Table Of Content

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW Strong Press, Strong Democracy How’the Business Press Forgot the Rest of US DEAN STARKMAN THE TIMES AND THE JEWS NEIL LEWIS THE GIRL WHO LOVED JOURNALISTS ERIC ALTERMAN FRIDAY NIGHT BYTES TEXAS FOOTBALL IS THE KILLER APP JAKE BATSELL ERNIE PYLE BEFORE THE WAR KEVIN COYNE we iil JAN yr Cpeee CJR. Wt “ ; | |MI N || | ee wae | Ma Zz What's in store this year? 1 S * Ywehairc ht wow ilolf goiuvre pyoopuu laa rp raNcetiwcsalC aumnpd erpsrtoagnrdaimn,g of how to approach information that comes in rienpcoorntvs,e niveindte,o s unasntdr ucottuhreerd refcoorrmdss:. tYwoeue'tlsl, lee-amrani ltsh,e PRESENTED BY IRE AND NICA R basics of unstructured data analysis and tools you can use to lasso your records. FEBS. 23-26 More and more news organizations are ny % tBhuaitl d wiyllo urw alFkir sty oNue wtsh roAupgph, tah em ipnrio-cbeosost ocf atmapk ing a dataset from raw data and turning it into a more and more with data. To learn everything searchable online database using the Python you need to know — from the basics to the language and the Django Web framework. Seating is limited. cutting edge — come to the premier event for * Dozens of panels and hands-on sessions, including: journalists who work with data. * Data for elections coverage * Tracking social media and turning it into investigations * Handling and analyzing Twitter feeds IRE's 2012 Computer-Assisted Reporting * The latest in mapping with open source tools Conference is a must-attend event, _ * Open records - winning the battles * Introduction to data journalism dozens of sessions and hands-on training * Finding hidden data classes. The hallmark of IRE training is * Gaentdt idnagt asbtaasrteesd - Basic classes in spreadsheets skills-based, practical information that * Aadnvda nstcaetids ticcls asses in programming, mapping * Google fusion tables prepares you to immediately up your pom, * Scraping the web for data and information and the CAR Conference is no exception. the 2012 CAR Conference can help. For more information and to register, go to www.ire.org/conferences/nicar-201 2. COLUMBIA “To assess the performance of journalism... to help stimulate continuing improvement in the profession, and to speak out for what is right, fair, and decent.” —from the founding editorial, 1961 REVI EW January/February 2012 Ideas + OPENING SHOT Reviews EDITORIAL The First Amendment is being turned against SECOND READ political transparency Kevin Coyne on Ernie Pyle’s Home Country, a LETTERS collection of dispatches from America before he EDITOR'S NOTE went to war Clockwise from top left: CURRENTS ESSAY Reporter as hero page 14 Carl Hiaasen’s green Why PM, a short-lived Fair and balanced page 31 credentials; print’s newspaper from the Throw in the towel page 42 persistent cachet; new 1940s, is more relevant media that’s a mile wide today than ever and an inch deep By Christopher B. Daly DARTS & LAURELS READING ROOM By Erika Fry The Occupied Wall Street Journal An illustrated review Articles Reports by Ted Rall LEARNING CURVE REVIEW 24 COVER STORY: A NARROWED GAZE How the business press forgot the rest of us Stieg Larsson’s The Tea Party and The posthumous gift to an Remaking of Republican By Dean Starkman embattled industry Conservatism 31 THE TIMES AND THE JEWS By Eric Alterman By Theda Skocpol and A vocal minority of America Jewry has Vanessa Williamson long believed the paper is unfair to Israel. IN MEDIA RES Reviewed by Here’s why—and why they’re wrong. Why serious documentary Elbert Ventura By Neil A. Lewis filmmakers are flocking to reality TV BRIEF ENCOUNTERS 39 FRIDAY NIGHT BYTES By Alissa Quart By James Boylan In Texas, high school football is the killer app By Jake Batsell FOR THE RECORD RESEARCH REPORT Story after story says By Michael Schudson and 42 THE RING IS COUNTED OUT America can’t produce Katherine Fink Boxing’s duplicity devoured an honest magazine enough scientists. Don’t By Ivan G. Goldman believe it. 64 THE LOWER CASE By Beryl Lieff Benderly 46 THE REPORTER'S VOICE When war came to his home, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad THE AMERICAN found his calling NEWSROOM Interview by Michael Massing Photograph by Sean Hemmerle Cover photograph: Job seekers in Miami, November 2011, by Joe Raedle/ Getty Images COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW 1 COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW FREE Published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism ee DEAN Nicholas Lemann CHAIRMAN Victor Navasky VICE CHAIRMAN Peter Osnos EDITOR IN CHIEF Cyndi Stivers EXECUTIVE EDITOR Mike Hoyt MANAGING EDITOR/PRINT Brent Cunningham MANAGING EDITOR/WEB Justin Peters ASSOCIATE EDITOR/COPY MANAGER Tom O’Neill DEPUTY EDITOR Clint Hendler STAFF WRITERS Liz Cox Barrett, Curtis Brainard (Science), Michael Meyer (News Frontier Database) THE AUDIT Dean Starkman (Kingsford Capital Fellow), ese ie) litle} Ryan Chittum (Deputy Editor), Felix Salmon, Martha Hamilton (Audit Arbiter) ASSISTANT EDITORS Erika Fry, Alysia Santo * Investigating Private Companies and CONTRIBUTING EDITORS James Boylan, Julia M. Klein, Charles Lewis, Trudy Lieberman, Nonprofits, Jan. 23-26 Robert Love, Michael Massing, Judith Matloff, Douglas McCollam, Alissa Quart, Cristine Russell, Michael Shapiro, Scott Sherman * How Not to Be Bamboozbyl Leocda l | EDITORIAL INTERNS Dan Cooper, Michael Madden, Nick Novak, Victoria Rau, Isabella Yeager Economic Studies, Feb. 8-9 NEWS FRONTIER DATABASE INTERNS Alex Fekula, A. J. Hudson, Tyler Jones, Justin Yang © Getting Linkedin - Sourcing through Social NetworkiFnebg., 2 8 DESIGN Point Five, NY: Alissa Levin, Benjamin Levine, Nathan Eames WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT Michael Murphy * Using EMMA toF ind Great Stories in Municipal Bonds, March 27-28 ACTING PUBLISHER Dennis Giza * Business Editing in Depth - 10 Things DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Cathryn Harding You'd BetKntowe, Mray 1 BUSINESS MANAGER Joe Duax ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Louisa Kearney * Unlocking Financial Statements, May 14-18 BUSINESS INTERNS Kelsey Hand, Jada Nation CIRCULATION Collins Circulation Group: Paula Collins ¢ Econ101o, wmith iNPRc's Msari lyn Geewax, June 26-28 BOARD OF OVERSEERS Stephen Adler, Neil Barsky (chairman), Nathan S. Collier, Cathleen Collins, Wade Greene, Joan Konner, Kenneth Lerer, Free Workshops William Lilley III, Herbert Winokur | The board also includes four members of the faculty of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism: ¢ PHOJaEn. 5N:C rIackiXng P,riv ate Emily Bell, Sheila Coronel, Howard W. French, and Michael Schudson Companies | MAJOR FUNDERS for CJR and cJr.org in recent years include non-faculty members of the Board ¢ ST. LOUIS, Feb 22, and BOSTON, June of Overseers and the Arca Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Brunswick Group, 13: Follow the Money — Tracking Compa- Maria Moors Cabot Fund, Carnegie Corporation, The Challenge Fund for Journalism, nies’ Influoen nPolciteic s Citigroup, Nathan Cummings Foundation, The Ford Foundation, Goldman Sachs, William and Mary Greve Foundation, Kingsford Capital Management, John S. and James L. Knight * INDIANMAarPchO 15L:B Ie aS Be,tt er Foundation, David and Esther Laventhol, Peter Lowy, The John D. and Catherine T. Business Watc- ChAR dforo Busgine ss MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, Open Society Institute, Park Foundation, Journalists Peter G. Peterson Foundation, The Saul and Janice Poliak Center for the Study of First ¢ LEXINGTONK,Y , Ap13r,a indl FOR T Amendment Issues, Charles H. Revson Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Rockefeller WORTH, April 26: Uncovethre Biesntg Lo - Family Fund, Sunlight Foundation, TIAA-CREF, M & T Weiner Foundation, and our readers. cal Business Stories CONTACT US Columbia Journalism Review, Journalism Building, SIGN UP AT 2950 Broadway, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 1 Uh Pee EDITORIAL 212-854-1881 E-MAIL [email protected] ADVERTISING 516-883-2828 BOOK ADVERTISING 212-665-9885 BUSINESS 212-854-2718 DonWa.R leyndold s PTs tional Cen SUBSCRIBE www.cjr.org/subscriptions 888-425-7782, or mail $27.95 for one year, $41.95 for two years to: CJR, P.O. Box 422492, Palm Coast, FL 32142-8974 vanes ioanilian TWITTER: @BIZJOURNALISM * FACEBOOK: BIZJOURNALISM Columbia Journalism Review (USPS 0804-780) (ISSN 0010-194x) is published bimonthly. Vol. L, No. 5, January/February 2012. Copyright © 2012 Columbia University. Subscription rates: one year $27.95; two years $41.95. Periodical postage paid at NY, NY, and at additional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to Columbia Journalism Review, P.O. Box 422492, Palm Coast, FL 32142. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 Opening Shot c es MTATM LUITI los n November 26, 2011, The New York Times published an investigation of Money talks Ronald Lauder’s aggressive use of strategies available to the superrich to in 2006, Ronald Lauder posed avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. It was the kind of in his Neue Galerie in New York story that makes people angry, and something the nation needs more of from its with a piece from his collection: Gustav Klimt’s “Adele Bloch- press. As the presidential race unfolds, and competing claims about tax cuts and Bauer I,” once the world’s most job-creators pile up, we can’t afford coverage that simply records this debate; we expensive artwork. need the press to show us how the richest 1 percent’s share of national income more than doubled between 1980 and 2008, from 8 percent to 18 percent. Show us how the game is rigged. In a recent survey by a Harvard business professor, most Americans thought that the richest 20 percent of households control less than 60 percent of the nation’s wealth; in fact they control more than 80 percent. A misin- formed public is not solely the press’s fault. But the press is not blameless either. There is talk that the Occupy Wall Street protests could alter the top-down frame that dominates the press’s political and economic coverage. But the last decade is littered with vows from American journalism to do better: after the phony case for /BMPA PEHA BOTETTiTOHO nE vWaSd ing Iraq; after Hurricane Katrina. We hope this time will be different. cur COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW 3 Se LAR AARON ESSEI D PEER ENA EARS TELA AIOE EOL IIIT NIST TD SI BA ERRI TI SRIE ETLINE E REE LEI NGEI LI ALD EEE RIE, EDITORIAL What’s left are laws requiring transparency in giving and spending, the one thing everyone used to agree on. It was acommon rhetorical point of those who pushed to weaken contribution or expenditure limits: as long as disclosure empowered voters with adequate information, it could factor into their decisions at the ballot box. You don’t hear that much anymore. Disclosure is now, like the other with- ered legs of the stool, a target. Take James Bopp, the Indiana lawyer and member of the Gop National Commit- tee who is widely credited as the archi- tect of many recent federal decisions deregulating campaign finance, including Citizens United. In 2010 he told The New York Times that having disclosure laws declared unconstitutional was the next step in a ten-year litigation plan. Bopp, who often represents Christian conservatives, has adopted gay rights as a proving ground, arguing that opponents of same-sex marriage, who claim they’ve faced retribution for their point of view, In the Dark deserve to wage their political battles under a cloak. From that flows the idea that campaign-finance disclosure brings The campaign to weaken campaign-finance disclosure laws the potential to intimidate others who would spend more—possibly much more. Journalists are big believers in the First Amendment; its legal There are precedents that give the force undergirds the fearless journalism that democracy requires. anti-disclosure movement hope. In 1982, the Socialist Workers Party successfully But now comes a perversion of that amendment, an effort to turn argued that public disclosure would it against another tool that enables democracy-sustaining journal- endanger its donors. But the courts have been reluctant to expand this nar- ism: the laws that require political donors to make their names row exception. A challenge on similar known, and that empower vital reporting on money, power, and grounds to Washington State’s require- influence. Of course, our right to know who funds our politicians or ment that signers of an anti-same-sex- marriage ballot petition be made public pays for any given civic megaphone has been battered time was dismissed in a 2010 8-1 Supreme Court decision. “[T]o and again by lawyers and loopholes. Unprecedented amounts stand up in public for...political acts fosters civic courage, of unprecedentedly opaque money will shape the 2012 elec- without which democracy is doomed. For my part, I do not tions. Reporters already have their work cut out for them look forward to a society which, thanks to the Supreme Court, to make this understandable and to show who is trying to campaigns anonymously,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia. gain influence and shape public opinion. Imagine how much The lower courts have mostly followed this strong signal. harder this job would be if disclosure requirements were But courts change. And Constitutional litigation history shows found to be an unconstitutional burden on free speech? that losses can lead to victories. For example, a federal judge The First Amendment has already been used to weaken in West Virginia recently struck down a requirement that many laws meant to level the playing field and lessen mon- funders of print campaign ads be disclosed, saying that the eyed influence. From the ur-decision of Buckley v. Valeo, state’s law would “circumscribe the First Amendment rights which said campaign spending could be constitutionally of its citizens.” An appeal will be heard shortly. protected speech, to 2010’s Citizens United decision, which If it stands, and if other cases follow, the First Amend- eased corporations’ ability to wage election battles, the three- ment, whose spirit animates our public sphere, will instead legged stool of campaign finance reform has been eroded by a be used to make it a darker arena, with less accountability, twisted interpretation of free expression. Limits on campaign transparency, and knowledge. It would be an unwelcome expenditures? Gone. Limits on contributions? Weakened. development for journalism—and for democracy. csr 4 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 Illustration by WeBuyYourKids Iraq | Perspectives by Benjamin Lowy 2011 PRIZE WINNER Center for 96 color phot Documentary eee wherever books are sold Studies #2... UNIVERSITY PRESS www.dukeupress.edu Columbia Journalism Review 4\> + BB nttp: / /cjr.org/ | COLUMBIA JOURNALISM About Us | Contact | Advertise | fl REVIEW Tuesday, April 20, 2010 Last Update: Tue 4:47 PM EST Strong Press, Strong Democracy Desks , Blogs Columns Talk Magazine Multimedia Projects Resources Ss | CJR.org DESKS Campaign Desk Politics & Po! is the Web’s foremost source Understanding the Unaffiliateds Bartlett on Shallow Think Tanks MCMC ee CMTE i The Audit Business TMC Reet | Apple's Speech Policies Should Bartlett on Shallow Think Tanks The Observatory Science etre em) Will Collaborative Climate Cov analysis of the day’s top Mind ieieen Ca Co Story ge Rea ee Dumb Like a Fox Fox News isn't part of the GOP: it has Behind the News The Media simply (and shamelessly) mastered the confines of cable Mirror, Mirror on the Wail... F Cee RU mn Cl | about the news. The News Frontier The Observatory Our brave new world of robot Stepping into the unknown to TAs eee h journalists cover the climate Thomas K. Zellers LETTERS Send letters [email protected] At Fifty path forward (via good old-fashioned Congratulations on the publication rCOLUMyBIA tV)e adjacency marketing), but I also see ita of your recent fiftieth anniversary a horizon out there, a scary one, to be issue (CJR, November/December sure, and uncertain how far away it is, 2011). It was truly the finest collec- in which solid journalism is much too tion of commentary and analysis con- disrupted to be profitable in any form. cerning the media that I have ever Howard Owens seen. I am so happy to see that your Batavia, NY magazine has improved dramatically in the past few years. Congratulations on a valuable counter- Bill White balance to the new orthodoxy of the FON Los Angeles, CA approach. New media have brought so much beneficial public involvement in I am truly honored that you included newsgathering, comment, and the dis- You arrive at a photo of me (or at least of my bare semination of information that opposi- feet) in your fiftieth anniversary edi- the right place— tion to the FON consensus gets dismissed tion (“The Moments,” csr, Novem- institution-based as simply Luddite. Yet the vague FON ber/December); it is Susan Meiselas’s optimism—that somehow committed journalism in a photo among the Magnum selection. activists will replace much of what jour- However, for the record, I was working networked world. nalists do—remains unjustified. for The Boston Globe at the time, not A notably fatuous claim is that “news The Washington Post. In the full set of is a conversation.” News is a service that Meiselas’s photos from that day (we people require for many reasons—and were in the public telephone office in most people no more want to have a San Francisco Gotera, Morazan prov- conversation with a journalist than ince, E] Salvador), there is a fourth they want to have a conversation with reporter, Robert McCartney. Bob was the postman. So I wish the Fon enthusi- the Washington Post correspondent. asts would advocate new developments To fill in the background: in the piece that everybody who cares about without damning the journalistic sys- best of the photos that include Bob, journalism should read (“Confidence tems on which we still depend. he is sitting on the floor munching Game,” CJR, November/December). Martin Huckerby on chicken—a somewhat less heroic And I think you arrive at the right London, UK stance than the three reporters, place—the middle ground of institution- including me, diligently dictating sto- based journalism in a networked world. There are three pay models for journal- ries from longhand. The truth of the I often cringe at the theorizing of ism: 1) reader-sponsored subscriptions; matter was that Bob was faster than what you call the Future of News (Fon) 2) commercial-sponsored advertising; me and Sam Dillon and James LeM- crowd. As you correctly point out, it’s 3) benefactor-sponsored commons. I oyne, and he had already finished fil- rarely fact-based opinion. I don’t dis- may be wrong, but for a journalism ven- ing by the time Susan made the shots. miss out of hand the degree to which ture to be successful, you have to have The issue was full of valuable sto- old-school journalism will continue to one or a mix of these three. ries. I especially liked Michael Sha- be disrupted in an increasingly digitized, The problem facing journalism today piro’s revealing history of the Merc. mobile, and networked world, but I do is the same problem facing music labels Onward to the next fifty! know there is an audience for third-party and movie content providers: people can Julia Preston reportage, both small and great in scope. do their own production and distribu- National Immigration Correspondent I don’t see a way in which that might ever tion because the process of distribution The New York Times change. The big question will be in an over the network carries near zero cost New York, NY increasingly turbulent media environ- at near instant speed. This acts as a cost ment: How do we pay for it? None of the pressure driving down margins of profit Fun With FON FON crowd has answered that question. from subscriptions and ads. Once you’ve Thanks, Dean Starkman, for a good In the near term, I think I see a softened the professional requirement 6 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 for journalism production and distribu- my time at the Mercury News on the city went back to the “academy” (I’m now tion, it becomes difficult to justify charg- desk in San Jose as special beats edi- an associate professor at Emerson Col- ing the professional premiums. tor, deputy city editor, and acting city lege’s journalism department). But I left In that, the paywall seems like a nec- editor. One day in 1994, Bob Ingle, then my heart in San Jose. essary innovation to make people pay for executive editor, came to the bureau to Jerry Lanson value by restricting the supply of profes- talk about the future. He told reporters Boston, MA sional content and research. The profit that someday they’d be carrying audio margins won’t be quite as high because recorders, taking pictures, and shoot- I worked in advertising at the Mercury the ad model won’t pay as much as it did, ing video. His reception was silence and News during the period described here. but getting the users to pay for what they shock. Ingle, as your piece suggests, was Based on the events I participated in, read is a workable model so long as the a somewhat taciturn sort who kept his the things I heard about, and from quality of what they’re reading exceeds own counsel. But he had as good a vision what I remember this story is accurate, that which they can get for free. of the future as anyone in those years. insightful, and contributes vastly to the Chris Allan Too bad he didn’t help Knight-Ridder story of newspapers in the digital age. Victoria, BC chart a new course. But as Charlene Li But after reading it, I am somewhat apparently learned in two years, accord- inclined to say, “So what?” My last year What the Merc Meant ing to your article, this was a company as classified manager we did $120 mil- Thanks to Michael Shapiro for his fas- that keyed on short-term earnings only lion in help-wanted alone. A couple cinating article about the San Jose Mer- and maximizing the bottom line. years later—after I retired—that number cury News and its early role in digital That, of course, wasn’t the staff’s dropped to about $10 million. Filling news (“The Newspaper That Almost desire. I wouldn’t necessarily call the jobs and selling cars and houses works Seized the Future,” cur, November/ Merc a great paper in my time. But well on an electronic platform that has December). I was on the newspaper it was a very good paper with many no need for an expensive adjunct that staff there from 1987 to 1994, some of reporters and editors who have gone produces content. I’m with Bob Ryan the paper’s salad days. I spent most of on to enormous careers. When Il eft, I on this one. The train was going to get us pretty much no matter what. Lou Alexander NOTES FROM OUR ONLINE READERS San Jose, CA IN EARLY NOVEMBER, CJR’S ERIKA FRY CONTACTED THE POYNTER INSTITUTE Newspapers and the people who run with questions about new aggregation practices at its popular Romenesko+ blog. them are by definition conservative. The result: Jim Romenesko’s resignation, widespread online outrage, and reams They write the first draft of history, of commentary on aggregation standards in the link-and-summarize era. “The so they’re reluctant to make mistakes. Romenesko Saga” was Fry’s blow-by-blow account of the bizarre affair: That was especially true at the Merc after “Dark Alliance,” so it’s amazing A fine piece that raises some important questions—especially on over-aggrega- they went as far as they did with Mer- tion—and clearly isn’t a hit piece on Jim Romensko. The overreaction by Julie cury Center. The opportunity was there, Moos and Poynter is the problem. I don’t think any reasonable journalist trying to but the vision to exploit it by funda- navigate the ever-evolving digital waters should have a problem bringing up these mentally changing the business model, issues. Again, I don’t see attribution as the main problem here, until the longer posts showed up and discouraged click-throughs. The anger isn’t and shouldn’t be could never find purchase in a corpo- at Erika but at Poynter and Moos for sliming Jim. —Brian O’Connor ration ruled by newspeople. That said, the reporters and editors at the Merc I’m a big fan of Jim Romenesko. I have gone to his blog several times each week- were incredibly talented at what they day for the past ten or so years, and found it interesting, informative, and admira- did best—producing good journalism. bly evenhanded in laying out journalistic shortcomings. Unfortunately, what they did best was However, Jim should have been using quotation marks or some other clear not what the business needed to survive. means to identify words that he took directly from others. I believe that clear Doug Edwards attribution is fundamental to quality journalism that enables readers to evaluate information and that makes fair use of the thoughts and words of others. I realize Los Altos, CA aggregation is evolving rapidly, but I think it and other emerging forms of quality journalism need to respect this fundamental value of clear attribution. Spirit of St. Louis Some maintain there was no need for quotation marks when he was using the Congratulations on your fiftieth anni- exact words from the linked material. But Jim’s own posts undercut this argument. versary. But I was disappointed in your In reading his Rahm Emanuel item, I was struck that Jim had chosen to enclose erroneous statement that the award- in quotation marks 11 of the 72 words that his lede took directly from the Chicago winning St. Louis Journalism Review Tribune story. Clearly, he didn’t believe the accompanying link to the full Tribune (sJR)—among other regional reviews— story constituted adequate attribution for those 11 words. “didn’t make it” (“Opening Shot,” cur, Basically, I believe Jim just needs to remember to practice journalism of the same high quality—including the nitty-gritty of attribution—that his blog consis- November/December 2011), and in tently urges all journalists to aspire to deliver to their readers. —Barney Calame your refusal to publish a correction. St. COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW 7 | Louis recently celebrated sJr’s fortieth The editors respond: It is good news that New from Columbia anniversary with a gala event. Yes, in the spirit of the St. Louis Journalism Journalism Review Books recent years, the survival of sJR was Review lives on under a different name, threatened many times. However, the business model, institutional host, and These two CJR articles are now commitment of its readers, writers, and mission. For those reasons, we chose available for your Kindle, iPad, Nook, contributors helped overcome these not to run a correction, but are happy difficulties. We found a willing partner that we could provide our readers with and other e-reading devices in the journalism school at Southern more of the story. for only $1.99. | Illinois University, Carbondale. sir transferred there last year. We added Three Cups of Context Tales from the Great Disruption | the name Gateway Journalism Review Alissa Quart’s “The Long Tale” (csr, Sep- The Newspaper That Almost Seized the Future to reflect its expanded focus to sixteen tember/October 2011) says that writer Michael Shapiro Midwestern states. The cover of every Jon Krakauer came to 60 Minutes in 2010 issue states “The St. Louis Journalism with “his findings” about Three Cups of Review presents the Gateway Journal- Tea author Greg Mortenson, and the mis- ism Review.” The St. Louis operation management of his charity that builds GTraeleets Pfrioemr aptthie on | continues under editor Roy Malone. To schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jé 1; AThlem osMtow Seizeex Tthhae t Potare | paraphrase another Missourian, the goes on to say that “as is typical for televi- report of our death has been greatly sion, the show was slow to get his story exaggerated. on the air....So Krakauer decided to Charles Klotzer write about Mortenson himself.” Founder, editor/publisher emeritus While it is true that Krakauer came St. Louis Journalism Review to 60 Minutes with his concerns and St. Louis, MO suspicions about Mortenson, he had In the first of an in-depth narrative series that will illuminate key moments in journalism’s rough evolution in the age of the Internet, Michael Shapiro tells the little EXECUTIVE EDITOR’S NOTE known inside story of the San Jose Mercury) | News, which brilliantly seized the moment THIS IS THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW'S SECOND yet didn’t know what to do with it. half century, and already you'll find a significant change aimed squarely at that | unwritten future. Near the top of the masthead on page 2 is the name Cyndi Confidence Game Stivers, our new editor in chief, who started on December 1, and whom I'd like The Limited Vision of the News Gurus | to publicly welcome here. Dean Starkman Cyndi was formerly the managing editor of EW.com, the website of Enter- | tainment Weekly, where all she did from 2008 to 2011 was double the audience | and win a slew of awards. Before that, she was the founding editor of Time Out New York. She is the past president of the American Society of Magazine Edi- tors, and, in her early days, worked on the city desk with the tough guys at the New York Post. I hope she will have a long and successful run at csr, extending our reach and impact, and I look forward to working with her. I’m proud to note that she’s jumping onto a moving ship. A couple of recent mileposts: on our website, via our politics and policy desk, we’re launching what we call the Swing States Project. Thanks to generous grants from Omidyar | Network and the Open Society Institute, we’re hiring writers in nine key states | to provide on-the-ground analysis and criticism of the coverage of the critical Dean Starkman takes on what has presidential campaign. become a dominant perspective on Meanwhile, our News Frontier Database—our living compendium of digital the future of news in the digital age as personified by three well known media news sites across the US—will, by the time you read this, have listings in all fifty thinkers—Jay Rosen, Clay Shirky, and states, some 220 entries so far, from Alaska Dispatch to Y’all Politics, in Missis- Jeff Jarvis—who have dominated the sippi. And we’ve dipped our toe into the tablet world: two pieces from the fiftieth “future of news” debate. Starkman anniversary issue—Dean Starkman’s “Confidence Game: The limited vision of the makes a powerful case that the perspec- | news gurus,” and Michael Shapiro’s “Tales From the Disruption: The newspaper tive that these three represent, despite | that almost seized the future”—are available via Kindle and Kindle apps. their many useful insights, is in the end We’ve also established a foothold in books, with the publication of Second corrosive to public-service journalism. Read: Writers Look Back at Classic Works of Reportage, the first of a new series of Columbia Journalism Review Books, a venture with Columbia University ¥ COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY aN Press. More titles are on the way, as is a lot of wonderful press criticism from all www.cup.columbia.edu - cupblog.org the facets of the Columbia Journalism Review. —Mike Hoyt 8 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012