United States Project
USP Notes: Medicaid expansion edition
Some solid coverage helps keep the debate within the realm of facts
By Greg Marx Jan 17, 2013 at 07:00 AM
As governors around the country deliver their annual addresses and legislatures prepare to convene, one of the key policy stories... More
The Frank Luntz script for Congressional Republicans
A guide to phrases journos should look for (and scrutinize)
By Trudy Lieberman Jan 16, 2013 at 03:00 PM
In advance of a House Republican retreat this week, wordsmith Frank Luntz again offered his recipe for GOP political success,... More
Hey readers: They’re bluffing! (maybe)
The need to put political bargaining positions in context
By Brendan Nyhan Jan 15, 2013 at 03:00 PM
Insider reporting is vital to understanding what The Wall Street Journal's Gerald Seib describes as the "'Groundhog Day' loop of... More
Healthcare and the profit motive—do they work well together?
Eduardo Porter asks a big question in the Times
By Trudy Lieberman Jan 14, 2013 at 02:51 PM
It was refreshing to see Eduardo Porter, in his Economic Scene column last week in The New York Times, call... More
Fast-tracking the truth in IPAB coverage
How to cover a key ACA provision without making misinformation worse
By Brendan Nyhan Jan 14, 2013 at 11:15 AM
One of the most underrated political stories of the next year is the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (also... More
Following the cash behind the new Congress
A guide to getting a (mostly) complete picture in the era of outside spending
By Sasha Chavkin Jan 11, 2013 at 11:00 AM
In simpler times, when donors were donors and PACs were PACs, campaign spending was easy to follow. A review of... More
USP Notes: NYT on Fix the Debt, ProPublica on ‘Democratic Grandmas’
Private interests behind a public debate, and the unusual source of some campaign data
By Greg Marx Jan 10, 2013 at 03:10 PM
As the fiscal cliff debate dragged on late last year, the presence of some deep corporate pockets behind the public... More
The realities of long-term care in America
A Laurel to PBS’s Need To Know
By Trudy Lieberman Jan 10, 2013 at 03:00 PM
Last week’s fiscal cliff deal hammered the last nail in the coffin of the CLASS Act, a part of... More
The ‘Hell No’ caucus and primary cash
Politico looks at the incentives facing Rep. Tom Cotton and his new colleagues
By Sasha Chavkin Jan 10, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Earlier this week, Politico’s John VandeHei and Mike Allen wrote a smart story about what they described as the “Hell... More
Back to basics with Krugman
Reporters (and economists) need to take accounting identities into account
By David Cay Johnston Jan 9, 2013 at 03:10 PM
Paul Krugman on Monday delivered an excellent primer on basic economics and the importance of what economists call accounting identities.... More
WaPo: Got agency?
The Post’s ombudsman calls for more coverage of the “less sexy” Cabinet departments
By Liz Cox Barrett Jan 9, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Last Friday, the day after The Washington Post announced an expansion of its online video content "with politically focused programming,”... More
What’s a trillion, anyway?
How to make scary budget numbers meaningful
By David Cay Johnston Jan 8, 2013 at 03:00 PM
Throughout the weeks of intense coverage over the scheduled end of the Bush income tax cuts and the Obama payroll... More
Medicare Uncovered: the pain from ‘skin in the game’
A report puts a hole in the plan to make people pay more
By Trudy Lieberman Jan 8, 2013 at 10:58 AM
This is the first of a series of occasional "Medicare Uncovered" posts that will look at how the media are... More
How right is the (1st round of) CW about 2012?
As the retrospectives roll in, a debate unfolds about Obama’s early ads
By Walter Shapiro Jan 4, 2013 at 03:55 PM
Theodore White’s The Making of the President 1960 was published in hardcover in July 1961, a breakneck pace in an... More
If you were John Boehner, you’d cry too
Why journalists should put the struggles of the House speaker in a larger context
By Brendan Nyhan Jan 4, 2013 at 11:00 AM
On Thursday, John Boehner survived some conservative defections to narrowly win re-election as Speaker of the House, prompting a predictable... More
#Realtalk: This isn’t another ‘golden age’ for print - But it is one for media
Social media in smaller markets - How three social media managers deal with smaller markets and more local coverage.
A rally for laid-off Sun-Times photogs - A protest Thursday morning drew about 150 picketers to the newspaper’s headquarters
Reporting, or illegal hacking - Scripps reporters are accused of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Exchange Watch: California Dreaming - Low healthcare premiums on the West Coast were trumpeted as a big, good-news Obamacare story. But: “Compared to what?”
One of the great reporters of his generation died Tuesday at 33. The stories he wrote, and the ones he didn’t live to write
Michael Hastings: my friend and his enemies
Hastings was fearless and shook things up - especially with his McChrystal expose. The haters in the media couldn’t forgive him
Journalism is about finding flaws and magnifying them, and surely someone who would spill massive loads of state secrets must contain a few broken parts, right?
Call it the Politico rhetorical crutch
The inside-the-beltway publication’s go-to phrase
Rachel Maddow’s tribute to Michael Hastings
“Michael was angry … he was angry about things that weren’t right in the world. He was angry with war and with loss, and that drove his reporting.”
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.















