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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.
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.
Lord Beaverbrook and Winston Churchill on the HMS Prince of Wales during the Atlantic Conference, Newfoundland, Canada, August 1941.

The Limits of Press Power

To what extent did newspapers influence public opinion in the US and Britain before and during World War II?
Members of Jayland Walker's family stand beside a sign in tribute to him.
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Jayland Walker’s Killing Didn’t Spur Expected Protests. Here’s Why.

An effective media strategy has often been crucial to rallying the public behind Black victims of fatal violence.
Exhibit

Truth and Truthiness

Americans have been arguing over the role and rules of journalism since the very beginning.

Screen shots of PBS NewsHour anchors with title cards about conflicts in Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Afghanistan.
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“Burning with a Deadly Heat”

PBS NewsHour coverage of the hot wars of the Cold War.
Nixon in front of presidential photographs.

Daniel Schorr and Nixon’s Tricky Road to Redemption

Nixon portrayed himself as a victim of the press. But from the 1952 Checkers speech through his post-presidency, he proved to be an able manipulator of the media.
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.
A woman updates a museum display of newspaper front pages.
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The Answer to the Media Industry’s Woes? Publicly Owned Newspapers.

Newspapers must be for the people. It’s worth investing our tax dollars in them.
Close-up of Spiro T. Agnew as he points his finger from podium.

He Was Trump Before Trump: VP Spiro Agnew Attacked the News Media 50 Years Ago

When Vice President Spiro Agnew gave a speech in 1969 bashing the press, he fired some of the first shots in a culture war that persists to this day.

New Online: The AP Washington Bureau, 1915-1930

Wire service reporting from the capital provided much of the nation with coverage of federal government and politics.

Does Journalism Have a Future?

In an era of social media and fake news, journalists who have survived the print plunge have new foes to face.
Two men doing a "perp walk"
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Perp Walks: When Police Roll Out the Blue Carpet

Unfair maneuver or a strong warning to would-be criminals?

When Richard Nixon Declared War on the Media

Like Nixon, Trump has managed to marginalize the media, creating an effective foil.
James Baldwin.

The Forgotten Baldwin

Baldwin demands that the Atlanta child murders be more than a mere media spectacle or crime story, and that black lives matter.
Man reading a newspaper and smoking a cigarette in a mid-twentieth century kitchen.

Why the “Golden Age” of Newspapers Was the Exception, Not the Rule

"American journalism is younger than American baseball."

FDR's War Against the Press

Franklin Roosevelt had his own Breitbart, and radio was his Twitter.
Nixon campaign button with the slogan "Now more than ever."

Now Less Than Never

A smooth forehead suggests a hard heart.
Harris on a tv screen.

TV Still Runs Politics

Just about every major development in the current presidential campaign started as a television event.
Still from the film Medium Cool, 1969.

That Ain't Cool

Capturing the 1968 DNC.
Autographed photo of Richard Nixon and Jerelle Kraus.

Two and a Half Hours Alone with Nixon, the Anti-Trump

When Nixon practiced law, he declined divorce cases because he disliked frank sexual talk from women. Trump asked Playboy to run a “Girls of Trump” feature.
Illustration of man throwing football to sports broadcaster.

Before and After the Contest: Wraparound Sportscasting Through the Ages

National Football League pre- and postgame shows have become a testing ground for novel technology in the waning days of linear television.
Library card catalog.

To Preserve Their Work — and Drafts of History — Journalists Take Archiving Into Their Own Hands

From loading up the Wayback Machine to 72 hours of scraping, journalists are doing what they can to keep their clips when websites go dark.
Donald Trump wearing 2000 "America First Pat Buchanan" sticker.

The Crack-Up

John Ganz’s “When the Clock Broke” renders the signal political battles of the present in an entirely new light.
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.
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.
Claudine Gay.

First They Came for Harvard

The right’s long and all-too-unanswered war on liberal institutions claims a big one.
The New York Times headquarters in Manhattan.

The ‘Times’ Is A-Changing

A new history of the ‘New York Times.’
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The Eternal Inflation of the Spotless Grade

For more than 50 years, we've been worrying about "grade inflation" at elite American universities. It's time to move on.
flickr.com/photos/dalelanham
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Playing to the Cameras

The prominence of politicos-turned-pundits is a product of cable news' turn to opinion commentary as a cheap and easy way to meet the needs of 24/7 coverage.

“All the Consent That’s Fit to Manufacture”

An interrogation of The New York Times’ archive reveals a sordid record of support for American wars, right-wing dictatorships and U.S.-backed regime-change.

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