The Great Local News Heist

The Great Local News Heist

If you turn on your local evening news, you may not notice anything out of the ordinary. But if you change the channel, you’ll think you’ve entered a parallel universe. The same reporter may appear on three supposedly independent stations, reading the same...
Newspaper Nostalgia

Newspaper Nostalgia

It’s been a little more than 50 years since I first walked into the Des Moines Register newsroom to begin a career in journalism. It was a beat-up scruffy place filled with beat-up scruffy people, almost all men. They worked in a big room lined with gray steel...
10 Years of 9/11 Wars is Enough

10 Years of 9/11 Wars is Enough

The 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is sure to bring televised images of somber reflection. Looking back is, in some ways, easier for commentators and pundits than wrestling with the current state of Washington’s so-called “war on terror.” The...
People-Powered Media

People-Powered Media

After their state passed universal healthcare legislation this spring, Vermonters were surprised by a gaping omission in national news coverage: they weren’t in it. Despite a statewide grassroots campaign that demanded the historic legislation, most news reports...
Murdoch Gets Caught Red-Handed

Murdoch Gets Caught Red-Handed

Rupert Murdoch, the Australia-born media tycoon, finally got his you-know-what caught in the wringer. Murdoch’s unethical newspapers hacked thousands of private phone messages, including those of actors Hugh Grant and Jude Law, as well as Prince William and...