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Articles by Walter Shapiro | Email the Author
Scandal!
Walter Shapiro’s Rough Rules for Responsible Mongering
By Walter Shapiro May 20, 2013 at 11:15 AM
I have been commenting on Washington scandals for nearly four decades--ever since the dead-drunk Wilbur Mills, the unduly lionized chairman... More
Let’s get real about guns
Wanted: context and numbers. What would these reforms achieve?
By Walter Shapiro Mar 18, 2013 at 02:59 PM
In the three months since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, daily coverage of the gun issue has... More
Can the media avoid inaugural over-hype?
A little over-emoting is inevitable, but there are some cliches we can do without
By Walter Shapiro Jan 18, 2013 at 03:10 PM
After Bill Clinton took the oath of office for the second time in 1997, a USA Today columnist burbled, "Clinton's... More
How right is the (1st round of) CW about 2012?
As the retrospectives roll in, a debate unfolds about Obama’s early ads
By Walter Shapiro Jan 4, 2013 at 03:55 PM
Theodore White’s The Making of the President 1960 was published in hardcover in July 1961, a breakneck pace in an... More
Needed: Sherpas to guide us through fiscal cliff panic
No one wants to hike middle-class rates, so why does some coverage pretend they might rise?
By Walter Shapiro Dec 19, 2012 at 03:30 PM
The Tax Policy Center—a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution—has a lineage that in Washington think... More
The rush to handicap 2016: let’s not
“Dr. Politics” advice—avoid horse-race journalism, but bring on the well-reported profiles
By Walter Shapiro Dec 5, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Dear Dr. Politics, I am writing about a problem that has become as annoying as stores playing Christmas carols while... More
What if there are fewer polls in 2016?
Is the editor-in-chief of Gallup’s warning a nightmare vision or… sort of beguiling?
By Walter Shapiro Nov 27, 2012 at 04:00 PM
As a feud, it does not rise to the level of Lyndon Johnson versus Bobby Kennedy or even Jack Benny’s... More
Hope and change in unlikely places
Three cheers for campaign coverage from BuzzFeed and the Los Angeles Times
By Walter Shapiro Nov 16, 2012 at 02:50 PM
Channeling the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado, I’ve got a little list of those parts of 2012 coverage that... More
What happened, anyway?
The election may be over, but the self-protective spin is not
By Walter Shapiro Nov 13, 2012 at 11:12 AM
Shortly after 11 p.m. (Eastern) on Election Night—with the polls still open only in Alaska—Mitt Romney aides were pleading with... More
Three questions about campaign coverage
How the media can do better the next time around (Or, “NOW FOR THE HARD PART”)
By Walter Shapiro Nov 2, 2012 at 03:00 PM
COLUMBUS, OH — As America lurches towards Election Day like a ravaged water-logged creature from a 1950s horror flick, the... More
The most potent spin: lies campaigns tell themselves
Plus: is a split between the popular vote and Electoral College really so rare?
By Walter Shapiro Oct 26, 2012 at 03:00 PM
DENVER — The dirty secret of campaign journalism for the next 11 days is that there is no way for... More
How could voters still be undecided? Try asking them
Plus, why this veteran campaign correspondent is focused on swing-state polls
By Walter Shapiro Oct 19, 2012 at 01:23 PM
They may be the most publicly maligned minority group in America, a subset of the electorate that is ridiculed with... More
Time to head to the track
With voting underway, there’s nothing wrong with providing the horse race coverage readers crave
By Walter Shapiro Oct 11, 2012 at 11:00 AM
DES MOINES — These days, the phrase “horse-race journalism” is often accompanied by the same sneering tone that 1950s intellectuals... More
Debate advice: Turn off Twitter
To hear like a voter you have to listen
By Walter Shapiro Oct 3, 2012 at 06:55 AM
As we get ready for the Demolition Derby in Denver (aka the Mile High Mud Wrestle), I want to return... More
Mitt-o-phobia
The real reasons for harsh Romney coverage
By Walter Shapiro Sep 21, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Call it the Curse of Clint. Ever since Clint “Empty Chair” Eastwood stepped onto the Republican convention stage, Mitt Romney... More
How super are the super PACs?
A decades-old rule will give more clout to official campaign cash over the next two months, but reporters have barely noticed
By Walter Shapiro Sep 14, 2012 at 11:15 AM
Like a crime boss in a pinstriped suit who is now hailed as a pillar of the community, super PACS... More
After Charlotte: baffled by the horse race
A provocative NYT article prompts an extra dose of journalistic humility
By Walter Shapiro Sep 7, 2012 at 10:54 AM
CHARLOTTE — During Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, I was simultaneously live-blogging for Yahoo News, tweeting my reactions (“The Lincoln line... More
Read? Listen? Who has the time?
At political conventions, journalists get preliterate
By Walter Shapiro Aug 31, 2012 at 06:50 AM
TAMPA—Sitting in my motel room Thursday on the fringes of Tampa, maybe 20 miles and three weather systems away from... More
In defense of convention coverage
Thoughts from a veteran political reporter who still gets butterflies
By Walter Shapiro Aug 27, 2012 at 11:00 AM
For me, the malady known as Convention Anxiety is a quadrennial affliction that begins around March of every presidential election... More
What makes Mitt tick?
We need more tick-tock from the press pack about why Romney chose Paul Ryan
By Walter Shapiro Aug 20, 2012 at 06:50 AM
The faster-than-a-tweet, fleeter-than-a-sound-bite pace of the presidential campaign upends our basic conceptions of time and duration. It is disconcerting to... More
Woman’s work - The twisted reality of an Italian freelancer in Syria
Sourcing Trayvon Martin ‘photos’ from stormfront - Not a good idea, Business Insider
Elizabeth Warren, the antidote to CNBC - The senator schools the talking heads on bank regulation
Art Laffer + PR blitz = press failure - The media types up the retail lobby’s propaganda
Reuters’s global warming about-face - A survey shows the newswire ran 50 percent fewer stories on climate change after hiring a “skeptic”
Barack Obama: ‘those old times aren’t coming back’
“It used to be there were local newspapers everywhere. If you wanted to be a journalist, you could really make a good living working for your hometown paper”
The Guardian’s editor opens up on Reddit
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, answered questions in an Ask Me Anything
The (almost) lost speech of Justice Anthony Kennedy
How his insightful remarks about the Constitution inadvertently make the case for a Supreme Court “media pool”
Fox News sues TVEyes for copyright infringement
Says subscription service sells access to its content without permission nor compensation
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
ACEsTooHigh.com – Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
