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The Access Issue

Who Sets the Narrative of Public Life

Introducing the Access Issue.
By Betsy Morais
Podcast

When a Bigger League Means Less Access

Sports Illustrated’s Emma Baccellieri on covering the changing world of women’s basketball.
By Megan Greenwell

Pitched Battle

Coverage of the 2026 World Cup promises to bring politics off the sidelines.

By Amos Barshad

We Have Some Follow-Ups

Kristen Welker and Lawfare press for answers to lingering questions about the January 6 rioters. Plus: No, Spencer Pratt was never for real; accountability in Arizona.
By Susie Banikarim

‘An Ice Cube That Is Melting’

As Nick Bilton arrives at CBS News to revolutionize 60 Minutes, a question remains unanswered: Why?
By Jem Bartholomew

Recent

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The Insider’s Scoop on 60 Minutes

“There’s no investigative reporting needed to understand what’s going on,” Lowell Bergman says.
By Amos Barshad

The Secret Dinners of Cold War Journalism

How invitation-only reporting took root in Washington’s press corps.
By Kathryn J. McGarr

Go Pound Sand!

Local journalists feel the doors closing to public officials who “are taking their cue from President Trump.”
By Kyle Paoletta
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Pitched Battle

Coverage of the 2026 World Cup promises to bring politics off the sidelines.
By Amos Barshad

How Does Access Work Now?

Journalists, podcasters, and news influencers on the erosion of access—what it’s worth, and what it isn’t.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Riddhi Setty, Ivan L. Nagy

Should Journalists Interview Dictators? 

Encounters on the line between control and conditions.
By Joel Simon

Subversion of Reality

The Faustian bargain of embedding with the Israeli military in Gaza.  
By Gerry Shih

The Access Issue

Inside and Out

Our new special issue on the restrictions, workarounds, glories, and trade-offs of journalistic access.

A Star Is Born

The Post looked down and out. Robert Allbritton made his move. 
By Adam Piore

Figueroa Street and the Ethical Duty of Care

Looking back at a New York Times magazine story to examine what responsible coverage of sex trafficking looks like—and what it doesn’t.
By Nina Alvarez

Hannah Natanson’s Advice to Journalists

A lecture to the Columbia Journalism School class of 2026.
By Hannah Natanson

Breathing New Life into the Obituary

A new podcast uses one of journalism’s oldest forms to explore universal truths.
By Meg Dalton

Crank Lit

The Anderson Valley Advertiser has attracted a cult following by collapsing the walls between neighborhood news and outsider fascination, writer and commenter, fact and fiction.
By Lucy Schiller

The West Bank in Focus

A recent wave of coverage has drawn attention to settler violence—and forced the Israeli government to talk about it.
By Amos Barshad

White Plight

The Trump administration is helping a white, male editor sue the New York Times for discrimination.
By Jem Bartholomew, Riddhi Setty

Politics

Survival Guide

How to keep your head above water as Trump floods the zone.

Blind Spots

A satellite company popular among journalists issued an indefinite blackout in the Middle East. Open-source investigators got to work—and challenged official narratives.
By Alex Pasternack

With Malice

Kash Patel’s FBI is going after reporters and news organizations for routine newsgathering practices.
By Jem Bartholomew

The Town

The Globe’s Emily Sweeney breaks out of Boston.
By Megan Greenwell

A Mother’s Secret

Tracy Clark-Flory went looking for her lost sister. She found a system that thrived on women’s shame.
By Susie Banikarim

Going Nuclear

Trump’s media company keeps getting weirder. 
By Jem Bartholomew

The Venetoulis Institute Goes to Pittsburgh

A nice save, followed by rough cuts.
By Riddhi Setty

The Journalism 2050 Issue

Forecasting

Where the wind is blowing the media industry and habits of news consumption.

‘Corporate Meddling and Editorial Fear’

The Ellisons are closing in on CNN.
By Jem Bartholomew

Magazine Journalism on Life Support 

The Devil Wears Prada 2 and the search for the mythical billionaire savior.
By James Grebey

Fighting the Machine

Journalists across the United States are fighting for contracts that address AI use: “We don’t want it to be done in our name, literally.”
By Riddhi Setty

‘They Finally Got Me’ 

Fifty years after a car bomb killed Don Bolles, an investigative journalist in Arizona, Jeremy Duda reconstructs a murder story that resonates.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

Is Kidnapping Back?

The abduction of Shelly Kittleson, on a busy Baghdad street in the midst of a regional war, suggests that American journalists could once again become targets.
By Joel Simon

In Indiana, a Campus Newspaper Adviser Fights for the ‘Soul of Our Country’

Jim Rodenbush refused to make students stop printing hard news. He got fired. Then he became a national hero.
By Corey Hutchins

Hungary Got a Fresh Start. Will Its Media?

As Hungarians put an end to Viktor Orbán’s regime, shutting down propaganda is first on the agenda of Péter Magyar, the incoming prime minister.
By Ivan L. Nagy

A Reflection of What It Is We Do

Political violence at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
By Jem Bartholomew

Larry Madowo on Covering Africa, ‘Warts and All’ 

“Africans are not just victims. We have a role in these stories and a perspective on them.”
By Maurice Oniang’o

The Post Tries to Regroup

After announcing major cuts, the paper is delaying layoffs and attempting to hire back former staffers.
By Riddhi Setty

International

The Story of Gaza

Journalism confronts a crisis—Israeli attacks, starving children, hostages, mass death—that won’t let up.

AI Data Centers in the Land of Diminished Local News

“At least some of these big companies look for communities that are news deserts to build projects,” a local journalist said, “because it’s easier for them when there’s less public scrutiny.”
By Lucy Schiller

Worries at the Door

Estefany Rodríguez was reporting on an ICE raid in Nashville. The next day, she was detained. She has since been released on bond, but her fate is uncertain.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

‘If Someone Lit Up a Match, the Place Would Explode’

Viktor Orbán’s regime is increasingly targeting journalists. But even if he loses the election coming up this weekend, Hungary won’t become a press haven overnight.
By Ivan L. Nagy

What’s Up with Tony?

How Tony Dokoupil went from being a hair model to a print journalist to the anchor of CBS Evening News, guided by the principle “We love America.”
By Amos Barshad

Pushed Out. Reinstated. Pushed Out Again.

Last week, New York Times reporters were supposed to return to the Pentagon’s corridors. Instead, the entire press corps was banished to an annex, and the Times is back in court.
By Ivan L. Nagy

Synthetic Media

Artificial Intelligence

Productivity, parlor tricks, and persuading people that the truth still matters.

Who Is Left to Cover Lebanon?

A nation that helped shape modern war reporting is now treated as peripheral. In the wake of journalist killings, the consequences are clear not only for members of the press, but for how the story of Lebanon is being told. 
By Zahra Hankir

‘It’s Really Hard to Give Up That Kind of Money’

Kevin Ortega-Rojas, the creator of Here’s Why, curates political news for hundreds of thousands of people. Lately, he’s had to make tradeoffs between earning trust and earning a living.
By Lindsay Kalter

Waiting for Shihab-Eldin

Early last month, the journalist was arrested in Kuwait on the basis of what CPJ calls “vague and overly broad accusations.” I’ve known him to be a reporter who is quick and elegant and resists euphemism.
By Aida Alami

Shelly Kittleson’s Abduction, Before and After

​​Over the years, I have come to know that Shelly is a disciplined reporter and vigilant about her safety. But the risks to her, as for most journalists in the region, are part of the ecosystem.
By Kiran Nazish

Was the FBI Raid on a Washington Post Reporter’s Home an Act of Retribution?

Investigators “assisted” Hannah Natanson in applying her right index finger to a Post-owned MacBook Pro, accessing all its data.
By Jem Bartholomew

Standards and Practices

A New Look at Journalism Ethics

Our series in collaboration with the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security.

How Bloodstains Photographed from Space Brought Attention to a Forgotten War

When the Sudanese city of El-Fasher was sacked by paramilitaries last fall, ground reporting gave way to long-distance analysis.
By Isma’il Kushkush

Prying Open the Black Box

ICE conceals the breadth of its detention network by limiting access, but recent immigration reporting shows that information can and will emerge if we keep looking.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

Unsilencing Voice of America

A judge ruled that Kari Lake’s tenure at USAGM was unconstitutional and ordered employees back to work. But a new appointee and legal challenges could make a fresh start difficult.
By Ivan L. Nagy

CNN’s Missed Opportunity

A promising digital transition is underway. But a Paramount buyout will likely doom the progress being made.
By Kyle Paoletta

Meet the Meteorologists Leaving Broadcast Behind

In an era of extreme weather, indie weathermen are streaming coverage 24-7—and banding together.
By Elizabeth Hewitt

Inside an East African Investigative Newsroom That Has Defied a Decade of Pressure

Africa Uncensored has survived legal threats, intimidation, and politically motivated attacks on its funders to become a prominent force in Kenya’s investigative journalism landscape.
By Maurice Oniang’o

Estefany Rodríguez in Limbo

Last week, a reporter in Nashville was detained by ICE. Officials claimed to have paperwork for her arrest, but her lawyers say it was warrantless—and retaliation for her reporting.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

As US Bombs Iran, a Judge Rules on the Battle for Hearts and Minds

A federal court says Kari Lake didn’t have legal standing to gut federally funded broadcasters such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.
By Jem Bartholomew

On Standing Rock, Local News Is Teetering

“We are like living ghosts,” the editor of the Teton Times said.
By Liam Scott

The New York Times Takes the Pentagon to Court 

As the US wages war on Iran, journalists’ fight for access enters a new phase.
By Ivan L. Nagy

Remembering

Lessons Learned (Or Not)

Have journalists gotten better at covering Trump?

A Reporter in Nashville, Detained by ICE

Estefany Rodríguez, a journalist for a Spanish-language outlet, was covering immigration raids. The next day, agents arrested her without presenting a warrant.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

Hyperlocal AI with a Million Subscribers

Patch built a newsletter system to be not hard-nosed journalism but a community-building tool.
By Liz Skalka

Blackout Iran

When the Trump administration launched a major attack on Iran, news organizations had to navigate a shaky environment for communications—and moral clarity.
By Jem Bartholomew, Ivan L. Nagy

What Happened to Trump’s Biggest Fan?

As Marjorie Taylor Greene contemplates her next move, her betrothed, a Trump-friendly broadcaster named Brian Glenn, is adjusting to life on the outside.
By Liam Scott

In This Cleveland Newsroom, AI Is Writing (But Not Reporting) the News

Cleveland.com is embracing AI tools, including an AI rewrite desk.
By Riddhi Setty

The Washington Post Gave Up on Diverse Coverage Well Before Layoffs

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, staffers of color have been frustrated by supervisors’ lack of enthusiasm—and the paper’s diminishing resources—for their work. 
By Riddhi Setty

The Voice of the Uyghur Post 

A Uyghur-language news site is aiming to connect a scattered diaspora and preserve a culture at risk of disappearing.
By Liam Scott

Elbowing In

In Olympia, Washington, a few right-wing media figures have been trying to get credentialed to cover the statehouse. Their efforts—which now include a lawsuit—have shaken up the entire press corps.
By John Stang

Inside the Reviewnaissance

A new generation tries its hand at publishing “the unusual, the difficult, the lengthy.”
By Carolina Abbott Galvão

What the Post Cuts Will Do

With a third of its staff gone, the Post won’t be able to deliver on the vision its leadership has laid out.
By Siddhartha Mahanta

Reboot

Transformations

How technology is changing journalism.

How ‘Pink Slime’ Publishers Are Weaponizing FOIA 

Metric Media filed more than nine thousand public records requests last year. It used the data to target Democratic politicians and private citizens.
By Miranda Green

Disarming the Global Free Press

For decades, American taxpayers helped promote democracy around the world. Then the US switched teams.
By Joel Simon

Carpenter Media’s Ominous Takeover of Local News

In just a few years, a publisher based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has become the country’s fourth-largest newspaper operator. Some reporters wonder if it isn’t the cruelest.
By Lois Parshley

A Dismantling of the Washington Post

“Our leadership destroyed our brand.”
By Amos Barshad, Siddhartha Mahanta

The Astonishing Arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort

“You cannot be neutral about the dismantling of our democracy and still expect to be protected by it,” Fort said in an interview. Two days later, officers came to her door.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Riddhi Setty

The Fight over AI at McClatchy

“Until we have solid language here, we’re not going to feel safe about the integrity of our jobs—or the language our readers read.”
By Lucy Schiller

‘A Trauma That You Carry’

An unprecedented attack on press freedom at the Washington Post.
By Riddhi Setty

For Venezuelan Journalists, It’s Like Maduro Never Left

“If you have contacts or sensitive information that you’re not supposed to have, you could be thrown in jail.”
By Carolina Abbott Galvão, Ivan L. Nagy

A Veteran of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette—and Its Long Strike—Prepares for What’s Next

“We didn’t go on strike to put the paper out of business. We went on strike to keep it good.”
By Megan Greenwell

Women’s Glossies Go MAGA

The conservative magazines pulling women into right-wing politics through lifestyle content.
By Carolina Abbott Galvão
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Recent Issues

From the Archive

Corridor of Mirrors

The Democratic Convention in Chicago, in August 1968, was surrounded by protesters and made bloody by police violence. Whiteside was on the scene, following along with CBS News.
By Thomas Whiteside