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:
“Ferguson: How can you blame McCulloch for blaming the media?” (The Washington Post) – St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch bashed nonstop media coverage during a news conference to announce whether Mike Brown’s killer, police Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, would face an indictment. McCulloch’s is an age-old tactic during crisis management, but do his particular allegations stick?
“Don’t Blame Social Media for Ferguson’s Troubles” (Time) -“’Social media,’ like any media system, is really just a fancy description for a lot of people connected and communicating. It’s as good or bad as the people themselves are. But we’re better off having social media, especially in situations like Ferguson’s.”
“Eric Holder’s lasting damage to press freedom” (CJR) – The outgoing attorney general has prosecuted more people under the Espionage Act than all his predecessors, combined. But that’s just the start of his rocky relationship with the press.
“Fellowship or Internship? In Media, the Definition Has Become Fluid” (The New York Times) – “In what appears to be largely a semantic shift, media outlets including BuzzFeed, Gawker, The Huffington Post, Mic, Outside magazine and nearly a dozen others have taken the role of internships and repackaged them as fellowships.”
“If online media covered the first Thanksgiving” (BuzzFeed) – How today’s news organizations would have framed news of European settlers in North America.
“Is this the golden age of podcasts?” (CJR) – The popular Serial is the latest of a handful of podcasts leveraging cult-like followings for new sources of revenue and new forms of audience engagement.
The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.