journalism

Cord Jefferson · 05/14/13 06:16PM

After the Justice Department responded tersely to an AP letter questioning the government's decision to seize its phone records, the wire service has published a new letter saying the DoJ's explanation "does not adequately address our concerns."

Are You a Journalist? Ask the Treasury Department and Israel

Tom Scocca · 05/13/13 02:01PM

The Newseum, a gargantuan space in Washington, DC, dedicated to educating the public about the workings of journalism, unveiled a new exhibit today: a cutting-edge interactive demonstration of how pressure groups control what gets published.

Cord Jefferson · 05/10/13 04:04PM

Citing only "undesirable activities," Pakistan has ordered the expulsion of the New York Times' Islamabad bureau chief, Declan Walsh. Surely this has nothing to do with the nation's impending elections.

Friedman Smuggles International Worker's Day Message into Column

Max Read · 05/01/13 09:44AM

Thomas Friedman manages decent structural analysis ("We now live in a 401(k) world—a world of defined contributions, not defined benefits") in his column today, smuggled in alongside Friedmanism ("where everyone needs to pass the bar exam and no one can escape the most e-mailed list"). We salute you, fellow traveler!

Thomson Reuters Just Making Up Reporters Now

Max Rivlin-Nadler · 04/27/13 01:13PM

Australasian Legal Business, a publication owned by Thomson Reuters that covers business news in Asia and the Middle East, has welcomed back Michelle Boatley, one of their ace journalists, to their staff. Boatley, who covered layoffs in Bangkok, mergers in Shanghai, and hiring in Dubai, hasn't written for a few years.

A Stupid Death in a Stupid War: Remembering Michael Kelly

Tom Scocca · 04/03/13 04:53PM

Ten years ago today, somewhere south of Baghdad, the editor and columnist Michael Kelly became the first journalist to die in the invasion of Iraq. His Humvee, reportedly under fire, went off the road and rolled into a canal. And there, inside some two and a half tons of the world's finest military equipment, he drowned.

Why Did the AP Run A Story About All the Gun Deaths on One Day and Not Mention It Was Gun Appreciation Day?

Max Rivlin-Nadler · 03/10/13 12:18PM

Yesterday, the Associated Press released a story that soberly chronicled some of the deaths caused by gun violence on a single day in America. The single, typical day was January 19th, which as the article states, was the beginning of the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, as well as the weekend of the presidential inauguration. However, more importantly, it was also the inaugural "Gun Appreciation Day" as David Waldman points out. It's hard to believe that it could be a simple coincidence that the AP chose "Gun Appreciation Day" to highlight the deaths caused by that so worthy of appreciation.

Is Your Favorite 'Journalist' on the Malaysian Government's Payroll? Maybe

Cord Jefferson · 03/01/13 05:42PM

BuzzFeed's Rosie Gray today drops news that a number of people writing for a whole host of websites across the political spectrum were doing so on behalf of the Malaysian government. And for their work they were paid handsomely. In other words, they were secretly pawning off talking points from the Malaysian government as their own in exchange for money. This is how some journalists get paid now.

Bradley Manning Tried to Leak to the New York Times and Washington Post Before Turning to Wikileaks

Adrian Chen · 02/28/13 02:00PM

Wikileaks has become a symbol for the radical, some say dangerous, new future of information distribution. But the story of its biggest leaker appears to have started in a very old-fashioned way. Bradley Manning, the 25-year-old former Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking huge caches of documents to Wikileaks, said in a hearing today that he initially tried to leak to journalists at the New York Times and Washington Post, and only turned to Julian Assange's shop after they didn't take him seriously.

Esquire Editors: If You Complain About Our Botched Bin Laden Shooter Story, You Hate the Troops

Tom Scocca · 02/12/13 02:09PM

Having bungled one of the two central premises of their story about the Navy SEAL who is supposed to have killed Osama bin Laden, the editors of Esquire are now arguing that they were secretly right all along. Yes, Phil Bronstein's piece did say that "the Shooter," as the story calls the SEAL, gets "no health care" after leaving the service, when in fact—as Stars and Stripes pointed out—he is covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. But according to the editors, that's a distraction from the real point:

Lawrence Wright's Scientology Exposé Comes Out This Week

Mallory Ortberg · 01/13/13 12:25PM

New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright's long-awaited Scientology book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, will be released this Thursday, and the reviews are already coming in. Based in part on a 2011 profile of director and former Scientologist Paul Haggis, the book focuses primarily on the legacy of L. Ron Hubbard and his successor, David Miscavige. It contains over 200 interviews with both "current and former" Scientologists from all ranks within the organization.