The Water Cooler
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June 04, 2009 12:20 PM
Talking Shop: Yvonne Wenger
The Post and Courier’s statehouse reporter talks about covering South Carolina
Nowhere in the country is the fight over the stimulus bill more heated than in South Carolina. Governor Mark Sanford’s opposition to the federal funds has exponentially complicated the state’s already precarious financial situation. Statehouse reporter Yvonne Wenger has been on the beat since February 2005, and has been covering the twists and turns in the...
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May 28, 2009 11:34 AM
Talking Shop: Dennis Roddy
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter talks about the recession’s effects in western Pennsylvania
Dennis Roddy knows Pennsylvania. He’s been a general assignment reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since January 1993; before that, he was at the Pittsburgh Press. In all, he’s covered the state for thirty-five years, with a focus on politics, business, and the economy. Recently, he and another reporter for at the paper have been working on “Hard Times,” an occasional...
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May 14, 2009 09:30 AM
Q & A with Martin Reynolds
Oakland Tribune editor talks about The Chauncey Bailey Project
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism recently awarded the 2009 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award for Best Reporting of Racial Bias and Intolerance to The Chauncey Bailey Project, for its probative reporting on the 2007 assassination of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, who was investigating a community empowerment enterprise called Your Black Muslim Bakery in...
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May 04, 2009 01:37 PM
Transparency Interview: Jameel Jaffer
The ACLU lawyer who helped uncover the detainee memos says there are more documents to come
For over five years, a team of lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union has been waging a sprawling battle seeking documents pertaining to the United States’s detainee and interrogation policies. They won a major victory on April 16, when the Obama Justice Department agreed to release four key memos produced by the Office of Legal Counsel in...
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February 23, 2009 02:16 PM
Q and A: St. Petersburg Times’s Bill Adair
Behind the scenes of the Obameter
Just in time for the inauguration, the St. Petersburg Times expanded its Politifact operation to launch the Obameter, a running tally of the 510 promises made by Barack Obama on the campaign trail, and his progress toward keeping them. Each promise is labeled as “Kept,” “Broken,” “Stalled,” “In the Works,” “No Action,” or “Compromise.” Bill Adair, editor of...
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February 11, 2009 07:00 AM
Q and A: Paul McGeough
The veteran Middle East reporter shares insights about covering conflict in Gaza
Few stories are as complex and cumbersome as the continuing friction in the Middle East. Modern history mixes with ancient history; boundaries are drawn and redrawn. There is no shortage of opinion or misinformation. Accusations of media bias abound. Yesterday's elections in Israel promise yet another dose of upheaval in the region, and additional uncertainty for...
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February 09, 2009 07:00 AM
Excluded Voices
An interview with Timothy Jost
The past year’s health care discussion has been remarkable for the narrow range of ideas and opinions that have floated down to the man on the street. Journalists have sought out the same organizations and sources for their stories, offering up what has become the conventional wisdom for reform. To bring more voices into the conversation, our series, Excluded Voices,...
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February 06, 2009 04:15 PM
Paper Chase: A Q&A with Randy Siegel
The Newspaper Project leader on why newspapers will endure
Monday's New York Times, as well as around 400 other newspapers and magazines, featured a full-page ad, its lettering yellow against a deep blue background: "More People Will Read A Newspaper Today Than Watched Yesterday's Big Game." In smaller lettering, the ad discussed newspapers' "supersized" readership, their audiences' reliance on the information they provide, and the journalism they produce--"the best...
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February 06, 2009 11:11 AM
Audit Interview: Mark Maremont
"Journalism, unfortunately—and even more these days—seems to be backward-looking."
Mark Maremont is one of The Wall Street Journal's top investigative reporters (and a senior editor), focusing much of his efforts on executive compensation and accounting.
He led the team of Journal reporters who wrote the blockbuster stories in 2006* that led to the backdating scandal. The team used an ingenious technique that uncovered wild statistical improbabilities in executive stock-options...
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February 05, 2009 09:00 AM
National Geographic Launches New Energy Team
Reaffirms editorial, educational commitment to environmental issues
Last week, National Geographic magazine announced the formation of a new, specialized editorial team that will focus on “deepening” and “sharpening” the publication’s coverage of energy and environmental issues. Dennis Dimick, executive editor for the environment, will lead the effort. Robert Kunzig, a longtime science journalist and author, who joined the magazine last week as environment editor, will...
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January 28, 2009 01:50 PM
Gillmor on GateHouse
So the much-discussed GateHouse v. Times Company suit settled out of court earlier this week, and many media analysts met the news of the settlement with good riddance enthusiasm. Newspaper Death Watch's Paul Gillin
CJR's Megan...
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January 23, 2009 08:36 AM
Audit Interview: Alan D. Mutter
"We have an enormous number of reporters today, especially at newspapers, who are reporting on the obvious."
Alan D. Mutter is a veteran of the ink-stained days who in the two decades since he left as No. 2 editor of the then-mighty San Francisco Chronicle has helped create a large cable-TV company and several start-up tech firms. He is now a managing partner at Tapit Partners, which advises startups, and writes a blog called Reflections...
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January 21, 2009 09:00 AM
Sticks and Stones
David Denby goes toe-to-toe with the scourge of snark
Sly, snotty, and often irresistible, snark has been flourishing in the petri dish of the American media for decades now. The Internet, however, has spread the contagion faster than ever. And according to New Yorker film critic David Denby, we may be reaching a new level of toxicity. That's the gist of his slender new polemic, whose tongue-clucking subtitle pretty...
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January 09, 2009 11:30 AM
Audit Interview: Gretchen Morgenson
"You've got to keep hammering"
Gretchen Morgenson is a leader of what might be called the accountability school of business journalism—a school with, in our view, all too few members. Luckily for readers, however, Morgenson has an usually prominent platform: As an assistant business and financial editor at the The New York Times, she writes both a weekly column and news and investigative stories under...
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Desks
The Audit Business
- Amplifying the Drumbeat on the “Overdraft Protection” Racket The issue picks up momentum in the financial press
- Journal: Wall Street Pay Could Set Records
The Observatory Science
- Some Optimism for the Future of Science Journalism And especially for international collaboration
- NSF “Underwriting” Coverage… And other controversies from the World Conference of Science Journalists
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- More PitneyGate Fallout? Press focused on who asked questions at Obama town hall
- The Economy Today: School’s Out With Money Tight, Classes Are Slashed