Sunday, December 02, 2012. Last Update: Fri 3:29 PM EST

Culture

  1. Language Corner — July 30, 2012 03:00 PM

    Bell curves

    Lots of “ring” words

    By Merrill Perlman

    “You must be a ringer,” the journalism instructor told the student, who insisted that, though he had many years of experience in other jobs, he had never been a journalist. “I admit I had to look that term up,” the student said later.” I wasn’t sure if it calling me a ringer was a compliment or an insult.”

    Compliment,...

    Continue reading
  2. Reality Check — July 30, 2012 06:50 AM

    Viral before the Internet

    Things spread, but the content, often documentary, was darker and weirder

    By Alissa Quart

    Was there viral documentary film and video before the Internets? You bet. As Kliph Nesteroff wrote recently in The Awl, viralness or “virality” as he calls it, was around long before the Nyan cat.

    Lots of documentary footage circulated and had an impact way before the Web through now-dead media: mimeographs, public access cable, and videotapes. As Nesteroff puts it,...

    Continue reading
  3. Full-Court Press — July 25, 2012 02:35 PM

    Sacred cows

    The Penn State story offers a glimpse of the problems with league- and team-owned broadcast operations

    By Robert Weintraub

    Full-Court Press is a periodic column about the coverage of sports.

    On July 12, a report prepared by former FBI Director Louis Freeh at the behest of Penn State University slammed the school for covering up former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky’s sexual predation of children, and demolished Joe Paterno’s reputation in the process. Freeh delivered the crux of his...

    Continue reading
  4. Language Corner — July 23, 2012 03:00 PM

    Memorializing

    What to call those piles of flowers

    By Merrill Perlman

    Bob Kamman, a regular correspondent, writes:

    When unexpected deaths occur that are newsworthy, what often happens is that people leave flowers, cards and other tangibles near the location of the event. So it’s not surprising that within 24 hours of the Aurora shooting, there are news reports of ‘makeshift memorials.’

    They’re never just memorials. They are always makeshift memorials.So I...

    Continue reading
  5. Language Corner — July 17, 2012 03:00 PM

    En-gendered

    Terms for sexual identity

    By Merrill Perlman

    Dealing with gender identity these days is a tricky business. And while we prefer to use “sex” to describe biological and procreative characteristics, “gender” has become the more common term to describe identity.

    A photo caption in The New York Times highlights the situation: A woman writing about her college experience said: “I used to say freshwoman until I was...

    Continue reading
  6. Reality Check — July 16, 2012 06:50 AM

    Vimeo: AuteurTube

    YouTube can make amateurs rich, but the video pros are congregating elsewhere

    By Alissa Quart

    The Times mag the other week noticed that amateur star “YouTubers” could make six figures through the site’s comedy channels.

    But people filming verite vignettes or shooting true tales professionally are probably posting on Vimeo. What's Vimeo, you say? It’s is a video-sharing company where users upload their film work, all in high definition, in a player without advertising. There...

    Continue reading
  7. Language Corner — July 9, 2012 03:00 PM

    Sentimental journey

    Evaluating a ‘journeyman’

    By Merrill Perlman

    The article’s headline promised a story “on the life of a journeyman musician.” It discussed a man who has been around a while and plays many instruments, saying he “makes great music, skillfully rendered pop-rock.”

    Another article called a player “the future of American soccer,” saying “he was considered a ‘journeyman’ when coming to San Jose during the 2009 season....

    Continue reading
  8. Language Corner — July 3, 2012 06:50 AM

    Your choice

    Alternating between alternatives

    By Merrill Perlman

    Cities that have hard winters have no “alternative” and must repair roads in the summer. And when they do, they need to provide motorists with “alternate” routes.

    That sentence illustrates the difference between “alternative” and “alternate.”

    The two words can sometimes “alternate” places with each other. Knowing the nuance each brings, however, can make a sentence more precise, or less.

    ...

    Continue reading
  9. Critical Eye — July 2, 2012 03:02 PM

    Q&A: Confront and Conceal author David Sanger

    “There’s nothing ‘childish’ about raising issues of great public import”

    By Paul Starobin

    Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power | By David E. Sanger | Crown | 476 pages, $28.00

    Every White House keeps secrets, especially when it comes to national security. It’s the job of the press to learn those secrets and reveal them, unless—and it’s a big unless—the press is convinced that doing so will...

    Continue reading
  10. Reality Check — July 2, 2012 07:00 AM

    Push Girls transcends its genre

    Viewers might come for the drama, but they'll stay for the realness that seeps through

    By Alissa Quart

    In her new column, Reality Check, Alissa Quart delves into all things documentary.

    The new Sundance Channel reality-show Push Girls, about four paralyzed women, is unexpectedly riveting. It's also unseemly.

    It’s the story of four friends in Hollywood who have been paralyzed from the neck or waist down by accidents or illness. They all try—and mostly succeed—to live independently despite...

    Continue reading
  11. Critical Eye — June 29, 2012 06:50 AM

    How the US captured the real 9/11 mastermind

    Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer take us deep inside the hunt for KSM

    By Jordan Michael Smith

    The Hunt for KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed | By Terry McDermott and Josh Meyer | Little, Brown and Company | 368 pages, $27.99

    Terry McDermott’s Perfect Soldiers, released in 2005, did not get the attention it deserved. At the time, it was the most complete biography available of the 9/11...

    Continue reading
  12. Critical Eye — June 28, 2012 06:50 AM

    Edward Luce charts America’s decline

    Is the United States past its prime?

    By Daniel Luzer

    Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent | By Edward Luce | Atlantic Monthly Press | 291 pages, $26.00

    Is America in decline? Almost since America established its hegemony over the rest of the world in the aftermath of World War II we’ve been worried about this question. The recent proliferation of books about the diminution of...

    Continue reading
  13. Critical Eye — June 27, 2012 06:50 AM

    America’s forgotten war

    Historian Troy Bickham revisits the War of 1812

    By Jordan Michael Smith

    The Weight of Vengeance: The United States, the British Empire, and the War of 1812 | By Troy Bickham | Oxford University Press | 325 pages, $34.95

    If any large-scale war in American history has been forgotten, it is the War of 1812. The war between Britain and the United States lasted three years and claimed the lives of 15,000...

    Continue reading
  14. Language Corner — June 25, 2012 03:00 PM

    Par for the course

    Putting golf terms in context

    By Merrill Perlman

    Let’s say you’ve just arrived from another planet, with a mastery of English, but little exposure to the popular sport known as golf. So you don’t understand why one golfer would hit a “banana ball” and end up with a “bogey,” while another used a “chicken stick” and ended up with an “eagle.”

    Like most sports, golf has a...

    Continue reading
  15. Language Corner — June 19, 2012 06:50 AM

    Digging in

    The etymology of a “clawback”

    By Merrill Perlman

    “Jamie Dimon: JPMorgan Will Likely Claw Back Pay From Responsible Executives,” the headline said. Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, was telling the Senate Banking Committee that the firm would probably seek to reclaim some pay and bonuses from those involved in the firm’s $2 billion trading loss.

    What a wonderful image: bankers digging in their “claws” to wrest bundles of cash...

    Continue reading
  16. Critical Eye — June 13, 2012 06:50 AM

    Douglas Brinkley talks Cronkite

    An interview with the legendary newsman’s biographer

    By Paul Starobin

    In Cronkite, his hefty new biography, author and historian Douglas Brinkley tackles the “most trusted man in America,” as newsman Walter Cronkite was known for decades. Cronkite, born in Missouri in 1916, cut his teeth as a World War II wire-service reporter and was anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. Millions of viewers watched him report,...

    Continue reading
  17. Language Corner — June 11, 2012 03:02 PM

    Out of range

    Everything from 1 to z

    By Merrill Perlman

    We love to “range.” When describing a new shopping mall, for example, an article might say: “It has everything from a roller coaster for the kiddies to high-end boutiques for fashionistas.” The “from” and “to” implies a “range,” and a range implies that “everything” will be along that line. But the only thing the roller coaster and boutique have in...

    Continue reading
  18. Language Corner — June 5, 2012 06:50 AM

    Empty pockets

    A phrase with several meanings

    By Merrill Perlman

    Max Crittenden posted on Language Corner’s Facebook page:

    I’m seeing some peculiar usage (misuse, to my mind) of the phrase “out of pocket”. “My housekeeper has injured her leg and will be out of pocket for a while.” “Sorry, I’ve been out of pocket and haven’t gotten to your request.” Is anyone else noticing this? To me, “out of pocket”...

    Continue reading
  19. Critical Eye — June 4, 2012 06:50 AM

    Trashed

    Trying to get honest about America’s garbage problem

    By Daniel Luzer

    Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash | By Edward Humes | Avery | 288 pages, $27.00

    Humans have always produced garbage. Archeologists use trash debris to help them understand past civilizations. The rubbish people leave behind is often much more honest than their written records, which are often more about their aspirations than how they actually lived.

    American remains...

    Continue reading
  20. Language Corner — May 31, 2012 06:50 AM

    Language Corner

    Basis Points

    By Merrill Perlman

    “On a case-by-case basis.” “On a regular basis.” “On an urgent basis.”

    Each of those base expressions, from The Associated Press Stylebook, no less, can be said differently, more fluidly: “Case by case.” “Regularly.” “Daily.”

    There’s nothing grammatically wrong with those “on a (whatever) basis” phrases, except that they’re wordy. Or, as Bryan A. Garner puts it in his Modern...

    Continue reading
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
—advertisement—

Receive a FREE Issue

of Columbia Journalism Review
  • If you like the magazine, get the rest of the year for just $19.95 (6 issues in all).
  • If not, simply write cancel on the bill and return it. You will owe nothing.
Join The CJR E-mail List