AJR Archives
 
Year :
Issue :
 
August/September 2004
   Features
Missed Signals
Why did it take so long for the news media to break the story of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib?   > read more
By  Sherry Ricchiardi
Lagging Behind
Fewer than 10.5 percent of the reporters and editors in daily newspaper Washington bureaus are minorities, a new Unity/University of Maryland survey finds. That’s a lower percentage than the much-maligned newspaper industry figure. Minority staffers give the D.C. press corps low marks for its coverage of race-related issues—and most hope to be out of the nation’s capital in five years.   > read more
By  Christopher Callahan
What Works?
Burlington, North Carolina’s Times-News and Colorado’s Greeley Tribune have similar circulations and hometown demographics. Yet while the staff in Burlington’s newsroom is practically all white, Greeley’s is diverse. What does Greeley do that Burlington doesn’t?   > read more
By  Lori Robertson
The Story Behind the Story
How a 30-year secret involving one of Oregon’s most powerful figures finally came to light. How a feisty alt-weekly made it happen. And how the state’s dominant newspaper stumbled along the way.   > read more
By  Jill Rosen
Follow the Money
The campaign finance beat is important—and challenging. The tangled web of rules that govern fundraising and spending can be hard to penetrate, and doesn’t necessarily make for sparkling copy. How are the news media doing this time around?   > read more
By  Rachel Smolkin
Watergate Revisited
Thirty years after President Nixon’s resignation, there’s little agreement over just how important a role journalism played in bringing him down. But there’s no doubt the episode had a significant impact on the profession.   > read more
By  Mark Feldstein
Low Marks
The public takes a jaundiced view of the nation’s news media, a First Amendment Center/AJR poll finds. More than 60 percent believes making up stories is a widespread problem, and just 39 percent thinks news organizations try to report without bias.   > read more
By  Paul McMasters
Letter from Baghdad: Risky Business
The dangers in Iraq have led Western journalists to alter their appearances, rely more heavily on Iraqi staffers and, simply, to not venture too far from the hotel.   > read more
By  Colin Freeman
   Columns
Fade-out
Ronald Reagan’s death brought out the best and the worst of the American news media.   > read more
By  Thomas Kunkel
Toothless Watchdogs
The news media, WMD and Abu Ghraib   > read more
By  Rem Rieder
The Web's Campaign Contributions
News sites may have offered fewer original stories during the primaries, but they’re now flush with multimedia extras and interactivity.   > read more
By  Barb Palser
Indecent Oversight
Unless the rules for news organizations are clearly defined, the FCC’s crackdown on profanity could lead to censorship.   > read more
By  Deborah Potter
Security Check
The long list of what you won’t learn from the Transportation Security Administration   > read more
By  Jane Kirtley
Hyping the Numbers
The Chicago Sun-Times and some Tribune Co. properties acknowledge reporting inflated circulation totals.   > read more
By  John Morton
   Drop Cap
Going It Alone
Accolades now come to Knight Ridder for its prescient reports expressing skepticism about claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.   > read more
By  Steve Ritea
Campaign Lifesaver   > read more
By  Dana Hull
Q&A
In the beginning, CableNewser was a mystery. Cable industry players and TV news junkies logged on to the Web site cablenewser.com for insight and dish, never knowing who exactly was behind it all—or with any idea that they were often being scooped by an 18-year-old college student. That is until the New York Times blew his cover in May. Brian Stelter, a journalism student at Maryland’s Towson University, talked with AJR’s Melissa Cirillo about his role as a young journalism watchdog.   > read more
By  Melissa Cirillo
Who's Taking Care of Business?
Editors have a hard time finding qualified applicants for business desk jobs.   > read more
By  Richard Sine
Reporterese Translation Guide
Critics are always complaining that the press has a hidden agenda. They’re right. And here’s a guide that can help readers discern what journalists really mean when they write certain things.   > read more
By  Jill Rosen
   Books
Me, Myself and I
An anthology shows that crime writing is best when it's not so self-indulgent.
Review of Best American Crime Writing, 2004 Edition
Edited by Otto Penzler and Thomas H. Cook
Pantheon/Vintage Books
512 pages; $29.95 hardcover, $14 paperback   > read more
Book review by  Carl Sessions Stepp
   The Beat
After the Hurricane
What’s up with the reporter who took down Jayson Blair?   > read more
By  Gigi Anders
   Cliché Corner
Cliché Corner   > read more
   Letters
More Crossfire   > read more
I Second That   > read more
The Fine Print   > read more
And Furthermore...   > read more
The Death of Ethics?   > read more
Corrections   > read more