Culled from CJR’s own stories, plus the 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:
The ethics of The Guardian’s Whisper bombshell (CJR) – “It was bizarre to see a bit of backlash develop against The Guardian this weekend for reporting the story–particularly since much of the questioning came from journalists themselves.”
Fake news sites using Facebook to spread Ebola panic (The Verge) – “These sites claim to be satirical but lack even incompetent attempts at anything resembling humor.”
Ben Bradlee, through the years (CJR) – Flashpoints in the life of the Washington Post editor, including excerpts from 1971 and ’73 CJR stories about Bradlee, the Pentagon Papers, and Watergate: “For a split second, Ben Bradlee’s mouth dropped open with an expression of sheer delight.”
I’m a black journalist quitting media because I’m sick of racism (TNR) – “Among the challenges that make racism so difficult to fix, and so odiously constant, is that white people often don’t even recognize when they’re saying or doing something that cuts their black colleagues to the bone”
James Risen on secret sources, joining Twitter, and going undercover (CJR) – “I guess I wrote some of this with a sense of outrage. But I tried to be professional about it.”
How one reporter copes inside the ‘Ebola bubble’ (BuzzFeed) – “Bring gloves to give nurses you meet at clinics, even if you’re there for a story. Get small change to give to the kids who have been out of school for months and are selling ground nuts for pitiful sums on the side of road. Hell, give them candy. Violate all the principles of ostensibly good aid stewardship, because the good stewardship of the developed world didn’t get help here in time, and now everyone is dying around you.”
Former Sun-Times staffers react to top reporter’s resignation (CJR) – “It’s kind of scary the way this played out. I think we depend on newspapers to be reliable and to have some measure of independence. We understand that independence is never 100 percent, but it has to be there. This whole episode calls that into question.”
How do we know what we know about #Gamergate? (CJR) – The difficulty of reporting on Gamergate reflects faulty PR from the movement, but also the difficulty of covering any digital-era subculture that works in anonymity.
The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.