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Articles by Trudy Lieberman | Email the Author
The debate: Some healthcare ‘facts’ that
shouldn’t stand
Reporters did good fact checking, but also left falsehoods on the table
By Trudy Lieberman Oct 8, 2012 at 03:00 PM
There was no shortage of media fact checking after last week’s presidential debate, much of it focused on healthcare, much... More
Medicare costs: Are electronic records the solution—or the problem?
A Laurel to the Center for Public Integrity for an expose on “upcoding”
By Trudy Lieberman Oct 3, 2012 at 03:00 PM
Electronic billing has been promoted as a big cost savings for healthcare. But is it? The Center for Public... More
The word on the street: Divided
Massachusetts voters talk about Medicare, and their Senate race
By Trudy Lieberman Oct 1, 2012 at 03:26 PM
Last week I journeyed up to New England to see what voters thought of the debate over Medicare, for another... More
Pinning down Obama on Social Security
Where exactly does he stand?
By Trudy Lieberman Sep 28, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Liberals took comfort in the president’s speech to the AARP Friday when he promised to defend Social Security. But his... More
How the phantom of ‘socialized medicine’ came to be
A Laurel to The New Yorker for exploring the roots of modern political consulting
By Trudy Lieberman Sep 26, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Jill Lepore deserves a Laurel for her engrossing tale of how political communications came to be so toxic. In... More
Eureka! The media discovers Medicaid
And why that matters to the middle class
By Trudy Lieberman Sep 24, 2012 at 06:51 AM
Ah Medicaid! What can we say about it? Until the last couple of weeks, the press has said almost nothing.... More
The bogeyman is back!
The Columbia Daily Tribune digs up the $716 billion Medicare scare
By Trudy Lieberman Sep 21, 2012 at 01:14 PM
Aw come on! We would have thought by now the $716 billion Medicare bogeyman was dead and buried. Maybe not.... More
Medicare: Where’s the evidence that vouchers save money?
The National Journal seeks some, and comes up empty
By Trudy Lieberman Sep 18, 2012 at 10:48 AM
Margot Sanger-Katz, a National Journal reporter who has been brave enough to question conventional wisdom surrounding health policy—she reported that... More
What a higher Retirement Age really means
A Social Security mini-primer
By Trudy Lieberman Sep 13, 2012 at 06:50 AM
The idea of raising the age at which workers can collect benefits from Social Security is very much in play.... More
Medicare ‘bankruptcy’: CNN gets it right
The network fact-checks a frequent talking point, and does it well
By Trudy Lieberman Sep 11, 2012 at 07:10 AM
Hooray for CNN.com, for fact checking the often-heard claim of Medicare’s “impending” bankruptcy. CNN’s contribution sets a high bar, and... More
Medicare spending: Do Obama and Romney see eye-to-eye?
Matthew Yglesias has a flawed but useful argument
By Trudy Lieberman Sep 10, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Several days ago, Matthew Yglesias dug deeply into the Medicare weeds, arguing in Slate that Obama and Ryan basically agree... More
The word on the street: disillusioned
Listening to voters talk Medicare in Pennsylvania
By Trudy Lieberman Sep 6, 2012 at 06:54 AM
Over the weekend, I visited an Italian festival in Scranton, PA, where the crowd, mostly older and white, had gathered... More
Parsing Romney on healthcare
Chris Wallace gets a C minus
By Trudy Lieberman Aug 31, 2012 at 11:16 AM
Before Chris Wallace got to the soft stuff of his Fox News Sunday interview last week with The Family Romney... More
A dart to the AP—and a laurel!
Good work on fact-checking speeches; on Social Security, not so much
By Trudy Lieberman Aug 31, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Dart The Associated Press misled its many readers, unfortunately, about what is a Social Security benefit cut and what... More
A laurel to Jackie Calmes of The New York Times
She begins to X-ray the Romney/Ryan Medicare plan
By Trudy Lieberman Aug 24, 2012 at 04:04 PM
This week’s laurel goes to Jackie Calmes of The New York Times for reporting the increasing skepticism in health... More
The word on the street: apprehensive
Listening to voters talk about Medicare in St. Louis
By Trudy Lieberman Aug 24, 2012 at 11:47 AM
The idea of privatizing Medicare is not winning popularity contests with voters. A Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday found... More
Medicare and the $716 billion bogeyman
Will a new version of a half-truth work for the GOP?
By Trudy Lieberman Aug 22, 2012 at 11:17 AM
It’s been hard to escape from Medicare in the 11 days since Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan burst into the news... More
Profits vs. patients: The Tampa Bay Times complicates a story
The truth in medical disputes can be hard to find
By Trudy Lieberman Aug 20, 2012 at 11:32 AM
The Tampa Bay Times, formerly known as The St. Petersburg Times, deserves a shout-out for jumping on the local angle... More
When hospital profits clash with patient care: an investigation
The Times exposes questionable care at HCA hospitals
By Trudy Lieberman Aug 17, 2012 at 11:24 AM
This week The New York Times concluded a rare look at the inner workings of the country’s biggest for-profit hospital... More
Medicare, Paul Ryan, and beyond: a primer
Here’s context to clarify the big entitlements debates
By Trudy Lieberman Aug 15, 2012 at 03:25 PM
Mitt Romney’s choice of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential nominee elevates Medicare and Medicaid (along with Social... More
‘See you on the other side’ - Meet Jessica Lum, a terminally ill 25-year-old who chose to spend what little time she had practicing journalism
#Realtalk: This is the best moment to be in journalism - The old stuff isn’t coming back, but that’s okay
Streams of consciousness - Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism?
Sticking with the truth - How ‘balanced’ coverage helped sustain the bogus claim that childhood vaccines can cause autism
An ink-stained stretch - Can Aaron Kushner save the Orange County Register—and the newspaper industry?
This is the best moment to be in journalism (25)
The WSJ editorial page hits rock bottom (19)
Ben Mathis-Lilley’s defense of new media
Take off the nostalgia-tinted lenses
21 questions with David Remnick
What grammar mistake do you find most annoying?
Are you sure that question is grammatical?
After 20 years, the world has finally caught up with Daft Punk, so the helmet-clad retro-futurists are embarking on a new mission: to make music breathe again
What is the single most illuminating interview question to ask someone?
The NYT’s Jodi Kantor answers
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
