the kicker

Must-reads of the week

What a week
April 19, 2013

Culled from CJR’s frequently updated “Must-reads from around the Web,” our staff recommendations for the best pieces of journalism (and other miscellany) on the Internet, here are your can’t-miss must-reads of the past week:

Is your social media editor destroying your news organization today? –Probably

Boston bomb victim in photo helped identify suspects — Minutes before the bombs blew up in Boston, Jeff Bauman looked into the eyes of the man who tried to kill him

The media doesn’t own the story anymore — It’s time for the press to start guiding readers through the sea of information — and stop pretending there’s only one narrative

A Senate in the gun lobby’s grip — “Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious”

Inequality and New York’s subway — Tracking income inequality along the city’s subway

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The perils of wonkery — If the policy wonk wants to cover a wide range of subjects, they will necessarily have far less expertise than the people whose findings are being conveyed. Hence it becomes necessary to make a concealed argument from authority

The 13 most obnoxious marathon-bombing tweets — “6. How fast can the victims be turned into a ponderous abstraction to show how deep a feature-writer’s feelings are? This fast”

Waking up on the wrong side of a rating war — Excerpt from Brian Stelter’s new book about the Today show and the morning TV wars

Schrödinger’s bombs — “We are a hardened people now, compared to the nation of civilians caught unaware on 9/11”

The end of big (media) — When news orgs move from brands to platforms for talent

Gitmo is killing me — “I’ve been detained at Guantánamo for 11 years and three months. I have never been charged with any crime. I have never received a trial”

The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.