March/April 2013

Articles

Aspiring line

Why a young lefty writer let a conservative brahmin make a monkey out of him—over and over again

By Eric Alterman Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

When William F. Buckley Jr. died in February 2008, I happened to be in another of the endless arguments... More

Fair share

How can we improve American media’s coverage of race, class, and social mobility? Let’s ask some of the brightest minds in this business.

By Farai Chideya Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

[Update, April 15] While we took our opening comment in the Herald-Leader at face value in the piece below,... More

Look who’s talking

Meet the 18 journalists who weighed in on coverage of race, class, and social mobility in CJR’s cover story

By The Editors Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Tristan Ahtone (@tahtone) works as Poverty and Public Health reporter for KUNM in Albuquerque. A member of the Kiowa Tribe... More

Dark shadows

In Washington, murder turns out to be color-coded

By Clay Shirky Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

It's been a big year for Homicide Watch. Last summer's Kickstarter campaign succeeded admirably, raising $47,450. The website went from... More

Inside stories

Nearly 1 in 100 Americans is incarcerated. But how well can journalists cover prisons if they can’t get past the gates?

By Beth Schwartzapfel Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

When Rob Wildeboer, a criminal-and-legal-affairs reporter for public radio WBEZ in Chicago, read a report from a local watchdog... More

Fortresses of solitude

Even more rare: journalist access to prison isolation units

By James Ridgeway Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Supermax prisons and solitary confinement units are our domestic black sites--hidden places where human beings endure unspeakable punishments, without... More

Made in America

Portraits of American workers

By The Editors Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

You could call Carl Corey's work derivative, and mean no disrespect. His current project, "Blue: A Portrait of the American... More

Big talker

How a right-winger from Fargo became a star of the liberal airwaves

By Michael Meyer Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Among highly paid primetime cable hosts who commute weekly by private jet between rural Minnesota and Manhattan, Ed Schultz... More

The battle of New Orleans

Is Advance Publications securing the future of local news—or needlessly sacrificing it?

By Ryan Chittum Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In May, as the New Orleans Times-Picayune put to bed an epic, eight-part investigation into Louisiana's prison system, its... More

Departments

Opening shot

Separating fact from fiction in the immigration debate

By The Editors Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

The immigration debate is riven by strong emotion and partisan ideology that can obscure the relevant facts. Do undocumented... More

The middle distance

Defining middle class is the first step toward rebuilding it

By The Editors Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama said "our generation's task" is to rebuild "a rising, thriving... More

Letters to the editor

Readers respond to our January/February issue

By The Editors Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Duck and cover After Ricky Gervais and now the bikini and sensational headlines, may I please request a coverless subscription?... More

Open Bar

The Newsroom Pub

By Jim Nelson Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

The Newsroom PubMilwaukee Press ClubMilwaukee, WI Year opened 1885; in current location since 2000 Who drinks here Journalists, tourists,... More

Wether or not

By Merrill Perlman Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

A "bellwether" is an indication of what is to come ("Are rising home prices a bellwether for the economy?") or... More

Sree tips

Social-media etiquette for journalists

By Sree Sreenivasan Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Q: What's the etiquette about including your company name in your Twitter handle? A: Some news organizations force, or strongly... More

Hard Numbers

Land of opportunity

By Sara Morrison Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

2.9 percentage of full-power commercial US TV stations in the US owned by Latinos 0.7 percentage of full-power commercial US... More

Frontiers

Blinded by the white

By The Editors Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In 2004, at a fundraising dinner for the antiracism group Facing History And Ourselves, the filmmaking team of Whitney... More

Title Search

Digital executive producer

By Jay Woodruff Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Hooshere Bezdikian is an executive producer and vice president of digital at People's Choice Awards. She parlayed her religious... More

The way we were

‘Monumentally frightening’

By Dina Weinstein Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In 1962, the year before the University of Alabama integrated, Melvin Meyer was the 20-year-old editor of the student... More

Class warriors

Creators of the late Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University discuss class in America

By Brent Cunningham Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In 1996, Sherry Linkon and John Russo led the effort to create the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown... More

Out with a bang

In their final issue, LA Youth’s writers discuss what it means to be poor

By The Editors Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

For 25 years, LA Youth, a nonprofit newspaper written by and for teens in and around Los Angeles, helped... More

Headlines that editors probably wish they could take back

By The Editors Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

- San Jose Mercury News, 10/27/12 - The New York Times, 1/12/13 - The New York Times, 1/15/13 -... More

Ideas & Reviews

No more sugar daddies

Andrew Sullivan turned his popular blog into an independent, reader-supported site

By The Editors Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Andrew Sullivan's decision in January to leave the Daily Beast and turn his popular blog, The Dish, into an... More

Gorky peek

The Second Russian Revolution gave viewers an unprecedented glimpse inside a rapidly liberalizing Soviet Union

By Ann Cooper Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In the spring of 1989, after decades of being kept out in the cold by Communist secrecy and propaganda,... More

Hard lessons

Finding hope in the effort to reform America’s public schools

By Julia M. Klein Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

The desperate condition of many of America's urban schools is captured by an anecdote Ron Berler relates near the... More

Holy mess

Lawrence Wright unpacks the mysteries of Scientology

By Lindsay Beyerstein Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

In mid-January, The Atlantic, which famously pledged in 1857 to be "the organ of no party or clique," was... More

Fast women

Phileas Fogg had nothing on pioneering female journalists Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland

By Daniel Luzer Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Ah, stunt journalism. where would America's airport bookstores be without it? Let's see if I can read an entire... More

Brief encounters

Short reviews of After Visiting Friends, The Art of Controversy, and Tupelo Man

By James Boylan Mar 1, 2013 at 12:00 AM

After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story | By Michael Hainey | Scribner | 306 pages | $26 Robert C. Hainey... More

Most Popular
Most Commented
Twitter

New survey reveals everything you think about freelancing is true - Data from Project Word quantifies challenges of freelance investigative reporting

Why one editor won’t run any more op-eds by the Heritage Foundation’s top economist - A reply to Paul Krugman on state taxes and job growth made some incorrect claims

Why we ‘stave off’ colds - It all started with wine

The New Republic, then and now - Tallying the staff turnover at the overhauled magazine

Why serious journalism can coexist with audience-pleasing content - Legacy media organizations should experiment with digital platforms while continuing to publish hard news

Why Bill O'Reilly can play hardball on his war zone story (5)

Why scientists often hate records requests (4)

Showdown over the future of independent documentaries at PBS (2)

The LA Times goes deep on superbug outbreak (2)

Why Jan Brewer is sounding like James Risen (2)

Tweets by @CJR

Email blasts from CJR writers and editors

The rise of feelings journalism (TNR)

“Bloom engaged in an increasingly popular style of writing, which I’ve discussed on my blog before, which I call “feelings journalism.” It involves a writer making an argument based on what they imagine someone else is thinking, what they feel may be another person’s feelings. The realm of fact, of reporting, has been left behind.”

Things a war correspondent should never say (WSJ)

“The correspondent retelling war stories surely knows that fellow correspondents had faced the same dangers or worse”

The joyful, bloody media circus of bringing down Brian Williams (Bloomberg)

“In the media, we eat our own for sport”

On WaPo trying to interview a cow (National Journal)

“‘I wasn’t milked on the White House lawn by a strange man,’ The Washington Post—the venerable institution that would later come to break the Watergate scandal and win 48 Pulitzers—quoted her, a farm animal, as saying”

Bloggingheads

Greg Marx discusses democracy and news with Tom Rosenstiel of the American Press Institute

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