As I watched the latest Spielberg movie this week with my wide-eyed 7-year-old son, I could not help thinking that the brave new world of journalism, both virtual and real, still holds cosmic power for millions of young people.
This dream is shared by Tintin, the intrepid boy reporter whose...
Posted July 23, 2010 | 02:45:41 (EST)
Not everything goes in journalism today.
It just seems like bloggers can get away with saying and doing anything, despite the harm to a person's reputation.
Shirley Sherrod's speech about her inner struggle to assist a white farmer as an official with the USDA made great material for Andrew...
Posted July 12, 2010 | 00:50:24 (EST)
In the age of Twitter, Facebook and mobile media, time and space are even more of a commodity. Those fellow journalists who used to gripe in the newsroom about Gannett Corp.'s meager newshole failed to see the digital revolution coming. They were so last century.
Most of those who...
Posted November 23, 2009 | 01:07:34 (EST)
On Thanksgiving, Americans are bound to overeat and this weekend, they often take in a family movie.
My husband and I went last weekend, taking our sons, 5 and 10, to see Planet 51 after they begged us. Let this commentary serve as a warning to you.
We were actually...
Posted November 9, 2009 | 01:56:58 (EST)
Most troubled newspapers have tried to stay afloat by squeezing out every cent they can from newsrooms with staff layoffs and buyouts and by reducing newshole so that local papers are stuffed with wire stories.
But The San Francisco Chronicle is taking the opposite approach beginning...
Posted October 22, 2009 | 09:26:36 (EST)
Students in journalism school are taught the maxim: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out."
In the 24/7 cable and Internet world of 2009, such a saying might seem old-fashioned, even Lou Grant-esque.
But more intense fact checking is desperately needed in this post-Survivor world where "reality"...
Posted October 5, 2009 | 17:58:49 (EST)
So you want to be a journalist?
The news that journalism admissions are up at many schools this fall -- even while news outlets are in economic distress -- should surprise no one.
Not if one understands the powerful dream journalism holds for many...

2 Comments | Posted January 1, 2012 | 20:41:07 (EST)