The Kicker Year in Review

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In May, CNN published an investigative report about the abusive treatment of Palestinian detainees being held in a military prison in the Negev Desert. The story was explosive and shocking—but not to Hagar Shezaf, an investigative reporter for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who’d first reported on conditions at the prison five months earlier.

Covering Israel critically, from inside the country, is something that became particularly difficult in the months after the horrific terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023. But it’s something that Shezaf and her colleague Omer Benjakob never shied away from. The two of them were the guests on one of this year’s most popular episodes of The Kicker, CJR’s podcast about journalism and current events, which I began hosting back in April, along with producer Amanda Darrach. “My motivation is to hold institutions accountable and to make sure that whoever needs to do their job does their job, but I think that when talking about the West Bank and the ongoing occupation, the institutions themselves are problematic,” said Shezaf, who spent years as Haaretz’s West Bank correspondent. “As a journalist…there’s always the question of, Is it about making these institutions better? I don’t think so. It’s about working for a better political situation altogether. “

The Kicker took on a wide array of topics and guests this year, with the goal of bringing listeners a mix of influential voices and journalists operating in places you may not have given much thought. We heard from Lorena Lopez, the editor of the only Spanish-language newspaper in Iowa (who predicted the shift in Latino voters toward Trump), and Martin Baron, the former editor of the Washington Post, on his old paper’s decision to not make a presidential endorsement; from Axios’s Alex Thompson, in the days after Joe Biden malfunctioned at a presidential debate, on his prescient reporting about the president’s age concerns, and 9News’s Kyle Clark, a local anchor in Denver who made headlines for his direct and no-nonsense moderation of a congressional debate with congresswoman Lauren Boebert (another episode that blew up with listeners). One of my favorite conversations of the year was the one I had with Jina Moore Ngarambe, who’d stepped down as the editor of the literary magazine Guernica after she published an essay by an Israeli writer that prompted an outpouring of anger and resignations from members of the magazine’s volunteer staff. Jina spoke thoughtfully and at length about what she learned from that experience, and why she still believes strongly in journalism creating space for even the most uncomfortable of perspectives.

We ended the year with a big swing: a three-part series, cohosted with Susie Banikarim, on the trial of Carlos Watson, the former CEO and cofounder of Ozy Media, who prosecutors alleged lied extensively about his outlet’s reach and revenue. Banikarim attended nearly every day of his trial, discovering new details about Watson’s scheme, and the resulting podcast series, The Unraveling of Ozy Media, is a journey into the world Watson created—as well as a look back at some of the more sordid aspects of the digital media boom of the 2010s. You can listen to Episode 1 here, or wherever you get The Kicker.

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Josh Hersh is an editor at CJR. He was previously a correspondent and senior producer at Vice News.