Picked up three used journalism books at The Strand just now and the cashier told me so few people ever go to that section, and when they do they’re all looking for Hunter S. Thompson—but that there’s so much more cool stuff back there. And he’s right. Journalism is pretty cool.

They create videos "light on evidence and traditional journalistic techniques but filled with sinister-sounding claims." Slopulism "rage posting" offers followers "emotional gratification through mindless, performative gestures" that can provoke policy action. Don't fall for it. #medialiteracy

Another reason why we need strong news literacy education: these videos aren’t journalism. They aren’t really investigative. But they can sure seem that way to people who don’t know how journalism works. (Gift article) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I feel like I've built the right culture in my class when students email me like this: "I just wanted to let you know that I am going to be late to class today. I won’t give you any hogwash, I just woke up late." Hogwash!!

Sobbing at my desk this morning. This business has been so absolutely cruel over much of the last decade. Gut punch after gut punch. To hear that such talented journalists - and friends - are losing their jobs is just heartbreaking. We fought together so hard for our contract ... but evil still wins

My latest for @theconversation.com: As Jeff Bezos dismantles The Washington Post, five regional papers chart a course for survival. What could Bezos learn from The Boston Globe, The Minnesota Star Tribune, The Seattle Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Salt Lake Tribune?

I guess we can finally write the last chapter of David Halberstam's great book 'The Powers that Be.' Time Magazine CBS News The Washington Post The LA Times It's hard to imagine a bigger change in what those brands mean than what has happened to them between 1979 and 2026.

Amazon spent $75 million for MELANIA, a hagiomentary that will likely incur $60 million in losses even after a robust box office. Jeff Bezos is willing to lose money on media, just a certain kind of media

Here's the tragedy: Timothy Crouse made exactly the same argument, for similar reasons, in 1972.

There are eight full-time faculty in my department. Four of us have birthdays within five days of each other.

Everyone who participates in public, civic conversation needs to learn to be a press critic at some level. It is a vital skill for media literacy—and Jay Rosen's summary of the distinctions he uses in his own criticism is a great place to start thinking about refining your own thinking.

New at Media Nation. Before Minneapolis there was the Boston Massacre. In 1983, I wrote my master's thesis on how the press of Colonial Boston covered it. dankennedy.net/2026/02/02/b...

Registration for this year's Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference at Columbia University is open! Registration is free for all graduate students. The conference will be held March 27 from 9-5 a.m. To sign up, visit ajha.wildapricot.org/event-6518450

It's easy to call out the Orwellian don't-believe-your-eyes propaganda, and we absolutely should. But the happy-talk, infantilizing, no-need-to-pay-attention-to-difficult-things propaganda of Huxley can be just as dangerous. #amusingourselvestodeath

We’re just not a free country. Any American watching this play out between regime forces and journalists overseas would recognize it for what it is.

One of the old saws of journalism—intended to make reporters appropriately skeptical of their sources—is "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." I do hope Dokoupil follows through on that advice.

"It took me a few years, one pandemic and a library science degree to realize I didn’t need to rebuild trust in journalism. I just needed to move the newsroom to where that trust already lives: the public library."

Kudos to the NYT editor who took “Appears to” out of the lead headline (finally)

Journalists in Minneapolis are working nonstop to inform us about the horrific violence being inflicted in upon their city, their state and our country — all while living through it in their communities. @mprnews.org has been invaluable. It’s a good day to support their work support.mpr.org

TIL that the gallery of newspaper front pages that used to be a part of the Newseum website still exists, under the banner of FreedomForum.org. You can look at the front pages of nearly 500 newspapers from all over the U.S. every day. frontpages.freedomforum.org/gallery

“CBS News. The place to see BS news.” — Nikki Glaser in her opening monologue at the Golden Globes airing on CBS.

If you're a film and media scholar, or work around the discipline, now is the time to research and write about "noncommercial" media industries and the role of media in democracy. It's not enough to merely describe successful business models anymore.

I curate the history series at public media's trade journal Current. We're looking for pieces on the history of NPR, PBS and its affiliates, with some space to imagine public media's future. We accept academic articles repurposed for wide readership. Plus, we pay. Please circulate!

123 years ago this month, muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens reported on "The Shame of Minneapolis" for McClure's Magazine. The story wasn't new—but he did bring it to a new audience. Here's a link to a pdf with a nice contextual intro: www.minnesotalegalhistoryproject.org/assets/steff...

[email protected] asked me to write about the state of CBS News after Weiss and Dokoupil. I'm honored she asked. An Expert's Analysis of Tony Dokoupil's First Week Anchoring katiecouric.com/news/opinion...

A typically excellent @joshuabenton.com piece today, on the demise of Pittsburgh’s only daily newspaper. (I also learned that the Toledo Blade had a London bureau til 1983!) Via @niemanlab.org www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/will...

I need to stage a Fox News intervention for my dad. One of my sisters, who lives in exurban Minneapolis and works in a school district with quite a few Somali families, has become increasingly despairing over what has been happening in her area. 1/

not saying it can't get worse but this week really feels like a straightforward depiction of what worst-case 'post truth' information apocalypse ppl were warning of in the late 2010s

Not sure how to summarize this one. Wrote about the podcaster-occupied government invading for content, how the algorithmic internet is governed by the logic of reaction videos, and how it has contributed to a very nihilistic illiterate politics and culture of performance for imagined audiences

“There’s a project to essentially starve the public system and then reallocate the signals”: Project 2025 aims not only to stop funding public media, but also to replace it with outlets politically favorable to Trump -- Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social @rodneybenson.bsky.social @pbs.org

No matter how many university orientations I go to, it never gets old to hear myself described as part of a “community of Lerners.”

Our information ecosystem is horribly sick right now.

Dick Pollak, who I knew best as the founding editor of the 1970s journalism review (MORE), died last week. He was a terrific journalist and editor and thinker, and he was also a mensch, generous with his time and his bound volumes. I’m proud to have known him. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/b...

Nice compilation by CNN of all the 1st Amendment threats this year www.cnn.com/politics/fre...

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

My Nieman Lab prediction for this year is a rant. It's a five alarm fire for journalism (and other things as well) and it's time to fight. (we won't.) www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/the-...

Always love the @niemanlab.org predictions for journalism, but extra-psyched this year to have two colleagues who prognosticated. Read the work of @brizzyc.bsky.social and @jamditis.bsky.social (And then come study journalism with us at Montclair State University!) www.niemanlab.org/collection/p...

Rob Reiner is responsible for more films that I can quote almost verbatim than pretty much any other director. In the last week, I've watched Stand by Me and the original This is Spinal Tap. Princess Bride is probably my most re-watched movie. Just crushing on top of Brown and Bondi. So, so bleak.

I always wait to do my year-end top ten lists at the end of the *fiscal* year.

While I don't like the idea of newspapers living and dying entirely because of billionaire philanthropy, I vastly prefer that to a world with no Daily News (or daily news!)

"I spend much more time with NYT Games (daily average is 24 minutes, right around when I give up) than I do with the actual New York Times (daily average is 9 minutes)." www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/jour... by Jacob L. Nelson

wow do you want to be an editorial intern at a cool cooperatively owned company and write blogs for the summer???? apply here! defector.com/would-you-li...

On Fridays I get to drag my Slate colleagues in to our studio and together we laugh at the news. Truly one of my fave things I’ve been doing this year slate.com/podcasts/wha...

The United States men's national team will play Paraguay, Australia and then one of Slovakia/Kosovo/Türkiye/Romania at the World Cup on home soil next summer. Wondering how they got there? It's a bizarre and funny story. I've written a book about it. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/722130...

We need great, small, independent journalism. But we also need the big institutions. Because the big institutions are the ones who have the resources to do things like this. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/b...

Omg. Everything I teach is selected with so much thought towards relevance and necessity. But those things by definition require not just expertise but CRITICAL JUDGEMENT. That’s why people not robots teach and there is a large sphere of rational disagreement about those words.

My friend Jake (that’s Dr. Beck to you!) on the crisis in Texas universities. www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...

People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.

I love many things about this @brianphillips.bsky.social piece, including all of the many very funny parts, but also this hat tip to good editing and the kicker, which puts deserved faith in student journalists. www.theringer.com/2025/11/25/n...