The Magazine
November/December 2012
Articles
Cover Story
Questionable taste
Ricky Gervais describes the pleasures and pitfalls of being interviewed
By Cyndi Stivers Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
As his Golden Globes hosting gigs have shown, Ricky Gervais is not afraid to say what he thinks. So... More
Cover Story
Rules of the game
The sometimes nauseating, often fun, and always absurd life of a movie publicist
By Reid Rosefelt Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
I’ve always regretted that I never thanked Goldie Hawn for launching my career as a publicist. Goldie became my... More
Cover Story
In cold type
When Truman Capote set out to profile Marlon Brando for The New Yorker in 1957, he knew just how to set his traps
By Douglas McCollam Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
One morning in January, 1957, Josh Logan, the veteran Broadway producer and Hollywood director, came down from his room into... More
Cover Story
Celeb-O-Matic
Yes, it’s your handy map of access to the stars!
By Cyndi Stivers Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Click to enlarge: More
Cover Story
Gross misunderstanding
What journalists miss about the movie business
By Edward Jay Epstein Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
The vast preponderance of news reporting about Hollywood concerns the weekly box-office race. It is offered free to the... More
Cover Story
Esprit de corpse
What it’s like to be embedded—on a movie set
By Jay A. Fernandez Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
With an explosion of light, the screaming starts. . . . This place is wrecked—an entire ballroom flopped on its head. In the... More
Cover Story
The red-carpet treatment
Set the Wayback Machine to April 9, 1984. The stars are filing into the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles for the 56th Academy Awards . . .
By Cyndi Stivers Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
In 1984, gaining access to the Oscars was pretty easy. Calling from Vanity Fair, where new immigrant Tina Brown had... More
Cover Story
Taking the seen-it route
Why toil as an entry-level slave when you can watch a lot of TV, write it up, build a following—and perhaps even get paid?
By Sara Morrison Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Since I could talk, I have talked back to the television. Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was great—I loved that segment... More
Cover Story
Avoiding pilot error
By tracking its users’ intent to watch fall shows, TVGuide.com handicaps the new TV season
By Cyndi Stivers Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Television viewers are all over the place these days, tuning in via computers, tablets, and phones, at odd times, and... More
Feature
Lost and found
In 1967, an ambitious young reporter broke a promise to a troubled source and inadvertently made her famous. Forty-three years later, he set out to find her and apologize.
By Bruce Porter Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
On October 27, 1967, senior editors gathered for the Thursday story conference to see how things were shaping up... More
Feature
Going to great lengths
After two years as the hot new thing, the e-singles market is getting serious—and crowded
By Michael Meyer Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
From the beginning, The Atavist was a small startup with a lot of big playmates. A pioneer in the... More
Cover Story
The fame game
Just in time for Hollywood awards season, CJR shines a Klieg light on entertainment journalism—a sometimes deprecated but highly influential corner of the craft.
By The Editors Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
In the past half century, as the big movie studios ceded control of the media narrative, celebrities have loomed... More
Departments
Opening Shot
Opening Shot
A picture is worth a thousand meanings
By The Editors Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
In October, Columbia J-School joined with BagNewsNotes, an almost decade-old site devoted to analyzing media images, for a discussion... More
Currents
Behind the news
Give me a visual
By Jessica Weisberg Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Serious graphic novels, like Maus or Persepolis, have proven that comics aren’t always funny. But what about graphic journalism?... More
Currents
Title Search
Python developer
By Jay Woodruff Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Alexandre Conrad is a Python developer for SurveyMonkey. Jay Woodruff interviewed him in September. Have you ever been slapped in... More
Currents
A matter of time
Pretty in Finke
By The Editors Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
In October, auto-racing and truck-leasing scion Jay Penske announced that he’d bought Variety, the storied Hollywood trade publication founded in... More
Darts and Laurels
Darts and Laurels
Women’s work
By Sara Morrison Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
When The New York Times made Buffalo News editor Margaret Sullivan its new public editor in September, there seemed... More
Editorial
Hard truths
What is the future of political factchecking?
By The Editors Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
As the presidential campaign wound down, it became clear that the media’s factchecking effort, which played a more prominent... More
Currents
Talk to the hand
A long-running journalism inside joke gets new (after?)life
By Sara Morrison Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Eight years ago, the Chicago Tribune put the halogen searchlight of public attention on an age-old international media conspiracy—an... More
Currents
Language Corner
There, there
By Merrill Perlman Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
There are many ways to start articles and sentences. There is often a way to avoid beginning with the phrases... More
Currents
Gifted
‘Tis the season
By The Editors Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
If you love a journalist, you know how hard it is to find the perfect gift—they’re so neurotic! So... More
Currents
Open Bar
The Anchor Bar
By Tanveer Ali Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
The Anchor Bar 450 West Fort Street, Detroit, MI Year opened 1959. It’s been in its current location since 1993,... More
Currents
Death becomes … who?
What the NY Times obits say about America
By Stephen G. Bloom Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
The New York Times is, more than any other single publication, the nation’s arbiter of erudition, prosperity, and success.... More
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the editor
Readers respond to our September/October issue
By The Editors Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Fleurs du mal Very compelling argument and well-stated, Clay Shirky (“Failing Geometry” CJR, September/October). Traditional media’s “original sin” (re: the... More
Currents
Hard Numbers
Election edition
By Hazel Sheffield Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
54 Percent of Americans who knew that General Motors’ decision to close its plant in Janesville, WI, happened before Barack... More
The Lower Case
The Lower Case
Headlines that editors probably wish they could take back
By The Editors Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
- Daily Variety, 9/14/12 - Ventura County (CA) Star, 8/23/12 - Philadelphia Inquirer, 8/29/12 More
Currents
DIY celebrity profile
Fill in the blanks
By The Editors Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
“It is half-past 10 on another soullessly sun-kissed Los Angeles morning. And (promising young star) is late. I’ve been sitting... More
Ideas & Reviews
Second Read
Human capital
In O Albany!, William Kennedy pays homage to the hard-to-love city that is his novels’ greatest hero
By Stefan Beck Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
On January 16, 1928, William Joseph Kennedy suffered a misfortune of birth only slightly preferable to bastardy. Having drawn... More
Essay
Flag on the play
Why a great sportswriter blew the story of a lifetime; the undoing of Joe Paterno
By Tim Marchman Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
For those who care about sports and sports writing, the recent publication of Joe Posnanski’s book on the late Penn... More
Critical Eye
Brief Encounters
Short reviews of Out of the News, The Way the World Works: Essays, and The Stammering Century
By James Boylan Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Out of the News: Former Journalists Discuss a Profession in Crisis | By Celia Viggo Wexler | McFarland & Company... More
Critical Eye
The future’s so bright …
How to save the world while paying people with beer and hugs
By Justin Peters Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
In early 2012, a musician named Amanda Palmer took to Kickstarter to ask her fans for $100,000. Palmer, a... More
Critical Eye
Color blind
When white men and three networks ruled the media, coverage of race was … better? Damn you, Internet!
By Amanda Hess Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Last summer, Gawker asked veteran news anchor Dan Rather to review Aaron Sorkin’s new television series The Newsroom. It... More
The Research Report
Innovator’s lament
Shouldn’t trailblazers be allowed to establish new standards of success?
By Michael Schudson and Katherine Fink Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Some months ago, on the Poynter Institute’s website, PolitiFact’s Bill Adair urged: “[L]et’s blow up the news story.” Journalism must... More
Q and A
‘How to Get On With Your Life’
Kate White talks life after Cosmo
By Cyndi Stivers Nov 1, 2012 at 12:00 AM
It takes guts to quit a job running the world’s best-selling women’s magazine. But Kate White has long embodied... More

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

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”

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

CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
ACEsTooHigh.com – Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
