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The Access Issue

Who Sets the Narrative of Public Life

Introducing the Access Issue.
By Betsy Morais
Podcast

Why Do You Have to Run from Us?

Local reporters are struggling to get answers from the politicians they cover.
By Megan Greenwell

Does AI Have Speech Rights?

Journalists using LLMs should know about the implications for their First Amendment protections.
By Anika Collier Navaroli

‘All I Have Is the Power to Talk and Be Heard’

Tucker Carlson on pitying Donald Trump, never listening to podcasts, and planning a new political party—while selling you nicotine pouches. 
By Amos Barshad

‘Not the Time and Place for a Political Speech’

A landmark Texas court case used leftist zines to brand demonstrators as an “Antifa” terror cell, alarming free speech advocates.
By Jem Bartholomew

Recent

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Agenda Journalism

The Baltimore Sun swipes at Wes Moore, and a seasoned reporter resigns. Plus: Holding the police accountable, and the grim reality of wellness treatments.
By Susie Banikarim

What 19th-Century Media Can Teach Us About the Future

In an era of change and fragmentation, the history of the early American press shows that media is shaped not only by technology, but by infrastructure, law, and society.
By Alex Wright

Something Novel

For teens, a print renaissance might be afoot.
By Noëlle de Leeuw
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The Battle for the American Mind

Lauren Chen, a right-wing influencer, ran an alleged Russian-backed media company until the DOJ shut it down. Now she’s back—with a new podcast.
By Maddy Crowell

How to Land a Celebrity Profile

The pressure to accommodate a famous person in exchange for access can encourage compromise. But stars don’t hold nuclear codes.
By Haley Mlotek

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.

Pitched Battle

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

Restraint and Fecklessness

The White House Correspondents’ Association has been working hard to maintain diplomacy with Donald Trump. To what end?
By Liz Skalka

Out of State

How Graham Platner’s Senate campaign vexed the national press.
By Vanessa M. Gezari

‘America Knows Less About Itself at the Very Moment It Needs to Know the Truth’

While communities of color are under attack, Black journalists lose ground. Still, Black media-makers are expanding our thinking. And there’s a Black Crossword.
By Susie Banikarim

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

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

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