Out of a decent respect for the memory of Tim Russert, I have held back from commenting on how most of the leading television organizations – CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC – handled the news of his untimely death. Certainly it was appropriate to announce his passing and to add brief encomiums about a fellow [...]

I know, it’s a rule of the mainstream press. If the issue is not going anywhere, it’s not worth much of a story. Of course, if it’s not given much of a story, it’s not going anywhere. It’s like that old conundrum about the tree falling in the forest. Here are a couple of trees. [...]

It’s amazing how easy it is to manipulate the television pontificators. On the day after Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination for president, you would think CNN and MSNBC and their ilk would be awash in information that newly-attentive voters need to know in order to make sense of this remarkable historic event. Information such [...]

Confession can be good not only for the soul but also for the bottom line. The New York Times reported recently that physicians and hospitals increasingly admit to patients when they make mistakes and are being rewarded with fewer malpractice suits and less costly settlements. The Times cited the recent two-year experience at the University [...]

Something’s been bothering me this presidential primary season, and I know just what it is. “Soccer moms” and “football dads.” Not them, really, but the fact that they get to have colorful and descriptive nicknames. And I don’t. I’ve been waiting for something intriguing and multi-syllabic. Maybe a phrase that rhymes. If you look at [...]

On the same Sunday morning that a former Democratic presidential candidate’s spouse ripped into the press for failing the democracy that depends on it, a Democratic presidential candidate blew the opportunity to rip into a prime example of that failure. “For the last month, news media attention was focused on Pennsylvania and its Democratic primary,” [...]

Considering that he was widely lambasted for his performance as a moderator at the most recent Democratic candidates debate, George Stephanopoulos might have expected to be taken to task at his Sunday talk show. Instead his three colleagues—George Will, Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts—closed the circle around him and let him off the hook. As [...]

Where is Larry Spivak now that we need him? Alas, Lawrence E. Spivak, creator and founder of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and its best panelist, died in 1994 at the age of 93. As The New York Times said, Spivak was one of the first broadcasters to use panels of reporters (imagine!) to interview national [...]

Here is one difference between the generations of reporters. The older generation was (and is) skeptical of big business and trusted government more to provide protection from the cold blasts of laissez faire. The younger, Dow generation, while cynical of government and almost everything else, believed that stocks and property values will always go up. [...]

This first appeared in the Spring 2008 edition of Nieman Reports. Investigative reporting has always been central to the Nieman experience. Journalists specializing in investigative work continue to populate Nieman classes. Speakers address the topic at seminars and workshops. The Nieman Watchdog project offers a platform to reinforce an essential element of watchdog reporting: asking [...]