January/February 2009

Articles

By David Hajdu Jan 29, 2009 at 08:30 AM

I saw the future through a two-way mirror in November 1990. I had just started a new job as a... More

Opening India

The world’s largest democracy finally has an FOI law—so why have journalists been slow to embrace it?

By Ralph Frammolino Jan 28, 2009 at 10:23 AM

In October, community activists from around India gathered at the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library in New Delhi to celebrate... More

The Wikinews Ace

Why Shimon Peres sat down with David Shankbone

By Adam Rose Jan 27, 2009 at 09:30 AM

One morning in December 2007, a law-school dropout named David Shankbone sat on a couch in Shimon Peres’s office in... More

Dig In

In an era of global shortages and biofuel debates, the food beat gets serious

By Georgina Gustin Jan 27, 2009 at 08:30 AM

This past fall, I drove from St. Louis to Osage County, in central Missouri, to meet a hog farmer named... More

What We Learned In the Meltdown

Financial journalists saw some trees but not the forest. Now what?

By Martha M. Hamilton Jan 26, 2009 at 09:30 AM

One day in June 2005, my colleague Nell Henderson and I hiked over to the Bond Market Association to get... More

Un-American

Have you listened to the right-wing media lately?

By Michael Massing Jan 23, 2009 at 10:59 AM

In the weeks following the election, the debate over the issue of media bias, and of whether the press was... More

Hung Out to Dry

The national-security press dug up the dirt, but Congress wilted

By Laura Rozen Jan 22, 2009 at 09:00 AM

In November and December 2005, The Washington Post and The New York Times published two groundbreaking national-security stories that revealed... More

A See-Through Society

How the Web is opening up our democracy

By Micah L. Sifry Jan 15, 2009 at 09:00 AM

It may be a while before the people who run the U.S. House of Representatives’ Web service forget the week... More

What We Didn’t Know Has Hurt Us

The Bush administration was pathological about secrecy. Here’s what needs to be undone after eight dark years—and why it won’t be easy.

By Clint Hendler Jan 13, 2009 at 08:00 AM

Advocates for open and transparent government are quick to note that no American presidential administration has, in practice, been enthusiastic... More

Departments

Glory Days

The old TV series Lou Grant offers a salve of newspaper nostalgia

By Steven Kurutz Jan 29, 2009 at 09:00 AM

These are brutal times for the newspaper industry. Widespread buyouts, shuttered bureaus, diminished ambitions—in many cases, not even the physical... More

Dart to The Plain Dealer

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By Katia Bachko Jan 29, 2009 at 08:45 AM

Dart to the Cleveland Plain Dealer for failing to stick by its story. Last October, investigative reporter Bob Paynter, at... More

Entitled Time

Campaign reporters catch up on their reading

By Jane Kim Jan 28, 2009 at 10:56 AM

After two harried years on the trail, an endless stream of hotel rooms, fast food bolted on the fly, the... More

Cloudy Skies

A new online environment and energy energy site is tainted with conflicts of interest among its anchors and executives

By Mariah Blake Jan 28, 2009 at 10:36 AM

In many ways, CleanSkies.tv, an online outfit offering “energy and environmental news, information, discussion, and commentary,” resembles other TV news... More

Let There Be Light

How President Obama should reopen our government

By The Editors Jan 20, 2009 at 08:00 AM

Over many years, Americans have come to embrace the idea that democracy suffers when the work of government is excessively... More

Ideas & Reviews

The Devil Made Them Do It

A new anthology about men (and women) behaving very badly

By Wendell Jamieson Jan 27, 2009 at 09:00 AM

True Crime: An American Anthology Harold Schechter, editor The Library of America 788 pages, $40 The teenage girl gave birth... More

Feet to the Fire

Does journalism keep government honest?

By Michael Schudson & Danielle Haas Jan 26, 2009 at 09:00 AM

For a profession that lives by the cynical adage, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out,” journalism... More

Here Comes the Bogeyman

A chaotic portrait of Rupert Murdoch and his discontents

By David Nasaw Jan 26, 2009 at 08:30 AM

The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch By Michael Wolff Broadway 446 pages,... More

Brief Encounters

Short reviews of books about art on the New York Times’s Op-Ed page, the short life of The Chicagoan, and hoaxes in the news.

By James Boylan Jan 23, 2009 at 11:49 AM

All the Art That’s Fit to Print (And Some That Wasn’t): Inside The New York Times Op-Ed Page By Jerelle... More

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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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