Your David Brooks

    September 20, 2011 02:46 PM

    Obama's pitch to make the ultrarich pay as high a tax rate as their secretaries sent David Brooks into spasms this morning. But it's worth calming down a bit and thinking about the numbers. Here's Brooks: He claimed we... Continue reading

12. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Economic Headwinds, Refinancing, Google’s Dominance

    September 19, 2011 07:25 PM

    Crain's New York Business's Aaron Elstein takes a good look anecdotes at the headwinds New York's economy is facing from the growing financial crisis in Europe, the depressed U.S. economy. Businesses are becoming more risk-averse: “In my 30 years... Continue reading

13. The Audit

    The AP Puts Faces on the Poverty Numbers

    September 19, 2011 02:59 PM

    The Associated Press fans out across the country to put faces on the poverty numbers released last week. Needless to say, this is what every news organization should be doing with this story, and the AP does a great... Continue reading

14. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Scotland Yard Thugs, Reuters Raises Its Sights, An NYT Miss

    September 16, 2011 04:18 PM

    It looks like they ought to just shut Scotland Yard down and start over from scratch. The Metropolitan Police is using the UK's Official Secrets Act, which is normally used for spying cases, to ask the courts to order... Continue reading

15. The Audit

    Reporting on Solyndra

    September 16, 2011 03:24 PM

    Much of the press coverage of the Solyndra bankruptcy has been poor on some basic concepts at the heart of the story. This is what happens when beat reporters meet stories with business, political, and science angles, and why news... Continue reading

16. The Audit

    Ron Suskind on Obama’s Weakness

    September 16, 2011 12:53 AM

    It's been apparent for a good while that Obama is a weak president. But so weak that his own people ignore what he tells them to do? That's a whole other thing. The Associated Press got hold of Ron... Continue reading

17. The Audit

    Audit Notes: Bloomberg’s Euphemisms, ETFs and CDOs, TechCrunch and Goldman

    September 15, 2011 07:36 PM

    It's sort of darkly amusing to read all the euphemisms in this Bloomberg News story reporting on the latest warnings signs of a possible collapse of the European financial system. It points out "deposit flight," an "erosion," an "outflow... Continue reading

18. The Audit

    Framing the Jobs Plan… Er, Second Stimulus

    September 15, 2011 12:39 AM

    Barack Obama proposed his second stimulus last week, pitching a $450 billion measure. Or is it a jobs plan? Let's say it's both. Last go-round, the economic legislation was called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which just goes to... Continue reading

19. The Audit

    Bloomberg Versus Reuters on Obama Polls

    September 14, 2011 05:15 PM

    Correlation is not causation. That's a hard lesson to internalize for the press, which insists on slapping a narrative on almost every scrap of news. And stuff that happens at the same time that other stuff happens is the easiest... Continue reading

20. The Audit

    Audit Notes: College Sports, NY AG Probing Lehman Execs, Shale Drilling

    September 13, 2011 07:46 PM

    — Taylor Branch's cover story in the new Atlantic is a devastating indictment of the NCAA, a must-read for anyone interested in college athletics and the business of sports. It's a superb synthesis of the history of the NCAA,... Continue reading

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