The Observatory

Get a Life (Beyond the Web)

Science writers struggle with time management

By Cristine Russell   Oct 21, 2011 at 02:32 PM

FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA — Freelance science writer Steve Silberman might not be physically addicted to Twitter, but sometimes it seems like... More

The Scientist Lives

LabX Media Group signs intent to purchase

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 18, 2011 at 11:30 AM

A potential buyer has emerged to save The Scientist from early retirement. A week after it was reported that... More

Astill on Covering Forests

Grantham Prize winner discusses his series for The Economist

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 14, 2011 at 11:55 AM

It’s often hard for reporters to see the forest for the trees, said James Astill, the newly anointed energy and... More

Hooking the Reader

Dublin meeting highlights reporting challenges related to oceans, seafood

By James Fahn   Oct 13, 2011 at 12:30 PM

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, as the old saying goes. Teach a man to... More

An Empty Seat

Government fails to show for science news, transparency event

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 12, 2011 at 04:30 PM

Federal officials invited to participate in a public forum at the National Press Club last week about a lack transparency... More

The Scientist Closes

25th anniversary issue of the venerable magazine will be the last

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 7, 2011 at 04:00 PM

Having just published a special twenty-fifth anniversary issue in October, employees of the The Scientist, a venerable monthly magazine and... More

Plant Food: Does Carbon Count?

Admirable NYT article on forests misses one important point

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 6, 2011 at 11:30 AM

On Saturday, The New York Times ran a front page story about the state of the world’s forests, their role... More

CJR Event: Science News and Government Transparency

Access denied

By Curtis Brainard   Oct 3, 2011 at 11:03 AM

Has the Obama administration lived up to its promise to make science more transparent and accessible to the public? An... More

Skeptical of Science

Among other new roles, journalists becoming more critical of research

By Declan Fahy   Sep 28, 2011 at 10:05 AM

The recent coverage of the subatomic particles found to have travelled faster than the speed of light—tentative evidence that could... More

A Frustrating AP Series on Nuclear Safety

The industry’s blunder-buss response doesn’t help; public left confused

By Irene M. Wielawski   Sep 28, 2011 at 01:40 AM

Editor's note: This is an installment of our Audit Arbiter series, which looks into complaints about business news stories.... More

LAT On Why Solyndra Dazzled the Private and Public Sectors

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 26, 2011 at 06:23 PM

The Los Angeles Times has a really good look at the failure of Solyndra, the solar-power company that went bankrupt... More

NYTimes Misleads on Pace of Flood Relief

FEMA’s disaster delays are structural, not Congressional

By Erika Fry   Sep 26, 2011 at 02:04 PM

Congress: dysfunctional, broken, mad, maybe even the worst. Ever. But The New York Times went one too far today in... More

Reporting on Solyndra

Missing basic concepts about the government’s loan-guarantee program.

By Ryan Chittum   Sep 16, 2011 at 03:24 PM

Much of the press coverage of the Solyndra bankruptcy has been poor on some basic concepts at the heart of... More

CJR Rewind: Hot Air

Why don’t TV weathermen believe in climate change?

By Charles Homans   Sep 15, 2011 at 11:24 AM

This story, which recently won a Science in Society award from the National Association of Science Writers, originally ran in... More

Starving for Coverage

Unlike the 1980s, journalists pay little attention to famine ravaging the Horn of Africa

By James Fahn   Sep 13, 2011 at 03:40 PM

What a difference a generation makes. Back in 1984-85, groundbreaking media coverage of the terrible drought and famine that affected... More