Here’s a little secret that’s probably not a secret: Reporters miss a lot of stories that are right beneath our nose. Sometimes they — we — get so focused on what we think the news is that we miss the news. More often, a subject doesn’t have the cachet to get our attention. It’s an occupational habit.
Dental floss, it’s fair to say, is beneath most of us. Read more →
NPR again pushed back today against an Associated Press story last week that strongly suggested a pro-peace, anti-nuke group in favor of the Iran nuclear treaty gained influence in NPR reporting through a grant to the news organization.
The Ploughshares Fund gave NPR $100,000 last year to fund its coverage of the treaty negotiations and subsequent deal. Read more →
Unlike the ’60s and ’70s, and because of the sharply-fractured media landscape, there don’t seem to be the journalists anymore than can make an entire generation of wonderers want to get into the field. Maybe that doesn’t hurt us much now, but it’s hard to see how it doesn’t hurt us a few years from now. Read more →
We deserve more intelligent coverage that seven minutes of Patrick Buchanan on a soap box.
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Ketevan Kardava had a choice photojournalists sometimes have to make. When is it time to help and when is it time to take photographs?
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NPR is about to unveil a new podcast and with any luck, it will change the too-earnest, too dispassionate culture of traditional public radio storytelling. Read more →
Perhaps you’ve seen the Oscar-winning Spotlight by now, the story of how the Boston Globe and a culture of investigative reporting uncovered the pedophiles of the Catholic Church and the deferential attitude of other media that allowed it to flourish.
Today, the Boston Globe provided a little spotlight on the actual reporters and editors that did the work. Read more →
Ever wonder where some political reporters get their analysis? Judging by emails pried from the Department of State, they buy it from the politicians they cover by selling their integrity. Read more →
When should someone abandon the job he’s paid to do — documenting events, in this case — and put the camera down to pitch in to help? Read more →
CBS News anchor Scott Pelley reminds us that if some people didn’t get in the line of fire, the public might never know what happened. Sixty-nine journalists have been killed in 2015. Read more →
Jeff Bradley used to be somebody, he says. He was a sportswriter. He covered the Yankees for the Newark Star Ledger. He wrote for ESPN the Magazine. He’s had his work featured in Sports Illustrated
But when he was laid off, he became more like the rest of of the somebodies in America who can’t find work even as they’re told the economy is zipping right along and unemployment is low.
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There is value, of course, to the social media of participants, who now have the freedom to raise voices previously muzzled.
But it has not yet eclipsed — not nearly so — the value of a courageous storyteller.
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When students set up a camp to protest racism on campus, they declared their public space a no-media zone, then assaulted reporters who tried to do their job and tell the story. Read more →
This probably won’t come as much of a shock to mail carriers, but this is a really lousy time to be a mail carrier, according to a new survey. Read more →
It’s always possible that racism played a part in the incident. But there should at least be a minimal standard of proof required before a person is painted as guilty. Read more →
Bob Collins