Opinion

"The struggle against silence in Mexico is a relay race"

“The struggle against silence in Mexico is a relay race”

Today [June 8] marks one week since I returned to Mexico after 10 months in the United States on a Nieman Fellowship. On my first day back, I talked to…
What Terry Frei’s Tweet Says about Bigotry and Bias

What Terry Frei’s Tweet Says about Bigotry and Bias

I was thinking about dedicating this column to what happened in New York, with the decision by the Times to jettison its public editor position. But what happened in Denver…
“The way journalists interact with the communities we cover needs to change”

“The way journalists interact with the communities we cover needs to change”

I met Kate Geiger when I was doing a piece for NPR in 2013 about a former GM assembly plant Dayton. She’s worked there most of her career, and when…
Yes, We Need A Special Commission…

Yes, We Need A Special Commission…

The media, along with former FBI Director James Comey, helped Donald Trump become president. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com has detailed why. But it doesn’t take a mathematician to understand that…

Facebook, Advertisers, and the View from a Daily Editor in Middle America

Should advertisers spend more money at local newspapers? The question was up for debate this week after Jim Rutenberg, media columnist for The New York Times, published “Ad Buyers Have…
Let's Stop Blaming Facebook and Google and Start Fixing the News Business

Let’s Stop Blaming Facebook and Google and Start Fixing the News Business

Yesterday, New York Times media columnist Jim Rutenberg argued that America’s advertisers have a civic obligation to save the news. Not only is he wrong, but he’s giving a free pass…

A Former Fake News Creator on Covering Fake News

I am known by many people as many things, but above all I am a father, a husband, a son, a brother, and by all means, a hard-working, middle-class American.…
AI Is Journalism’s Next Big Threat (or Opportunity)

AI Is Journalism’s Next Big Threat (or Opportunity)

Recently I watched a 15-second Burger King commercial, which was designed to trigger my voice-activated Google devices. In the ad, a Burger King employee, standing behind a counter at the…
Another Under-Covered Trump-Voting Demographic

Another Under-Covered Trump-Voting Demographic

The media are making good on their promise to spend more time in Trumpland, to explore more deeply the animating thoughts of the millions of supposedly previously overlooked Americans who…
Here Comes Somebody: Journalism and the Trust Economy

Here Comes Somebody: Journalism and the Trust Economy

I think we’re beyond peak fake news pandemic. The early fever of moral panic has abated. Attention is moving from symptoms to cause. And so begins the sober, purposeful work…