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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged context

1. March 2, 2011 05:40 PM

   SI/CBS College Football Investigation Lacks Context

   Their stats on player arrests aren't so eye-opening after all

   By Ryan Chittum

   Sports Illustrated and CBS News are out with a big investigation into crime in college football. They looked at the teams in last season's preseason Top 25 poll and pulled the records of all the players to find out how many had been arrested and/or convicted and to rank the worst teams. Its eye-opening finding: Seven percent of college football...

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2. November 12, 2012 06:50 AM

   Context-free market reporting on a post-election dive

   First-term bull market goes unmentioned after a November 7 stock dip

   By Ryan Chittum

   The stock market dive the day after President Obama was re-elected, dropping 320 points, or 2.4 percent. The Drudge Report, the testing ground/early-warning system for right-wing memes, put the Dow as its top post-election story, telling Obama to "own it": Fair enough, but as I wrote on Twitter the other day, if Obama has to own that one-day 2.4 percent...

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3. January 21, 2011 08:54 PM

   Don’t Forget Massey Energy’s Long History of Violations

   By Ryan Chittum

   Federal investigators' preliminary report is out on the April coal mine explosion that killed 29 West Virginia miners. Was it something of a natural disaster—a fluke or bad luck—or was it a man-made one that could and should have been prevented? The Wall Street Journal gets off to a weak start with this lede: A series of safety and equipment...

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4. June 2, 2011 06:41 PM

   Four Ws From the WSJ

   By Ryan Chittum

   The Wall Street Journal messes up a story atop its Marketplace section today that reports that a judge ordered American Airlines to make its flights available on Orbitz. Here's the top: American Airlines must make its flights available on Orbitz Worldwide Inc.'s websites, an Illinois court ruled Wednesday, a legal victory for the online travel industry in its battle with...

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5. November 30, 2011 07:15 PM

   McClatchy Misses on Cotton Speculators

   By Ryan Chittum

   McClatchy investigates doings in the cotton market, which like other commodities has been roiled by volatility in recent years largely because financial-industry speculators have poured in placing bets. I don't doubt this has happened, but unfortunately, McClatchy doesn't prove it. The first problem is we're not given any context on historical cotton futures prices beyond the last two years or...

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6. March 14, 2012 11:08 AM

   Repaving the Trail

   Campaign reporting can be terrible. Here’s how to make it better.

   By Justin Peters

   In January, I visited New Hampshire and Florida to report on the media coverage of the GOP presidential primaries there. A lot of people complain about the blandness and inadequacy of much campaign reporting—its focus on momentum and appearances; its superficiality; its consistent elevation of rhetorical missteps into Big Deals. (“Our lead story this evening: Day Eleven of RomneyLikesToFirePeople-Gate.”) After...

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7. August 1, 2012 11:10 AM

   The Times airbrushes Tiger Fund’s flop

   A needlessly flattering hedge fund profile omits the basics

   By Ryan Chittum

   The New York Times posts a flacktacular Business Day piece on a new hedge fund named Falcon Edge. This new hedge fund is profile-worthy because it has raised $1.2 billion and because its founder, Richard Gerson, used to work for legendary hedge fund manager Julian Robertson and his Tiger Management firm, which has spawned dozens of so-called "Tiger cub" hedge...

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