The day in August 2005 when I idled into Gillette, Wyoming, began a years-long education in public trust in journalism. That day, a curious neighbor stepped out of his townhome to the edge of the cul-de-sac adjacent our new home, … Read more
The chance to oust President Trump or support him in the 2020 general election will bring voters to the polls. But what happens once they get past that first contest on the ballot? Next year’s election will be different from … Read more
There’s nothing short of a crisis in our state capitals. Statehouse reporting corps have decreased dramatically in the past decade, and, too often, the journalists who remain must answer the call for daily copy to churn … Read more
The office building four blocks from Florida’s state Capitol carries the same name in bold letters that it boasted when it opened in 1988: Florida Press Center. For the last 30 years, the modest three-story structure with its bland façade … Read more
As editor and publisher of the Todd County Standard, a weekly in Elkton, Kentucky, I once ran a story that asked farmers to attend a very important meeting on agricultural zoning. The future of farming in the small county in … Read more
Most editors get lots of feedback from readers—through calls, emails, or comments in social media. For the past two years, though, The [Springfield, Illinois] State Journal-Register has had a special group of readers who are specifically … Read more
I come from a fading industrial town—Albion, Michigan. In 1985 I would read the Chicago Tribune on how great things were in America and wonder which America it was writing about. My America, three hours from Chicago, was still mired … Read more
In covering the local election season in Dare County, North Carolina–best known as the home of the Outer Banks–journalists can’t be accused of paying too much attention to an unending parade of polls. For starters, there were no publicly released … Read more
Many post-election observers have lambasted the national news media, the so-called coastal media elites, for missing the breadth of support for Donald Trump among white working- and lower middle-class voters living outside of major urban-suburban areas. Such criticism obscures a … Read more
Being a political animal, one of my first thoughts the morning after the election was, “Who’s going to run for President now?” You can rest assured that there are a dozen or so billionaires slamming their fists on their kitchen tables … Read more