MAGA conservatives are attacking Jeffrey Goldberg for being in the chat now known as “Signalgate.” But some are wondering why he left the chat. Here is Stephen Prager at Current Affairs: …As Goldberg watched these deliberations unfold, he was understandably […]
journalism
Walter Lippman worried about a time when people “cease to respond to truths, and respond simply to opinions—what somebody asserts, not what actually is.”
Check out Jeannette Cooperman’s essay at Common Reader on the late white-suited writer Tom Wolfe. She has some interesting thoughts on the so-called “New Journalism” of the 1960s and 1970s. A taste: Did Wolfe do such a good job capturing […]
Alumni magazines are on the rise
We receive eight different alumni magazines in our household. I read all of them. I am always looking for good stories and great writing. According to a recent piece at Inside Higher Ed, colleges and universities throughout the country are […]
POLITICO magazine responds to internet trolls
MacArthur Foundation Announces $20 Million in Support of Local News
More good news for local journalism. Here is the press release: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today announced $20 million to support newsrooms and provide journalism infrastructure as part of its commitment to revitalize local news. MacArthur launched the Local […]
Covering up a genitalia remark
A partisan press at work.
Literally peevish
I am literally typing this. I do not literally have steam blowing out of my ears.
Echo chamber evidence
Echo chambers make for poor journalism.
Deadly reporting
Double Jeopardy for $1,000: Members of this occupation set up the deaths of thousands of Gaza residents.
What should a good reporter do all day?
Some denominations within Christianity have patron saints. In overwhelmingly secular journalism, reporters normally don’t think about patron saints, but I’d like to suggest from the Bible a patron psalm. Psalm 73 begins with a careful observer’s confession of depression: “As […]
Is for-profit journalism sustainable?
The editors of Current talk about this all the time and we hope to make some of our own news on this front soon. In the meantime, Stephen Prager makes some good points in his recent piece at Current Affairs […]
When Jimmy Breslin took on the French government in defense of Howard Beach, Queens
The good folks at the Library of America (LOA) recently sent along their collection of New York columnist Jimmy Breslin’s essential writings. (Some of you may recall I wrote about this back in April.) I’m about halfway through the collection. […]
Baseball, life, and honest reporting
What makes a good, honest reporter? Someone who neither minimizes nor maximizes a walk but sees, writes, and leaves the prophecy to others.
David Shaw, R.I.P. and read
In 1991, a courageous reporter who was anathema in his own newsroom won the Pulitzer Prize.
The New York Times swings and misses on abortion, again
Coverage of the abortion debate this week in NYT breaks basic journalistic rules.
Mike Barnicle, Dan Barry, and Mike Lupica remember Jimmy Breslin
Library of America just sent me a copy of Dan Barry’s edited collection Jimmy Breslin: Essential Writings. I grew-up reading Breslin, the quintessential New York journalist/columnist who used his succinct prose to tell stories of people living on the periphery […]
Journalism: From a working class profession to a venue for “pseudo-intellectuals”
William Deresiewicz on his time at Columbia School of Journalism: We were not there to think. We were there to learn a set of skills. One of them, ironically, was asking questions, just not about the profession itself: its premises, […]
Does journalism have a “religion problem”?
Andrew T. Walker of Al Mohler’s Southern Baptist Theological Seminary seems to think so. Read his piece at the National Review Online. Here is a taste: Journalism has a religion problem. More specifically, journalists are either unaware or unwilling to […]
Mission journalism
Washington Post columnist Perry Bacon Jr. argues that “journalism may never again make money, so it should it focus on mission.” As a news junkie, this saddens me. I am afraid Bacon may be correct in his assessment. But I […]
Palestinian Christian journalist: It’s time for the U.S. to recognize a Palestinian state
Daoud Kuttab is a Palestinian Christian and award-winning journalist who was the first Palestinian to interview former Israeli prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. He has spent much of his career fighting for a free media in Palestine under […]