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Articles by Walter Shapiro | Email the Author
The best political listening tour
“Ordinary person” quotes in political stories can be banal. But when reporters invest the time, they can hear so much more
By Walter Shapiro Aug 10, 2012 at 03:00 PM
It is the paradox of political journalism: The most important aspect of a presidential campaign—how flesh-and-blood voters make up their... More
Why did Mitt Romney really go to Israel?
Despite what you read, it probably had little to do with wooing undecided Jewish voters
By Walter Shapiro Aug 3, 2012 at 11:03 AM
With Mitt Romney in Israel last weekend, it seemed like the irresistible sidebar. So news organizations like The Washington Post... More
How to handle oppo research?
It’s simple: If your scoop got a helpful boost from a campaign, let readers know
By Walter Shapiro Jul 20, 2012 at 11:20 AM
For the political cognoscenti, the dominant story line in July has been the Barack Obama campaign’s mastery of the subterranean... More
The good old days of the Nixon campaign
A look back at a 1968 classic shows just how inaccessible candidates have become
By Walter Shapiro Jul 13, 2012 at 03:00 PM
Maybe it’s the summer doldrums, or the Barack Obama campaign’s continual pain-from-Bain refrain, or the speculative no-news-here if-clauses surrounding Mitt... More
Why is ‘issue coverage’ so boring—and often wrong?
Slavish fidelity to campaign position papers and official statements short-changes voters
By Walter Shapiro Jul 5, 2012 at 11:10 AM
As we sipped red wine in Washington last week, Republican pollster David Winston suddenly asked me, “Why doesn’t the media... More
Embracing the myth of the campaign wizard, again
The Jim Messina profile industry is part of a long tradition
By Walter Shapiro Jun 21, 2012 at 05:18 PM
Maybe it began with the lionization in the press of the Irish Mafia that helped elect John Kennedy in 1960.... More
Why can’t the press let politicians have principles?
Plus: HuffPost’s good work on campaign consultants, and a better way to cover gaffes
By Walter Shapiro Jun 14, 2012 at 03:09 PM
No one—not even the love child of Horatio Alger and Ayn Rand—rivals campaign reporters when it comes to worshipping ambition.... More
Romney’s Religion
What should journalists do with the Mormon thing?
By Walter Shapiro Jun 8, 2012 at 10:48 AM
“Surely, secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square.”... More
Things that go Trump in the night
The Donald’s birther circus recalls McCarthy’s “card-carrying Communists”
By Walter Shapiro May 31, 2012 at 12:02 PM
On February 9, 1950, a back-bench Wisconsin senator named Joseph McCarthy delivered an unheralded political speech to a Republican women’s... More
Out of the living room, onto the trail
To gauge what’s really happening in the TV ad war, reporters need to talk to voters
By Walter Shapiro May 17, 2012 at 03:14 PM
The Living Room War was launched this week—the ferocious bombardment of attack ads that will make turning on a television... More
Mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map…
A glut of “swing-state” stories risks inspiring false certainty about the coming election
By Walter Shapiro May 10, 2012 at 12:07 PM
For a newspaper that believes that a decent fraction of its readers know that Kurt Weill wrote the music for... More
In an age of walled-off candidates, longing for LBJ
Caro’s latest opus offers a strong case for the enduring value of journalistic access
By Walter Shapiro May 3, 2012 at 10:13 AM
The pivotal chapter on the 1960 Democratic Convention in The Passage of Power, the just-published and justly heralded fourth volume... More
From Etch a Sketch to Hilary Rosen
The new Rule Book for reporting on outbreaks of feigned outrage
By Walter Shapiro Apr 26, 2012 at 06:00 AM
Unless you are voraciously waiting for the final tabulation of the write-in votes from the Delaware primary, these are the... More
The Campaign-Finance Stories That Don’t Get Written
Consultants and insiders feed the fundraising frenzy. How much do they make, anyway?
By Walter Shapiro Apr 18, 2012 at 10:19 AM
There was something comically self-evident about the headline on the story that led the April 13 print edition of The... More
The Heartbeat-Away Derby is Under Way
Treating the veepstakes like another political horse race produces lame conclusions
By Walter Shapiro Apr 11, 2012 at 06:00 AM
Now that Mitt Romney is the de facto Republican nominee, the political press corps can indulge in a compulsion as... More
Who Got The Fox News Vote?
In hours of pre-primary coverage, Rick Santorum was hard to find
By Walter Shapiro Apr 3, 2012 at 03:35 PM
Judging from the lopsided tenor of most of the coverage during the broadcast day on Fox News on the Monday... More
Why is the Press So Ready to Count Santorum Out?
Voters think their primary choices still matter
By Walter Shapiro Mar 28, 2012 at 11:13 AM
The front-page story in the March 18th New York Times seemed a case of political life imitating art. A revival... More
Newt and the Age Gap
What young reporters don’t understand
By Walter Shapiro Mar 1, 2012 at 08:30 AM
In this topsy-turvy political year, Newt Gingrich has exhausted every resurrection metaphor from the world’s great religions and undoubtedly,... 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?
Obama’s war on leaks undermines investigative journalism
“[T]he most militant I have seen since the Nixon administration”
‘It was approved at the highest levels— and I mean the highest’
Holder OK’d search warrant for Fox News reporter’s private emails, official says
If cable is dying, why is it still making so much money?
The story behind one of the best business models in the country
What TVGuide.com watchlist data reveals about the season’s new dramas
“What was once genre is now the Zeitgeist”
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.
