A fascinating short film (in the Burns style) on what the documentarian thinks makes a good story: Sez Burns: Abraham Lincoln wins the Civil War and then he decides he's got enough time to go to the theatre. That's a good story. When Thomas Jefferson said "we hold these truths to be self-evident, thatContinue reading “When 1 + 1 = 3: Ken Burns on Story”
Category Archives: press issues
Could one consultant mislead two SoCal water districts?
At its best, journalism is surely a joint enterprise. It's not a reporter that makes democracy workable, it's the press. Quotes from Thomas Jefferson come to mind. So it's very exciting to yours truly to see another reporter pick up and run with a crucial detail from a long story I wrote a few weeksContinue reading “Could one consultant mislead two SoCal water districts?”
For Mother’s Day, a spiked New Yorker cover
From a fun new site called Blown Covers, a New Yorker cover that could have been:
Andrew Revkin: on climate change in a post-media world
Covered a talk by the dean of climate reporters, Andrew Revkin, last week at UCSB, for the Santa Barbara Independent. In part because he got so sick of "the yelling" around climate, a couple of years ago Revkin gave up traditional reporting to teach at Pace University, and to run the great Dot Earth blogContinue reading “Andrew Revkin: on climate change in a post-media world”
To see the Prez, it helps to be a whale
In Las Vegas, to be a "whale" — a high roller — you have to be ready to live large, even if it costs $500,000 an hour. It's a little like what you have to do if you want to get into the White House and see the President. Big bucks, as this graphic shows.Continue reading “To see the Prez, it helps to be a whale”
The heroism of the lonely PhD
Deep in a magnificent USA Today team investigation last week was hidden a revelation: How a PhD doctoral candidate doing historical research discovered — and publicized — a massive threat to public health. From Ghost Factories: In April 2001, environmental scientist William Eckel published a research article in the American Journal of Public Health warning aboutContinue reading “The heroism of the lonely PhD”
If Barnes and Noble collapses, it’s the death of books
So argues Ted Rall, who knows a thing or two about media today and publishing: Borders and Barnes & Noble killed independent bookstores. Amazon killed Borders. Now Barnes & Noble, which sells more than 20 percent of pulp-and-ink books in the U.S., is under siege. If B&N collapses: the death of books. Cultural apocalypse. Neo-feudalism.Continue reading “If Barnes and Noble collapses, it’s the death of books”
The trials and tribulations of the Newsosaur; er, reporter
In the last couple of weeks a virtual avalanche of appalling news about newspapers and their field workers — the species newsosauras, according to one wit — has come down on me. On a list of best and worst jobs, according to a career agency cited by the WSJ, reporters come in 196th, almostContinue reading “The trials and tribulations of the Newsosaur; er, reporter”
Mike Wallace, depression and the real “Blues Brothers”
Today was reported the death of the great reporter Mike Wallace, of 60 Minutes fame. Sharon Waxman, an excellent reporter herself, recalls meeting him, and hearing of a now forgotten side of Mike Wallace, and of his great friends Art Buchwald and William Styron too: [Mike] Wallace always seemed fearless and in fact on thatContinue reading “Mike Wallace, depression and the real “Blues Brothers””
On the trail of a grizzly killing
Kids today pay more attention to Slate than most newspapers, and stories like Jessica Grose's A Death in Yellowstone make it clear why. Here's one quote, but you really can't sum it up in a 'graph or two. Peacock doesn’t believe there’s such a thing as natural or unnatural behavior when it comes to grizzlies, atContinue reading “On the trail of a grizzly killing”
Kit Stolz 