Washington Post, you're better than this: Some Children's Cereals Packed with Sugar, Study Finds Really? Didn't Calvin tells us this, what, twenty-five years ago? I know, it's a study by the Environmental Working Group, but that's no excuse for the lack of imagination. Here's Grist's: Cereal Offenders Ah. That's better.
Category Archives: press issues
The writer who fired the producer: Brett Radner
Yesterday Mark Harris at Grantland eviscerated Brett Radner, the man chosen to produce the Oscar telecast this year, for his "rehearsal is for fags" comment, and lame subsequent apology. Harris wrote: I’ve had to listen to versions of every one of these mea-not-quite-culpas over the years and seriously, I’m no longer interested in patiently witnessingContinue reading “The writer who fired the producer: Brett Radner”
We are the new PETM: National Geographic
Their headline is a little less wonky: Hothouse Earth. No matter — it's still a typically great National Geographic story. Just how much carbon was injected into the atmosphere during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM, as scientists now call the fever period, is uncertain. But they estimate it was roughly the amount that wouldContinue reading “We are the new PETM: National Geographic”
How freelance writers survive: by shovel and hoe, w/chickens
Anyway they can: My turn with spade and hoe started a few years ago when I found myself divorced and flat broke. My livelihood as a freelance writer went out the window when the economy tanked. I literally could afford beans, the dried kind, which I’d thought were for school art projects or teaching elementaryContinue reading “How freelance writers survive: by shovel and hoe, w/chickens”
Revkin unbound: Another successful satellite launch
Andrew Revkin, the leading climate reporter of our time, turns out not to have just a phenomenal (and huge) blog, the justly famous Dot Earth on the New York Times, but also a more informal and visual tumblr, Revkin.net, with which yours truly has fallen instantly in love. From that tumblr, here's a terrific picContinue reading “Revkin unbound: Another successful satellite launch”
Texas drought: “Years before the cows come home”
Today reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske took a potentially mundane story about how the drought in Texas is changing the traditional cattle business and wrote her way on to the front page of the Sunday Los Angeles Times with her boldness: The cowboys rose well before dawn, stars still high in the West Texas sky. They strapped onContinue reading “Texas drought: “Years before the cows come home””
Sex, drugs, and divorce: Three trend stories from 9/2011
Despite the well-publicized woes of the media, the US press still produces some great stories. Here are three great trend stories from just this week: Sex and Obesity: An intimate report from the front lines on NPR Birdnesting: A way around custody battles, in the Ventura County Star Overdose deaths from prescription drugs surpass trafficContinue reading “Sex, drugs, and divorce: Three trend stories from 9/2011”
The superiority of the newspaper to the on-line version
His severance check safely deposited, long-time LA Timesman Mark Heisler, now an ex-staffer, speculates out loud about the future of his beloved institution, the newspaper: Within newspapers, it’s assumed we’ll wind up as websites, whether or not some of us continue to print and it takes 10 years or five (or one recession). I usedContinue reading “The superiority of the newspaper to the on-line version”
Western water reporter recounts being ripped off
A nasty little irony: A first-rate Western writer about water, Emily Green, recounts how her massive five-part newspaper series on a Las Vegas water grab was scooped up and rewritten into a book by a another writer. In other words, her work on a rip-off was in turn ripped off (and she has the quotesContinue reading “Western water reporter recounts being ripped off”
Yosemite deaths in 2011: Couch potato phenomenon?
That's the hint dropped in Matt Weiser's excellent examination of the numerous deaths this year in the Yosemite Valley recently in the Sacramento Bee. He suggests that visitors to the park are just too removed from nature in their minds to recognize the risks of nature when they encounter them in life. Visitorship is upContinue reading “Yosemite deaths in 2011: Couch potato phenomenon?”
Kit Stolz 