Articles

Where Are the Stories Behind the Leaks?

Twenty-five years ago when I was a special assistant to Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, one of my daily tasks was to help him figure out the news. Why were…

The ACLU and the Tobacco Companies

The American Civil Liberties Union has defended the Bill of Rights since its founding in 1920. This proud record does not necessarily mean that the ACLU welcomes an exercise of…

Editors Without Backbone

They Are Responsible for Letting Rumors Run Amuck In Coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky Story

Spring 1998: Journalist’s Trade Introduction

Tn the following pages Morton Mintz examines the alliance between the American Civil Liberties Union and tobacco companies that have pro?vided it with financial support.

And on Whitewater…

An article in the winter 1997 issue of Nieman Reports, “Getting It Wrong on Whitewater,” refuted the widely reported belief that a portion of an illegal 1986 loan to Susan…

Alternate Forms of Transportation

BOSTON To the Editor: As a journalist and author (of “Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back”), I was pleased to see…

When Is More Less?

NEW YORKTo the Editor:I’m delighted that my letter of some months ago asking [Tom Regan, Nieman Reports technology columnist] to explain the differences between reporting for the conventional media and…

Spring 1998: Watchdog Introduction

This issue on Watchdog Journalism originated with a call by Murrey Marder, the retired Washington Post Diplomatic Correspondent, for a return to more aggressive, but responsible, reporting. The package begins…

Inspecting Road Sites

LOUISVILLETo the Editor:No country in the world can match the United States for extravagant use and waste of its resources. And nothing reveals waste more than our pell-mell pursuit of…

For State and Local Government, The Key Is Sufficient Resources

My assignment: examine the state of “aggressive journalism” in state and local government—whether we do enough of it, whether we are hard-nosed enough, whether we do what we do well…