About a year ago, Current published Steven Waldman‘s piece “The Return of Local News.” Waldman is the president and cofounder of Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. He also serves as chair of the Rebuild Local News Coalition....
journalism history
The “American Studier” tackles the history of investigative journalism
I am a regular reader of Ben Railton‘s blog “American Studier.” Last week he took-up the history of investigative journalism with pieces on Ida B. Wells, A.C. Thompson, David Halberstam, Ida Tarbell, Nellie Bly,and Fanny Fern. It’s a great little...
Bob Woodward and the copy machine
Last Sunday night we watched the first two episodes of CNN’s documentary on John Dean and Watergate. I am looking forward to the last two episodes this weekend. It’s good. So needless to say, a recent Washington Post piece on...
What happened to *The New York Times*?
Last week the editorial page editor of The New York Times resigned after he was criticized for publishing an op-ed by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton that called for the use of federal troops to quell violence in the wake of the killing...
The Author’s Corner with Lawrence Kreiser
Lawrence Kreiser is Associate Professor of History at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This interview is based on his book Marketing the Blue and Gray: Newspaper Advertising and the American Civil War (LSU Press, 2019). JF: What led you to write Marketing...
When Journalists Used the “tools of a novelist to tell a news story”
I need to see the HBO documentary Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists. I grew up reading Jimmy Breslin’s columns in the New York Daily News and his writing was one of the reasons I wanted to grow-up to become a journalist....
“Fake News” is an Old Problem
Jackie Mansky, the humanities editor at Smithsonian.Com, reminds us that “fake news” has a long, long history in the American republic. Here is a taste of her piece, “The Age-Old Problem of ‘Fake News’“: Earlier echoes of John Adams’ frustrations...
The Press Was More Political In Jefferson's Day Than It Is Today. Yet He Defended It.
Earlier today, while speaking to a crowd in Florida, Donald Trump referenced Thomas Jefferson in a rant condemning the press and the media. Here is what he said: I also want to speak to you without the filter of the fake news....
The Author's Corner with Brian Gabrial
Brian Gabrial is Associate Professor and Chair of Journalism at Concordia University. This interview is based on his new book, The Press and Slavery in America 1791-1859: The Melancholy Effect of Popular Excitement (University of South Carolina Press, 2016). JF:...
The Author’s Corner with Janice Hume
Janice Hume is the head of the Journalism Department at Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. This interview is based on her new book, Popular Media and the American Revolution: Shaping Collective Memory (Routledge Publishers,...
Liz Covart on “The Art of the Obituary”
I am so glad to have Liz Covart on our team for the 2014 AHA. Liz’s blog Uncommonplace Book is must reading for independent historians or any historian who wants to develop a writing platform and speak to public audiences. ...