ISSUE

Winter 1999 - Spring 2000

Commemorative Double Issue

What you [see] here is a collection which reflects the substance of the first 53 years of the conversation journalists have engaged in about their rights and responsibilities in the pages of Nieman Reports. At times you will find an article that opened a new argument or ended an old one. Throughout you will hear the voices of journalists committed to their work challenging colleagues to raise the standards of discovering, reporting, writing and editing the news in a context meaningful for navigation within a free society. – Bill Kovach

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Articles

Journalist’s Trade

Winter 1999 – Spring 2000: Objectivity Introduction

Nothing about journalism so engages—and enrages—the public and practitioners as do discussions about whether reporters can be and are objective observers of events they describe. Innumerable studies have set out…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 1999
Visual Journalism

Winter 1999 – Spring 2000: Photography Introduction

A photographers’ poker game at the Halsman Studio, New York, in the early 1950’s. Gjon Mili is sitting in the white chair. Clockwise from him: Dmitri Kessel, Robert Capa, Pepi…
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

The Bill of Rights

The Bill of Rights, as this parchment copy is now known, is on permanent display in the Rotunda of the National Archives. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration.
December 15, 1999
Technology

1981: A Conversation With Fred Friendly

“…Murrow had the sense of curiosity that all journalists have to have, a need to understand something before he talked about it, and a marvelous ear for copy.”—Friendly (left), with…
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1971: A Case for the Professional

[This article originally appeared in the September 1971 issue of Nieman Reports.]…at no time in history has the world needed the professional journalist more.The strident, partisan voices of today’s society…
Wes Gallagher
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1980: The New Reality

[This article originally appeared in the Spring 1980 issue of Nieman Reports.]Martin Chuzzlewit, the hero of Dickens’s novel of that name, sails to the United States on a packet boat.…
Anthony Lewis
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

April 1952: The Cult of Incredibility

[This article originally appeared in the April 1952 issue of Nieman Reports.]Thomas Jefferson, in a famous letter to Edward Carrington, wrote his much-quoted line, “were it left to me to…
David Manning White
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1955: The Seven Deadly Virtues

[This article originally appeared in the July 1955 issue of Nieman Reports.]…So revolutionary a change in the role of the American citizen was bound to have its effect on American…
Wallace Carroll
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1968: The Newsman—Society’s Lonesome End

[This article originally appeared in the March 1968 issue of Nieman Reports.]I would like to address my remarks to the younger journalists—those who will soon be leaving school. You will…
Wes Gallagher
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1970: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thou Shouldst Be Living at This Hour

[This article originally appeared in the June 1970 issue of Nieman Reports].…One day when I was with the Washington bureau of The New York Times, our Supreme Court reporter, Anthony…
Wallace Carroll
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1970: The Quest for Objectivity

[This article originally appeared in the December 1970 issue of Nieman Reports.]…Those who would improve our practices in questionable ways come not only from the outside in the form of…
Eric Sevareid
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1971: White Newsmen and Black Critics

[This article originally appeared in the September 1971 issue of Nieman Reports.]Can white reporters accurately report events that involve blacks and other minority groups? This question—and the related topic of…
Lawrence Schneider
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1994: Expert Journalism

Portland (Maine) newspaper reframes the idea of objectivity to bring readers more forceful interpretive reporting.
Lou Ureneck
December 15, 1999
Opinion

Newspapermen and Lawyers

[July 1960] – I propose to speak tonight on a moderately pretentious topic, the public responsibilities of newspapermen and lawyers.…As my concern is public responsibility in our professions, I want…
Anthony Lewis
December 15, 1999
Visual Journalism

1999: Using the Camera to Peer Inside

Other Cubans “wanted to reassure me about the strength of their religious belief despite their government’s claim to the contrary.”—Beatriz Terrazas, a l999 Nieman Fellow and staff photographer for The…
Beatriz Terrazas
December 15, 1999
Visual Journalism

1998: Photo Essay

Widow of Muslim man killed in Banja Luka is comforted. Photo courtesy of Michele McDonald. [This article originally appeared in the Summer 1998 issue of Nieman Reports.]These photos were taken…
Michele McDonald
December 15, 1999
Visual Journalism

1982: Fragile Moments

A sensitive photographer deals with the difficult assignments.
Bill Welch
December 15, 1999
Visual Journalism

1974: Words on Pictures

[This article originally appeared in the Autumn 1974 issue of Nieman Reports.]The media—and in particular newspapers—are taken to task by Edwin Newman in the October [1974] issue of The Atlantic…
Steve Northup
December 15, 1999
Technology

1985: Media Power and the Dangers of Mass Information

The national media are no longer just observers and messengers, but are now lead actors in government.
Michael J. O’Neill
December 15, 1999
Technology

1966: LBJ Should Hold Formal Press Conferences

“It is my judgment that Mr. Johnson wants to hold control in his own hands.”—Strout. Photo by Jack Kightlinger, courtesy of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library Collection. [This article originally…
Richard L. Strout
December 15, 1999
Technology

1959: The Square Eye vs. the Written Word

“Television by its nature has to move on…it cannot explain or expound.”—Muggeridge. Civil rights march on Washington, D.C., 1963. Photo courtesy of the Still Picture Branch, National Archives at College…
Malcolm Muggeridge
December 15, 1999
Technology

1951: How Can Newspapers Meet Competition of Radio and Television?

[This article originally appeared in the October 1951 issue of Nieman Reports.]The challenge of television to the newspaper is one which newspapermen cannot take lightly, and one which you must…
John S. Hayes
December 15, 1999
Technology

1949: The Newspaperman Meets Television

[This article originally appeared in the January 1949 issue of Nieman Reports.]“I never expected to see an old hand in the newspaper business cavorting in front of a bunch of…
Lowell M. Limpus
December 15, 1999
Visual Journalism

1952: Does Press Freedom Include Photography?

Consider the record of smashed cameras and the arbitrary barring of news photographers.
Joseph Costa
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1950: Backdoor Editorializing

What are the sound limits of ‘background’ reporting?
John L. Hulteng
December 15, 1999
Technology

1952: Al Capp Views the Networks

[This article originally appeared in the April 1952 issue of Nieman Reports.]The two main ways to communicate ideas in America are by press and radio. I’ve communicated with America both…
Al Capp
December 15, 1999
From the Curator

The Roots of Our Responsibility

The American press was halfway through the century just ended before journalists began to talk seriously about press responsibility.A letter Henry Luce wrote to Robert Hutchins, President of the University…
Bill Kovach
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1991: The Bill of Rights in Pictures

[This article originally appeared in the Winter 1991 issue of Nieman Reports.]This year the United States has been observing the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. While these rights,…
Nieman Photographers
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1990: A Supreme Court Decision Fosters Litigation

A private citizen raises high the standard for justice—but pays a price.
Eugene Roberts
December 15, 1999
Features

1996: A Grueling Standard to Live By

[This article originally appeared in the Fall 1996 issue of Nieman Reports.]Violent crime rates have been falling, yet sensational crime coverage on television news has been rising. So have the…
Carole Kneeland
December 15, 1999
Features

1947: A Free and Responsible Press

A Review of Free Press Report
Louis M. Lyons
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1983: … The Crucial 1940’s

[This article originally appeared in the Spring 1983 issue of Nieman Reports.]Scottsdale, Arizona — Two dozen of those whose reporting from China in the 1940’s helped shape American attitudes and…
Walter Sullivan
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

Winter 1999 – Spring 2000: Sources Introduction

In the spring of 1999, Nieman Curator Bill Kovach opened the second Watchdog Journalism Conference by voicing concern about the possible consequences of shifting relationships among sources and journalists. He…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 1999
Technology

1994: A New Agenda for Journalism

A Call for Action to Stake Out the Role of News in the Emerging Technological World
Katherine Fulton
December 15, 1999
Features

1979: Yes Virginia, There Is an Agnes

[This article originally appeared in the Summer 1979 issue of Nieman Reports.]…Louis M. Lyons, as Nieman Curator, continually struggled against the ban on women from the program. His correspondence with…
Jerome Aumente
December 15, 1999
Features

1978: Uphill All the Way

[This article originally appeared in the Winter 1978 issue of Nieman Reports.]…Having been introduced to newspaper work on a thriving paper that received its United States and world reports by…
Alden Whitman
December 15, 1999
Features

1971: The Xerox and the Pentagon

[This article originally appeared in the September 1971 issue of Nieman Reports.]…To the office secretary, the Xerox machine is the greatest invention since the coffee break. In an instant, carbon…
Herbert Kupferberg
December 15, 1999
1959: The Pursuit of Journalism
Features

1959: The Pursuit of Journalism

[This article originally appeared in the January 1959 issue of Nieman Reports.] For literature, said Max Beerbohm, he felt reverence, but for journalism merely a kind regard. A natural remark…
Thomas Griffith
December 15, 1999
Features

1947: Press Reaction to Hutchins Report

[This article originally appeared in the July 1947 issue of Nieman Reports.] How Is Press To Be Criticized? Walter Lippmann, ColumnMarch 27 — The problem is a specially important form…
Barry Bingham
December 15, 1999
Features

Winter 1999 – Spring 2000: Journalism Introduction

What you [see] here is a collection which reflects the substance of the first 53 years of the conversation journalists have engaged in about their rights and responsibilities in the…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 1999
Features

1951: How Best Prepare for Newspaper Work?

Nieman Fellows answer the question.
Edward A. Walsh
December 15, 1999
Features

1947: Freedom for What?

Only a Responsible Press Can Stay Free, Hutchins Commission Finds
the Hutchins Report
December 15, 1999
Features

1954: Handouts to the Country Editor

[This article originally appeared in the July 1954 issue of Nieman Reports.]Fiction writers have used a broad and inaccurate pen in painting the modern country editor as a grey-haired, old…
Evan Hill
December 15, 1999
Features

1960: The Catholic Issue

[This article originally appeared in the September 1960 issue of Nieman Reports.]Cartoon courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Library.…only the man who has learned historical depth can give what we…
Archibald MacLeish
December 15, 1999
Features

1960: Newspapermen and Lawyers

[This article originally appeared in the July 1960 issue of Nieman Reports.]I propose to speak tonight on a moderately pretentious topic, the public responsibilities of newspapermen and lawyers.…As my concern…
Anthony Lewis
December 15, 1999
Features

1963: For That Hole in the Forms

A.J. Liebling. Photo courtesy of UPI/Corbis-Bettmann.[This article originally appeared in the March 1963 issue of Nieman Reports.]It is a time-honored custom for the out-of-town speaker to tell you what’s wrong…
Edwin A. Lahey
December 15, 1999
Features

1998: This Is Watchdog Journalism

[This article originally appeared in the Summer 1998 issue of Nieman Reports.][T]here is far too little public understanding in the United States about the role of the press in the…
Murrey Marder
December 15, 1999
Features

1994: The Old and Future Labor Beat

A veteran reporter complains that the press is ignoring blue collars and unions speaking for them.
Murray Seeger
December 15, 1999
Features

1990: The Impact of Public Opinion Polls

Do they shape or measure opinions?
Bill Kovach
December 15, 1999
Features

1992: Popular Music

Political and social realities can be discovered in serious criticism of the medium.
Anthony DeCurtis
December 15, 1999
Features

1991: Operation Washington Shield

Administration’s manipulation of news embraced diplomacy and politics, as well as the battlefield.
Murrey Marder
December 15, 1999
Features

1996: Needed: Long-Haul Commitment

Photo by Keith Greene, News & Observer, courtesy of The News & Observer.[This article originally appeared in the Winter 1996 issue of Nieman Reports.]The best environmental story I ever worked…
Melanie Sill
December 15, 1999
Features

1998: Making Sense Out of a Tragedy

Photographers line airport road to photograph one of the funerals of a Westside Middle School shooting victim. Nettleton cemetery is located across the street. Photo by Bill Templeton/The Jonesboro Sun.[This…
John Schwartz
December 15, 1999
Features

1991: Investigators’ Checklist

Every campaign adds another important item—what will it be this time?
Ann Marie Lipinski
December 15, 1999
Features

1996: Feasting on the Seed Corn

Media critic says that newspaper executives cutting into news coverage are risking the future for short-term gains.
Alex S. Jones
December 15, 1999
Features

1986: Standards and Principles

The market for mediocrity has diminished the incentive for excellence.
Ted Koppel
December 15, 1999
Features

1983: Press Performance: Enough Is Too Little

Encouraging words on a new and healthyphenomenon—the press is taking a hard look inward and examining itself.
Eugene C. Patterson
December 15, 1999
Features

1989: Has Money Corrupted Washington Journalism?

Money, money, money makes the world go ’round—but what does it do to journalists?
James S. Doyle
December 15, 1999
Features

1986: The Us-First Syndrome

[This article originally appeared in the Summer 1986 issue of Nieman Reports.]For whom do reporters write? For the readers?Well, yes and no.After two years inside a daily newspaper, I have…
Sam Zagoria
December 15, 1999
Features

1999: Using Education Data to Build a Story’s Foundation

Parents assist children in a fourth grade math class. Photo by Bill Batson, The Omaha World-Herald.[This article originally appeared in the Spring 1999 issue of Nieman Reports.]For at least a…
Carol Napolitano
December 15, 1999
Technology

Winter 1999 – Spring 2000: Electronic Media Introduction

From the 1940’s through the 1990’s, technological innovation in electronic media has tugged print journalism into unaccustomed realms of news reporting. During earlier decades, this tug came most strongly from…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1999: The Role of Reporters’ Judgment

Here are excerpts from the Watchdog Journalism Conference, May 15, 1999, at Harvard University.
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1999: Reporting Stories in Russia That No One Will Publish

Those who own and control the media want to secure political influence, not uncover political corruption.
Yevgenia Albats
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1999: When Reporters are Shut Out By Sources

[This article originally appeared in the Fall 1999 issue of Nieman Reports.]What happens when reporters are shut out by sources whom they believe are necessary to report a story? Several…
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1999: Reporters’ Relationships With Sources

[This article originally appeared in the Fall 1999 issue of Nieman Reports.]No topic consumed as much of the conversation at the Watchdog Journalism Conference [May 15, 1999 at Harvard University]…
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1981: Weighing Sources—Anonymous and Otherwise

The Fiction of Janet Cooke and the Pulitzer Prize Surprise
Clark R. Mollenhoff
December 15, 1999
From the Curator

The Roots of Our Responsibility

The American press was halfway through the century just ended before journalists began to talk seriously about press responsibility.A letter Henry Luce wrote to Robert Hutchins, President of the University…
Bill Kovach
December 15, 1999
Features

1950: The Captive Press

How a Senator Can Monopolize the Loudspeaker
Douglass Cater
December 15, 1999
Diversity Visual Journalism

The Story Roy DeCarava’s Photographs Tell About a Different Black America

[This article originally appeared in the Summer 1998 issue of Nieman Reports.]Roy DeCarava doesn’t occupy a space, he blends with it. But to say that his approach to photography is…
Lester Sloan
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1999: In Yugoslavia, the Consequences of Not Reporting the Truth

Journalists’ failure to report honestly empowers tyrants.
Chris Hedges
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1998: Questioning If Guilt Without Punishment Will Lead to Reconciliation

The black press relives its own horrors and seeks justice.
Mathatha Tsedu
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1997: One David, Two Goliaths

The Struggle for Independent Media in Burundi
Bryan Rich
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1997: What Happens When the Cameras Leave?

Rwandan refugees set up camps outside Goma. UN [United Nations] photo/John Isaac. [This article originally appeared in the Summer 1997 issue of Nieman Reports.]I gleaned a lot of utterly bizarre…
Ann K. Cooper
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1993: Scouts Without Compasses

War in the Balkans is forcing correspondents to rewrite their guidelines.
Sylvia Poggioli
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1992: The Kept Mexican Press

Cash handouts to publishers, editors and reporters determine what newspapers print.
Raymundo Riva-Palacio
December 15, 1999
1988: In Memoriam: Percy Qoboza
International Journalism

1988: In Memoriam: Percy Qoboza

Nieman Fellow 1976
Dennis Pather
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1983: Freedom of the Press

Is the Western press listening to its colleagues in Third World countries?
M.G.G. Pillai
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1972: Reflections on Vietnam, the Press And America

[This article originally appeared in the March 1972 issue of Nieman Reports.]God knows we are not perfect as professionals. To be honest, after eight years of covering the Vietnam War,…
Peter Arnett
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1964: Why Diplomats Clam Up

[This article originally appeared in the March 1964 issue of Nieman Reports.]The resident American press corps during my time in New Delhi (1961-1963) was comparatively small—the two wire services, the…
John Kenneth Galbraith
December 15, 1999
Opinion

1992: We Weren’t Listening

By not tapping into rap’s message of violence media failed to prepare public for rampage.
Harold Jackson
December 15, 1999
Diversity

1979: Nonwhite America: The ‘Unseen Environment’

The managerial ranks of newspapers are a purer white than Ivory Snow.
Robert C. Maynard
December 15, 1999
Opinion

1962: Prince Edward’s ‘Massive Resistance’

A school library in Farmville, Virginia. From plaintiffs’ exhibits—photographs filed in Dorothy E. Davis, et al. versus County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, Civil Action No. 1333. Photo…
John Alfred Hamilton
December 15, 1999
Opinion

1962: The Reporter in the Deep South

[This article originally appeared in the April 1962 issue of Nieman Reports.]In “Absolom, Absolom!,” one of William Faulkner’s great Gothic novels of Yoknapatawpha county, Quinten Compson goes to Harvard and…
John Herbers
December 15, 1999
Opinion

1948: The South and the South’s Problem

Troops escort nine black students into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Associated Press Photo, courtesy of The Associated Press.[This article originally appeared in the April…
Harry S. Ashmore
December 15, 1999
Opinion

1948: The Southern Revolt

[This article originally appeared in the April 1948 issue of Nieman Reports.]As a personal preface to these comments, I would like to point out that they have been delayed because…
Hodding Carter
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1982: Endangered Species

[This article originally appeared in the Autumn 1982 issue of Nieman Reports.]The independence era dawned over black Africa two decades ago, and in the flush of victory the new presidents…
David Lamb
December 15, 1999
Features

1966: Custodians of the City

[This article originally appeared in the March 1966 issue of Nieman Reports.]I was in Greenville when the age of electronic journalism first came creeping in, and I have always thought…
Harry S. Ashmore
December 15, 1999
Features

1979: Covering the Women’s Movement

The head of the Venezuelan delegation to the 1975 International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico City receives a message from a colleague. Photo courtesy of The Associated Press. [This article…
Peggy Simpson
December 15, 1999
Opinion

1978: Covering the Real Politics

Busing students to Hyde Park (Boston) High School in 1974. Photo by Paul Connell, courtesy of The Boston Globe.[This article originally appeared in the Summer 1978 issue of Nieman Reports.]…I…
J. Anthony Lukas
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1961: Congo: Reporter’s Nightmare

Soldiers in the Belgian Congo, ca. 1943. Photo courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.[This article originally appeared in the October 1961 issue of Nieman Reports.]Leopoldville…
Henry Tanner
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1984: Confidential Sources: Testing the Readers’ Confidence

[This article originally appeared in the Summer 1984 issue of Nieman Reports.]Researchers from The University of Iowa journalism school conducted a study in 1982 for the American Society of Newspaper…
Gene Foreman
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1986: CIA Rarely Tells the Press What it Wants to Know

It only reluctantly tells Congress some of what it wants to know.
Howard Simons
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1983: China Reporting Revisited …

[This article originally appeared in the Spring 1983 issue of Nieman Reports.]…[E]ven at this stage [following a conference reassessing reporting from China] some facts, insights and themes emerge that can…
James C. Thomson Jr.
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

1992: China and the Foreign Press

Sources’ visceral fear gives way to ironic wariness, although security agents seem ever present.
Sarah Lubman
December 15, 1999
Features

1964: Calvin Coolidge and the Press

President Calvin Coolidge in cowboy outfit with press photographers. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.  [This article originally appeared in the September 1964 issue of Nieman Reports.]The press conference…
Louis M. Lyons
December 15, 1999
Features

1959: Birthday Address To the National Press Club

[This article originally appeared in the October 1959 issue of Nieman Reports.]I do not think that I need to tell you that standing on this famous platform I feel awkward…
Walter Lippmann
December 15, 1999
Journalist’s Trade

1958: Attribution of News

Memo to All Hands
Alfred Friendly
December 15, 1999
Features

1960: Asking Rude Questions

[This article originally appeared in the September 1960 issue of Nieman Reports.]…I remember going over to the President’s house.… And he said, “You know it’s only three years—you’re the third…
Harry S. Ashmore
December 15, 1999
Features

1961: Are We the Best Informed Nation?

[This article originally appeared in the July 1961 issue of Nieman Reports.]“Communications specialists” and working newspapermen sometimes glibly assert without a shred of proof that the American people are the…
James W. Markham
December 15, 1999
Features

Winter 1999 – Spring 2000: Race Introduction

From early in the magazine’s history, America’s dilemma—race relations and, in this case, how journalists report stories involving race—has been dissected and debated. Regarded initially in Nieman Reports from the…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 1999
International Journalism

Winter 1999 – Spring 2000: International News Introduction

It was not until 1952, 14 years after the Nieman Foundation was founded, that the first international Fellows arrived in Cambridge. They were from New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Since…
Melissa Ludtke
December 15, 1999
Opinion

1968: A Newspaper’s Role Between the Riots

[This article originally appeared in the June 1968 issue of Nieman Reports.]When the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders blamed white racism for the destructive environment of the ghettos, most…
Philip Meyer
December 15, 1999
Opinion

1956: A Negro Reporter at the Till Trial

[This article originally appeared in the January 1956 issue of Nieman Reports.]Millions of words were written about the recent Till murder trial, but the most dramatic and, by far, the…
Simeon Booker
December 15, 1999
From the Curator

The Roots of Our Responsibility

The American press was halfway through the century just ended before journalists began to talk seriously about press responsibility. A letter Henry Luce wrote to Robert Hutchins, President of the…
Bill Kovach
December 15, 1999