
RECENT ARTICLES

Times public editor: The readers versus the masthead
Dean Baquet, The Executive Editor of The New York Times, was at home on Monday night—as was the rest of the paper’s senior leadership (referred to internally as “the masthead”)—when the next day’s front page was being composed. Soon, it would turn into a public disaster. At 9:13pm, Nate Silver, editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight, the statistical news site once published by the Times, sparked a social media furor with a tweet of the front page. A banner headline appeared over a pair of stories on President Trump’s White House speech addressing the weekend’s two mass shootings; Silver...…Dean Baquet, The Executive Editor of The New York Times, was at home on Monday night—as was the rest of the paper’s senior leadership (referred to internally as “the masthead”)—when the next day’s front page was being composed. Soon, it would turn into a public disaster. At 9:13pm, Nate Silver, editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight, the statistical news site once published by the Times, sparked a social media furor with a tweet of the front page. A banner headline appeared over a pair of stories on President Trump’s White House speech addressing the weekend’s two mass shootings; Silver...WW…

Emily Bell: How tech platforms decide what counts as journalism
In the aftermath of the deadly Capitol insurrection, technology platforms were forced to acknowledge their role in poisoning the media atmosphere, as the principal distributors of digital news and the sources of so much misinformation. Facebook, Twitter, and Google acted as they never had before: Twitter flagged Donald Trump’s incendiary lies, removed some posts, then suspended his account; Facebook banned him for inciting violence. Overnight, Web hosting services dropped Parler, a social network popular among right-wing extremists. The platforms that had delivered and sustained a toxic...…In the aftermath of the deadly Capitol insurrection, technology platforms were forced to acknowledge their role in poisoning the media atmosphere, as the principal distributors of digital news and the sources of so much misinformation. Facebook, Twitter, and Google acted as they never had before: Twitter flagged Donald Trump’s incendiary lies, removed some posts, then suspended his account; Facebook banned him for inciting violence. Overnight, Web hosting services dropped Parler, a social network popular among right-wing extremists. The platforms that had delivered and sustained a toxic...WW…

Media amnesia and the Facebook News Tab
It would be nice to know the exact story that brought Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp, onto the stage of New York’s Paley Center with his new partner in journalism, Mark Zuckerberg. On Friday, the two men—one young, in a sweater and sneakers; the other older, in a tailored suit and shiny shoes—sat before a packed crowd of slightly over-excited Facebook employees and slightly underwhelmed journalists. It was Camp David for peace between the most truculent old media empire and one of its most noxious disruptors. Cue spotty applause. Serious questions hung, unasked, in the air:...…It would be nice to know the exact story that brought Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp, onto the stage of New York’s Paley Center with his new partner in journalism, Mark Zuckerberg. On Friday, the two men—one young, in a sweater and sneakers; the other older, in a tailored suit and shiny shoes—sat before a packed crowd of slightly over-excited Facebook employees and slightly underwhelmed journalists. It was Camp David for peace between the most truculent old media empire and one of its most noxious disruptors. Cue spotty applause. Serious questions hung, unasked, in the air:...WW…

MSNBC public editor: A strained symbiosis with Obama
The voice of journalismAugust 10, 2020 Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Maria Bustillos is the founding editor of Popula, an alternative news and culture magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The Guardian.Yesterday, shortly after Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for president, picked Kamala Harris, the senator for California, as his running mate, Peter Doocy, a Fox News correspondent, tweeted, “But… you told me on Saturday…” That day, Doocy asked Biden—who was...…The voice of journalismAugust 10, 2020 Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Maria Bustillos is the founding editor of Popula, an alternative news and culture magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The Guardian.Yesterday, shortly after Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for president, picked Kamala Harris, the senator for California, as his running mate, Peter Doocy, a Fox News correspondent, tweeted, “But… you told me on Saturday…” That day, Doocy asked Biden—who was...WW…

Flooding the zone with the New York Post
The voice of journalismOctober 19, 2020New from CJR:Other notable stories: ICYMI:Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist. He writes CJR’s newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter .Most sexual assault coverage in America is told from the attacker’s perspective. Survivors’ physical appearance is described in detail, and the actual assault is sexualized. But in E. Jean Carroll’s masterly series for The Atlantic, “I Moved on Her Very...…The voice of journalismOctober 19, 2020New from CJR:Other notable stories: ICYMI:Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist. He writes CJR’s newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter .Most sexual assault coverage in America is told from the attacker’s perspective. Survivors’ physical appearance is described in detail, and the actual assault is sexualized. But in E. Jean Carroll’s masterly series for The Atlantic, “I Moved on Her Very...WW…

New York Times public editor: The anatomy of the Wolfe scandal
The voice of journalismJanuary 27, 2021 Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Gabriel Snyder is a contributing editor to CJR.TOP IMAGE: Adobe StockLast August, Alexei Navalny—the Russian opposition leader and scourge of Vladimir Putin—was poisoned, and fell into a coma. Authorities initially refused to let Navalny leave the country for treatment—in order to hide evidence, his supporters surmised—but friends eventually managed to...…The voice of journalismJanuary 27, 2021 Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Gabriel Snyder is a contributing editor to CJR.TOP IMAGE: Adobe StockLast August, Alexei Navalny—the Russian opposition leader and scourge of Vladimir Putin—was poisoned, and fell into a coma. Authorities initially refused to let Navalny leave the country for treatment—in order to hide evidence, his supporters surmised—but friends eventually managed to...WW…

The best journalism of 2020: Covering the pandemic
The voice of journalismDecember 15, 2020 By Donald G. McNeil, Jr. By Ed Yong By Sui-Lee Wee and Vivian Wang By Sheri Fink, Emily Rhyne and Erin Schaff By Tim Mak By Robert Faturechi and Derek Willis By Lachlan Markay, William Bredderman, Sam Brodey By Liz Essley Whyte By Kyung Lah and Rob Kuznia . By Sally Beauvais and Mitchell Ferman By Mary Annette Pember By John Woodrow Cox and photojournalist Salwan Georges By Sarah Kaplan By Jesmyn Ward By Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieUpdate: this post was updated to reflect the fact that the Texas Tribune‘s guide to navigating unemployment was...…The voice of journalismDecember 15, 2020 By Donald G. McNeil, Jr. By Ed Yong By Sui-Lee Wee and Vivian Wang By Sheri Fink, Emily Rhyne and Erin Schaff By Tim Mak By Robert Faturechi and Derek Willis By Lachlan Markay, William Bredderman, Sam Brodey By Liz Essley Whyte By Kyung Lah and Rob Kuznia . By Sally Beauvais and Mitchell Ferman By Mary Annette Pember By John Woodrow Cox and photojournalist Salwan Georges By Sarah Kaplan By Jesmyn Ward By Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieUpdate: this post was updated to reflect the fact that the Texas Tribune‘s guide to navigating unemployment was...WW…

Freelancers resist precarity by sharing rates and organizing
February 25, 2020If you ever have questions about my experience or rate with an outlet (especially if you are a woman or POC), please DM or email me! I think talking about money is important to our liberation as working people, and I want to lead by example.— Taylor Moore (@taylormundo)Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Elizabeth King is a freelance journalist in Chicago. …February 25, 2020If you ever have questions about my experience or rate with an outlet (especially if you are a woman or POC), please DM or email me! I think talking about money is important to our liberation as working people, and I want to lead by example.— Taylor Moore (@taylormundo)Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Elizabeth King is a freelance journalist in Chicago. WW…

Op-ed: What ‘Death of the Newspaper’ stories leave out
The voice of journalismMarch 11, 2020ARCHIVES:Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Ryan Binkley and Francis Wick are the authors. Binkley is the CEO of Anchorage Daily News. He and his siblings brought the paper out of bankruptcy in 2017 and today publish one daily and four weekly papers around Alaska. Wick is the third generation CEO of Wick Communications, a 95-year-old family business based in Sierra Vista Arizona, which publishes 10 daily and 14 weekly papers across 11 states.Yesterday morning I woke up, realized I was low on espresso, and went to the...…The voice of journalismMarch 11, 2020ARCHIVES:Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by .Ryan Binkley and Francis Wick are the authors. Binkley is the CEO of Anchorage Daily News. He and his siblings brought the paper out of bankruptcy in 2017 and today publish one daily and four weekly papers around Alaska. Wick is the third generation CEO of Wick Communications, a 95-year-old family business based in Sierra Vista Arizona, which publishes 10 daily and 14 weekly papers across 11 states.Yesterday morning I woke up, realized I was low on espresso, and went to the...WW…

The dumbwaiter defense
Earlier this month, a Brazilian judge stopped the prosecution of Glenn Greenwald under Brazil’s hacking laws. The case against Greenwald, a journalist for The Intercept, was apparently modeled on the indictment of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, under United States hacking laws. Both cases are examples of governments using hacking laws to stifle political speech—and we should expect more of the same. The public tends to think of Assange’s case as a massive First Amendment attack under the Espionage Act, for passing on leaks from a whistleblower and former Army intelligence...…Earlier this month, a Brazilian judge stopped the prosecution of Glenn Greenwald under Brazil’s hacking laws. The case against Greenwald, a journalist for The Intercept, was apparently modeled on the indictment of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, under United States hacking laws. Both cases are examples of governments using hacking laws to stifle political speech—and we should expect more of the same. The public tends to think of Assange’s case as a massive First Amendment attack under the Espionage Act, for passing on leaks from a whistleblower and former Army intelligence...WW…

Gabriel Snyder

Emily Bell

Mathew Ingram
Zoë Beery

Jon Allsop

James C. Goodale
