Nieman 80

As a newspaper reporter, I looked down my nose at TV “talent” who called themselves journalists. My colleagues and I thought TV reporters were hired for their looks and their…

I can close my eyes and still see the classic W. Eugene Smith portrait of the mother bathing her daughter who was deformed by mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan.It is…

When I read “Murder Comes for the Bishop” by Francisco Goldman, I was 22 and in my first year as a journalist. The criminal investigation and the trial following the…

Edward Wong, NF ’18Sometime in my 20s, when I was starting out as a reporter, I read two collections of Joan Didion’s early articles and essays. They changed the way…

It was the mid-’60s and I was in college and a guy I had never heard of—an alumnus of my college [Washington and Lee University] as it happened—was coming to…

When “Khrushchev Remembers” first appeared in Life magazine and as a Little, Brown book, in 1970, about five years after he was ousted from power and forced to live 20…

[sidebar style=”right” head=”Nieman 80″ deck=””]More Nieman Fellows on exemplary journalism that influenced them[/sidebar]A newly minted college grad, in 1970, I happened to catch a rerun of “Harvest of Shame” on…

“Mrs. Kelly’s Monster” has never left me.“The heartbeat goes pop, pop, pop, 70 beats a minute.”[sidebar style=”right” head=”Nieman 80″ deck=””]More Nieman Fellows on exemplary journalism that influenced them[/sidebar]In his December…

At the Kentucky Derby women wear ridiculously elaborate hats and heels they regret within the hour. The horses are sleek and strong and beautiful. And, bonus, there’s always bourbon.When Seattle…

In 2001 I covered a story about an 8-year-old girl who had been raped by older boys in her neighborhood. It was then that I became aware how little I…