Year :
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September 2002
The Information Squeeze
Openness in government is under assault throughout the United States--at every level. Can the news media, reluctant combatants thus far, mount a successful counterattack?   > read more
By  Charles Layton
Too Free?
In a First Amendment Center/AJR survey, nearly half of those responding said they think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees. And about the same number said the American press has been too aggressive in asking government officials for information about the war on terrorism.   > read more
By  Ken Paulson
What Did He Say?
The official White House transcript doesn’t always record the flubs and malapropisms uttered by presidents and their press secretaries. When should stenographers correct the record, and when does cleaning up look like sanitizing?   > read more
By  Rachel Smolkin
Riding the Roller Coaster
The Wall Street Journal’s Manhattan headquarters was destroyed in the September 11 attacks, and terrorists later kidnapped and killed Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Two other key staffers died during a harrowing 15-month period. Meanwhile, the Journal published distinguished coverage of rampant corporate scandals, won a Pulitzer for its reporting on the terrorist attacks and underwent a dramatic redesign.   > read more
By  Sherry Ricchiardi
Peeling the Onion
With its often hilarious, pitch-perfect parody of news-writing conventions, the Onion has attracted a dedicated audience for its print and online incarnations. Kathryn S. Wenner takes a behind-the-scenes look at how it all comes together.   > read more
By  Kathryn S. Wenner
The King of BLING BLING
How an ad for a bar in a Philadelphia alt-weekly, featuring Thailand’s monarch in full hip-hop regalia, nearly triggered an international incident.   > read more
By  Howard Altman
Lessons from Journalism 201
Writing short is tough, and some people really do spell it Caryn.   > read more
By  Thomas Kunkel
Battle Cry
It’s time for the news media to stand up to the assault on freedom of information.   > read more
By  Rem Rieder
Losing Out
Local TV management should get serious about the Web.   > read more
By  Barb Palser
The TV Ticker Parade
With a barrage of crawls and graphics, the cable networks are covering up the real power of television.   > read more
By  Deborah Potter
Overkill in Kansas
The editor and publisher of a newspaper face jail time for criminal defamation.   > read more
By  Jane Kirtley
So Many Options
With corporate controversies aplenty, it’s time to look at how newspaper companies treat stock options.   > read more
By  John Morton
News You Can't Use
Journalists are questioning the longstanding practice of embargoing news.   > read more
By  Kathryn S. Wenner
In the End, Zone
Change is afoot at the Philadelphia Inquirer after Editor Walker Lundy announces his plan to cover the suburbs.   > read more
By  Lori Robertson
E-mail Undoing
Should a Florida editor have lost her job after sending a reader a policially-charged note?   > read more
By  Paul Duke
'We Had Never Seen Anything Like This'
AJR talks with The Atlantic Monthly's William Langewiesche about his series on the World Trade Center cleanup efforts.   > read more
By  Eric J.S. Townsend
Recollections of an Exceptional Day
Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11
By the Newseum
with Cathy Trost & Alicia C. Shepard
Foreword by Tom Brokaw
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
251 pages; $29.95   > read more
Book review by  Marvin Kalb
Exploiting the Undervalued
The Money Shot: Trash, Class, and the Making of TV Talk Shows
By Laura Grindstaff
University of Chicago Press
318 pages; $20   > read more
Book review by  Carl Sessions Stepp
Tallahassee Lad
The Tallahassee Democrat hires its first political cartoonist, Pulitzer Prize-winner Doug Marlette.   > read more
By  Kathryn S. Wenner
Perfect Alignment
Popular Los Angeles television news anchor Laura Diaz joins KCBS and sister station KCAL after nearly 20 years at KABC.   > read more
By  Catherine Matacic
Happy Birthday
A year-and-a-half after purchasing the Salt Lake Tribune and on his 51st birthday, MediaNews Group CEO William Dean Singleton takes control of the paper and names himself publisher.   > read more
By  Kathryn S. Wenner
The Tighten Up
Two longtime television news directors in Portland, Oregon--John Sears of KPTV and Dan Acklen of KPDX--lose their jobs when the stations become a duopoly.   > read more
By  Catherine Matacic
Academic Pursuit
Howard University appoints former Philadelphia Inquirer Managing Editor Phillip Dixon chairman of its journalism department.   > read more
By  Catherine Matacic
Scribe’s Secret
The Houston Chronicle fires reporter Steve Olafson after learning he was the author of a local Weblog.   > read more
By  Kathryn S. Wenner
In Memoriam
Robert I. Friedman, an award-winning investigative journalist and author, dies at 51 from a rare blood disease he contracted while reporting in India.   > read more
By  Kathryn S. Wenner
Welcome to Bawlamer, Hon
Tribune Co. picks Denise Palmer to replace retiring Baltimore Sun Publisher Michael E. Waller.   > read more
By  Gabriel Baird
Relaunching an Icon
Ms. magazine’s new editor, investigative journalist Tracy Wood, plans to make investigative reporting “the big thing” at the feminist publication.   > read more
By  Kathryn S. Wenner
Cliché Corner Special Edition   > read more
By  Jill Rosen