Blog Profile / Columbia Journalism Review
| URL : | http://www.cjr.org/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Media / Media Industry News | |
| Posts on Regator: | 11419 | |
| Posts / Week: | 43.2 | |
| Archived Since: | April 26, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
And that's the way it was: April 22, 1994
On April 22, 1994, the press really would no longer have Nixon to kick around anymore. Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, died in New York City, four days after suffering a debilitating stroke. Of the many adjectives that could be used to describe the ex-president, "telegenic" wasn't one of them. No politician had a more...
How do you cover a story that isn't?
WATERTOWN, MA - Late last night, sirens, explosions, and gunfire filled the air in quiet Watertown, MA, as the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing faced off with police. A few local news networks and reporters were on the scene, delivering footage of and dispatches from a truly newsworthy setting. Now, 12 hours later, the rest of the world's media...
Speaking truth to power as a criminal act
In 2007, Franz Gayl, a civilian Marine Corps science advisor, went public with concerns about delays delivering armored vehicles requested by troops in Iraq. His revelations contributed to stories (like this one) in USA Today examining how equipment shortages put soldiers at risk. As a result of speaking out, Gayl's security clearances were suspended and he was placed on...
Collecting Sandy's stories, one by one
Photo Credit: Matt Richter Two men lift a waterlogged piece of furniture up and out of a flooded living room. A woman walks down from her Manhattan apartment to the street below to spontaneously direct traffic because the lights aren't working. A group of kids peer over the edge of a church balcony onto the organized...
Boston cops: Don't reveal our tactics, please
At 8:52am today, the official Boston Police Twitter feed posted this message: "#MediaAlert: WARNING: Do Not Compromise Officer Safety by Broadcasting Tactical Positions of Homes Being Searched." The Boston cops had just come through a deadly night in which they had engaged in a gunfight with the two suspects in Monday's Boston Marathon bombings. Show More Summary
Remembering Tim Hetherington
Saturday marks the second anniversary of the deaths of the photojournalists Tim Hetheringon and Chris Hondros, friends and colleagues who were killed in a mortar attack by Qaddafi forces while covering the Libyan civil war. Both photographers...Show More Summary
As Boston bombing story unfolds, a stellar showing from local TV
BOSTON, MA -- Last night was possibly the biggest, most confusing news night in Boston history. Around 5:15pm, the FBI released two photographs of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings. Five and a half hours later, two men allegedly robbed a 7-11 in Cambridge, MA. Around the same time an MIT police officer was shot and killed in his...
On a wild night of news, a remarkable press performance
Last night was one of the wildest nights of news I can ever recall. With Boston already on edge in the wake of the bombing of the Boston Marathon, the two suspects fingered by the FBI on Thursday set off on a rampage. First, news came of the murder of an MIT police officer, which looked like a possible...
The New York Post's disgrace
At some point, you even have to hold the tabloids to account. That point is now with the New York Post, which has exhibited reckless and appalling journalistic judgment this week in its reporting on the Boston Marathon bombing. First the paper reported early in the developing story on Monday that 12 people had been killed in the blasts. It...
And that's the way it was: April 19, 2005
On this day in 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, after the death of Pope John Paul II. He reigned as Pope Benedict XVI for eight years, amidst criticism and controversy, before abdicating the papacy just weeks ago. For a look at how this transition was covered, dip into the...
Pulitzer surprise: The Sun Sentinel's rise to a gold medal
In this year's American Society of News Editors, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and Scripps Howard competitions, Fort Lauderdale's Sun Sentinel was runner-up for its gripping series exposing widespread reckless speeding by off-duty cops and the death and injury it caused in South Florida. So how did the Tribune Co.-owned Sun Sentinel emerge this week with the 2013...
Keeping up with the bullet train
Californians might be forgiven for being puzzled about the merits of their state's ambitious high-speed rail program. The sprawling, multibillion-dollar project has been portrayed as a boondoggle that will never be completed, and asShow More Summary
In marathon explosion coverage, avoid premature accusations
We don't know yet who planted the Boston Marathon bombs. Maybe it was a crazy loner. Maybe it was someone affiliated with a right-wing militia group. Maybe it was Islamic jihadists (The Week has a nice rundown of the current theories). In a knowledge vacuum, though, the public will speculate that acts of terror arise from the group they...
Audit Notes: Retail life, statutes of limitations, newspaper bulls
CBS News's MoneyWatch is good to take a hard look at life for workers in the retail industry, which not only pays abysmally but keeps workers in part-time positions with unpredictable hours:...the use of "flexible" labor practices is making life difficult for millions of retail and other employees. Employers are not only keeping a lid on hourly wages,...
And that's the way it was: April 18, 1930
On April 18, 1930, during what was supposed to be the scheduled news bulletin, BBC Radio announced, simply, "Good evening. Today is Good Friday. There is no news." Piano music followed for the remainder of the newscast. Would that journalists now could exercise such even-keeled discretion.
The Dish's progress, so far
Andrew Sullivan announced in January that he was taking his blog, The Dish, from its home at The Daily Beast and striking out on his own, using a metered content model to encourage regular readers to support his efforts. CJR interviewed him for our most recent issue, where he discussed his goal of raising $900,000. A month ago,...
Paywalls did not cause the fall of WSJ longform
Alexis Madrigal asks whether The Wall Street Journal's paywall is responsible for its turning away from longform journalism. That one's easy: No. The Atlantic writer looks at the decline of longform journalism at The Wall Street Journal, which Dean Starkman and I (both alums of the paper) have been writing about for, oh, more...
Google's privacy policy scrutinized in Europe
Six European countries are stepping up the heat on Google to comply with the continent's strict privacy policies, a year after the company announced that it had merged its data collection for some 60 of its applications. Led by France, the six regulators are saying that Google has refused to change its policy despite repeated requests to do so....
STOCK fraud?
On Monday, President Obama quietly signed a bill repealing the major provisions of the much-touted ethics law known as the STOCK Act. Passed in 2012 after a 60 Minutes report on insider trading practices in Congress, the STOCK Act banned members of Congress and senior executive and legislative branch officials from trading based on government knowledge. To...
On Tumblr abandoning in-house editorial
Last week, Tumblr CEO David Karp announced the company was dissolving Storyboard, the editorial staff it had hired a year earlier to write stories about Tumblr. "What we've accomplished with Storyboard has run its course for now, and our editorial team will be closing up shop and moving on," Karp wrote on Tumblr's staff blog. On Wednesday morning, Karp...