The Kicker

A Warning from a Hungarian Journalist: ‘Brace Yourself for the Worst’ Feb 13, 2025

András Pethő is a Hungarian journalist and a cofounder of Direkt36, an independent investigative news outlet.

Over the past decade, he’s watched as the government of Viktor Orbán—the world leader whom Steve Bannon once praised as “Trump before Trump”—has systematically eroded the freedom of the press in his country, in ways that may feel familiar to Americans watching corporate news leaders succumb to pressure from the administration.

Pethő joins The Kicker to explain why he believes journalists must accept the possibility that the worst is yet to come, while resisting the temptation to turn themselves into martyrs for democracy. “For a while, I thought, This would never happen here,” he said. “The biggest mistake that I made was the failure of imagination.”

Read more:

“Noise Is the New Censorship” — Antelava on disinformation and authoritarianism

“Grieving California” — Coda’s 2018 essay on the Tubbs Fire

Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach

The Unraveling of Ozy Media: Episode 3: The Verdict and the Pain Dec 12, 2024

In the finale, Carlos Watson takes the stand—and the jury reaches a verdict.

“The Unraveling of Ozy Media” is a special three-part series of The Kicker, on the trial of Carlos Watson and the excesses of the digital media age, presented by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Hosted and coproduced by Josh Hersh and Susie Banikarim
Produced and edited by Amanda Darrach

The Unraveling of Ozy Media: Episode 2: Built on a Bluff Dec 10, 2024

How inflating traffic data went mainstream in digital media—and a key witness takes the stand.
“The Unraveling of Ozy Media” is a special three-part series of The Kicker, on the trial of Carlos Watson and the excesses of the digital media age, presented by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Hosted and coproduced by Josh Hersh and Susie Banikarim
Produced and edited by Amanda Darrach

The Unraveling of Ozy Media: Episode 1: Truth and Mythmaking Dec 09, 2024

Carlos Watson’s media startup arrives on the scene—and insiders reveal a dark reality under its glossy veneer.

“The Unraveling of Ozy Media” is a special three-part series of The Kicker, on the trial of Carlos Watson and the excesses of the digital media age, presented by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Hosted and coproduced by Josh Hersh and Susie Banikarim
Produced and edited by Amanda Darrach

Coming Soon: The Unraveling of Ozy Media Dec 05, 2024

Starting on December 9, the Columbia Journalism Review presents a special three-part series of The Kicker: “The Unraveling of Ozy Media,” on the dramatic rise and fall of Carlos Watson, the cofounder of the digital media company Ozy. In 2023, Watson was charged with fraud after it was revealed that one of his partners had masqueraded as a YouTube executive, during a call with potential investors.

But Ozy’s failure is about more than one man. It’s a story about an era of profligate growth and overpromises in digital media that have left many wondering whether there’s any business model that will work for journalism today.

Join hosts Josh Hersh and Susie Banikarim as they follow Watson’s trial and ask how much of digital media was built on a lie.

How Trump Won the Latino Vote: A Deep Dive with CJR Contributor Jack Herrera Nov 08, 2024

Nearly half of all Latino voters put their support behind former president Donald Trump this week, according to exit polls—a 14 percent increase from 2020.

Those results surprised many, but not Jack Herrera, who has been reporting on the shifting voting habits of Latino communities across the country for years.

Herrera joins The Kicker to talk about what he’s learned from his journalism in Pennsylvania, Iowa, and the border counties of Texas.

Read more:

Baron’s original statement on the Post’s decision

Bezos’s op-ed explaining why he pushed to deep-six the endorsement

A Post news team article investigating the ties Bezos’s companies have to the government—and to a potential second Trump administration
Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach

How Trump’s team could craft ‘the narrative’ after the election: NBC’s Ryan Reilly on 2020, and the road ahead Oct 25, 2024

The so-called Big Lie—that the 2020 election was stolen out from under Donald Trump—was more than just a series of individual false facts and misleading videos. It was a narrative, carefully constructed by people affiliated with the Trump campaign, and disseminated through friendly news outlets and social media channels.

Four years later, that story still convinces millions of Trump’s supporters. And as NBC’s Ryan Reilly has reported, it’s one that many people on the former president’s team are already laying the groundwork to repeat this time.

Reilly joins The Kicker to discuss how those stories spread, and why many in the media are better prepared to combat them—while others, including some prominent social media platforms, are poised to make things worse.

Read more:

Ryan’s NBC News article on the 2020 effort to “stop the vote” in Detroit

Ryan’s book Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System

New York Magazine on the DC jail block run by convicted January 6 rioters

Politico on how Trump might try to claim victory no matter what
Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach
Episode website

Hell Gate's Chris Robbins on a manic news cycle in New York Oct 09, 2024

New York City is the media capital of the world, but the number of people and outlets covering the city locally has taken a hit recently. Over the past few years, the Wall Street Journal dropped its independent metro section, the New York Times announced it would stop endorsing local races, and the all-news radio station WCBS went off the air.

But a number of scrappy upstarts have started filling the void. The City, a digital news nonprofit, has led some of the best coverage of the ongoing scandals in the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. And Hell Gate, a year-old digital publication, is providing a fresh, voicey take on news and culture.
Today’s guest is Christopher Robbins, an editor and cofounder of Hell Gate, on the state of news in New York, the latest (at least as of our conversation) fallout from the Adams administration, and how he hopes to keep Hell Gate around for a while.

Read more:

The Eric Adams Table of Success

Hosted by Josh Hersh

Produced by Emily Russell

The power of uncomfortable ideas: Jina Moore Ngarambe on her time at Guernica Sep 18, 2024

In March, the digital literary magazine Guernica published a personal essay by a British Israeli writer and translator, about her experiences in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.

It was raw and honest and painful to read. The writer, Joanna Chen, had spent years before the attacks and subsequent war on Gaza volunteering for an organization that transported Palestinian children into Israeli territory for medical care; after October 7, she found it hard to connect with the work.

After the piece was initially published, in March, a number of Guernica staffers—all of them volunteers—expressed outrage that the magazine had published an essay centered on the internal moral agonies of an Israeli, at a time when Palestinians were being brutally killed.

The publisher of Guernica pulled the essay; within a month, Jina Moore Ngarambe, the editor in chief, resigned.

Today on The Kicker: a conversation with Jina about what she learned from the experience, and why she believes so strongly in journalism’s responsibility to present uncomfortable perspectives.

Read more:

Joanna Chen’s essay, “From the edges of a broken world” (as republished by Washington Monthly)

Guernica founder Michael Archer’s explanation for why the essay was taken down

Jina’s interview with Semafor

Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach
Audio Mix by William Flynn
Episode website

‘That’s how you run a debate!’: 9News’s Kyle Clark on holding politicians accountable Sep 04, 2024

In late May, Kyle Clark went viral after he moderated a debate featuring six Republican candidates for Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District, including Rep. Lauren Boebert.

He refused to allow the candidates to evade his direct questions with waffling, rambly answers, instead repeatedly cutting them off: “You didn’t make any attempt to answer the actual question,” he said at one point.

Over the next few weeks, his management of the debate was hailed by everyone from the Poynter Institute to Jimmy Kimmel, who told his national audience, “That’s how you run a debate, right there, like a drill sergeant!”

A few months on, Clark has mixed feelings about all the social media fanfare—but he’s happy that his no-nonsense approach to interviewing politicians has caught on.

He joins The Kicker ahead of the upcoming presidential debate, between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, to talk about the importance of the media calling out falsehoods, and why local news is central to restoring public trust in the media.

Watch the full 9News debate, from May, here.
Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach
Research by Kevin Lind
Episode Website

The long, destructive path of fire: Talking to Source NM’s Patrick Lohmann about a never-ending wildfire season Aug 26, 2024

In early 2023, Patrick Lohmann, a reporter for the nonprofit Source NM, moved to the small town of Las Vegas, New Mexico, to learn how residents were coping with the aftermath of the largest wildfire in state history.

What he learned there was that the destruction brought on by wildfires doesn’t end when the fire itself goes out. It can take years for people to extract benefits from the federal bureaucracy, and for communities to fully recover—if they ever do. Wildfires leave behind debris that can be swept up in devastating flash floods, and in many parts of the country, the “fire season” encompasses most of the year.

Pat spoke to The Kicker about the new reality of wildfires, and why all reporters living in fire-prone areas may eventually find themselves covering wildfires.

Read more of Patrick Lohmann’s reporting at Source NM

Patrick moved to Las Vegas, New Mexico to cover the aftermath of the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire

How wildfires led to flash flooding in Ruidoso (NYT)
Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach
Research by Kevin Lind
Episode Website

1968 all over again? Heather Hendershot and Ted Koppel on a year for the media to remember. Aug 15, 2024

The Democrats are gathering in Chicago next week, and the sitting president has dropped out of the race. But as the guests on today’s podcast remind us, that doesn’t mean history is repeating itself.

In 1968, Ted Koppel was just back from a tour covering the war in Vietnam, and assigned to the comparatively tame—if, as he reminds us, not without its moments—presidential campaign of Republican Richard Nixon.

Over on the Democratic side, as historian Heather Hendershot writes in her recent book, When the News Broke: 1968 and the Polarizing of America, the media were about to get a rough introduction to how much audience appetites for news were shifting.

For more reminiscences on the politics of ‘68—and its present-day lessons for the news media—in CJR’s special report, reported by Kevin Lind.

Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach
Research by Kevin Lind
Episode Website

Kamala Harris steps up: Politico’s Eugene Daniels on a wild month of news Jul 25, 2024

Eugene Daniels is a White House reporter for Politico, with a special focus on Kamala Harris. That’s put him front and center for a month of news that few people in politics saw coming.

On this episode of The Kicker, Daniels shares what he’s learned from nearly four years of covering the vice president, how her relationship with the press will differ from the president’s, and why you can’t blame the media for Biden’s decision to drop out of the race.

Produced by Emily Russell

Hosted by Josh Hersh

Spanish-speaking journalism…in Iowa: A conversation with Lorena Lopez Jul 15, 2024

Lorena Lopez came to the United States from her home country of Nicaragua, where she was an investigative reporter, in 1992. But it wasn’t until 2016 that she managed to return to her passion, as the founding editor of La Prensa, a Spanish-language newspaper serving Western Iowa.

On this week’s Kicker, Lopez talks about her long journey back to journalism, why reliable, trusted information available for Spanish-speaking Americans is so hard to come by—and why so many of her readers are leaning towards voting for Donald Trump.

You can read more about Lopez’s work in Jack Herrera’s profile, which was part of CJR’s Election Issue. (A Spanish-language version of the article is available here.)
Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach
Research by Kevin Lind
Episode Website

What did we know and when? Alex Thompson on investigating Biden’s mental decline Jul 03, 2024

Alex Thompson, a national political correspondent for Axios, first reported that President Biden had started wearing special sneakers, in part to reduce the risk of tripping, last fall.

But until the debate last week, he was still one of a small handful of reporters who was aggressively pursuing direct evidence that Biden’s age – regular fodder for political talk shows – was actually having an impact.

He joins the Kicker to talk about what it’s like to do that kind of journalism, how the White House pushed back, and why so many people had a hard time accepting what was happening in front of their eyes.

Read Alex’s report from last fall about concerns inside the White House about Biden losing his footing.

And his coverage after the debate, when he revealed why the White House limited Biden’s public engagements before 10am and after 4pm.

The Wall Street Journal’s months-long investigation into signs of Biden’s mental decline, from early June, is here.
Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach
Research by Kevin Lind
Episode Website

Not even a ‘no comment’: Paul Farhi on the media’s historic struggles with relevance Jun 23, 2024

Paul Farhi was a media reporter for the Washington Post until the end of last year. But instead of retiring, he’s been busier than ever, chronicling the seemingly endless stream of bad news stories about the media business, for outlets like The Atlantic and here at CJR.

He joins The Kicker to talk about traditional journalism’s struggles to stay relevant amid the boundless other means companies and high-profile individuals have to communicate with the public—and the growing number of people who say they avoid the news entirely.

You can read more about journalism’s apathy problem in CJR’s Election Issue here.

And read Farhi’s reporting on how some companies no longer feel the need to give any comment to a reporter, even when they think the story is wrong.
Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach
Research by Kevin Lind
Episode Website

Staying “scrupulously neutral”: Steve Herman on covering the White House in the age of Trump Jun 12, 2024

Steve Herman was the White House correspondent for Voice of America during the Trump administration. He joins The Kicker to talk about his new book on what it was like to cover a deeply unpredictable president—and why he believes it’s essential, even under extreme circumstances, for reporters to stay out of the political fray.

This podcast is part of “Covering the Election,” CJR’s spring special issue on news and politics in 2024. Read the whole issue here.

You can find Herman’s Behind the White House Curtain here.

Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a second Trump term, includes a chapter on remaking VOA.
Hosted by Josh Hersh

Produced by Amanda Darrach

Research by Kevin Lind

How Israeli Journalists Cover Their Own Country May 17, 2024

Haaretz is one of Israel’s most respected newspapers. It’s also one of the few willing to openly criticize the government for its treatment of Palestinians. The Kicker speaks with Hagar Shezaf and Omer Benjakob, two journalists with the paper, about what it’s like to do accountability journalism in Israel these days—especially in the aftermath of the devastating Hamas attacks of October 7th.

And on the prison camp at Sde Teiman

Omer Benjakob on Israeli influence operations against Hamas and UNRWA

Crisis at Columbia: A Conversation with Jelani Cobb May 04, 2024

Jelani Cobb is the Dean of the Columbia Journalism School. He is also a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine. For much of the past few weeks, he has been enmeshed in Columbia University’s efforts to grapple with a protest movement on campus over the war in Gaza – one that culminated in the takeover of a building, and finally, on Tuesday, April 30th, a police raid.The Kicker talks to Cobb about the role the Journalism School played throughout the crisis, including facilitating press access to campus after a lockdown was imposed, and supporting the work of student journalists, who were the only ones left on campus to document the police raid as it unfolded.Read CJR on the work of the Columbia Spectator, the undergrad student newspaper: https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/interview_editors_columbia_spectator_campus_protest.php

'Inside Wagner': Video journalism unmasks Russia’s secretive mercenary group Apr 25, 2024

This week, host Josh Hersh dives into the world of documentary news. Amel Guettatfi and Julia Steers just won the Polk Award for Inside Wagner, their hourlong Vice News documentary on the Wagner Group—Vladimir Putin’s private army of militiamen. They discuss their unprecedented access to a military training operation in the Central African Republic, the unique challenges of doing this kind of reporting on film, and why, sometimes, video is the only way to tell the story. Show NotesInside Wagner: The Rise of Russia's Notorious Mercenaries, Amel Guettatfi and Julia Steers, Vice Newsbit.ly/3UtURmh

Josh Fine: How to Revive Investigative Sports Reporting in the Age of the Athlete Apr 03, 2024

In recent years, numerous beloved sports news institutions have been shut down, or dramatically reduced their operations, while digital shows hosted by professional sportspeople, current and retired, have become ubiquitous,

Meanwhile, traditional sports journalism—particularly of the type that asks uncomfortable questions of what is, ultimately, a huge and powerful business—has been in decline. Last year, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, an HBO show that mixed softer features with hard-nosed investigative journalism, wrapped its final season after twenty-nine years on air. Josh Fine was an investigative producer at Real Sports for seventeen years. He has some ideas on how sports journalism can revive itself.

Host: Josh Hersh
Producer: Amanda Darrach
Show Notes:
Can sports journalism survive in the era of the athlete? by Josh Hersh for CJR

Alissa Quart: on reimagining reporting on a recession May 12, 2023

News of stubborn inflation, increasing unemployment, and the housing crisis dominate headlines of late. Alissa Quart is trying to improve that reportage, in content and form. Quart is the executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, which challenges traditional narratives of economic class and issues through funding original reporting, done by independent journalists from diverse economic backgrounds. Quart explains to Kyle Pope, Columbia Journalism Review’s editor and publisher, how this helps dismantle the “American myth” of self-reliance — the subject of her latest book, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream. In the interview, Quart and Pope discuss how the media’s reliance on this myth impacts electoral politics and what solutions exist. Quart suggests changing language standards, expanding recruiting criteria for newsrooms, and even reimagining news sections.

Svitlana Oslavska: On Documenting a War on Her Home Front May 10, 2023

Before Russia invaded her home country, Ukrainian journalist Svitlana Oslavska was reviewing books for Krytyka, a Ukrainian magazine, and writing nonfiction books. Now, she’s documenting war crimes committed by the Russians against Ukrainians for the Reckoning Project. Since joining the Project, Oslavska’s reporting serves two purposes — to provide detailed witness testimonies for court cases against the Russians and to publish accounts of the war in the international media. In this episode of the Kicker, Oslavska recounts the war crimes she documented for the Project and later published as a story in TIME.

How Authoritarians Erase the Past May 09, 2023

The Columbia Journalism Review recently invited journalists, academics, and experts to convene at a conference called "FaultLines: Democracy." In this episode, taped at the FaultLines conference, Masha Gessen, of The New Yorker; Jodie Ginseberg, president of the Committee to Protect Journalists; and Sheila Coronel, an expert in global investigative journalism, discuss how authoritarian regimes are erasing traces of the past and recasting history in dangerous ways.

Hearts and Minds Media Apr 19, 2023

For decades, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have broadcast into countries all over, in dozens of languages. Yet in some places where the United States has invested the most soft power, authoritarianism has only gotten stronger—and journalists remain at risk. That may be especially true in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s takeover. For CJR's latest digital issue, Emily Russell reports on hearts and minds media in Afghanistan and beyond.Visit cjr.org to read the Authoritarianism Issue.

Feven Merid: On Jacaranda Nigeria Limited Mar 13, 2023

In 1982, about twenty Black journalists quit their jobs at American networks, banded together under the name Jacaranda Nigeria Limited, and flew to Nigeria, where they would work under the country’s newly elected president to revamp a state-funded journalism network. On today’s episode of the Kicker, Feven Merid, a Columbia Journalism Review staff writer, tells their story.She explains the many unforeseen challenges Jacaranda’s journalists faced — the Nigerian government’s interference in their reporting, the lack of proper training and resources, the confusion over their racial identity — and, ultimately, how the problems they went to Nigeria to escape never really disappeared.Read Feven's article at https://www.cjr.org/the_feature/black-american-journalists-nigeria.php.

Jeff Gerth on the press versus the president Feb 07, 2023

Last week, the Columbia Journalism Review published a four-part investigation into the media’s fraught relationship with Donald Trump. In this episode of the Kicker, Jeff Gerth, who authored the report, talks to Kyle Pope, CJR’s editor and publisher, about the origin of the investigation and the intense responses to it, with which Gerth admits he is still “grappling.”On the podcast, Gerth says he considers his 24,000-word story an “anatomy,” reconstructing how the media covered Trump and Russia. In reporting the piece, Gerth interviewed Trump at – predictably – a golf course, and reached out to dozens of journalists who covered Trump-Russia, albeit with limited success. “Many of them are loath to want to discuss or/and engage with what they do,” Gerth says in the episode. “I find it perplexing.” For additional news on this story and on the media, subscribe to CJR’s daily newsletter at cjr.org/email

FT's Rana Foroohar: What the Davos Crowd Doesn't See Jan 31, 2023

After two decades of attending the World Economic Forum's annual gathering of business elites in Davos, Rana Foroohar, associate editor of the Financial Times, stayed back this year. In this week’s episode of The Kicker, Foroohar tells Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, why the annual meet-up of global technocrats imparts “icky” feelings, and why the Davos crowd, including the journalists reporting from the conference, might have a skewed outlook on the economy. Also joining Pope in conversation is Mercy Orengo, a CJR fellow. Orengo shares insights from her recent conversations with business reporters tasked with covering an uncertain economy.

Jon Allsop Returns. Plus, What We’re Watching in 2023 Jan 16, 2023

At the start of January, Jon Allsop, chief writer of Columbia Journalism Review’s newsletter, The Media Today, tuned back into the news after a two-month hiatus. On this week’s Kicker, Allsop discusses what he found upon his return: a “ghostland” of a Twitter feed and a keen awareness of the “trivial” nature of the news cycle. In conversation with Kyle Pope, CJR’s editor and publisher, Allsop also talks about what media trends he’ll be monitoring in the new year. Other CJR staffers – Pesha Magid, a Delacorte fellow; Mathew Ingram, CJR’s chief digital writer; and Amanda Darrach, a contributing producer – discuss the media issues they’re watching in a round-robin discussion with Pope.Subscribe to The Media Today newsletter at cjr.org/email

The Tow Center’s Emily Bell: Musk’s Twitter is “openly hostile” to journalists. What should we do? Dec 14, 2022

Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter has inspired news headlines once unimaginable (see New York Magazine's "Elon Musk is Selling Off Twitter’s Cafeteria and Furniture"). It has also created serious problems for journalists who rely on the platform for developing sources, finding stories, and driving readership. It’s not safe to do journalistic business on the platform anymore, Emily Bell, founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism told Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, in this week’s episode of the Kicker. Together, Pope and Bell discuss how journalists should (or shouldn’t) cope with Musk’s Twitter, which Bell calls “an unstable substance,” and what might be lost if Twitter were to disintegrate completely.

Introducing Red Pen: A Grammar Podcast Dec 08, 2022

Welcome to the weird, wild, scintillatingly stylish, and syntactically sound world of RED PEN—the grammar podcast that won't put you to sleep. Brought to you by the Columbia Journalism Review and hosted by old buds Ryan Davis and Mike Laws, RED PEN plucks examples from the news (as well as from novels, music, movies—wherever!) to answer all those questions you were too afraid to ask in English class. Digressions may include: Green Day's early work, the oppressive atmosphere of latter-day Batman movies, and, of course, cats. Lots of cats.

The Guardian’s David Smith: Covering a new chapter of Trump Nov 22, 2022

Writing for The Guardian last week, Washington bureau chief David Smith recalled that Donald Trump, announcing his run for presidency at Mar-a-Lago, appeared an “ousted dictator, drained of power and surrounded by a dwindling band of loyalists in his last redoubt.” Many in the media similarly reported a lackluster atmosphere and an uninspired Trump, whose splintered Republican base, deepened by mid–term losses and legal controversies, might be intensifying the nation’s “Trump fatigue.” On this episode of the Kicker, Smith discusses how the media should continue covering the former president as he vies for another term. He suggests greater contextualization of Trump’s quotes, less coverage of his tweets, and more.

Ross Barkan’s Notes on Election Coverage: Form, Function, and the Future Nov 11, 2022

On today’s Kicker, what the media got right and wrong in the 2022 midterm election. Ross Barkan, a politics reporter for New York magazine, The Nation and more talks with CJR’s editor and publisher Kyle Pope about the media’s penchant for speculation in divisive elections.Also in the discussion: how the media grapples with writing about a democracy in peril. On today’s Kicker, what the media got right and wrong in the 2022 midterm election. Ross Barkan, a politics reporter for New York magazine, The Nation and more talks with CJR’s editor and publisher Kyle Pope about why the media’s penchant for speculation in divisive elections.Also in the discussion: how the media grapples with writing about a democracy in peril. “Is this the election that will determine the future of democracy?” Barkan questions. “Maybe, maybe not. But I have my own reservations about that kind of grandiose rhetoric.”

Bill Keller: On covering the ‘freedom’ beat – prisons and Russia Oct 28, 2022

Reporting from Moscow in the final years of the Cold War, Bill Keller witnessed the Soviet Union “fall apart like Humpty Dumpty.” On this week’s Kicker, Keller says Vladimir Putin is trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again – evoking international anxieties from the past. Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, asks Keller about these anxieties, and, alongside CJR staff, discusses how the media should approach nuclear speculation.Also in this episode, Keller talks about his recent book, "What’s Prison For? "Keller shares lessons from reporting inside prisons in the U.S. and abroad, and contemplates the through line of his journalism career spanning criminal justice to the Cold War. In the end, Keller says, prisons and Russia belong to the same beat: freedom.

Nic Haque on Climate Change: 'I became a journalist because of this.' Oct 21, 2022

Just as Europeans prepare for winter amid rising gas prices – calling upon their old ties to gas-rich African countries – a colonial-era island off the coast of Senegal erodes into the rising sea. Both these stories, discussed on this week’s Kicker with Nic Haque, a reporter for Al Jazeera, underscore the urgency of the climate crises that journalists cover across the globe. Some of that work, including Haque’s, will be celebrated October 25 in “Burning Questions,” a broadcast on PBS’s World Channel showcasing the winners of the 2022 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards.Haque talks with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on covering climate emergencies in West Africa, and how climate change has touched his life, personally and professionally.

Rebecca Traister: Abortion, a case study in media disinterest Jul 15, 2022

On this week’s Kicker, Rebecca Traister, a writer-at-large for New York Magazine and the Cut, and the author of “Good and Mad,” a book about the history and political power of women’s anger, sits down with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss why the press seemed only willing to cover “medically chilling” abortion stories, and how to protect sources as abortion’s legal loopholes disappear.

Justin Worland: Raising diverse voices on the climate crisis beat Jun 27, 2022

Should climate crisis coverage focus on the danger at hand, or on optimism and solutions at work? On what individuals can do, or industrial changes? As newsrooms struggle to reach a consensus, the Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards provide a model for impactful work.Justin Worland, senior correspondent at TIME, was just named CCN’s 2022 Journalist of the Year. On this week’s Kicker, Worland sits down with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss his climate crisis coverage and The Uproot Project, his initiative to support environmental journalists of color.

Nina Totenberg: ‘They don’t have to follow Supreme Court precedent anymore’ May 31, 2022

Nina Totenberg has covered the Supreme Court for five decades. On this week’s Kicker, the NPR reporter sits down with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss a court she says is more conservative than it has been since the late 1920s and early 1930s, and what happens next in light of the leak of the Roe v Wade decision.Nina Totenberg is NPR's legal affairs correspondent. She has a book coming out in September called "Dinners with Ruth: A memoir about The power of friendships," available for preorder now.

Columbia’s Jelani Cobb: ‘Everything is on the table’ May 13, 2022

The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism announced today that Jelani Cobb will be its new dean. Cobb is a professor at the school, a staff writer at The New Yorker, an author, a documentary producer, and the director of the Ira A. Lipman Center For Journalism and Civil and Human Rights. On this week’s Kicker, Cobb speaks with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about the role of journalism at a politically fraught time, diversity efforts at the J-school and in journalism, and the high cost of degrees at institutions like Columbia.

Elena Kostyuchenko: 'The Russian secret services somehow knew' May 06, 2022

Elena Kostyuchenko reported atrocities as they unfolded inside Ukraine until Russian censors forced Novaya Gazeta—her employer and Russia’s oldest independent newspaper—to halt publication. How did Kostyuchenko gain access to the country her homeland was invading? What did she see there? And how does she view Russia’s future?On this week’s Kicker, guest host Keith Gessen, who is a professor at the J-School and a founding editor of n+1 and contributor to The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, and the London Review of Books, welcomes Kostyuchenko to the latest in his Delacorte Lecture series.

Dean Baquet & Joe Kahn: What’s next for the New York Times? Apr 26, 2022

Last week, after years of public speculation on the matter, the New York Times named Joe Kahn as Dean Baquet’s successor to the position of executive editor. How did that process play out behind closed doors? And, as the midterms draw near, how does Kahn plan to cover the threat to American democracy?Baquet and Kahn sat down with Kyle Pope to discuss objectivity, the evolution of the paper from a news outlet to something we’ve never seen before, and—inevitably—Wordle.

Al Roker: The weather paradigm shift Apr 20, 2022

Al Roker, weathercaster for the Today Show, is one of the best-known and trusted names in media. He has also led efforts to educate the American public on the ties between weather and the climate crisis. On this week’s Kicker, Roker and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss the evolution of weather coverage, from lighthearted entertainment to reporting on the frontlines of the biggest story of our time.

Jane Lytvynenko: Ukraine’s great ‘prebunk’ Mar 03, 2022

Over the past week, Ukrainians have used social media to document Russia’s attacks on civilians. Those efforts have been more effective at blunting the Russian propaganda machine than anything that has come out of the technology companies themselves.On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Jane Lytvynenko, a senior research fellow in the Technology and Social Change Project at the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. They discuss Ukrainian “prebunking” of Russian propaganda, and where Lytvynenko, a Ukranian-Canadian expert on Russian disinformation, gets her news.

Eleanor Beardsley & Igor Kossov: The road out of Ukraine Feb 28, 2022

In the five days since Russia declared war on Ukraine, invading troops have drawn ever closer and their attacks have grown more deadly. Domestic and foreign reporters on the ground are struggling to determine how much danger is too much, and where they can most effectively cover the conflict.On this week’s Kicker, NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley and Igor Kossov, a journalist at The Kiev Independent, speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. The two journalists, both attempting to leave the country as they speak, discuss the war they witnessed and their decision to leave.

Stuart Karle: Money and the politicization of press freedom Feb 18, 2022

While Sarah Palin may have lost her defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, the legal climate for journalists nevertheless seems to be getting worse.Stuart Karle is a media lawyer who has served as chief operating officer of Reuters News and as general counsel of The Wall Street Journal. On this week’s Kicker, he and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss the Palin case and why privacy law may prove to be the next frontier in the war against the press.

Eleanor Beardsley: Putin and Biden summon the Cold War Feb 11, 2022

The Biden administration on Friday warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen within days, and again advised Americans to leave Ukraine “now.” The advice is strangely at odds with what day-to-day life feels like in the country. How do Putin and Biden’s age—and Cold War experience—shape the current crisis?Eleanor Beardsley, Paris correspondent for NPR, recently traveled to Ukraine. On this week’s Kicker, she joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss her recent reporting, and how different the Russian threat looks on the ground.

George Packer: A dishonorable ending in Afghanistan Feb 07, 2022

As last summer’s efforts to aid evacuations from Afghanistan grew desperate, media debated who was to blame for the crisis. In his landmark piece “The Betrayal” for the Atlantic, George Packer reframes how to think about te fall of Kabul.On this week’s Kicker, Packer joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss the impact of Biden’s experience with Vietnam, and how the media should approach moral questions in a divided, partisan era.

Tonga: Not for sale Jan 28, 2022

Typical disaster journalism follows a transactional track. Survivors give the press their stories to package and sell. In turn, the media validates the horror and solicits aid. But when Tonga faced a volcanic eruption and tsunami earlier this month, the island nation neither wanted nor needed Western coverage. In fact, our intrusion presented more of a threat than the crisis itself.On this week’s Kicker, Damien Cave, the New York Times bureau chief in Sydney, Australia, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss the island’s dismissal of the global press, and the Western media’s boundless assumption that we can help.

Russia, Ukraine, and the front lines of information warfare Jan 24, 2022

Despite Ukraine’s efforts to downplay the threat, hybrid warfare between Russia and the west has already begun. Christo Grozev is the lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat, focusing on security threats, extraterritorial clandestine operations, and the weaponization of information. On this week’s Kicker, he and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss how the press should cover a conflict that will put information warfare at the forefront.

The Chicago ed beat: Why do politicians fight back when teachers want to feel safe? Jan 14, 2022

Education reporters cover one of the most emotional facets of the Covid-19 pandemic. The political obsession with keeping public schools open during the latest Covid-19 surge does not match the desires of parents. In fact a recent poll shows that the less income a child’s household has, the more caution the parents express about in-person schooling. On this week’s Kicker, Tracy Swartz, who covers Chicago Public Schools for the Chicago Tribune, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss how so many districts failed to create better safety measures and a plan for temporary remote learning this winter.

Julie K. Brown, Lucia Osborne-Crowley, and coverage of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial Jan 07, 2022

The Ghislaine Maxwell trial has highlighted the court system’s bullying of sexual assault victims—those who take the stand, those who come to bear witness, and even those who sit on the jury. On this week’s Kicker, Julie K. Brown, an investigative reporter with the Miami Herald whose work led to Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein’s arrests, and Lucia Osborne-Crowley, a lawyer and a reporter for Law360 who broke the story that a Maxwell juror was a victim of sexual assault, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss how the press can hold the court system to account.

Twitter on a tightrope Dec 13, 2021

Journalists on Twitter are faced with an impossible task, a choice between building their following or avoiding harassment. More often than not, they face those risks without the support of their editors and newsrooms.On this week’s Kicker, Jacob L. Nelson, an assistant professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss Nelson’s latest report, published by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, on journalists’ experiences with and views of newsroom social media policies.

Ian Urbina on Libya, the Outlaw Ocean Project, and the rules of engagement Dec 03, 2021

As Ian Urbina’s investigative work uncovered human rights abuses and climate destruction across the world’s oceans, he realized he needed to diversify his audience—beyond even the reach of legacy outlets like the New York Times.On this week’s Kicker, Urbina and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss this week’s story on Libya’s migrant prisons, and the journalism model Urbina built to change the rules of global engagement.

Deep on the Steele beat: Erik Wemple & Marcy Wheeler Nov 19, 2021

On this week’s Kicker, Marcy Wheeler, an independent journalist, and Erik Wemple, a media critic at the Washington Post, speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about media accountability and where press discussion of the Steele dossier fell short.

COP26: Who do we edit out of the climate crisis? Nov 12, 2021

Most reporters in the developing world can’t afford to attend high stakes climate conferences like the COP26 held in Glasgow this month. Neither can most climate activists. What is lost?Jon Allsop, author of CJR’s newsletter “The Media Today,” spent the past week at COP26. On this week’s Kicker, he sits down with two conference attendees, Disha Shetty, a public health journalist from India, and Mark Hertsgaard, co-founder and executive director of Covering Climate Now and the environment correspondent for The Nation, to discuss how global north editors dismiss important reporting from the developing world.

What does the Facebook data dump mean? Nov 01, 2021

As journalists struggle to cover the latest revelations in the Facebook story, they also endeavor to write stories that land with the general public. How much context is sacrificed for the sensation of something new?On this week’s Kicker, Renee DiResta, who is the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory and an ideas contributor at Wired and The Atlantic, and Mathew Ingram, our chief digital writer, speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on how to connect the dots when the story gets this big.

On the trail of ‘pink slime’ Oct 22, 2021

The network of websites that pose as local news outlets but aren’t has grown exponentially in the run up to next year’s midterm elections. Who funds the sites, and how can we track them? And why are they called “pink slime”?On this week’s Kicker, Priyanjana Bengani, a senior research fellow at Columbia Journalism School's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, sits down with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss her study of these op-up sites, how to find and follow them, and what the phenomenon means in the face of ever-dwindling local news.

Balls and Strikes: How to cover the Supreme Court’s “super-majority” Oct 08, 2021

This week, the most conservative Supreme Court since the Great Depression convened. The 6-3 “super-majority” is poised to roll back decades of law. On our latest episode of the Kicker, Jay Willis, the editor in chief of Balls and Strikes, a site that launched last month promising “progressive, bullshit-free commentary” about the legal system, joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss vital rulings that missed the news cycle, and why conservative justices have been so critical of the media.

Jon Allsop on Mehdi Hasan’s transatlantic rise Oct 01, 2021

Medhi Hasan has built a global reputation on devastating interviews. Now on MSNBC and Peacock, is he a corrective to the equivocal tendencies of the American press?Jon Allsop profiled Hasan for our latest issue. On this week’s Kicker, he sits down with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to detail how Hasan’s approach can be seen as “an explicit rebuke to outdated journalistic norms."

The Wall Street Journal’s stubborn conservatism Sep 24, 2021

Adam Piore spoke to 50 current and former staffers at the Wall Street Journal on how the paper’s editors limit subject matter and political coverage in an effort to hold on to their traditional audience.On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, and Piore discuss his findings, the Journal’s obsession with the New York Times, and what it all means for the journalists who work there.

Larry Fink: Vulgarity and Anna Wintour’s Met Gala Sep 20, 2021

In his five-plus decades of photographing performative wealth and celebrity at events like the Vanity Fair Oscar Party and the Met Gala, Larry Fink perfected the art of taking “candid pictures of very non-candid people.” On this week’s Kicker, Fink joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss coverage of last week’s Met Gala, how journalism can learn from his ability to capture the space between posed photo ops, and why now, against the backdrop of a global pandemic and extreme economic inequality, the time for risk-free activism and the fetishization of wealth is over.

September 11: “Inflection Point” Sep 14, 2021

For CJR, Jon Allsop followed the weekend’s deluge of September 11 anniversary coverage—where it excelled, and when it lacked self-awareness. On today’s Kicker, he joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on what the media got right and what it didn’t.

How We Got Here: Genders and Sexualities, host Prof. Alisa Solomon Sep 03, 2021

Gender and sexuality can feel natural and even immutable, but science and the lived experience of numerous humans tell us that these categories are far more variable than they may seem. At a time when dozens of states around the US have passed or are considering legislation to enforce rigid definitions of gender, queer theorist Jack Halberstam and journalist Zach Stafford discuss the fallaciousness of what scholars call the “gender binary.” Bringing an intersectional perspective, and looking at examples from women’s sports, they invite journalists to speak truth to the power that is exercised, often violently, through an insistence on “normative” ideas of gender and sexuality. Guests: Zach Stafford & Jack Halberstam

How We Got Here: Unwelcome to America, host Prof. Nina Alvarez Aug 27, 2021

The American Dream is often portrayed as the hook that pulls people to the United States. What is usually left out of the story is the hell many flee, sometimes a hell fed by the very country in which they seek refuge. The story of U.S. involvement in Central America is a classic example of wars inflicted on people by U.S. financed repressive regimes and later by gangs grown in the U.S. and deported wholesale to vulnerable nations. In this episode, a scholar sheds light on the invention of the “illegal alien,” its use and manipulation for the past 140 years (and counting) to exclude and exploit people of color and more recent notions of who and who is not deserving of legal admission into the United States. Guest: Mae Ngai

How We Got Here: Class, host Prof. Dale Maharidge Aug 20, 2021

Steel produced in Youngstown, Ohio, helped America win World War II, and it was used to build the bridges that we cross and the buildings in which we live. But in the 1970s, the mills began closing. Some 50,000 well-paid jobs were gone. There was a concurrent rise in anger as the workers and their children struggled to survive with minimum-wage jobs or in the gig economy. Youngstown represents the widening chasm of class division in the United States. Journalists need to understand how class informs politics and culture. In this episode we talk with a labor studies expert about how to cover the working class.Guest: Sherry Linkon

How We Got Here: Empire, host Prof. Sheila Coronel Aug 13, 2021

There is a long tradition of imperial denial in the United States. After all, Americans fought the British Empire and have always thought of themselves as different from European colonialists. They are Empire Slayers — why else would “Star Wars” and its fight against the Galactic Empire have such a hold on the popular imagination? In this episode, two scholars explain how, from the nation’s birth, imperial expansion — first westward into Indian Country and later, overseas —was a defining character of these United States. The echoes of empire can be heard in today’s news. It’s impossible to talk about immigration, drone strikes, the attacks on Asian Americans, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, etc., without understanding the history and projection of American power. What would journalism informed by the history of empire look like? Guests: Daniel Immerwahr & Vernadette Vicuna Gonzalez

How We Got Here: Whiteness, host Prof. Samuel G. Freedman Aug 03, 2021

Whiteness in America isn’t just the neutral norm against which racial minorities, particularly Black people, are measured. Whiteness in America means having the privilege and power that go along with being part of that supposed norm. And becoming white – not in terms of pigment but of social status – is a choice that nearly every immigrant or refugee group in America has had to embrace or reject. We talk with two scholars in the field of Whiteness Studies about how understanding the construction of white identity in this polyglot country gives us keen insights into its troubled racial history.

How We Got Here: The Half-Life of Democracy, host Prof. Jelani Cobb Aug 03, 2021

The issue of police violence and racism is a familiar one. It’s been present in the United States since the Republic's beginnings. And the stories of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice and others cannot be understood if we do not know and comprehend that history. In this episode, we discuss race, crime, criminal justice, violence and the kind of cyclical dynamic that we have seen repeatedly over the decades with Harvard historian Dr. Khalil Muhammad. The conversation gives greater context and an insight into the shattering events of today by illuminating the roots of injustice and violence against Black Americans by those in authority.

How We Got Here: Trailer Aug 03, 2021

How We Got Here is a podcast for journalists about how history and identity shape narrative. As journalists, we like to say we’re writing the first draft of history. But if we don’t know our own history, we run the risk of misinterpreting what we see and what we hear. Of failing to connect the dots. George Floyd’s murder, the Black Lives Matter movement, the election, the attempted coup - they’ve all brought America to a reckoning with its national character. Six professors from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism take a step back to examine the historical context of today’s news. They look at how race, gender, class, immigration and American empire impact the stories we cover and how we tell them. How We Got Here is a production of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in partnership with Columbia Journalism Review.

Special Report: Inside the toxic mediasphere of Black exceptionalism Jul 16, 2021

When Samuel Getachew was a sixth grader in the Oakland public school system, Akintunde Ahmad was a “hometown hero,” headed to Yale. On this week’s Kicker, Ahmad, now a CJR contributor and Ida B. Wells fellow, and Getachew, a rising first year at Yale, discuss the media’s misuse of successful Black students.

Nikole Hannah-Jones on the use of power Jul 12, 2021

How do we report and contextualize the January 6 insurrection, or the largest efforts to suppress the vote since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, or the way political power is wielded in the US without understanding the racial history of our country? On this week’s Kicker, Hannah-Jones, the new Knight chair in race and reporting at Howard University, and a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the New York Times Magazine, joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to talk about her decision to decline tenure at the University of North Carolina, and her plan to turn Howard’s journalism program into a “firewall for democracy.”

Errol Louis: Inside City Hall for the New York City primaries Jun 25, 2021

The pandemic’s limits on primary candidates and the journalists who cover them; a drastically shorter campaign season; and all but absent public polling thanks to the new ranked choice voting. This has been a New York City primary season like no other.On this week’s Kicker, Errol Louis, who is the anchor of NY1’s “Inside City Hall,” the host of the podcast “You Decide with Errol Louis,” and a professor of urban reporting at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss the ability of the city’s already fragile local news ecosystem to cover a high-stakes election season, and what Eric Adams’ treatment of the press so far means if he becomes the next mayor of New York City.

Carole Cadwalladr, Covid-19, and the fight against collective amnesia Jun 14, 2021

At the start of the pandemic, the UK government’s suppression of data prompted Carole Cadwalladr and her colleagues at All the Citizens to found Independent SAGE, a group of scientists who shadow official government scientists. Now, as the UK hurtles towards a June 21 reopening that now looks unlikely to happen, the group’s findings are more concerning than ever. On this week’s Kicker, Cadwalladr, a feature writer for The Observer, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss what US journalists can learn from the UK’s Covid fight, and how misleading euphoric Covid-19 coverage in the US has become.

The Tokyo Olympics, Naomi Osaka, and the death of sports access Jun 04, 2021

With over ten thousand athletes from more than two hundred countries, the Olympics are typically a sports writer’s dream. But with Covid protocols in Tokyo this summer, and heightened awareness that players no longer need the press to connect with their fans, is spontaneous sports access also obsolete?On this week’s Kicker, Andrew Keh, a sports reporter for the New York Times, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, the shift of power from press to athletes.

Alden and Tribune: ‘A crash course in capitalism’ May 27, 2021

About half of daily local newspaper circulation in the US is now controlled by hedge funds. On this week’s Kicker, Rebecca Lurye, a reporter for the Hartford Courant and unit chair for the Hartford Courant Guild, and Danielle Ohl, a reporter for the Capital Gazette and chair of the Chesapeake News Guild, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss what comes next after Alden Global Capital bought Tribune Publishing, and how reporters and their communities can advocate for journalism.

How to cover abortion May 21, 2021

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a Mississippi case that outlaws abortion after 15 weeks gestation, the media’s coverage of abortion, and the language used to describe it, will be back in the spotlight.On this week’s Kicker, Maria Clark, a Louisiana-based healthcare reporter with USA Today’s American South team, and Jessica Mason Pieklo, senior vice president and executive editor at Rewire News Group, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss how to cover legislation around abortion as a medical procedure rather than simply a political issue, and the importance of centering patients and providers in abortion reporting.

The view from Tel Aviv May 14, 2021

Ruth Margalit is an Israeli journalist living in Tel Aviv. By day, she covers the crisis there for the New Yorker. By night, her young family shelters in their building’s stairwell.On this week’s Kicker, how American framing of this week’s violence conflicts with the rest of the world’s; how Israeli military censors lost control of the narrative; and why Netanyahu’s downfall could be related to his obsession with the media. Margalit in conversation with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR.

Special Report: Post-truth and the press May 07, 2021

Recently, Maria Bustillos had the opportunity to discuss “post truth,” press manipulation, and right-wing media lies with Joan Donovan, the research director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, and Claire Wardle, the cofounder and director of First Draft, a nonprofit focused on addressing mis- and disinformation. Both scholars spend a lot of time in the muck with Fox News and its feeder conspiracies. “There’s a lot to be angry about,” Wardle said. Donovan: “This job is hell.”

Jessica Bruder talks Nomadland May 07, 2021

“Nomadland,” a film inspired by and featuring non-actor sources from journalist Jessica Bruder’s 2017 nonfiction book of the same name, just swept the Academy Awards. Both book and film explore the life of America’s “new nomads,” who live without traditional housing since losing their savings in the Great Recession. On this week’s Kicker, Bruder joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss the process of shepherding a story from magazine to book to film, and the future of American “houselessness” in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

Special Report: Digital journalism didn’t have to be this way May 05, 2021

A discussion on algorithmic design, data discrimination, social media manipulation, and how racism is baked in. The conversation is led by Nehal El-Hadi, a science and environmental journalist whose work explores the connections between body, place, and technology, with guests Chris Gilliard, a writer and professor whose scholarship centers on digital privacy, surveillance, and the nexus of race, class, and technology, and Marcus Gilroy-Ware, a writer and researcher at the intersection of media and politics.

Special Report: The Pirate Radio Capital May 04, 2021

Special Report: In 2018, David Goren, a radio producer and audio archivist, created the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map to collect the sounds of dozens of pirated broadcasts from across the borough. Pirate stations earn their name by hitching a ride on already licensed radio frequencies that typically cost commercial stations millions of dollars to acquire and set up. Nowhere in the country are there more pirate radio stations than in New York, where they provide a vital service to immigrant populations. Goren estimates that New York has about a hundred pirate stations, transmitting from rooftops and attics to listeners seeking news from around the city and back home, as well as entertainment and religious programming. The broadcasts bypass socioeconomic barriers and provide a means to seize control of the flow of information. But they are now at risk of extinction: Before Donald Trump left the White House, he signed the Pirate Act, which increased the authority of the Federal Communications Commission to fight pirate operations through mandatory sweeps in cities with high concentrations of pirate radio use. Pirate stations today face fines of up to two million dollars. “The people running these stations, they don’t have two million dollars,” Goren said. Broadcasters that don’t make it onto his sound map could be lost forever.

‘Survival and science’—our fight against climate silence Apr 30, 2021

In 2019, in an effort to combat climate silence, CJR and The Nation, in partnership with The Guardian, founded Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaborative aimed at strengthening coverage of the climate emergency. Two years later, Covering Climate Now partners publish coverage of the climate crisis to 2 billion readers. On this week’s Kicker, Mark Hertsgaard, the executive director of Covering Climate Now and the environment correspondent for The Nation, and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss what they’ve learned about how to tell climate crisis stories that land with impact, how the scientific weight of COVID-19 coverage can further climate coverage, and why covering the climate crisis is journalism, not advocacy.

‘Violence bait’ —the narrative the Twin Cities tried to build in the mainstream press Apr 26, 2021

In the wake of the Derek Chauvin verdict, Mel Reeves, the editor of the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, and a 30-year member of the community where George Floyd was murdered, tells Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, how he watched police and city authorities depict his home as inherently violent for the national press.

Jelani Cobb on the murder of Daunte Wright, the Derek Chauvin trial, and how to tell the whole story Apr 16, 2021

Reporters were in Minneapolis covering the trial of Derek Chauvin when news broke about the police shooting of Daunte Wright. On this week’s Kicker, Jelani Cobb, a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress,” joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss his work in Minneapolis over the past week, the ways reporters can contextualize so many deaths, and how he will approach next week’s expected verdict.

“They forget about you:” The media advice Parkland parents give to mass shooting survivors Apr 02, 2021

Joaquin Oliver was murdered in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. His parents, Manuel and Patricia Oliver, recognize a pattern, both in how the US media covers mass shootings by rote, and in how Americans are able to look away once the news cycle ends.On this week’s Kicker, the Olivers, who founded Change The Ref, a nonprofit that works to raise awareness about mass shootings through reducing the influence of the NRA at the federal level, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss how the media can drive urgency in the fight for gun control.Please visit inevitablenews.com to sign up for our virtual Gun Violence News Summit, which takes place on Tuesday, April 6. Join Kyle, the Olivers, and industry leaders from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Trace, The Guardian, and others to determine a path forward in the face of never-ending gun violence and mass shootings.

America does not know what a mass shooting looks like Mar 25, 2021

In August 2019, days after 32 people died in the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings, our host Kyle Pope spoke with John Temple. Temple was the editor of Denver’s Rocky Mountain News when the Columbine massacre changed America’s perception of safety forever. Temple told us about the photos he decided not to run that day in 1999, and the one he did, which confirmed a child’s death before police spoke with the mother. In the wake of the horror in El Paso and Dayton, Temple’s thoughts were on the Civil Rights movement, on the fight for abolition—the times in our history when journalists have taken a moral stand.As we take stock of the devastation in Atlanta and Boulder, and of the ways in which the news cycle failed, especially Atlanta’s victims, here again are John Temple and Kyle Pope.

Racism, Atlanta, and the race for a narrative Mar 19, 2021

In the wake of the shootings in Atlanta this week, the media has focused on the killer’s story and struggled to explain why the attacks were racist. The process has dehumanized the victims.On this week’s Kicker, Diana Lu, who writes about Asian American culture and coverage, and Kent Ono, a scholar of Media and Asian American Studies at the University of Utah, where he studies racial representation and Asian Americans in the media, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss the coverage of the horror in Atlanta so far, and the origins of anti-Asian racism and sexism in the American press.

Pandemic: Why is it so hard to say there’s hope? Mar 15, 2021

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, most media coverage has focused on the ongoing physical health disaster and the need to convince readers and elected officials to take action. But the coverage is also a chronic source of trauma. Now that there is some good news interspersed with the tragedy, we struggle to find a balance.Dr. Alison Holman is a health psychologist and professor at the University of California Irvine’s Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, whose work focuses on exposure to traumatic events such as Ebola outbreaks, the Boston Marathon bombing, and, most recently, Covid-19. On this week’s Kicker, Holman joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss journalism’s impact on readers’ mental health, and why traumatic coverage can fail to motivate change.

Toxic: A break in the Cuomo fever dream Mar 05, 2021

Refusing to learn female reporters’ names, to speak on the record, to refrain from embarrassing comments. The Andrew Cuomo that political reporters know is entirely different from the pandemic persona during the worst moments of the coronavirus crisis.On this week’s Kicker, Josefa Velásquez, the Albany reporter for THE CITY, who has covered Cuomo for a decade, and Michael Powell, a New York Times national reporter who covered the collapse of both Rudy Giuliani and Elliot Spitzer, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to describe the Cuomo persona that has been an open secret.

Michael Tubbs on the politics of disinformation, racism, and news deserts Feb 26, 2021

Last year, Michael Tubbs was the focus of an HBO documentary, "Stockton On My Mind," that followed his experience trying to reinvent Stockton, California as the city’s first African-American mayor. Within a few months, however, with his campaign for re-election coming up, Tubbs was subjected to a targeted disinformation campaign, by a fake news website called the 209 Times. Named for the area code of Stockton, the 209 Times claims to be "an independent community driven grassroots news source." In reality, it functions as a misinformation machine, trading on the relatively high levels of trust in local press outlets to spread lies about Tubbs and play on voters' racist biases. Come November, Tubbs was unseated. He joins us today on The Kicker, speaking with CJR contributor Akintunde Ahmad about disinformation, news deserts, racism, and what he's up to now.

Myanmar Now: How to run a paper in the middle of a coup Feb 16, 2021

Burmese journalist Swe Win has survived an assasination attempt and detention by his own government. Now he leads his Yangon-based news outlet Myanmar Now from exile, and his newsroom is in hiding.On this week’s Kicker, reporter and essayist E. Tammy Kim, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speak with Swe Win about journalism under threat in Myanmar, and why he so desperately wants to return despite the threat.

Kathleen Belew and the white power groundswell Feb 05, 2021

On this week’s Kicker, Kathleen Belew, a historian at the University of Chicago and author of Bring The War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (2018), joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss how the events of January 6th are already being misrepresented in press coverage and how reporters should be framing the ongoing threat.

GameStop, Reddit, and who hacked the system Jan 29, 2021

GameStop, Reddit, and who hacked the system by Columbia Journalism Review

A White House correspondent charts the changing of the guard Jan 22, 2021

Shirish Dáte had a front row seat to the chaos of Trump’s presidency and famously asked Trump whether he regretted having lied so many times to the American people. Dáte was also in attendance at the first, radically different press briefing on inauguration day.On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, and Dáte, HuffPost’s senior White House correspondent, discuss what needs to change in the way the press corps covers a presidency, and why the destruction of the Republican party is a major political story of our time.

What Covid reporters can learn from Hiroshima Jan 19, 2021

In the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, journalists struggled to cover the devastation in a way that resonated, much as they do with the Covid-19 pandemic today. In “Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter who Revealed it to the World,” Lesley Blume tells the story of how New Yorker journalist John Hersey cracked the code.On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, and Blume discuss the problem with coverage that focuses too much on numbers, science, and policy, at a time when Covid deaths in the US continue to surge.

How will Trump’s followers fight for air time? Jan 11, 2021

When Trump gave the go-ahead for his mob to storm the Capitol last week, it manifested more as a media event than an organized political coup. As Trump loses power, his followers doubtless will fight harder for relevance and air time.On this week’s Kicker, Davey Alba, a New York Times technology reporter covering online disinformation and its global harms, and Alexander Reid Ross, a doctoral fellow at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right and an adjunct professor at Portland State University, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss what journalists should look for online as Trump leaves office.

Five lost lives Dec 21, 2020

Five lost lives by Columbia Journalism Review

A New York City principal sick with COVID-19 for the second time, and the story the press is missing Dec 11, 2020

Lisa Edmiston, a middle school principal in Queens who is sick for the second time this year, talks to CJR Editor Kyle Pope about urgent inequities within the city’s public schools. The media has devoted its energy to the debate over whether to keep schools open. But that obscures an even bigger story that Edmiston says isn’t getting the attention it deserves.

Can unions make newsrooms inclusive? Dec 04, 2020

The media’s diversity efforts have been underway for decades, but very little has changed, and diversity rhetoric often becomes dehumanizing. As new union negotiations press the issue, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Maya Binyam, a senior editor of Triple Canopy, an editor of the New Inquiry, and a lecturer in the New School’s Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism program, and Betsy Morais, managing editor of CJR.

New vaccines, same story Nov 20, 2020

New vaccines, same story by Columbia Journalism Review

Public Editors: Why even good reporting no longer impacts the vote Nov 13, 2020

The media did better work covering Trump than in 2016, but did that reporting have any impact on the real world?On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, sits down with CJR’s public editors—Ariana Pekary for CNN, Maria Bustillos for MSNBC, Gabriel Snyder for the New York Times, and Hamilton Nolan for the Washington Post—to discuss what it would take to rebuild the influence of good journalism.

Masha Gessen on Trump's bid for autocracy Nov 06, 2020

Trump told us, ahead of time, he would claim victory in the election regardless of how America voted. On this week's Kicker, Masha Gessen, a New Yorker columnist and author of "Surviving Autocracy," talks with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on the continuing dangers of autocracy in the US.

David Remnick and the View from Trump’s Fifth Avenue Oct 30, 2020

In 2016, Donald Trump told rally attendees that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing voters. Since then, disqualifying pieces of investigative journalism have glanced off without impact on him or his base.On this week’s Kicker, David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, assess how the media has navigated through all of this, less than a week before election day.

Election 2020 — Why the idea of a return to normal is so dangerous Oct 23, 2020

Jon Allsop and Pete Vernon have written the CJR newsletter, “The Media Today,” since its inception in the wake of the 2016 election. On this week’s Kicker, they speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on what journalism should become when the torrent of Trump news is gone.

E Jean Carroll puts Trump’s survivors in charge Oct 16, 2020

Most sexual assault coverage in America is told from the attacker’s perspective. Survivors’ physical appearance is described in detail, and the actual assault is sexualized. But in E Jean Carroll’s masterly series for The Atlantic, “I Moved on Her Very Heavily,” Trump’s survivors remain firmly in charge of their own stories, focusing their conversation on his crimes and his impact on their lives.On this week’s Kicker, journalist and author E Jean Carroll speaks with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on how our coverage of sexual assault makes it easier for voters to slough off and why she knew coming forward to tell how Trump raped her in the mid-nineties would rouse his base.

Physicians on the air Oct 09, 2020

The president has COVID-19, but the White House has failed to provide reliable information about his condition. To fill the gap, journalists have turned to doctors.On this week’s Kicker, Dr. Christopher Tedeschi, an emergency medicine specialist and professor at NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, track how our framing can change a medical question into a political question and ask where we should draw the line.

COVID at the White House, voter disinformation, and how to report around the propaganda Oct 02, 2020

As a result of an aggressive disinformation campaign, about half of Republicans believe voter fraud is a major problem. Now that Trump has tested positive for COVID-19, what will the impact be on his party’s push to question the validity of the election?On this week’s Kicker, Yochai Benkler a professor at Harvard Law School and co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss Benkler’s study of online media stories and social media posts that referred to the risk of voter fraud, all posted between March 1 and August 31 this year. His team found that Trump is central to the dissemination process, and that, in the media’s effort to remain neutral, we adopt and amplify his framing.

What was the Notorious RBG like as a source? Sep 25, 2020

How did Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg view the press? And how far did the mythology we built around the “Great Dissenter” stray from reality?On this week’s Kicker, Betsy West, co-director of the Academy Award-nominated documentary ”RBG,” joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR to discuss what it was like to work with Ginsburg, the hagiography around her, and her legacy of optimism.

“Eugenics” in Georgia Sep 18, 2020

The forcible sterilizations of female detainees at an immigration detention center in Georgia comprise a new level of cruelty. But ICE health care systems are known to replicate those of American prisons, where reproduction injustice is an enduring problem.On this week’s Kicker, Tina Vasquez, a senior reporter at Prism who has covered the Georgia case, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss Vasquez’s interviews with ICE detainees and her work to put the latest outrage in context.

We were all raised here: Rochester, Daniel Prude, and a terrible breach of trust Sep 11, 2020

Editor Sheila Rayam and reporter Georgie Silvarole both grew up in Rochester, New York. So did the city’s former Police Chief La'Ron Singletary and Mayor Lovely Warren. When Rochester’s Democrat & Chronicle published a letter from its editorial board calling for Singletary’s resignation following a cover up of Daniel Prude’s murder, it channeled the community’s shock and pain. On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Rayam and Silvarole about how they have covered the protests so far, the experience of watching disinformation evolve in real time, and what their newspaper’s role can be in the fight against police brutality.

“Like shooting a gun in the dark” — a New York City principal and the education beat Aug 28, 2020

As long-time middle school principal and COVID survivor Lisa Edmiston prepares to reopen her middle school in Astoria, she has worked to manage the fear shared by her staff and students. She has also made arrangements for herself at a local funeral home.On this week’s Kicker, Edmiston, and Michael Elsen-Rooney, an education reporter for the Daily News, speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on how to assess what city education officials say, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio’s dismissive attitude towards education unions, and the pandemic’s effect on the culture of the Department of Education.

When did we separate politics and the mail? Aug 21, 2020

On this week’s Kicker, Professor Richard R. John, a historian and author of “Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse,” speaks with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on the intersection between the Postal Service and politics. For decades, the Postal Service -- the internet of its age -- was entwined in electoral politics. That ended, but now Donald Trump has restarted the fight. This episode of The Kicker looks at how reporters should cover the battle.

How to cover an election that isn’t there Aug 14, 2020

Radio rallies in church parking lots, candidates in their basements, and voters stuck in hibernation. When all that’s left to cover are the talking points, how should local and national political reporters adapt?This week, the national press missed the heartland’s biggest story, a series of storms that devastated the center of the country. On this week’s Kicker, Art Cullen, editor and co-owner of the Storm Lake Times in Iowa, and Ayesha Rascoe, a White House reporter for NPR, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss journalism’s struggle to avoid the mistakes of 2016 while in the midst of a pandemic.

Stephen Sackur and Interviewing Trump Aug 07, 2020

Stephen Sackur and Interviewing Trump by Columbia Journalism Review

Imagining a new world Jul 17, 2020

The uprising to abolish the police asks our country, and the press, to envision a new world. But the news business is not built to accommodate ideas that would transform society. On this week’s Kicker, three longtime writers and speakers on anti-Black racism and policing—Mychal Denzel Smith, Josie Duffy Rice, and Alex Vitale—discuss media coverage of recent protests, trace our use of the word crime, and urge us to focus on local activism.

Great escape: Nicholson Baker lets YouTube take the wheel Jul 10, 2020

When Nicholson Baker first fell in love with YouTube, it was for its “outpouring of human miscellany” and “first person journalism.” But when CJR asked him to write about YouTube as a purveyor of political information, he stumbled upon a different world—one that, in spite of recent algorithmic adjustments, makes radicalization a frictionless experience.On this week’s Kicker, Baker and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss Baker’s YouTube experience, as well as the extraordinary discoveries he made for his new book, Baseless: My Search for Secrets in the Ruins of the Freedom of Information Act.

Why police defunding is not an election story Jul 03, 2020

On this week’s Kicker, journalist Jack Herrera and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss the gaps in newsroom’s coverage of the defunding debate, and the blind spots journalists still have as a result of the lack of newsroom diversity.

Ed Yong on COVID-19 and American fatalism Jun 26, 2020

Ed Yong on COVID-19 and American fatalism by Columbia Journalism Review

Imperfect victims: Mental illness & police brutality Jun 19, 2020

People with untreated mental illnesses are 16 times more likely to be killed by police. Studies show they make up close to half of all police shooting victims. Young black men with mental illness are the most vulnerable group of all, so why won’t the press tell their stories?On this week’s Kicker, Meg Kissinger, an investigative reporter and professor of reporting on the mental health system at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and Dr. Stephanie Le Melle, the Director of Public Psychiatry Education at Columbia University Department of Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute, speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about how to report on police violence against black sufferers of serious mental illness.

Wesley Morris—Four hundred years in one line of music Jun 08, 2020

As journalists cover the intersection of racist police riots, our president’s instability, and the coronavirus pandemic, we struggle to break the old mold of objective reporting. Wesley Morris, a critic-at-large for the New York Times, recently wrote about the terrifying detachment of white police violence, the inequalities the pandemic has underlined, and how Patti LaBelle’s 1985 cover of “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” depicts four hundred years of Black suffering. On this week’s Kicker, Morris joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss his piece and how to cover the heartbreak and rage sparked by the murder of George Floyd.

Black deaths, Black protest May 29, 2020

Police murders of Black Americans, and the resulting protests, are once more at the forefront of the news cycle. The focus constitutes an important opportunity, but journalists who don’t have a nuanced understanding of our country’s systemic, state-sponsored violence against Black people, wrongly report the latest police crimes as a symptom of the Trump regime. On this week’s Kicker, Danielle Belton, editor in chief of The Root, and Alexandria Neason, staff writer at CJR, speak with Kyle Pope, our editor and publisher, about the history of protest in America, how coverage of the latest murders ties into the COVID-19 pandemic, and why this is not just a story about Trump’s attempts to incite violence.

MSNBC’s identity crisis May 22, 2020

When Adam Piore set out to profile MSNBC, he discovered a community of viewers who feel that, just by watching cable news, they are participating in our democracy.On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Piore and Betsy Morais, our managing editor, to ask why cable networks abandoned their “just the news” stance to emphasize opinion and commentary, and how they will struggle to cover 2020 in the midst of a public health crisis.

Indian Country: Behind the monolith May 15, 2020

As COVID-19 death rates in some native communities soar, and federal care package payments to Indigenous tribes lag behind those to state and municipal governments, why does the US trail so far behind other colonizing countries in its news coverage of its first peoples?On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Hopkins, special projects editor of the Anchorage Daily News and recent recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for public service, and Jenni Monet, an independent journalist and a tribal citizen of the Pueblo of Laguna, who writes about Indigenous rights and injustice, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss the difficulty of pitching stories on native communities to editors, and the harm we do when we report on our 574 Indian nations as a monolith.

A break from the pandemic: the bizarre invasion of Venezuela May 08, 2020

Investigative journalist Giancarlo Fiorella was watching when the Associated Press reported a plot to overthrow Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela. What Fiorella could not believe was that, after the planned coup was revealed, Jordan Goudreau, a former green beret and sometime security guard to President Trump, decided to go through with it anyway. Equating himself to Alexander the Great, Goudreau sent his men across hundreds of miles of open sea, towards certain failure.On this week’s Kicker, Fiorella, an investigator and trainer with Bellingcat, speaks with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about what he has learned about Goudreau, Mike Pompeo’s statement that the US government had “no direct involvement” in the mission, and the dilemma faced by Venezuelan media as it considers the tragic legacy of Goudreau’s hubris.

How did medical masks become a signal? May 01, 2020

As tens of thousands of Americans die of COVID-19, fear and uncertainty devolve into paranoid tribalism. At our most extreme, one side believes science is sacrosanct, and the other claims the pandemic is a plot to destabilize the president. Political commentator Charlie Sykes was once at the center of the American conservative movement. Now he opposes Donald Trump and the right-wing media that enable his cult of personality. On this week’s Kicker, Sykes, founder and editor-at-large of The Bulwark, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss the legitimate argument to be made for civil liberties, and the origins of anti-science sentiment among conservative voters.

The hunger for COVID-19 and climate crisis coverage Apr 24, 2020

The intersection of conflict, climate, and disease has never been more apparent, and neither has public need for “journalistic rigor and urgency.”On this week’s Kicker, E. Tammy Kim, a freelance reporter and essayist, and Mark Hertsgaard, the environmental correspondent for The Nation, speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on what COVID-19 and the climate crisis reveal about the problem of social systems that are exclusionary by design.

Liz Bruenig on covering spirituality and death in a plague year Apr 17, 2020

Religion is difficult for journalists to cover, in part because it lies beyond observation and resists narrative. On this week’s Kicker, Elizabeth Bruenig, an opinion writer for the New York Times, speaks with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on how, as we live in a time of enormous loss, we can report on spirituality and death.

Prisoners trapped in the path of COVID-19 Apr 10, 2020

Punished for wearing masks, or for asking to have their temperatures taken, our aging prison population is denied basic social distancing, hygiene, and cleaning supplies they need to defend themselves against COVID-19. Governor Andrew Cuomo has not responded to letters from advocates for the inmates, and he claims, falsely, that he lacks the authority to fix the issues.Journalist Rosa Goldensohn, of The City, reports on inmates still forced to congregate, or to sleep in beds 16 inches apart. Stefen Short, a staff attorney for the Prisoners' Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society, fights for the safety of those trapped in prison on technicalities, or for whom COVID-19 constitutes a death sentence. On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Goldensohn and Short on the importance of reporting beyond Cuomo’s daily briefings to tell the stories of individual inmates and the fight for their basic rights.

A visit to an ER COVID-19 unit gives new perspective on pandemic data Apr 03, 2020

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s COVID-19 press conferences rely heavily on data, as does press coverage of the pandemic. But when CJR’s Amanda Darrach got sick, she learned how misleading those numbers are. On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Darrach about how we should cover the trauma of COVID-19.

COVID-19, communities in need Mar 26, 2020

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Kim Bui, director of audience innovation at the Arizona Republic, has looked to her readers to help guide the paper’s coverage. Bui says she texts with her readers and works in real time to find the answers they need.On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Bui and Mathew Ingram, CJR’s chief digital writer, on how newsrooms have struggled to create a two-way conversation with their readers in the past. Without time for cautious planning, papers may learn how to serve their communities best.

Local media and COVID-19: the canary in the coalmine Mar 12, 2020

When an outbreak like the Covid-19 pandemic hits, local journalists serve as first responders for global surveillance efforts. Elisabeth Rosenthal was a young physician when the AIDS epidemic hit New York City; she later covered the SARS crisis in China for the New York Times. Samantha Pak is senior editor at the Kirkland Reporter, the local paper covering Life Care Center nursing home, where 19 residents have died from the coronavirus. On this week’s Kicker, Rosenthal, who is editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News, and Pak speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about the advantage of the local news template and what happens when we substitute politics for science.

When the circus comes to town: The Storm Lake Times in Iowa Mar 05, 2020

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump didn’t visit towns like Storm Lake, Iowa in 2016. This election cycle, things are much different. Art Cullen, editor and co-owner of the Storm Lake Times, and winner of the 2017 Pulitzer for Editorial Writing, has interviewed 15 presidential candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Pete Buttigieg. On this week’s Kicker, he talks to Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about what national political reporters get wrong and what they should be focused on instead.Cullen is the author of “Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope in America’s Heartland” (Penguin, 2018)

A war correspondent covers the climate crisis Feb 28, 2020

Kadir van Lohuizen reports on the climate crisis with the same techniques he brought to his work as a war correspondent. His photography, video, and written work focus on the point of conflict between the crisis and human life. This week, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with van Lohuizen about what kind of climate disaster coverage inspires real action.

Family leave and the diversity edge Feb 20, 2020

Jess Brammar is the new editor in chief of HuffPost UK. She is also 7 months pregnant. When it comes to family leave policy, American news outlets lag behind their European counterparts. On this week’s Kicker, Brammar joins Kyle Pope, the editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss that difference and how family leave might just give newsrooms the diversity they need to survive.

Coronavirus, China’s press, and the disappearance of Chen Quishi Feb 13, 2020

In China, journalists are conditioned to keep their online activity apolitical. But the coronavirus outbreak took censors by surprise. In the panic, editors were temporarily emboldened. Han Zhang, who is on the editorial staff at the New Yorker, sat down with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss the flow of outbreak information in the Chinese media, how many coronavirus fatalities may go unreported, and her last interview with citizen journalist Chen Quishi, before he disappeared.

Keeping the faith Feb 06, 2020

Keeping the faith by Columbia Journalism Review

Guns, Puerto Rico, & American labor Jan 21, 2020

What do we miss when we obsess about Trump? The answer, it turns out, includes some of the most important stories of our time. On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with David Begnaud, lead national correspondent for “CBS This Morning” and anchor of CBS News Radio's “Reporter's Notebook,” Steven Greenhouse, a veteran New York Times labor and workplace reporter, and Tali Woodward, deputy editor of The Trace, to ask what stories we left untold in 2019, and how we can avoid making the same mistakes this election year.

Dexter Filkins and how to cover the Soleimani assasination Jan 10, 2020

In 2013, Dexter Filkins wrote the definitive profile of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” whom the US assassinated last week. On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Filkins about the nuances of Iranian public opinion that the Western press has missed, and why Iran’s response may be far from over.

Carole Cadwalladr and disinformation at the ballot box Dec 13, 2019

Facebook, Google, and Twitter are going to be used to facilitate disinformation and racism in the 2020 US presidential election, and Carole Cadwalladr says we need to tell that story better. At the recent “Disinfo 2020: Prepping the Press” conference, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, and Cadwalladr, a feature writer for the Observer who helped expose the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018, discussed her work and the connection between the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump.

When facts can’t help Dec 06, 2019

Democracy is reliant on facts, but fact-checking no longer seem to dispel misleading information. As a prelude to next week’s Disinfo 2020: Prepping the Press conference, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discusses disinformation and the failings of the fact-checking industry with Emily Bell, the director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia, and media literacy expert Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor at Syracuse University.

Brazil’s gold boom and the war for the rainforest, with Jon Lee Anderson Nov 22, 2019

The Kayopo, an indiginous tribe in the Brazilian rainforest, have lost over 200,000 acres of their preserve to the illegal gold mining encouraged by Jair Bolsonnaro. On this week’s Kicker, Jon Lee Anderson, a staff writer at the New Yorker, tells Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, how he embedded with the Kayopo, who had no regular contact with the outside world until the 1950s. Anderson describes the tactics used by gold prospectors to sow discord among the Kayopo, and tells of the heartbreak some feel as they accept work that they know will destroy the environment.

The death penalty—myth, propaganda, and truth Nov 15, 2019

Rodney Reed is scheduled for execution on November 20, and the first federal executions in 16 years begin December 9. On this week’s Kicker, Robert Dunham, executive director at the Death Penalty Information Center, and Kyle Pope, editor and pulisher of CJR, discuss the mistakes national and local reporters make in their coverage of the death penalty. Dunham explains the culture of fear that sustained American execution at its peak, and the importance of reporting policy over politics.

CJR public editors: One year out from 2020 Nov 08, 2019

CJR public editors: One year out from 2020 by Columbia Journalism Review

Can Condé Nast’s empire rise again? Nov 01, 2019

Anna Wintour says Vogue magazine is the world’s greatest influencer, though the numbers don’t agree. A job at Condé Nast used to mean a magazine journalist had arrived. but in the wake of S.I. Newhouse’s death, it’s hard to imagine who might have the passion to save his magazines. For New York Magazine, journalist Reeves Wiedeman profiled Condé Nast, Wintour, and new CEO, Roger Lynch. This week, CJR’s Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope sits down with Wiedeman to discuss Condé Nast’s new strategy, and whether its newsstand presence could become disposable.

Jon Allsop on Ukraine, Brexit, and the danger of dumbing down Oct 25, 2019

Jon Allsop, who writes CJR’s daily newsletter “The Media Today” from his flat in London, talks to Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about Boris Johnson’s obsession with the American presidency, Trump’s impeachment strategy, and how the instinct to oversimplify stories like Ukraine and Brexit opens the door to misinformation.

Rule of fear—Carlotta Gall reports on the war behind the wall Oct 18, 2019

Carlotta Gall, Istanbul bureau chief for the New York Times, spent her summer reporting on whether Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s president, would invade Syria. This week, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, talks to Gall about how she and her colleagues have covered Turkey and Syria as the conflict has unfolded. The Turks bombed a convoy with journalists in northern Syria; ISIS fighters are escaping and threaten to regroup; new Syrian checkpoints arrest American journalists; and the PKK offers only propaganda and a cult of personality. Gall, one of the most experienced war correspondents working today, explains what likely comes next.

‘The more American your life is, the more vulnerable you become’ Oct 11, 2019

When longtime residents of Washington State’s Long Beach Peninsula began to disappear, journalist McKenzie Funk set out to reverse-engineer ICE officers’ use of domestic-surveillance data. Last week, he published his findings in the New York Times Magazine. Kyle Pope, the editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Funk to learn why the more American an immigrant’s life is, the more vulnerable they become, and why ICE blames that vulnerability on sanctuary policy.

Impeachment and how Trump exposed the flaws in journalism Oct 04, 2019

Joe Lockhart was named White House press secretary in 1998, three days before the House voted to impeach President Clinton. This week, Lockhart speaks with Kyle Pope, the editor and publisher of CJR, about the argument to end live coverage of the White House, and why he thinks this is the golden age of journalism.

The Financial Times follows the money on the climate crisis Sep 26, 2019

Among readers, the demand for climate crisis coverage is high. Until recently, however, financial reporters have stayed largely silent on the subject. On this week’s episode, Kyle Pope, the editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Gillian Tett, editor-at-large for the Financial Times, on how her doctoral work in cultural anthropology and her years as a war reporter have lead her to start a newsletter on the climate crisis, “Moral Money.”

Climate collaboration—three hundred outlets, one billion viewers Sep 20, 2019

There is a climate angle to every beat, no matter how small the newsroom; collaboration pays; and climate coverage is no more political than failure to cover the climate crisis. On this week’s episode, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Mark Hertsgaard, the environmental correspondent for The Nation, on what they’ve learned so far from their Covering Climate Now initiative with The Guardian.

One hyperlocal reporter and 400,000 NYCHA residents Sep 13, 2019

Public housing is one of the most undercovered stories in New York. But every day, Monica Morales of PIX11 News answers calls from residents of city-owned buildings and fixes their problems. Kyle Pope, the editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Morales and Emma Whitford, who profiled her this week. They discuss the difference a dedicated reporter makes and how her beat bridges the divide between city officials and the public housing system’s 400,000 residents.

Bahamian media and the fight for Hurricane relief Sep 05, 2019

Two days before Hurricane Dorian hit, Eugene Duffy, the managing editor of The Tribune in Nassau, sent a reporter and a photographer to Marsh Harbour in the Abacos. As the town endured the largest storm on modern record, Duffy lost touch with his team. On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope hears how social media has changed coverage of natural disasters and how vital local headlines can be in driving sustained relief efforts from NGOs and wealthier countries.

After Reuters—Myanmar’s other reporters Aug 22, 2019

Swe Win, the editor of Myanmar Now, a bilingual investigative-news website, was sued for defamation in Mandalay two years ago. His crime? Posting on Facebook about his site’s coverage of an extremist monk’s support of an assasination. This week, Kyle Pope, CJR’s editor and publisher, and E. Tammy Kim, a freelance reporter and essayist, discuss the effect of the high-profile imprisonment of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo on cases like Swe Win’s.

Jeffrey Epstein on background Aug 15, 2019

“Slippery,” but “charming.” “Magnetic,” but “useless.” And “utterly unapologetic.” Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein invited New York Times columnist James Stewart to his Manhattan home last August. Following Epstein’s apparent suicide last week, as he awaited trial for sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors for sex, Stewart and the Times made the decision to publish details of their interview, though Epstein spoke with Stewart on background. Here CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope and Stewart discuss the ethical questions behind that decision, and the moral imperative to publish facts quickly.

America does not know what a mass shooting looks like Aug 08, 2019

John Temple was the editor of the Rocky Mountain News when the Columbine massacre changed America’s perception of safety forever. CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Temple about the media’s sanitation of mass shootings, Temple’s disbelief that more did not change after Columbine, and why the way we cover the violence has not worked.

Blackouts, politics, and the call for a new beat Jul 26, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Marie J. French and Danielle Muoio, the authors of POLITICO’S “New York Energy” newsletter. They report from the intersection of politics, policy, and the climate crisis, and discuss why it’s time for newsrooms everywhere to embrace the energy beat.

Bob Garfield’s plan to save America Jul 18, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Bob Garfield, the co-host of WNYC’s “On the Media” and co-founder of the Purple Project for Democracy, on his plan to rebuild American faith in its press and in democracy. They discuss the fragmentation of the media and the loss of civic education, as well as Garfield’s blueprint for November 2019, when he urges outlets to feature non-partisan, apolitical reports on democracy.

Fear at the border Jul 11, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Lauren Villagran and Aaron Montes, both reporters at the El Paso Times, about their paper’s recent collaboration with The New York Times. They discuss their discovery of the Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas and the climate of fear in El Paso after the Trump administration’s unique decision to announce raids ahead of time.

MSNBC Public Editor: It will take more than one salvo for Kamala Harris to take down Joe Biden Jul 01, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Maria Bustillo, CJR’s public editor for MSNBC, on the first round of Democratic debates. They discuss Kamala Harris’s small-screen evolution into a challenger for Joe Biden, why one weak debate won’t finish him, and how Bustillo plans to cover MSNBC in the run-up to 2020.

Four months in, BuzzFeed’s union waits for recognition Jun 20, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Azeen Ghorayshi and Rachel Sanders, members of the Buzzfeed News union organizing committee. BuzzFeed’s newsroom voted to unionize in February, a month after a devastating round of layoffs that left some 200 employees out of work. Ghorayshi, an investigative reporter, and Sanders, the deputy culture editor, describe life in the newsroom as negotiations with management drag on, and why unionizing should not have to be an adversarial process.

Public Editor Emily Tamkin on CNN’s underqualified pundits Jun 13, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Emily Tamkin, our CNN public editor, about CJR’s new public editor initiative. Tamkin asks why CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time continues to invite supposed experts who aren’t in the administration, can’t be held accountable to anyone, don’t have relevant expertise, and refuse to answer a host’s questions.

When Newsweek flew the Watergate transcripts to New York by “pigeon” Jun 06, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope and Delacorte fellow Amanda Darrach speak with with Ed Kosner, the former editor of Newsweek, New York magazine, Esquire, and the New York Daily News. Kosner tells how he moved Watergate transcripts from Washington, DC to New York by “pigeon,” how reporters navigated the old news magazine system, and how journalism has changed since the days before cable news and the internet, when weekly news magazines broke national news.

Podcast: As 2020 approaches, ‘orphan counties’ struggle for local, relevant news May 30, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Corey Hutchins, CJR’s correspondent based in Colorado, where he is also a journalist for The Colorado Independent. They discuss the ‘orphan county’ phenomenon, where, because of the whim of Nielsen market designations set decades ago, residents “receive no news coverage and political advertising for their own statewide races, irrelevant information pertaining to candidates in the neighboring state who will not appear on their ballots, or both.” An estimated 10 percent of the US electorate lives in ‘orphan counties.” Their chance for change rests in how Congress, the FCC, and news producers decide to define community.

Journalist Nick Pinto on the impossibility of covering the NYPD May 23, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Nick Pinto, a journalist who covers the New York City Police Department, about the notorious opacity of that institution. Pinto describes the impossibility of covering the trial of Officer Joseph Pantaleo, the NYPD officer charged with killing Eric Garner, without public transcripts, recordings, or documents.

Journalist Anat Kamm on life after being sentenced for leaking May 16, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Israeli journalist Anat Kamm. She supplied the newspaper Haaretz with secret documents, and has accused it of giving her up to the authorities under questioning. Israeli courts sentenced her to years in prison for leaking classified documents. She has just won a lawsuit which she says will help other sources in Israel in the future.

International press access in Venezuela May 09, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Nick Paton Walsh, senior international correspondent for CNN. Paton Walsh has reported extensively from Venezuela in recent months amid the country’s ongoing political crisis. Last week, in Caracas, he investigated the aftermath of the violence that resulted from the opposition’s attempted uprising against the government of President Nicolás Maduro. Broadcasted images of the violence--including a scene in which military vehicles plowed down opposition protesters--caused the government to block feeds to CNN and the BBC on Venezuela’s cable television carriers.

Covering the Green New Deal May 02, 2019

THIS WEEK, CJR and The Nation gathered some of the world’s top journalists, scientists, and climate experts for a conference to explore how the press can do a better job covering climate change.The second panel of the day, :A TV Case Study Covering the Green New Deal” was moderated by CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope and featured Chris Hayes, MSNBC; Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation; Naomi Klein, author and activist; Carlos Maza, Vox; Justin Worland, Time.

Pulitzer winner Darrin Bell—‘In a tyrannical kingdom, only the jester can tell the truth’ Apr 25, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with freelance cartoonist Darrin Bell, who won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for his “beautiful and daring editorial cartoons that took on issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration.” Bell, who is the first African American artist to win the prize, discusses the importance of editorial cartoons in a political crisis.

Podcast: In conversation with 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner Susanne Craig Apr 18, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Susanne Craig, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, about her work in the Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation that questioned Trump’s claim that he is a self-made billionaire. The investigative piece, which is 15,000 words long and took 18 months to complete, is the work of Craig, David Barstow, and Russ Buettner.

An editor murdered in Kashmir signals the erosion of press freedom Apr 11, 2019

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Aliya Iftikhar, Asia research associate for the Committee to Protect Journalists. As elections in India begin, Iftikhar discusses her investigation of Rising Kashmir Editor Shujaat Bukhari’s unsolved assassination. Amid the rise of Hindu nationalism and the recent erosion of democratic values in India, the media has been left to fend for itself.

Podcast: In conversation with Susan Smith Richardson from the Center for Public Integrity Apr 04, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Susan Smith Richardson who has been appointed as the new chief executive of Center for Public Integrity. She will be the first African American to head the nonprofit investigative journalism outlet. They talked about diversifying newsrooms, covering the 2020 elections, and the historic mayoral win in Chicago.

Mueller, Barr, and what journalism can do when the judicial system fails us Mar 28, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, Managing Editor Betsy Morais and Digital Editor Nausicaa Renner discuss the backlash against journalism in the wake of the Mueller report’s delivery to Attorney General William Barr, and why justice in journalism fills the void between our judicial system and the court of public opinion.

Podcast: Clerk who took over for racist Ala. editor speaks Mar 21, 2019

Podcast: Clerk who took over for racist Ala. editor speaks by Columbia Journalism Review

Podcast: Adam Moss and David Haskell on the transfer of power at New York Mar 14, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, outgoing Editor in Chief of New York Adam Moss and his successor David Haskell interview one another. They talk pitches, the art of the edit, and how they find the balance between magazine and newsroom. They were speaking at the Delacorte Lecture Series at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Podcast: What counts as journalism? Mar 07, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope and Seamus Hughes of George Washington University's Program on Extremism talk about who gets to be a reporter and what counts as journalism, especially when done by institutions that aren’t traditionally journalistic.

Heather Heyer’s mother: ‘I knew the press was coming’ Feb 28, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Susan Bro, whose daughter Heather Heyer died in the 2017 Charlottesville attack, and Contributing Editor Camille Bromley, who profiled Bro’s dealings with the press for our latest print edition. Bro discusses shifting the “white savior” narrative around her daughter’s death towards a focus on taking action against racism.

Podcast: Who is going to pay for journalism? Feb 21, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope and Mathew Ingram, CJR’s chief digital writer discuss The Cairncross Review, a report published in the UK, and the role of tech companies like Google and Facebook on news. They are joined by Josh Young, creator of our trust-based engagement platform, Galley by CJR, who spoke about the idea behind Galley and how it is helping journalists engage in meaningful discussions.

Getting to the truth in the Trump interview Feb 14, 2019

This week our Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with CJR’s Lyz Lenz about the work we put in in to legitimizing this presidency and whether we are right to make Trump’s narrative coherent.

Podcast: Should governments pay ransom for journalists? Feb 07, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Joel Simon, executive director of Committee to Protect Journalists about his latest book We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages and Ransom. They were joined by Janine di Giovanni, a human rights reporter in conflict zones and a senior fellow at Yale University, as they discussed hostage policy and the ethical and legal concerns behind it.

Layoffs and the argument for civic media Jan 31, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, to assess recent digital layoffs and consider a new civic model for journalism.

Podcast: In conversation with Jill Abramson on her new book, Merchants of Truth Jan 24, 2019

Podcast: In conversation with Jill Abramson on her new book, Merchants of Truth by Columbia Journalism Review

Podcast: Slate charts its survival through the digital winter Jan 17, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with David Uberti, on Slate’s survival strategy—in part as an audio production company.

Podcast: How did the media handle Trump’s Oval office address? Jan 10, 2019

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with staff writer Jon Allsop about how the media handled Trump’s address from the Oval Office. They also discuss the mistakes journalists can avoid as they prepare to cover the 2020 presidential race.

Podcast: A look back at 2018 Dec 20, 2018

Podcast: A look back at 2018 by Columbia Journalism Review

The Washington Post starts a daily news podcast in a saturated market Dec 13, 2018

The Washington Post starts a daily news podcast in a saturated market by Columbia Journalism Review

Mathew Ingram on the downfall of digital media Dec 07, 2018

ON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE, CJR EDITOR AND PUBLISHER KYLE POPE talks to Mathew Ingram, CJR’s chief digital writer about Mic’s shutdown and layoffs, and the future of digital media websites.

Gisele Regatao on NPR’s accent bias Nov 29, 2018

Gisele Regatao on NPR’s accent bias by Columbia Journalism Review

David Little on putting out a paper during the Paradise fire Nov 15, 2018

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with David Little, editor of the Chico Enterprise-Record about running his newsroom during the Camp Fire disaster.

Jelani Cobb and Lydia Polgreen on race, politics, and the media Nov 08, 2018

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker and guest editor of CJR’s issue on race, speaks with Lydia Polgreen, editor in chief of HuffPost, on racism in the press and why we aren’t doing a better job of diversifying newsrooms.

How bad will this get? Nov 01, 2018

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Todd Gitlin and Michael Schudson, journalism professors at the Columbia Journalism School, about Trump’s attacks on the press and what it means for democracy in the US.

Saudi journalists grapple with Khashoggi's death Oct 26, 2018

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Zainab Sultan, a Delacorte Fellow at CJR, about what Jamal Khashoggi’s murder means for Saudi journalists living outside the kingdom.

Brazil’s upcoming elections and the echoes of Trump in 2016 Oct 19, 2018

ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Sarah Maslin, the Brazil correspondent for The Economist, about the country’s upcoming October 28 run-off election. Lead candidate Jair Bolsonaro of the conservative Social Liberal party is running a campaign that challenges reporters there much as Trump’s 2016 run did the US press.

#MeToo reporting, one year after Weinstein Oct 11, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete speaks with CJR’s Nausicaa Renner and Alexandria Neason about one year of #MeToo reporting, discussing its successes and its shortcomings. Then, CJR Delacorte Fellow Amanda Darrach joins the pod to talk about her reporting on one California city’s struggle with the increasing polarization in local media.

Reporting on Trump’s business past with David Cay Johnston Oct 04, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete talks with Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston, who has spent decades covering Donald Trump’s business dealings, about The New York Times’s investigation into how the president got rich. Then, CJR’s Nausicaa Renner and Alexandria Neason join the pod to discuss media ethics questions raised by reporting on Christine Blasey Ford.

On Kavanaugh coverage and whether we’ve reached peak podcast Sep 27, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete talks with CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope about the deluge of news regarding Brett Kavanaugh and Rod Rosenstein that dominated the beginning of the week. (Note: The podcast was recorded before Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford testified on Thursday.) Then CJR’s Matthew Ingram calls in to discuss whether the podcast bubble is bursting.

On fallen men and the mystery of Tucker Carlson Sep 20, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete talks with CJR Digital Editor Nausicaa Renner about the recent decision by both Harper’s and The New York Review of Books to publish first-person accounts written by men accused of sexual assault and harassment. (Note: The podcast was recorded before news broke that Ian Buruma was out at NYRB.) Then Lyz Lenz, author of “The mystery of Tucker Carlson,” calls in from Iowa to talk about her profile of the Fox News anchor.

On Bob Woodward’s sources and journalism in Iraq Sep 13, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete talks with CJR Tow Editor Sam Thielman about the coverage of Bob Woodward’s blockbuster book, Fear: Trump in the White House. In taking the Trump presidency as his subject, Woodward had to assemble a reliable book from unreliable sources. Then, Sam shares what he learned about media in Iraq during his recent trip to the country. After tight controls of the press under Saddam Hussein, journalists are trying to build a vibrant media ecosystem while battling fake news.

Woodward on Trump; press crackdowns in Myanmar Sep 06, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete talks with Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, about the conviction of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. The two Reuters reporters were sentenced to seven year in prison after helping expose atrocities in Myanmar. Then, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope joins to discuss the reaction to Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, "Fear: Trump in the White House." They discuss why books do a better job of capturing Trump’s Washington than daily political reporting, and what we can expect from the reactions to Woodward’s work.

Covering John McCain’s death and the politics of ESPN Aug 30, 2018

Managing Editor Betsy Morais and Senior Staff Writer Alexandria Neason join Pete to talk about the deluge of coverage following John McCain’s death. Why was the Arizona senator beloved by much of the press, and did that change in recent years? Then, they turn to the departure of Jemele Hill from ESPN. The veteran journalist became the face of the network’s struggle to navigate the political waters of the Trump era. Her exit raises the question: Is it possible to be apolitical in 2018?

Emily Bell on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s press ban & Jack Dorsey’s press tour Aug 23, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete is joined by Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia, to discuss the reaction to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ban on reporters at two recent campaign events. Then, Emily weighs in on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s recent media tour. Is Twitter really ready to change? And what do necessary changes even look like?

Were all the free press editorials worth it? Aug 17, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete is joined by CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope to discuss the flood of editorials celebrating journalism in the face of attacks by the president. Were they a worthy defense or a misguided effort? Then, CJR senior staff writer Alexandria Neason stops by to dive into the controversy surrounding a Washington Post feature that has been accused of racial insensitivity.

Perils of the internet, from Alex Jones’s ban to Sarah Jeong’s tweets Aug 09, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete is joined by former CJR staff writer and The Kicker’s founding host David Uberti to discuss the removal of Infowars’s content from tech platforms. Why did it take so long, and where do Facebook, Apple, and Google go from here? Then, they dive into the controversy surrounding The New York Times’s newest hire. The reaction from the Times demonstrates the difference between journalists who have grown up on the internet, and media companies still struggling to adapt.

Facebook sets its own narrative. Plus, press hatred flares at Trump rallies Aug 02, 2018

CJR Digital Editor Nausicaa Renner and CJR Chief Digital Writer Mathew Ingram join Pete to discuss Facebook’s fight to control the narrative. The social media giant shut down more than 30 pages and accounts that it said were part of a political influence campaign potentially built to sow discord ahead of the midterm elections. But are the very public efforts too little, too late? Then, Nausicaa sticks around to talk about the vitriol toward the press at President Trump’s rally in Tampa.

The local news death spiral. Plus, the Cohen–Trump tapes. Jul 26, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete talks with CJR Delacorte Fellow Amanda Darrach about scenes from the New York Daily News’s black Monday. Then, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope joins to place the severe cuts at the News in the larger context of a crisis in local news. What’s the case journalists need to make in order to show how vital their jobs are? Finally, Pete and Kyle discuss CNN’s coverage of the Michael Cohen–Donald Trump tapes, and whether cable news has a problem with overselling its stories.

A new era for the press after Helsinki? Jul 19, 2018

On this week’s episode, Pete talks with CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope about the coverage of the Trump-Putin summit. Pope believes the president’s disastrous showing will be remembered as a turning point in the way the media covers the Russia story. Then, CJR Senior Staff Writer Alexandria Neason comes on to discuss the redemption narrative of the #MeToo men.

Breaking down coverage of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory Jun 28, 2018

On this episode of The Kicker, Pete and Nausicaa talk about coverage of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise primary victory and how certain media outlets missed the story. Then, we dive into the idea of “civility” in journalism, and the continued debate over coverage of Trump voters. Finally, we discuss Sarah Sanders’s absence from the White House Briefing Room. Is the daily televised back-and-forth even worth it?

How media pressure forced Trump’s hand on border policy Jun 22, 2018

The public outrage that forced President Trump to sign an executive order attempting to end the crisis that he created wouldn’t have happened without sustained media coverage. What caused that reporting to break through? And what do journalists need to do as the story continues?

Platforms and publishers Jun 14, 2018

On this week’s episode, we’re returning to one of our favorite topics—the relationship between platforms and publishers. Pete sat down with Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia, to better understand what Facebook and other platforms are up to. Emily recently presented at the Global Editors Network Summit in Portugal, speaking to world leaders in digital publishing about the Tow Center’s research into how the relationship between platforms and publishers is affecting the news business.

Let’s talk about class and journalism Jun 07, 2018

Journalism has a class problem. If you aren’t independently wealthy, the path into the industry isn’t easy, especially if your professional aspirations are national in scope. Yet conversations about class and journalism are largely absent from newsrooms. On this week’s episode, we talk to Sarah Jones, staff writer at The New Republic, about this taboo topic. She wrote about class for the latest issue of the Columbia Journalism Review.

Taking the buyout Jun 01, 2018

On this week’s episode, Peter Corbett gives a firsthand account of an experience that’s become commonplace among journalists over the past decade. The former Arizona Republic reporter spent 23 years at the regional powerhouse before taking a buyout in 2016. He’s one of several journalists in a story by Monica Potts in our new Jobs issue. On The Kicker, he tells the story of his struggle to come to terms with the decision to leave the profession to which he’s dedicated his life.

Can the marriage between Facebook and journalism be saved? May 24, 2018

On this week’s episode, CJR board member and founder of The Information Jessica Lessin interviews Facebook executive Adam Mosseri. Their conversation was recorded at a May 17 conference co-hosted by CJR and The Information in San Francisco. Lessin presses Mosseri on Lessin presses him on Facebook’s responsibility to publishers and whether the marriage between journalism and the social media platform can be saved.

A unified campaign against Alden Global Capital May 10, 2018

A unified campaign against Alden Global Capital by Columbia Journalism Review

Rukmini Callimachi on covering ISIS May 03, 2018

Rukmini Callimachi’s husband unfriended her on Facebook. She doesn’t tell her New York Times colleagues where she lives. Those are just a few of the precautions she’s taken since she started reporting on terrorism and the Islamic State. On this week’s episode, Meg spoke with Callimachi about the dangerous beat and how her new podcast, Caliphate, came to be. In Caliphate, Callimachi expands on her NYT reporting and dives deeper into the mind of ISIS with help from producer Andy Mills. Then Pete joins CJR colleagues Jon Allsop and Alexandria Neason to unpack two of this week’s biggest stories: Robert Mueller’s list of questions and the latest Kanye West controversy.

A Tale of Two Tariffs Apr 26, 2018

A Tale of Two Tariffs by Columbia Journalism Review

The Zuckerberg Chronicles Apr 12, 2018

The Zuckerberg Chronicles by Columbia Journalism Review

CNN’s Nima Elbagir on her investigation into Libya's slave trade Apr 05, 2018

CNN’s Nima Elbagir on her investigation into Libya's slave trade by Columbia Journalism Review

Is journalism a form of activism? Mar 29, 2018

Is journalism a form of activism? by Columbia Journalism Review

Paul Ford on the intersection of blockchain and journalism Mar 15, 2018

Paul Ford on the intersection of blockchain and journalism by Columbia Journalism Review

Kim Masters on #MeToo coverage; Susan Orlean on finding stories Mar 08, 2018

Kim Masters on #MeToo coverage; Susan Orlean on finding stories by Columbia Journalism Review

A new generation of native voices Mar 01, 2018

A new generation of native voices by Columbia Journalism Review

The Facebook Armageddon Feb 22, 2018

The Facebook Armageddon by Columbia Journalism Review

Women in the workplace Feb 15, 2018

Women in the workplace by Columbia Journalism Review

Threats to journalism Feb 08, 2018

Threats to journalism by Columbia Journalism Review

The Twitter bot economy Feb 01, 2018

The Twitter bot economy by Columbia Journalism Review

Slate’s ‘pivot to words’ Jan 25, 2018

Slate’s ‘pivot to words’ by Columbia Journalism Review

Untangling the Facebook mess Jan 18, 2018

Untangling the Facebook mess by Columbia Journalism Review

Reddit, Michael Wolff, and “media men” list Jan 11, 2018

Reddit, Michael Wolff, and “media men” list by Columbia Journalism Review

The year in journalism Dec 21, 2017

The year in journalism by Columbia Journalism Review

The popularity of "Cat Person" Dec 14, 2017

The popularity of "Cat Person" by Columbia Journalism Review

Jezebel’s new EIC on feminist reporting after Weinstein Dec 08, 2017

This week on The Kicker, Meg talks with Jezebel Editor in Chief Koa Beck about her plans for the feminist website, as well as the site’s influence on recent media coverage of sexual harassment. Then CJR’s Christie Chisholm joins Meg and Pete to discuss WNYC’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against some of its biggest names, the issues surrounding ABC News’s erroneous report on Michael Flynn, and the mainstream media’s continuing problem dealing with its new-media antagonists. [Note: This conversation was recorded before MSNBC reversed its decision to fire contributor Sam Seder.]

A dive into the swamp with Politico Playbook’s Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman Nov 30, 2017

A dive into the swamp with Politico Playbook’s Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman by Columbia Journalism Review

Anti-establishment media in the Trump era Nov 22, 2017

Anti-establishment media in the Trump era by Columbia Journalism Review

Turning the lens on whiteness when covering race Nov 16, 2017

This week on The Kicker, Meg talks with John Biewen, audio program director at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, about how his podcast Seeing White examines America's deep history of white supremacy. Then Pete is joined by CJR’s Christie Chisholm and Jon Allsop to discuss the right-wing media response to Roy Moore, some good journalism from Fox News, and how to fix the way we cover mass shootings.

Jelani Cobb on one year of Trump Nov 09, 2017

This week, Pete speaks with Jelani Cobb, staff writer at The New Yorker and professor at Columbia Journalism School, about the year following the election of President Donald Trump. Then Meg Dalton and Jon Allsop join Pete to discuss the media news of the week, including the narratives surrounding statewide election results, the question of giving airtime to Kellyanne Conway, and Ronan Farrow’s latest Harvey Weinstein bombshell.

The evolution of audio, Facebook’s political reckoning, and civil war at the WSJ Nov 03, 2017

The evolution of audio, Facebook’s political reckoning, and civil war at the WSJ by Columbia Journalism Review

Does Weinstein represent a sea change or just a moment? Oct 27, 2017

Does Weinstein represent a sea change or just a moment? by Columbia Journalism Review

From climate change to Facebook Oct 20, 2017

From climate change to Facebook by Columbia Journalism Review

Harvey Weinstein and the media's complicated relationship Oct 13, 2017

Harvey Weinstein and the media's complicated relationship by Columbia Journalism Review

Covering the White House with Glenn Thrush & Ben Jacobs Oct 06, 2017

This week on The Kicker, we present a special episode recorded live from Atlanta. CJR Managing Editor Vanessa Gezari talks with The New York Times’s Glenn Thrush and The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs about covering the Trump White House. They discuss the emotional toll of the breakneck news cycle, what’s different about the new administration, and how to avoid getting caught up in a reality-TV presidency.

Fake news in a small town Sep 29, 2017

Fake news in a small town by Columbia Journalism Review

Covering race and racism after Charlottesville Sep 22, 2017

On a special episode of The Kicker, we present clips from a panel CJR convened this week in Charlottesville, Virginia. Titled “Race, Racism, and the News,” the event featured several journalists with personal ties to the Charlottesville area, and touched on issues of language, representation, and white supremacy. Associate Editor Brendan Fitzgerald, who directs CJR’s United States Project, leads the conversation, and we hear from Slate’s Jamelle Bouie, The New York Times Magazine’s Jenna Wortham, and The Nation Institute’s Collier Meyerson. Special thanks to With Good Reason, a great podcast based in Virginia, for providing the audio excerpts.

Combat reporting from the field to the home front Sep 15, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, Pete talks to retired marine sergeant Thomas Brennan and veteran conflict photographer Finbarr O’Reilly, who have written a joint memoir, Shooting Ghosts, about their time in Afghanistan and their struggles to deal with what they experienced there. Then, Pete, Meg, and Karen discuss the White House’s call for the firing of ESPN anchor Jemele Hill, and the issue of how journalists present themselves on social media. Finally, we get to some of our favorite light-hearted stories of the week.

Preparing for the worst when covering disasters Sep 08, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, Meg talks to John Pope, an award-winning journalist known for his Hurricane Katrina coverage, about how newsrooms can prepare for disaster, including what to do before, during, and after the storm hits. Then, new CJR Delacorte Fellow Karen K. Ho joins Meg and Pete to discuss how newsrooms like Univision are preparing for Hurricane Irma, trust issues with Facebook, and the fall preview for what to expect in Washington.

Podcast: Hurricane Harvey Sep 01, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, Meg talks to the Dart Center’s Bruce Shapiro about the media’s coverage of Hurricane Harvey. Then we discuss harmful narratives in disaster reporting, the question of when journalists should or shouldn’t intervene, and the latest hiccup on the New York Times editorial page.

The white supremacy beat Aug 25, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, Pete talks to CJR contributor Christiana Mbakwe about need for a white supremacy beat post-Charlottesville. Then we discuss the Village Voice shutting down its print publication, the shakeup at the Los Angeles Times, and the tragic death of freelance journalist (and Columbia J-School grad) Kim Wall.

The media responds to Charlottesville Aug 18, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, we dedicate the entire episode to the media’s response to Charlottesville. Meg talks to CJR Associate Editor Brendan Fitzgerald about how local news covered the events last weekend. Plus, his personal experience working as a reporter in the city. We also discuss the language journalists should be using in their coverage with CJR contributor Shaya Tayefe Mohajer. You can read all of our Charlottesville coverage on CJR.org. Then we wrap up the episode with a conversation about Vice News Tonight’s gripping documentary following white supremacists in Charlottesville.

Podcast: Venezuela in crisis Aug 11, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, Meg interviews New York Times reporter Nick Casey about his experience following the economic-turned-political crisis in Venezuela. Casey covered the country for 10 months before the government barred him from returning in October. Then, we run through the week’s biggest media stories: the latest Fox News controversy, Israel’s ban of Al-Jazeera, and the narrative surrounding North Korea.

Podcast: Tabloids in the age of Trump Aug 04, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, Meg has an interview with journalist and novelist Julia Dahl. They discuss her experience working at the New York Post and how tabloids shaped the early years of Donald Trump. Then, we run through the week’s biggest stories: the narrative surrounding new White House chief of staff John Kelly, and buyouts at the New York Times. Plus, a short conversation with Peter Sterne, a senior reporter at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, about the new US Press Freedom Tracker.

The media is bad at covering drugs Jul 28, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, Meg has an interview with Leah Finnegan, features editor for The Outline. They discuss what journalists get wrong when reporting on drug addiction and how they can do better. Then, we run through the week’s biggest stories: how a health-care vote went down in cinematic style, a White House communications chief who doesn’t understand the basic rules of talking to the press, and progress in how journalists cover the president’s tweets.

Time to rethink the media’s Trump coverage? Jul 21, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, we run through some of the week’s biggest stories: what media mergers mean for both journalists and consumers, how to parse all of those anonymously sourced stories, and why Donald Trump keeps sitting down with reporters from The New York Times. Then, Pete Vernon talks with CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope about the press’s coverage of the Trump White House, and why it’s time for a new approach.

“It is, I promise, worse than you think” Jul 14, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, we run through some of the week’s biggest media stories, including how the White House’s response to Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer demonstrates a press shop in crisis, why net neutrality matters for journalists, and how to make environmental reporting connect with audiences. Then, Pete talks with Jesse Thorn, host of The Turnaround, about the art of the interview and what Thorn has learned from talking with people like Ira Glass, Terry Gross, and Jerry Springer. (1:11) Communication issues from the White House(4:00) Net neutrality in the news(6:50) Making climate reporting matter(12:27) Interview with Jesse Thorn

Breaking down CNN's Reddit fiasco Jul 07, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, we run through some of the week’s biggest media stories, including Al Jazeera getting caught in an international diplomatic crisis, Fox Sports’s embrace of “pivot to video,” and the legwork that went into capturing Chris Christie’s day at the beach. Then, we move on to CNN’s controversial decision to identify, but not name, the creator of a video that President Donald Trump tweeted out over the holiday weekend. The article in question stirred up lots of chatter over what stories are newsworthy and whether CNN was implicitly threatening a private citizen with exposure. Finally, Dave talks with Dave Mistich, digital managing editor of 100 Days in Appalachia, about covering Trump country without stereotypes or tokenism. (0:56) News Rundown(9:36) CNN’s controversy(19:45) Interview with Dave Mistich(30:22) #PersonalNews

What are "women's publications" for? Jun 29, 2017

We critique The Washington Post's new product targeting Millennial women, The Lily, and debate what, if anything, makes a good "women's publication." Then, Dave chats with CJR correspondent Trudy Lieberman about media coverage of the secretive Republican push to overhaul the US healthcare system.

The journalist and the arms dealer Jun 23, 2017

This week, we analyze the push for unionization at digital media properties and break down a new effort by NPR to reach younger audiences. Then, Dave talks to CJR Managing Editor Vanessa Gezari about how a Wall Street Journal correspondent cozied up to an Iranian-born arms dealer, exposing the dark underbelly of national security reporting.

Megyn Kelly gets trolled Jun 16, 2017

We run through some of the week’s biggest media stories, including layoffs across the industry, New York Times stories in search of a public editor, and how a single erroneous tweet can spark a fake news cycle. Then, we move on to Megyn Kelly’s upcoming interview with Infowars’s Alex Jones. How should mainstream journalists report on trolls? Finally, Dave talks with RealClearPolitics’s James Arkin about what it’s like to cover Congress in the Trump era and how Capitol Hill reacted to this week’s shooting. (1:15) News rundown(11:11) Alex Jones and Megyn Kelly(22:27)Covering Congress

How the Comey/Russia story is playing outside the media bubble Jun 08, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, Dave and Pete run through some of the week’s biggest media stories, including tech giants’ domination of the digital ad market, Breitbart’s Trump-era slump, and the lack of attention toward Scott Pelley’s departure from CBS Evening News. Then, we move on to Reality Winner and the first leak prosecution of the Trump administration. Finally, we talk with Brendan Fitzgerald, editor of CJR’s United States Project, about the way local newspapers around the country have—or haven’t—covered the Trump-Russia story.(1:06): News rundown(12:14): Trump's first leak prosecution(22:03): The Trump-Russia story

The end of the public editor era at The New York Times Jun 01, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, we run through some of the week’s biggest media stories, including a look at the future of The Chicago Sun-Times, the troubling trend of press norms being violated in the Trump era, and Twitter ethics for journalists. Then, we move on to the news of the day: The New York Times’s decision to eliminate the public editor position. Finally, CJR’s David Uberti interviews Simon Van Zuylen-Wood, author of an excellent piece in CJR’s spring print issue about why local TV news never changes. (1:12): News rundown (11:50): New York Times eliminates public editor position(19:08): Interview with Simon Van Zuylen-Wood on local TV news

The media’s model for covering terrorist attacks is broken May 24, 2017

Dave, Pete, and Christie run through some of the week’s biggest media stories, including a ratings leaderboard shakeup for cable news, a spurious conspiracy that consumed the right-wing media universe, and a new study that says--surprise--journalists drink too much caffeine and alcohol. Then, we move on to the media coverage of the terrorist attack in Manchester, and tackle why we think the industry’s model for covering terror attacks is broken. Finally, Dave interviews Clara Jeffery, editor in chief of Mother Jones. They discuss the magazine’s novel approach to funding its political coverage as well as the role Mother Jones played in breaking the Trump-Russia story.(1:45): News rundown(8:20): How the media covered the Manchester attack(16:50): Interview with Clara Jeffery of Mother Jones

A week inside the pro-Trump parallel media universe May 19, 2017

Pete and Dave run through the top media news of the week, from the scoop war in Washington, to the state of press freedom globally, to Roger Ailes's legacy. We then take you inside the counter-narratives offered by pro-Trump media this week. Finally, Dave interviews Glenn Burkins, editor and publisher of Q City Metro, about the fate of the black press in the digital age.

BuzzFeed News and the 'Upside Down' media May 11, 2017

We introduce our new print issue, which is dedicated to exploring the future of local news. Then, Dave interviews Ben Smith, editor in chief of BuzzFeed News. They talk truth and lies on the social web, BuzzFeed's plans for global expansion, and whether there's any hope for local media online. Follow The Kicker on Twitter @KickerCJR and email any suggestions for future topics or guests to TheKicker@CJR.org.

Bret Stephens and the role of columnists May 04, 2017

On the latest episode of The Kicker, we run through some of the week’s biggest media stories, including counterprogramming to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, conservative perspective on the layoffs at ESPN, and continued subscriber additions by The New York Times. Then, we move on to the fallout from Bret Stephens’s first column in the Times. Finally, CJR’s David Uberti talks with Ashley Codianni, director of social publishing at CNN. They discuss just what a social publisher does, as well as the ways CNN is working to become a leader in the digital sphere.(1:06) We run through the biggest stories of the week.(9:39) Bret Stephens's first column for The New York Times cause an uproar. We discuss whether the outrage was warranted.(23:43) CNN Director of Social Publishing Ashley Codianni joins the pod to discuss her job, as well as the ways CNN is trying to reach out to younger audiences on multiple platforms.

A third generation of 'conservative' media? Apr 25, 2017

CJR staffers run through some of the week's biggest media stories, including Trump's 100-day milestone, what didn't make it into The New York Times' James Comey profile, and the coverage narratives emanating from France. Then, we discuss whether a new, fictionalized portrayal of El Chapo can speak to larger journalistic truths. And finally, we ponder where a new-look Fox News might sit within a fast-changing conservative media. Follow us on Twitter @KickerCJR and please email us any suggestions for future topics or guests at TheKicker@cjr.org.

Facebook's worst-case scenario Apr 20, 2017

On The Kicker, we run through the week's three biggest stories, including Bill O’Reilly, White House transparency, and the special election in Georgia’s sixth district. Then, staff writer David Uberti is joined by CJR correspondent Corey Hutchins to discuss the recent layoffs at Berkshire Hathaway-owned papers and what it means for local news.Finally, Dave is joined by Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia, and Nausicaa Renner, CJR’s Tow editor, to discuss the problems facing Facebook in the wake of a man in Cleveland uploading video of himself shooting and killing a 74-year-old grandfather on Sunday.(0:55) Dave and CJR Delacorte Fellow Pete Vernon break down the week's biggest stories.(7:38) Corey Hutchins joins the show to discuss the recent cutbacks at newspapers owned by Warren Buffet.(15:37) Dave, Emily Bell, and Nausicaa Renner unpack the implications of the Cleveland murder uploaded to Facebook. What responsibilities does the platform have?

Addicted to war porn Apr 13, 2017

On The Kicker this week, we discuss White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s job performance to date. Spicer’s gaffe in comparing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Adolf Hitler was only the latest in a string of controversies emerging from behind the lectern in the Brady Briefing Room. Then, we have some fun imagining the life of a journalist in 2027. The impetus for the conversation was a recently published Associated Press report on the impact of artificial intelligence on journalism. Finally, Todd Gitlin, author and Columbia Journalism School professor, talks with Dave about the media’s love affair with war. Gitlin is a fierce critic of the manner in which journalists—both in print and especially on television—report on events like last week’s missile strike in Syria. He and Dave discuss the historical context for this concern, and how the media could better cover military action.

Reckoning with Facebook’s dominance, and CNN's Tanzina Vega on race & inequality Apr 05, 2017

On The Kicker this week, CJR’s Dave Uberti, Nausicaa Renner, and Pete Vernon discuss the role of platforms like Facebook and Google in the journalism landscape. Nausicaa guides us through a new Tow Center report, “The Platform Press: How Silicon Valley reengineered journalism.” What responsibility do platforms have to promote and provide for good journalism? What should publishers do to adapt to the platform-dominated reality? Then, Dave talks with Tanzina Vega, CNN’s national reporter for race and inequality. Vega speaks about increased national attention on the topics she covers, the state of diversity in newsrooms, and what the media gets wrong when it reports on race and class.Follow The Kicker on Twitter @KickerCJR and send any ideas for discussion topics or guests to TheKicker@CJR.org.

Is the podcast boom good for journalism? Mar 30, 2017

CJR's David Uberti, Pete Vernon, and Christie Chisholm discuss the podcast boom, from Serial to S-Town. What form does journalism take on the medium? And what, if anything, is lost? Then, Ernst-Jan Pfauth, publisher of the Dutch news organization De Correspondent, joins to talk about its attempt to break into the competitive American market. Can the outlet's membership model and unique philosophy of journalism provide an antidote to the daily news grind?Follow The Kicker on Twitter @KickerCJR and email suggestions for future guests or discussion topics to TheKicker@CJR.org.

Trump strains the news/opinion divide Mar 23, 2017

CJR’s David Uberti, Nausicaa Renner, Pete Vernon, and Carlett Spike discuss The Wall Street Journal's scathing editorial attacking President Trump's credibility. We also cover the divide between newsrooms and editorials, and question whether readers understand the distinction.Then, we turn to homepages, where algorithms are taking over. Finally, we welcome on Jeff Kelly Lowenstein to discuss his book "The Chilean Chronicles," which explores the unprecedented eruption of memory surrounding the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power.

Breaking News (a collaboration with BBC World Service) Mar 17, 2017

This week on a special edition of The Kicker, CJR and the BBC World Service have teamed up to produce an audio documentary. Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope narrates an exploration of two issues vital for journalism in America: How should the media respond to an administration that labels it “the enemy of the people,” and, perhaps more importantly, how can the media build trust with a public that sees it as hopelessly biased?

A Breitbart editor walks into a journalism conference... Mar 08, 2017

CJR’s David Uberti, Christie Chisholm, Pete Vernon, and Shelley Hepworth discuss some criticism we received for inviting Breitbart economics editor John Carney to our conference on covering Trump. Did he bring a valuable perspective? Or did we play a role in legitimizing a website that has trafficked in racism, misogyny, and white nationalism? Then, we turn to Hollywood, where a new movie about the Pentagon Papers—directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks—has just been announced. We talk about the depiction of women journalists on screen, as well as the checkered history of movies about the media industry.

Trump's media attacks are getting boring Feb 28, 2017

CJR's David Uberti, Nausicaa Renner, and Pete Vernon discuss a wild week in White House-media relations. Then, we turn to MisinfoCon, a weekend gathering of journalists and technologists trying to solve the fake news problem. Freelance writer Lyz Lenz calls in to chat about the Texas Monthly and its legendary writer, Pamela Colloff.

Spice, Spice baby Feb 16, 2017

Dave and Pete discuss why it matters that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer allows friendly outlets to ask questions at press briefings. CJR correspondent Corey Hutchins calls in to discuss fake news at the local level. And freelance journalist Jenni Monet, who was arrested while reporting at Standing Rock, joins to discuss coverage of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Thanks for kicking it with us as we worked through technical difficulties this week. Like Sean Spicer, we're learning on the job.

The Jake Tapper-Kellyanne Conway showdown Feb 09, 2017

Why are so many news organizations expanding into Australia? What is the state of health journalism as Obamacare hangs in the balance? Why were so many journalists talking about CNN anchor Jake Tapper's interview with Kellyanne Conway? We discuss that and more this week on The Kicker, where David Uberti is joined by CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope, health correspondent Trudy Lieberman, and Delacorte Fellows Pete Vernon and Shelley Hepworth.

Objectivity and Trump's refugee ban Feb 01, 2017

How has Breitbart used memes to build a huge audience on Facebook? Should journalists' notion of objectivity change in the face of immoral or un-American acts? What aspects of press freedom may change under the Trump Administration?We discuss that and more this week on The Kicker, where CJR's David Uberti is joined by Nausicaa Renner and Pete Vernon. Special guest Jonathan Peters, a media law professor and correspondent for CJR's United States Project, gives us the scoop on press freedom under Trump.

Avoiding Trump's trap with "alternative facts" Jan 24, 2017

Is the Trump Administration trying to bait aggressive reporters when it offers up "alternative facts"? What does a recent New York Times report tell us about the way its business model and editorial strategy are changing? How should journalists respond to charges of a liberal media conspiracy?We discuss that and more this week on The Kicker, where CJR's David Uberti is joined by Nausicaa Renner, Pete Vernon, and Christie Chisholm.

The ethics of BuzzFeed's decision to publish Trump-Russia memos Jan 13, 2017

Did BuzzFeed make the right call by publishing unverified memos detailing Russian efforts to compromise Donald Trump? How is The Undefeated, a new publication by ESPN, tackling this moment in race and politics? What did Trump's first press conference as president-elect tell us about how he'll treat the media going forward? We discuss that and more this week on The Kicker, where CJR's David Uberti is joined by Pete Vernon, Carlett Spike, and Vanessa Gezari.

Fox News and life after Megyn Kelly Jan 06, 2017

What does Fox News' primetime lineup say about its direction under the Trump Administration? Why should we care about the fate of the publishing platform Medium? What's the deal with all these misreported stories about Russia? We discuss that and more this week on The Kicker, where CJR's David Uberti, Nausicaa Renner, and Pete Vernon discuss the week in journalism.

Looking back on a tumultuous year in journalism Dec 29, 2016

What media trends from 2016 were the most alarming? The most encouraging? We discuss that and more this week on The Kicker, where CJR's David Uberti, Nausicaa Renner, and Pete Vernon break down the good, the bad, and the ugly from a tumultuous year in journalism.

Richard Deitsch on the state of sports media Dec 22, 2016

How does the atrophy of local media affect the way we understand sports? Are professional athletes getting more political, or are we just noticing it more? How is ESPN changing its business model? We discuss that and more this week on The Kicker, where CJR's David Uberti and Pete Vernon are joined by Richard Deitsch, a media writer for Sports Illustrated.

Thomas Jefferson on fake news Dec 16, 2016

Should a bad tweet be a fireable offense for reporters? What can the history of fake news tell us about the challenge facing journalism today? Who are the biggest media names to switch jobs in the post-election shuffle? We discuss that and more this week on The Kicker, where David Uberti is joined by Nausicaa Renner and Pete Vernon.

Michael Rosenwald on the enduring primacy of print Dec 08, 2016

Should mainstream journalists be engaging more with the right-wing press? Was print media too quick to jump on the digital bandwagon? Why do foreign news outlets seem to be getting all the scoops about the Trump transition? We discuss all that and more on The Kicker, which is guest-hosted this week by CJR Managing Editor Vanessa Gezari. Vanessa is joined by CJR Tow Editor Nausicaa Renner and CJR Delacorte Fellow Shelley Hepworth, along with special guest Michael Rosenwald, a reporter for The Washington Post.

Emily Bell on Facebook and fake news Dec 01, 2016

Does Facebook need to clean up its act? Can newsrooms overcome the culture clash between tech and editorial? And what about coverage of those Trump tweets? We discuss that and more on The Kicker, where David Uberti is joined this week by CJR Associate Editor Nausicaa Renner and special guest Emily Bell, director for The Tow Center for Digital Journalism.

What we're thankful for in journalism this Thanksgiving Nov 23, 2016

David Uberti is joined by CJR's Nausicaa Renner and Pete Vernon to discuss internet trolls, CJR's massive new oral history of campaign coverage, and what we're thankful for in journalism this Thanksgiving.

Fake news and Trump's trashing of political norms Nov 18, 2016

CJR's Kyle Pope, David Uberti, and Nausicaa Renner discuss what publications' post-election subscription surge means for journalism, Donald Trump's unwillingness to establish a protective press pool, and Facebook's inability to police fake news.

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