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Edward R. Murrow on the telephone.

Edward R. Murrow Wasn’t the First Journalist to Question Joseph McCarthy’s Communist Witch Hunts

As the fear of communist subversion spread throughout America, McCarthy launched hearings that were based on scant evidence and overblown charges.
Henry Kissinger in the table in the White House situation room.

Kissinger, Me, and the Lies of the Master

‘Off off the record’ with the man who secretly taped our telephone calls.
Bernie Sanders campaigning
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What Winning New Hampshire — and its Media Frenzy — Could Mean for Bernie Sanders

The New Hampshire returns tell us a lot about the leading candidates.

Why Has It Taken Us So Long to See Trump’s Weakness?

There’s a bad synergy at work between the short-termism of the news cycle and the longue durée-ism of the academy.
Collage drawing of elements of US-Cuba relations, including JFK, Castro, missiles, a journalist at a typewriter, and soldiers from both sides carrying guns.

Cuba Libre

Covering the island has been a central concern for The Nation since the beginning—producing scoops, aiding diplomacy, and pushing for a change in policy.
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania

The Polling Imperilment

Presidential polls are no more reliable than they were a century ago. So why do they consume our political lives?
A duel.
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Mud-Slinging and Deadly Duels: How Negative Campaigning Evolved

The factionalized press was the site of campaigning in the U.S.'s first contested presidential elections.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at a rally.
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How Vice-Presidential Nominees Became 'Attack Dogs'

Vice presidential nominees weren't tasked with flinging mud until the last 40 years.
Cover of "The Freaks Came Out to Write"

The City in Its Grip: On Tricia Romano’s “The Freaks Came Out to Write”

Romano’s book is a vital, comprehensive piece of media scholarship about one of the most influential outlets of the last century. It’s also fun as hell to read.
William F. Buckley Jr.

The Evolution of Conservative Journalism

From Bill Buckley to our 24/7 media circus.
Injured reporter interviewing bloodied antiwar demonstrator

Seeing Was Not Believing

A new book identifies the 1968 Democratic convention as the moment when broad public regard for the news media gave way to widespread distrust, and American divisiveness took off.
Cover of the book "24/7 Politics," featuring photos of Nixon and Carter.

The Battlefields of Cable

How cable TV transformed politics—and how politics transformed cable TV.
M. Roland Nachman Jr., William P. Rogers and Herbert Wechsler, the lawyers in "New York Times v. Sullivan."

Keeping Speech Robust and Free

Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News' coverage of claims that the company had rigged the 2020 election may soon become an artifact of a vanished era.
Four men gather around a horse drawn cart carrying newspapers from Philadelphia, New York and Maryland.

There’s Already a Solution to the Crisis of Local News. Just Ask This Founding Father.

As modern lawmakers consider various means of public assistance for local news, they can learn from the founders’ approach to supporting journals and gazettes.
Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón at the Los Angeles County Jail, circa 1916.

An American Story

Kelly Lytle Hernández’s new book chronicles the tumultuous period leading up to the Mexican Revolution, casting the border as ground zero for continental change.
Employees of print shop

Who Owns the Narrative? Texas Law Enforcement Versus Tejano Journalists

At the turn of the century, Mexican American publications paid a price for challenging the local sheriff and elements of the Texas Rangers.
Repeated newspaper photograph of Stokely Carmichael.

How Stokely Carmichael Helped Inspire the Creation of C-SPAN

A Black Power radical, a Navy veteran, and the story behind the most boring channel on television.
Image of typewriter overlaid onto news articles about fascism

A Century Ago, American Reporters Foresaw the Rise of Authoritarianism in Europe

A new book tells the stories of four interwar writers who laid the groundwork for modern journalism.
An excerpt of a newspaper from the 19th century.

How US Newspapers Became Utterly Ubiquitous in the 1830s

Ken Ellingwood on the social and political function of political media.
Roger Mudd on the History Channel in August 2001
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The Media Will Be Key to Overcoming a Senate Filibuster on Voting Rights

Roger Mudd proved in 1964 that media attention can help overcome Senate obstruction.
Artistic rendering of a sheet of newspaper with people crossed out, flowing above people working menial jobs whose heads are also crossed out, working next to signs that read "Sorry."

On Atonement

News outlets have apologized for past racism. That should only be the start.
A women in a newsroom covering the election
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Good TV Demands Results on Election Night, but That’s Bad for Democracy

The history of tuning in to televised election returns.
President Trump in car

Trump’s Illness and the History of Presidential Health

Are White House doctors keeping the public adequately informed about President Trump’s battle with COVID-19?
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during an interview for CBS, November 11, 1973.

US Media Talks a Lot About Palestinians — Just Without Palestinians

Although major U.S. newspapers hosted thousands of opinion pieces on Israel-Palestine over 50 years, hardly any were actually written by Palestinians.
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Why the Iowa Caucuses May Elevate an Underdog

History shows that this blockbuster event is merely a test of organizational strength in one small state.
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Jimmy Carter and The Myth That Gave the Iowa Caucuses Their Political Power

What does winning in Iowa really mean?
Illustration of a Black man in an overcoat and a winter hat with earflaps.

Homeland Insecurity

Mystery sorrounds the life of alumnus Homer Smith, who spent decades on an international odyssey to find a freedom in a place he could call home.

Bernie, the Sandinistas, and America's Long Crisis of Impunity

Or, the pros and Contras of relying on political reporters.

Antislavery Wasn’t Mainstream, Until It Was

After Republicans lost their first election in 1856, Democrats declared slavery opposition radical and fringe. Then came 1860.

‘Anyone Ever Seen Cocaine?’ What We Found in the Archives of Bernie Sanders’s TV Show.

What a forgotten trove of videotapes reveals about the man who rewrote America’s political script.

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