http://www.cjr.org/ Columbia Journalism Review: Strong Press, Strong Democracy en Copyright 2010 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:00:41 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I was highly critical of a William D. Cohan piece in the Times two weeks ago pleading for mercy for a convicted white-collar criminal. So it's nice to be able to applaud a Cohan piece this week: Frankly, the idea that Fuld was unaware of Repo 105 is not credible, especially as he was devoted to reducing the... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/audit_notes_better_cohan_ernst.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/audit_notes_better_cohan_ernst.php The Audit Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:00:41 -0500 http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/pittmanbloomberg_fed_lawsuit_s.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/pittmanbloomberg_fed_lawsuit_s.php The Audit Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:26:43 -0500 It started, as many things do in journalism, with a pen and paper. Close to three years ago at a Journalism That Matters event in Washington, D.C., John Hamer, president of the Washington News Council, was thinking about the double standard that exists with journalism and the institutions and people it covers. “What journalism needs more of... http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/the_tao_of_journalism.php http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/the_tao_of_journalism.php Behind the News Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:46:21 -0500 Those who consider themselves Social Security mavens know the name Erskine Bowles. Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff, and currently president of the University of North Carolina system, Bowles has teamed up with former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson to head the newly created deficit reduction commission. The president tasked the commission with finding ways to reduce the federal deficit and... http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/social_securitys_code_words.php http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/social_securitys_code_words.php Campaign Desk Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:48:25 -0500 Amid all the spinning and sparring over the Congressional Budget Office’s assessment of health care legislation, a couple of stories stand out for bringing much-needed context to the proceedings. The Washington Post did a smart analysis, pointing out what should be obvious but too often goes unsaid: despite all the hype around the 25-page "score" of the proposal, no... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/scoring_the_cbo_score.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/scoring_the_cbo_score.php The Audit Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:34:17 -0500 Rarely will you see an aggregator state his business model so forthrightly as Michael Wolff, founder of Newser, does today in discussing publishers charging for news: Here at Newser, we're particular eager for the charge walls to go up. You’ll be able to pay to spend more of your time and effort reading the New York Times, or you... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/newser_fly_on_the_wall_and_agg.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/newser_fly_on_the_wall_and_agg.php The Audit Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:30:28 -0500 Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik pulls a non-Repo 105 angle out of the Valukas Report on Lehman Brothers' collapse: Its move into high-risk lending and the trampling of its own internal controls in the High Bubble years (emphasis mine): Lehman was not alone on Wall Street in deciding in 2006 to shift out of its old business model... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/audit_notes_hiltzik_on_lehman.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/audit_notes_hiltzik_on_lehman.php The Audit Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:52:19 -0500 Will Judge William Pauley III now join Judge Jed Rakoff as one of the few heroes of the crisis? The Wall Street Journal makes an excellent catch today on a Pauley ruling that slapped down a chummy settlement between the SEC and Wall Street dismantling the separation of analysts from investment bankers imposed after the scandals of the previous... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/another_new_york_judge_embarra.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/another_new_york_judge_embarra.php The Audit Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:07:45 -0500 This week C-SPAN launched a full searchable online video library, dating to twenty-three years ago. But let’s go a bit further back, to the earliest days of television broadcast, when the real worry was content dissemination, not preservation. Clunky kineoscopes—essentially film cameras trained on in-house televisions monitors—allowed some moments to be recorded for prosperity,... http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/the_end_of_the_ether.php http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/the_end_of_the_ether.php The Kicker Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:10:18 -0500 http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/tax_talk.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/tax_talk.php The Audit Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:09:17 -0500 Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys | By Matt Labash | Simon & Schuster | 336 pages, $25.99 Matt Labash has a nose for sniffing out the strange and the strangely compelling American characters, particularly those knee-deep in the tragicomic spectacle of our national politics. Fly Fishing with Darth... http://www.cjr.org/page_views/hooking_the_big_ones.php http://www.cjr.org/page_views/hooking_the_big_ones.php Page Views Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:43:57 -0500 There are some real journalistic lapses in a New York Times column Tuesday that quoted anonymous sources about a Lehman Brothers whistleblower who tried to warn about the failing bank’s questionable accounting maneuvers, including one known as Repo 105. The problematic passage is here (emphasis mine): Lehman’s shell game didn’t come to light until June 2008, when a lower-level... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/problems_in_an_nyt_column.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/problems_in_an_nyt_column.php The Audit Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:15:04 -0500 In March 2008, Herb and Marion Sandler sat down with Joe Nocera of The New York Times to explain the creation of ProPublica, an investigative journalism startup launched with $10 million of their money and the promise of more. Journalists weren’t doing enough investigative work that mattered, they felt; work with moral force. The Sandlers are... http://www.cjr.org/feature/the_education_of_herb_and_marion.php http://www.cjr.org/feature/the_education_of_herb_and_marion.php Feature Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:00:00 -0500 Francine McKenna of Re: The Auditors weighs in on the Chittum/Carney fracas over Lehman prosecutions. She's on the side of the just here. Repo 105 is not off-balance sheet accounting but good old-fashioned “round-trip” transaction shenanigans. This was garden variety accounting manipulation by the highest levels of the corporation, accomplished with the acquiescence of the impotent... http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/audit_notes_alllehman_edition.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/audit_notes_alllehman_edition.php The Audit Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:55:13 -0500 http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/reuters_is_excellent_in_diggin.php http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/reuters_is_excellent_in_diggin.php The Audit Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:28:44 -0500