Subscribe
new subscription
gift subscription
renew subscription

Michael Massing

  1. October 27, 2009 09:21 AM

    Black Hawk Up

    David Ignatius's Helicopter Journalism

    By Michael Massing

    What a delight it must be to be a columnist for a major American newspaper. When traveling to distant, war-torn lands, you can enlist America’s top generals to show you around. That’s what David Ignatius of The Washington Post did on Sunday. He was shown around Baghdad by no less a figure than Centcom commander David Petraeus. Or, rather, he...

    Continue reading
  2. October 22, 2009 09:18 AM

    Howard Kurtz, Missing in Action

    Fox vs. the White House: Where's Howie?

    By Michael Massing

    Howard Kurtz scored a coup on his CNN show “Reliable Sources” two Sundays ago when White House communications director Anita Dunn came on to knuckle-rap Fox News, saying that the network

    often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party....That’s fine, but let’s not pretend they’re a news network the...

    Continue reading
  3. October 14, 2009 01:05 PM

    Iraq’s Missing Iraqis

    A good book's great flaw

    By Michael Massing

    David Finkel’s book The Good Soldiers, about the experiences of a US Army battalion during the surge in Iraq, is getting standout reviews. The Good Soldiers "captures the surreal horror of war,” Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times last week, comparing the book to Michael Herr's Dispatches. Finkel, she added, “does a vivid job of conveying...

    Continue reading
  4. October 07, 2009 09:37 AM

    The Most Misreported Country

    And the winner is...

    By Michael Massing

    Which country is most routinely miscovered in the U.S. press? There are clearly many candidates, but for me one stands out: Mexico. My judgment has no doubt been affected by the fact that I spent a year in that country after graduating college, working as a reporter for the Mexico City News, a quirky English-language daily that was a magnet...

    Continue reading
  5. September 30, 2009 11:10 AM

    Eyes Wide Shut on Iran

    Familiar sources sing a tired song

    By Michael Massing

    Listening to the CBS Evening News on Friday, I was roused from the slumber that program so often induces by a comment from Juan Zarate, a national security analyst for the network. He was discussing the Obama administration’s revelation about a previously unreported nuclear enrichment plant in Iran.

    “Does this increase the chances of some kind of military...

    Continue reading
  6. September 23, 2009 12:49 PM

    Katie and Diane: The Wrong Questions

    Why can't the print press treat TV news as news?

    By Michael Massing

    Michael Massing’s voice has long been part of the Columbia Journalism Review in print. He is a columnist, a former executive editor, an active contributing editor, and a longtime friend and adviser of the print magazine. Now he is trying his hand at press criticism and analysis online. Look for him on Wednesdays, and on other days when the spirit...

    Continue reading