Friday, August 02, 2013. Last Update: Fri 2:50 PM EST

The Observatory

Press Pass Problems

Cetacean Society’s decision to deny a reporter raises questions about access

On Tuesday, the American Cetacean Society denied a freelancer’s request for a press pass to attend the society’s annual meeting... More

Man(n) the Torpedoes

Climate scientist Michael Mann goes on the offensive

NEW HAVEN, CONN.—It’s been exactly a year since “Climategate” broke, putting Penn State University researcher Michael Mann and climate scientists... More

A Referendum on Energy Issues?

Not so fast

There is something ironic about the post-election surge of articles about the environmental consequences of various outcomes at the polls... More

A Future for Cooperative Politics?

New York Times story on candidates’ psychology is overly optimistic

Thankfully, the days of “neuropunditry,” which sought to decipher voters’ thoughts with brain imaging and which blighted coverage of the... More

Q&A: UFO Journalist Leslie Kean

Is the truth out there?

Leslie Kean has written an unusual book on an unusual subject: Unidentified flying objects. But this Halloween weekend, Kean would... More

Paint it Green

Why it’s been left to reporters to bring up environmental issues on the campaign trail

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, “In much of the nation, ‘cap and trade’ has... More

How to Use ProPublica’s “Dollars for Docs” Database

Tips for reporters and editors

Investigative innovator ProPublica launched a new project this week, a national database of doctors and the money they have received... More

Red, White, and Blue, but Not Green

Energy and environment issues lacking in mid-term election coverage

Remember the 2008 presidential campaign, when candidates and voters alike couldn’t seem to get enough of energy and climate issues... More

The Web Grows Wider

Gates Foundation partnerships with the Guardian and ABC News further complicate global health coverage

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series about the implications of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s... More

How Ray Suarez Really Caught the Global Health Bug

The Gates Foundation, global health, and the media

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on the author’s personal blog in July. With a few updates, we are... More

Q&A: Miles O’Brien, Back in Action

Ex-CNN correspondent talks about the NewsHour’s new Science News Unit

Bucking the trend in science journalism, the PBS NewsHour announced last Tuesday that it has created a new Science News... More

Tweeting a Wildfire

Social media in an emergency, and what it means for the press

Around ten in the morning this past Labor Day, the sky above Boulder, Colorado turned a dusty orange. A fire... More

“This is Our Beat”

Breaking news and the big picture in Audubon’s special report on the oil spill

Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon sank and oil began erupting into the Gulf of Mexico in late April, the 105-year-old... More

Q&A: Covering the IPCC

Perlman award-winner Pallava Bagla talks about courage and tough questions

[Editor’s Note: The American Geophysical Union recently awarded this year’s David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism to Indian... More

Eschew the Scientific Sound Bite

A response to the oil plume paradox

As the lead author on a recent paper published in Science Express, describing subsurface plumes from the Deepwater Horizon disaster,... More

Old TNR vs. New TNR

In one tweet

Luke Russert is the Golden Boy of DC

And it drives young journalists crazy

Oh, #Florida!

Why does Florida produce so much weird news? Experts explain

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A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

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