Reports
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March 20, 2012 06:00 AM
Detained in Dagestan
How I got caught—and got out
Last September I went on assignment with a translator to Dagestan, a Russian republic on the Caspian Sea. Since we were reporting on the Islamic insurgency, which has been simmering there since the 1990s, it wasn’t particularly encouraging when our taxi was stormed by four huge men in blue camouflage who pointed assault rifles and shouted threats. It further dawned...
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March 1, 2012 08:30 AM
Newt and the Age Gap
What young reporters don't understand
In this topsy-turvy political year, Newt Gingrich has exhausted every resurrection metaphor from the world’s great religions and undoubtedly, at times, has felt akin to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn attending their own funerals. This has been a campaign in which voters have needed surge protectors to safeguard themselves from the punditry surrounding ever-changing frontrunners. By...
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February 3, 2012 06:00 AM
The American Newsroom
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January 17, 2012 01:45 PM
What Scientist Shortage?
The Johnny-can't-do-science myth damages US research
On July 28, 2011, Senator Chuck Schumer, a democrat from New York, opened a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on high-skill immigration with a call to staple a green card to the diploma of every foreign student who earns a degree in science, technology, engineering, or math—known collectively as a STEM degree—in the United States. “As we all know,” added...
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January 17, 2012 06:00 AM
Get Real
The unlikely marriage of documentary filmmakers and reality TV
Dionicio is a heroin addict who was terribly abused as a child and turned to drugs and crime when he was a teenager. Now, he speaks directly to the camera about his struggles, then ties off his leg while filling his needle with heroin. David Van Taylor, the documentarian behind the superlative documentary film
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January 4, 2012 06:00 AM
The Girl Who Loved Journalists
Stieg Larsson's posthumous gift to an embattled industry
For a profession whose entire raison d’être is communication, American journalists sure have done a lousy job of explaining why the slow-motion disintegration of the business model upon which their livelihoods have depended for the past three hundred years might have significant negative consequences for the country. The arguments one hears tend to sound like high-school...
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November 15, 2011 06:00 AM
In Our Time
CJR's editor takes stock
On my first day at the Columbia Journalism Review, the editors were reading page proofs for an upcoming issue, and if you found a glitch, the editor who had read the piece before you had to pitch a coin into a pizza-fund jar—a dime to a quarter, depending on the grievousness of the error. This provided a quick insight...
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November 9, 2011 09:00 AM
Pulitzer’s Magazine?
Our founder reflects on CJR's roots
Here is the best and here is the worst story of the day. . . . Here is the wrong of the day; here is the injustice that needs to be righted; here is the best editorial; here is a brilliant paragraph; here is a bit of sentimental trash; here is a superb ‘beat’; here is a scandalous ‘fake,’ for which the perpetrator ought...
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September 20, 2011 06:00 AM
The Long Tale
New homes for stories that fall between a book and an article
When author Jon Krakauer started looking into the altruistic claims of his former friend, the best-selling author of Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, he uncovered quite a story. Mortenson was famous as a philanthropist who raised millions for his charity, which builds schools and other resources in Afghanistan. But the...
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September 13, 2011 12:39 PM
Urgent Call
Cell phones help a marginalized Indian community speak out
On the evening of May 16, 2010, Vijjobai Talami, the headwoman of Gumiapal village, phoned CGNet Swara, a fledgling mobile phone-based citizen journalism service. Talami provided a firsthand report about what happened that morning deep in the forests of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh: “The police came and searched our village and burnt our houses and grain....
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August 24, 2011 01:48 PM
Pirate Radio, Mayan Style
Indigenous stations want to come in from the cold
When you get to Sumpango, in the central highlands of Guatemala, you won’t be able to find Radio Ixchel on your own. This is partially by design: in the eyes of the law, they are running a criminal operation.
There’s no sign posted outside the building that houses the station....
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July 19, 2011 06:00 AM
Life Near the Center of the Story
Istanbul is the 'It' location for enterprising freelance journalists
Last summer, my wife became NPR’s correspondent in Baghdad. I couldn’t join her there, so we decided I’d move to Istanbul, with its cobblestoned streets, abundant fresh food, humming nightlife, and gleaming airport.
We weren’t the first journalists to discover its charms. At a rooftop party a few weeks after arriving, I encountered some of the...
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July 5, 2011 05:58 PM
How to Cover the Money Race
A Q&A with money-and-politics expert Dave Levinthal
If 2010’s $3.6 billion midterm elections are any gauge, reporters tasked with following the money in campaign 2012 face a tall order: unparalleled millions—much of it untraceable—spent on political communications; new breeds of intentionally opaque advocacy groups jockeying alongside corporations, unions, candidates, and parties to make the most of the ever-evolving patchwork of campaign finance regulations. It is plausible the...
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May 9, 2011 06:00 AM
The Smith Rules
Sam Smith covers the Chicago Bulls—for the Bulls
Sam Smith says he’s living out the “ultimate journalistic fantasy” after leaving the news business. The former Chicago Tribune sports writer, who gained a national following—and, at times, citywide scorn—for his relentless, guileless coverage of the Chicago Bulls during the Michael Jordan era, is blogging hard again about the Bulls—for the Bulls.
It’s an odd...
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Desks
The Audit Business
- A game of telephone fools the Times And the newspaper-of-record short-arms the correction
- Audit notes: Questions for JPMorgan, hindsight journalism, Ticketmaster Jesse Eisinger asks what and when Dimon & Co. knew about the bank’s big loss
The Observatory Science
- USA Today’s oily, gassy rainbow Detailed cover story a bit too rosy about ‘energy independence’
- Attachment parenting, detached debate Time’s titillating cover overshadows article’s substance
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- The entirely predictable failure of Americans Elect A little poli-sci—or just recent history—would have helped pundits avoid the hype
- The Obama camp serves up a Bain story Some local outlets take the bait, while others offer a closer look
Behind the News The Media
Blog
The Kicker last updated: Fri 3:00 PM
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