Opinion

The Post Office Helped Save Our Elections. It Can Help Save Our Newspapers, Too

The Post Office Helped Save Our Elections. It Can Help Save Our Newspapers, Too

While I was writing this, I read that another newspaper closed in Iowa. It’s likely you never heard of it, but the La Porte City Progress Review was 127 years…
January 5, 2021
Christopher R. Martin
What Journalists Can — and Can’t — Do about Media Distrust

What Journalists Can — and Can’t — Do about Media Distrust

There is a significant percentage of Americans who will always distrust us no matter how well our pieces are written, how compelling our broadcasts, how high the stack of documents…
December 9, 2020
Issac J. Bailey
In Zimbabwe, “Freedom of Expression and of the Media Remain Mirages”

In Zimbabwe, “Freedom of Expression and of the Media Remain Mirages”

Beatrice Mtetwa is a prominent human rights lawyer and free press advocate in Zimbabwe who is representing journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. He was granted bail and is expected to be released…
November 20, 2020
Obey Manayiti
It's Time to Cover Black Women as the Norm and Not the “Other”

It’s Time to Cover Black Women as the Norm and Not the “Other”

Journalists must fully and accurately report on a group that has too often been ignored and stereotyped
October 30, 2020
Mary C. Curtis
It Can Happen Here: We Must Cover Trump As The Authoritarian He Is

It Can Happen Here: We Must Cover Trump As The Authoritarian He Is

In the weeks following the 2016 election, Sinclair Lewis had been dead for as long as he’d lived — 65 years — but there he was on the bestseller list…
October 16, 2020
Jeff Young
To Move Forward on Racial Equity, Newsrooms Need to Reckon with Their Pasts

To Move Forward on Racial Equity, Newsrooms Need to Reckon with Their Pasts

Germans have a term — vergangenheitsbewältigung — to describe the process of coming to terms with the past. The concept emerged in the decades after World War II, as historians, philosophers,…
October 8, 2020
Sewell Chan
How to Report—or Not Report—on Biden’s Stutter

How to Report—or Not Report—on Biden’s Stutter

There was a time I dreamed of debating Rush Limbaugh. I wanted to face and rhetorically take down the famed talk show host the way I loved catching touchdown passes…
October 7, 2020
Issac J. Bailey
How Should Journalists Respond to Trump’s Refusal to Commit to a Peaceful Transfer of Power?

How Should Journalists Respond to Trump’s Refusal to Commit to a Peaceful Transfer of Power?

I began a recent session of my “Trump, Race, and U.S. Media” course at Davidson College with video clips of news reports about protests in the aftermath of the Breonna…
September 29, 2020
Issac J. Bailey
Journalists Need to Create a Sense of Belonging

Journalists Need to Create a Sense of Belonging

During a recent conversation on the ongoing pursuit of racial equity in our workplaces, a colleague asked a question we all should ask ourselves: “How did we get here?”The answer,…
September 22, 2020
Rob King
Newsrooms Need a Plan to Diversify Investigative Teams, Too

Newsrooms Need a Plan to Diversify Investigative Teams, Too

The killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota has created a racial reckoning for the country.That reckoning has expanded to America’s newsrooms. Across the country, journalists of color…
September 21, 2020
Ron Nixon