In the spring of 1999, Nieman Curator Bill Kovach opened the second Watchdog Journalism Conference by voicing concern about the possible consequences of shifting relationships among sources and journalists. He said, “This year, the Clinton/Lewinsky story has highlighted the extraordinary … Read more
[This article originally appeared in the Summer 1979 issue of Nieman Reports.] …Louis M. Lyons, as Nieman Curator, continually struggled against the ban on women from the program. His correspondence with the University administration in the early 1940’s shows that … Read more
[This article originally appeared in the Winter 1978 issue of Nieman Reports.] …Having been introduced to newspaper work on a thriving paper that received its United States and world reports by Morse code—when the telegraphers actually used a Prince Albert … Read more
[This article originally appeared in the September 1971 issue of Nieman Reports.] …To the office secretary, the Xerox machine is the greatest invention since the coffee break. In an instant, carbon paper has been made obsolete. True, many offices, including … Read more
President Truman holding a press conference on the lawn of the “Little White House,” his vacation residence at Key West, Florida, surrounded by reporters, photographers and staff members, 1950. Photo courtesy of the … Read more
[This article originally appeared in the July 1947 issue of Nieman Reports.] How Is Press To Be Criticized? Walter Lippmann, Column March 27 — The problem is a specially important form of the question: … Read more
What you [see] here is a collection which reflects the substance of the first 53 years of the conversation journalists have engaged in about their rights and responsibilities in the pages of Nieman Reports. At times you will find an article that opened a new argument or ended an old one. Throughout you will hear the voices of journalists committed to their work challenging colleagues to raise the standards of discovering, reporting, writing and editing the news in a context meaningful for navigation within a free society. – Bill Kovach Read more
[This article originally appeared in the July 1954 issue of Nieman Reports.] Fiction writers have used a broad and inaccurate pen in painting the modern country editor as a grey-haired, old man wearing a green eyeshade, black muslin elastic-banded arm … Read more