Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Last Update: Wed 6:05 PM EST

Campaign Desk

Q & A: Rick Perlstein

The liberal historian on ACORN, the Post, and wagging the dog

As the recent scandals surrounding the green-jobs advocate Van Jones and the community organizing group ACORN have shown, even under... More

Redacted: WaPo’s Unprecedented Deal with the Pentagon

The McChrystal report: Who did the redacting?

This week’s news cycle seems certain to be dominated by The Washington Post’s huge scoop: its acquisition of a confidential... More

When a Tax Is a Tax

The New York Times explains

Reed Abelson deserves a shout-out for her story Sunday detailing how Sen. Max Baucus and his Senate Finance Committee plan... More

Of FOX News and Catnip

Alessandra Stanley’s treatment of the Obama “snub” misses the point

Alessandra Stanley’s New York Times piece today on President Obama’s health care-themed weekend media blitz included a photo montage that... More

The President versus Stephanopoulos

When is a tax not a tax?

I had a lot of sympathy for George Stephanopoulos Sunday when he faced the president in a one-on-one interview. This... More

Medical Homes? You’ve Got To Be Kidding

The new health care dialect

At a gathering of Washington health care journalists last week, panelists, including myself, talked about the challenges of covering this... More

ACORN’s Family Tree

Was the Baltimore video journalism? Does it matter?

In a piece in the October 2009 issue of The Atlantic, “The Story Behind the Story,” journalist Mark Bowden examines... More

Seeds of Discontent

What does the ACORN story mean for the mainstream media?

James O’Keefe, the pimp-playing provocateur who set out to target ACORN with a video camera, a cheesy costume, and a... More

Examining the Individual Mandate

The Wall Street Journal takes a hard look in Massachusetts

Hurrah! At last a major publication has looked in some depth at the central feature of the Obama-et-al health plan.... More

Health Reform Lessons from Massachusetts, Part VI

The canary in the coal mine

Three years ago the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted a far-reaching health reform law that politicians and the media hailed as... More

Cheech and Chong Aren’t Dead Yet

Not everyone in the media is ready to take drug reform seriously

David Downs presents a lot of support today for the proposition that the media is, at long last, adopting a... More

Bipartisanship Has Sailed

Political consensus is not an unalloyed good

In Politico yesterday, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen had a good, interesting piece about why, in their words, “bipartisanship gets... More

Who Will Be at the Table? Part XV

The gun owners come out of the woodwork

During the campaign, Barack Obama promised his cheering crowds that, when he rolled up his sleeves to work on health... More

Measuring a Speech’s Success

In speech reax stories, competing theories of politics

Barack Obama’s big health care speech last week has, in general, been deemed a success by the media and the... More

Joe Wilson’s War

In praise of indecorous debate

It may be an unpopular opinion, seeing as the rest of the world has piled onto Rep. Joe Wilson of... More

The New York Times told me to take this down

“If you wouldn’t mind using another publication to advertise your infringement tool, we’d appreciate it”

In AP, Rosen investigations, government makes criminals of reporters

“[A]s flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration”

Jay Carney press briefing blues

“Reporters are increasingly skeptical about Carney’s demeanor and the veracity of some answers”

Jaron Lanier wants to build a new middle class on micropayments

A future where writers can gain wealth through a “freelance economy”

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The Business of Digital Journalism

A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

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Questions and exercises for journalism students.