Foreign policy has taken a back seat in the U.S. presidential election, especially the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But reporters should at the very least press Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on a related domestic issue: the treatment of veterans. So asserts Kennedy School lecturer Juliette Kayyem, who notes that neither candidate is addressing the challenges facing those who bore the heaviest burden of war. Read more
The Obama administration is operating amid unprecedented secrecy—while attacking journalists trying to tell the public what they need to know. Read more
Dan Froomkin, formerly deputy editor of the Nieman Watchdog website, is now a contributor to Nieman Reports. His first piece examined the jobs crisis and what's missing from the job plans offered by the Romney and Obama campaigns. In his new piece, Froomkin talks to an election expert who suggests four voting metrics that can help reporters judge the fairness of elections. Read more
Diane Ravitch poses a dozen piercing questions on education and school policy. Some of them turn conventional thinking on its ear, and each could be a starting point for reporting on elections, from the presidency on down to local school boards. Read more
Analysts liken fighter plane to a WWII Messerschmidt, saying it is a technological marvel with the latest weapons but that it will be poor in combat. Read more
President Bush still believes the Iranians are developing nuclear weapons — and so do the Israelis. So for journalists to assume that neither the U.S. nor Israel will attack Iran before the November election could constitute another failure of imagination. Cato’s Leon Hadar suggests questions the press should ask the presidential candidates about what they think the American response should be to various scenarios in the region — including a Gulf-of-Tonkin-like alleged provocation. Read more
The national news media almost totally ignore homefront protests of the Afghanistan war, killer drones, torture, and more, regardless of their newsworthiness. By its lack of coverage, isn’t the press thus helping perpetuate an endless war? Read more
On the 30th anniversary of the brutal assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, a veteran reporter looks back at some extraordinary and daring close-in coverage that was spurred by personal anger at the murder of the priest. Read more
From liars' loans to liars' liens, the financial and foreclosure crisis has been one big story of banks defrauding their customers — a vast criminal enterprise. You wouldn't know it from a lot of the media coverage, though. Regulatory hero and criminologist William K. Black helps connect the dots. Read more
Among the changes at the Nieman Watchdog Project is a closer alliance with Nieman Reports. Dan Froomkin, formerly deputy editor of the Nieman Watchdog website, is a new contributor to both the print magazine and the Nieman Reports website. Froomkin is a senior Washington correspondent for The Huffington Post who previously wrote a White House politics column for The Washington Post’s website. Read more
