Call it the Goldilocks approach to political journalism. Many campaign-related articles we read are too cold (informative, maybe, but not terribly readable); many others are too hot (readable, maybe, but not terribly informative). The ones that strike a balance in their temperature–like “Moo,” Timothy Egan’s masterful treatment of Sarah Palin’s gubernatorial record, currently the most-emailed story on nytimes.com–are, to borrow a description, just right.
Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.
the kicker
