I Read the News Today... Oh Boy
Eric Alterman
While some of America's smartest and most civic-minded people are trying to save daily newspapers, the media moguls who can make a difference seem to be completely off their rockers.
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Obama vs. the Smart Guys (and Dumb Wars)
Eric Alterman : Iraq War
Barack Obama got it right on Iraq six years ago. Now, perhaps, so can the rest of us.
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Hello Cruel World
John Palattella : Non-Fiction
The narrative journalism of David Samuels finds conversation, color and conflict in the vortex of American life.
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How the Russert Test Failed America
Linda Hirshman
Sure, he asked the tough questions. But why didn't he challenge the lies?
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The Canonization of St. Tim
Alexander Cockburn
It's hard to explain the media delirium over a newsman who gave the powerful a pass on Iraq.
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Donahue's War
Rebecca MacNeice : Iraq War
Phil Donahue talks about his experience as a talk show host on MSNBC during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq.
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Silence of the (MSM) Lambs
Eric Alterman
They enabled the Iraq catastrophe and now spin a self-flattering narrative to excuse their failings.
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Say It Ain't So, Joe
Eric Alterman : Joseph Lieberman
Take a look at the qualities right-wing pundits so admire about dove-turned-hawk, Dem-turned-Republican Joe Lieberman.
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Good Night and Good Luck
Eric Alterman
Pundits embrace the fantasy of Hillary Clinton's candidacy as foolishly as they embraced the Iraq War.
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Pentagon Pundits Scandal: Ignored
Free Press : Media Analysis
Why is the media ignoring one of the biggest political scandals in recent memory?
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Journalists Slam ABC Debate Tactics
: Debates
In an open letter to ABC News, a group of journalists and media analysts condemns the network's poor handling of the latest Clinton/Obama faceoff.
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It's a Scandal, All Right
Mary Mapes : Iraq War
Media pundits and bloggers bloviate when journalists make mistakes. But where is their outrage over the biggest fraud of all: the way the media followed Bush to war?
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YouTube for Smart People
Ari Melber : Internet & New Media
Big Think seeks to smarten up the Internet by getting up close and intellectual with the most creative thinkers alive.
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Smearing Obama
Ari Berman : Media Analysis
False claims about Obama intended to stoke racial and religious fear are trickling from the far right to the mainstream media.
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Squire Willie
Robert Sherrill : Conservatives & The American Right
Surveying the life and accomplishments of the "late" William F. Buckley Jr.
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McCain and the Media
Robert Scheer : Corporate Media & Consolidation
It's absurd for the New York Times to cast him as a tool of corporate media, when he's been in the forefront of trying to rein it in.
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When Newspapers Take a Stand
Ari Melber : Media Analysis
The New York Times editorial page endorses McCain, while its news department works to discredit him. And there's nothing wrong with that.
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Conservative Cannibalism
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
Dumb and dumber: reviewing new books by David Frum and Jonah Goldberg.
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Dahr Jamail: Beyond the Green Zone
Jeremy Scahill : Iraq War
An independent journalist talks about what's really happening in Iraq, and why neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama have a plan for ending the catastrophe.
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From Guernica to Iraq
Tom Engelhardt : Iraq War
There's an escalating air war in Iraq; why don't American media consider it serious news?
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Ms.understanding
Katha Pollitt : Feminism & Women
The magazine walks into a trap labeled "political correctness," "left-wing anti-Semitism" and "multiculturalist Islam love."
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Wall Street to Daily Papers: 'Drop Dead'
Eric Alterman
How can newspapers survive financial meltdown if they surrender to a culture of defeat?
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The Lies of Quinn-Broderville
Eric Alterman
Truth, lies and attacks on Democrats from columnists at the Washington Post and the New York Times.
2007
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Best of The Nation 2007
It was a year of alarming news and amazing reporting on the Iraq War, the rise of private mercenary firms, the burgeoning business of disaster capitalism, an ever more vulnerable environment. Here's how The Nation covered the year.
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Al Jazeera Goes Mainstream
The Arabic and English satellite broadcasts are giving voice to Arabs who challenge their governments, and ours.
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Lippmann and the News
Michael Schudson : Media Analysis
In the early 1900s Walter Lippman laid the groundrules for public debate in America. Have the US media followed his prescriptions?
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What's Really Wrong With the MSM?
They've lost our trust by providing conservatives a platform for deliberate deceptions, silencing reporters for revealing the truth and excusing their own self-serving behavior.
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The Thinking Person's Reader's Digest
Lapham's Quarterly makes its debut, seeking to explain the present with illuminations from the past.
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The New Face of Al Jazeera
Kristen Gillespie : Islam & Muslims
Is the popular Arabic satellite network becoming more Islamist and sectarian?
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Of Lies, Catfights and Rock 'n' Roll
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
Official lies have always been with us. But our political life--as depicted by Maureen Dowd, among others--has been poisoned by the even more insidious unrebuttable lie.
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The Liberal Hawks' Lament
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
Consider the plight of the embattled liberal hawks and their lonely struggle to discredit the left.
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Stop the Media Grab
: Corporate Media & Consolidation
If FCC chairman Kevin Martin prevails, Americans will be stuck with one-size-fits-all media and a downsized democracy.
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The Courage of Anna Politkovskaya
A human rights activist remembers the courage of a crusading journalist, murdered one year ago.
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Our New Look
Take note of our new look, new features, the return of Comix Nation in the print edition of the magazine.
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The Coming 'Stab in the Back' Campaign
Eric Alterman : Republican Party
Bush and the neocons are trying to save their crumbling reputations by blaming critics of the war for the debacle.
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Olbermann Rules!
Marvin Kitman : Media Analysis
He's the guy who put the guts back into TV journalism.
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The Passenger
Andrew Rice : Public Figures & Intellectuals
In a posthumously published memoir, Ryszard Kapuscinski looks back on his life as a pathbreaking literary journalist who covered the Third World during the cold war.
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A Man Who Gets His Way
A veteran newsman recalls Rupert Murdoch. Despite his promises to protect editorial integrity of the Wall Street Journal, don't expect him to get a soul transplant any time soon.
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Murdoch & the Journal
Under Rupert Murdoch, the paper of record for the global economy won't survive as an independent voice.
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End of an Era at the LA Weekly
The Rupert Murdoch effect: The progressive LA Weekly has gone from a well-reported newspaper to a flashy tabloid with "gotcha" articles.
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The Assault on Reality
What do the Washington Post --and the rest of the MSM--have against Al Gore?
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Digby Speaks: The Netroots Revolution
The pseudonymous Southern California blogger accepts the Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award on behalf of progressive bloggers everywhere--and invites the nation to join the party.
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Alterman's Arrest
Eric Alterman, arrested in New Hampshire over whether he really belonged at a post-debate party, explains exactly what happened.
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Potemkin Paper?
Eric Alterman : Conservatives & The American Right
The New York Sun's alleged success is a figment of its conservative owners' imaginations.
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Critiquing the Post
Michael Corcoran : Washington Post
If the Washington Post is a key player in American politics, why does its editorial page consistently miss the point?
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Small Magazines, Big Ideas
An impending rate hike could silence small independent magazines of all political stripes that make a key contribution to the conversation of democracy.
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The Iraq Information Crackdown
Nicholas von Hoffman : Internet & New Media
The Iraqi government bans news footage of street carnage and the Pentagon blocks soldiers' access to YouTube and MySpace. Can we assume from this that the surge is going badly?
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Outsourcing the War
Testimony to Congress on the impact of private military contractors in Iraq.
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Studs Terkel, Listener
Calvin Trillin : Public Figures & Intellectuals
In celebration of Studs Terkel's 95th birthday, here's a tribute to a writer whose curiosity and generosity of spirit embraces everyone, without regard to rank or station.
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The Post-Imus Conundrum
Liberals prefer to ignore that when it comes to verbal violence, white radio shock jocks are given the same pass as gangsta rappers.
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Watching the Reporters
After three foreign correspondents are decertified, is Cuba sending a message to the international press corps?
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Silencing New Voices
Eyal Press : Student Movements
What happens when a student magazine committed to fostering dialogue opens its pages to critical views on Israel?
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The Pulitzer Pause
Out of ideas and bleeding money, mainstream media gives itself yet another round of prizes. They should spend some time recalibrating their values.
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Disseminate Information, Protect Democracy
Unless the US Postal Service reverses its steep increases in bulk-mailing rates to favor large corporate publishers, the future of small magazines is grim.
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Sun-rise in New York
How the pugnacious, money-losing New York Sun has won friends and influenced conservatives.
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The Politics of Pundit Prestige...
Eric Alterman : Internet & New Media
Media bigwigs are taking a beating as bloggers challenge their accuracy, integrity and transparency.
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Walter Reed Scandal: How Mainstream Media Let Us Down
Celia Viggo Wexler : US Military
Cutbacks and a penchant for profits and "happy news" hid the plight of wounded soldiers.
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Empire Fall
Christian Parenti : Vietnam War
A biography of Bernard Fall examines the life of the man who laid the foundations for contemporary war reporting.
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In the Morgue
Nicholas von Hoffman : Iraq War
To understand the human costs of US actions in Iraq, read the blog postings of Iraqi employees of the McClatchy News Service Baghdad bureau.
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Sold to Mr. Gordon, Another Bridge!
Alexander Cockburn : Media Analysis
The New York Times's credulous reporting of flimsy "evidence" regarding Iranian weapons in Iraq is enabling Bush's anti-Iran propaganda drive.
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Dude! Where's My Debate?
The majority of Americans support fair-trade policies--so why do mainstream pundits treat the idea with so much contempt?
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Molly, in Her Own Words
: Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
From the pages of The Nation, here's a sampler of Molly Ivins at her best.
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The Press and the Watada Trial
Also at stake in the trial of an Army officer who refuses to deploy to Iraq is the independence of the press.
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Iraq and the Sin of Good Judgment
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
Given their sorry records on Iraq, why are are neocon pundits worth listening to at all?
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Newspapers...and After?
Newspapers may be dinosaurs in the age of new media, but they have enough life to guide--and even define--our politics.
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Greater Than Warren Harding?
On Gerald Ford's greatness and the New York Times's ghastly coverage of Iraq.
2006
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And the Beat Goes On...
Eric Alterman : Civil Rights Movement
A new book examining civil rights coverage demonstrates that the best reporting sometimes requires journalists to toss objectivity out the window.
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War: Voters Said No, Congress Said Yes
In Congress and the popular press, fantasy rules when the subject is Iraq.
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Olbermann's Hot News
Daphne Eviatar : Media Analysis
News flash: Dissent sells! And the American public does have a taste for serious, high-minded news.
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MoDo, Deconstructed
Simon Maxwell Apter : New York Times
Maureen Dowd's political analysis is devilishly smart and viciously funny--but the New York Times columnist really should spend less time on the couch.
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Prosecute Rumsfeld? Not Ridiculous
Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith : Donald Rumsfeld
A mainstream media legal analyst dismissed efforts to prosecute Donald Rumsfeld and others for war crimes as ridiculous. They're not.
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Crisis at Libération
K.A. Dilday : Corporate Media & Consolidation
Beset with financial woes, a labor-management power struggle and an aging leftist readership, the legendary French newspaper is on the brink of extinction.
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The Death of News
Nicholas von Hoffman : Corporate Media & Consolidation
In cities across America, reporters are being laid off, TV stations are cutting back coverage and the newspaper industry is crumbling to dust. When it all shakes out, will Wikipedia be as good as it gets?
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Ellen Willis, 1941-2006
Friends and colleagues remember Ellen Willis, political essayist, journalist, rock critic and valued contributor to The Nation, who died November 9.
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Time to Abolish the Editorial Page?
Do newspapers really need special pages for political pronouncements, stentorian tone and candidate endorsements?
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The End of Times?
Eric Alterman : Corporate Media & Consolidation
Journalism's in crisis, crushed by Wall Street and tarnished by a failure of nerve. As newspapers die and fake news proliferates, who will provide reliable information vital to a functioning democracy?
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A Salute to Molly Ivins
Her writing--sharp, satirical, infused with the spirit of skepticism--reminds us that dissent rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors.
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Useful Idiots
Why did America's so-called liberal media find it so easy to support Bush's Iraq disaster? You won't find answers in the US media: Try The London Review of Books.
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No 'Comments'
Eric Alterman : Internet & New Media
How can the MSM maintain they hold themselves to higher standards than the Drudge-driven political blogosphere when they ape its most irresponsible practices?
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Anna Politkovskaya
Katrina vanden Heuvel : Russia
The killing of Anna Politkovskaya has rallied her journalistic colleagues and fellow citizens in a way few other recent events have.
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Woodward, Revised
Bob Woodward is late to the party: His new book, State of Denial, catches up to the story of the Iraq debacle that other journalists have been reporting for years.
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A Meta-Read Is a Better Read
The notion that the function of journalists is to explain "the truth" is about as quaint as America's participation in the Geneva Conventions.
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Get Me Rewrite
Bill Clinton maintains that the mainstream media has misrepresented his record on fighting terror. But it will take a generation to meaningfully assess his effectiveness.
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Screamin' at the Machine
We should be cheering at sports events and screaming at politicians. But these days, it's vice versa. Now that ESPN's Screamin' Stephen A. Smith is acting like a pundit, things could change.
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All Governments (and Some Journalists) Lie
Democracy demands that journalists tell the truth. The success of liars like Bob Novak and Ann Coulter is a greater threat to America than a truck full of terrorists bent on doing us harm.
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The Problem with Pundits
Eric Boehlert : Media Analysis
Pro-Lieberman Beltway pundits who whined about progressive bloggers and sounded noisy alarms about the disastrous impact of a Lamont win will have a lot of explaining to do come November.
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The Times Is Us
Eric Alterman : New York Times
In wartime, you lose the luxury of choosing your allies: The Bush Administration's attacks on the New York Times are attacks on us all.
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Chilling the Press
Scott Sherman : National Security Administration (NSA)
Did the New York Times violate the Espionage Act by publishing reports of government secret spying program? A controversial essay in Commentary has provided intellectual ammunition to chill, censor and punish the press.
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The President's Jihad
The Bush Administration's jihad against newspapers that reported on a secret program to monitor the personal-banking records of unsuspecting citizens is more important than the original story.
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The Death of News
Mark Crispin Miller : Corporate Media & Consolidation
The press that once went hoarse over Monica Lewinsky's dress is largely silent over the Bush regime's vast abuses of power.
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Bunkum From Benador
The debunking of a PR agency that circulated a bogus story about persecution of Jews in Iran exposed the moving parts of a media machine bent on preparing the American public for another war.
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Truth Is for 'Liberals'
Five years into the Bush Administration, the press corps still can't figure out how to handle the White House's primary media management tactic: lying.
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Stooges for the Establishment
Five unrepentant media giants, complicit in the hidden agendas of government leakers, now pay the price for their unethical reporting on Wen Ho Lee.
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As Others See Us
Nicholas von Hoffman : US Foreign Policy
When a group of international journalists visited a small town in Maine, they made it clear that America's aggression in Iraq, its greed and the advance of pop culture are leading onetime allies to desert us.
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The Political Power of Words
The X factor in the midterm elections may well be the English language--specifically, the biased terminology that seeps unchallenged into mainstream media political coverage.
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Forecast for Snow
Jay Rosen : Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Jay Rosen writes that when government refuses to explain itself, it's up to journalists to find the truth. As Tony Snow debuts as White House Press Secretary, will answers on Porter Goss be forthcoming--or will the pattern of press nullification continue?
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Bush's Other War
Eric Alterman : George W. Bush
The FBI's bid to examine Jack Anderson's papers is the latest battle in the Bush Administration's war against the media.
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Science Fact or Science Fiction?
Bryan Farrell : Global Warming & Climate Change
Climate change is real, and its impact is potentially devastating to our way of life. So why do the news media have such a hard time telling the straight story?
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The Gasbag Gap
Eric Alterman : US Politics & Government
Why expect political balance on talk TV when the networks are wedded to the belief that all the action is on the right?
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Spin to the Right
Coretta Scott King's funeral should have been a paean to liberal values. Instead, talking heads nattered over the etiquette of speaking truth to power.
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Lies About Blowjobs, Bad. Wars? Not So Much.
Despite his lies and incompetence, Bush remains more popular with elite media than Clinton or any other political leader who sought to save us from the Iraq catastrophe. Why won't they connect the dots?
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Never Mind the Truth...
Coverage of the Alito hearings revealed once again that there is no liberal bias in mainstream media.
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Foggy Bottom
Patricia J. Williams : George W. Bush
If we are suspending the law in deference to Bush's unchecked impulses, let's call it by its proper name: Benign lawlessness? Gitmo Governance? Fear Factor?
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'Fool Me Once...'
The willingness of our most powerful media companies to defer to pressure from the White House is deeply disconcerting. In the name of national security, the Bush team repeatedly demonstrates its contempt for the media and for normative standards of truth.
2005
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It Wasn't All Bad
Katha Pollitt : Political Analysis
Bush is on the defensive. The GOP is mired in corruption. The media are waking up. Civil liberties are beginning to matter. See? Good things did happen in 2005.
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Pentagon Secretly Paid to Place Articles In Iraqi Newspapers: Another Lesson in Democracy
This just in: The Pentagon offers yet another lesson in democracy. Just don't look for any bylines.
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All the News That's Fit to Buy
Alexander Cockburn : Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Bush brings a robust simplicity to the business of news management: Where possible, buy journalists to turn out favorable stories. And if you think you can get away with it, shoot them or blow them up.
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Anybody Want to Buy a Newspaper?
Nicholas von Hoffman : Corporate Media & Consolidation
Under pressure from Wall Street, newspaper journalism is being frog-marched out of the media marketplace. And once it's gone, how will we know anything?
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The Putsch at Public Broadcasting
With professionals at the top forced out and replaced by GOP fundraisers, the right-wing takeover of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is now plain to see. Though CPB's Inspector General has exposed former chair Kenneth Tomlinson's ethical transgressions, what else are they hiding?
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Killing the Messenger
Patricia J. Williams : Conservatives & The American Right
It's one thing for our State Department to plant phony stories in the media or jam broadcasts in Cuba. It's quite another for conservative policy analyst Frank Gaffney bolster's George Bush's grudge against Al Jazeera by arguing that it was "imperative that enemy media be taken down."
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Did Bush Really Want to Bomb Al Jazeera?
Jeremy Scahill : George W. Bush
Given the Administration's record of attacking Al Jazeera verbally and militarily, is it conceivable that President Bush tried to convince Tony Blair to bomb its international headquarters? Only publication of an explosive memo will prove it.
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Scooter Libby's Doomed Defense
Elizabeth de la Vega : Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Capitalizing on Bob Woodward's revelation that he was one of the first to learn about Valerie Plame's CIA status, Scooter Libby's legal team hopes that will get their client off the hook. That turkey won't fly.
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The Lies That Bind
Lack of candor is not surprising from Bush or Ahmad Chalabi, but why does the New York Times continue to struggle with the truth about Judith Miller? The Gray Lady might solve the problem by banning anonymous Administration sources in its news reports. If they're going to lie to us anyway, why not under their own names?
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Bush's War on the Press
John Nichols & Robert W. McChesney : 1st Amendment
Until the Bush Administration is held accountable by Congress for its propaganda, manipulation of the truth and assaults on journalism, freedom of the press will exist in name only.
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More Leaks, Please!
Bruce Shapiro : Dissent After 9/11
Power-friendly reporters like Judith Miller are easily manipulated by selective leaks. But what we need now is more civil disobedience by whistleblowers exposing renditions, acts of torture and the flagrant abuse of power.
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Postcards From the Abyss
Anthony Shadid's Night Draws Near is a moving account of life in Iraq before and after the US occupation. Liberal hawk George Packer's The Assasins' Gate delves into the history behind humanitarian intervention.
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State of the Magazines
Victor Navasky : Alternative & Independent Media
On both sides of the Atlantic, liberal news magazines facing declining circulation have started to play into the celebrity culture. But there are gems that have the power to carry our culture through its Las Vegas-ization.
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A Misguided Crusade
Robert Scheer : New York Times
The New York Times exposes its own misguided and unethical campaign to make a terrible reporter a First Amendment saint.
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Optimism of the Will
Mike Davis : Cultural Criticism & Analysis
The rich legacy of former Nation editor and activist Carey McWilliams is on full display in three books.
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Messing With Mother Nature
Rush Limbaugh would should skip the juvenile hurricane jokes and summon up some genuine empathy for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
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Judith Miller: Embedded Over Her Head
The jailed reporter doesn't understand that a free press depends on the ability of reporters to protect honest witnesses--not to coddle government officials.
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The Rights of Journalists
Victor Navasky : 1st Amendment
What's necessary to protect reporters' sources and the public's need to know?
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An Odd Turn in the Criminal Justice System
Calvin Trillin : 1st Amendment
Judy Miller's in prison, but what about...?
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The History of Smoking Guns
Alexander Cockburn : Media Analysis
History is one big smoking gun, and the function of the official press is to say it isn't so.
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The Principle of Hope
The death of Lebanese journalist Samir Kassir is a terrible blow to the cause of Arab freedom.
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What Would Dewey Do?
Eric Alterman : Media Analysis
Robert Novak has never given the impression that he cared much for the virtues of civility.
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Protest and Survive
Victor Navasky : Alternative & Independent Media
Thoughts on the critical role of the journal of dissent in America.
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Bush's War on the Press
Eric Alterman : George W. Bush Administration
Our independent media is under attack.
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Blogging, Journalism and Credibility
Rebecca MacKinnon : Internet & New Media
Journalists, bloggers, news executives, media scholars and librarians try to make sense of the new media environment.
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Pundit Limbo: How Low Can They Go?
What do Robert Novak and Armstrong Williams have to do before they're completely discredited?
2004
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Our Debt to Bill Moyers
: Media
Bill Moyers did his best to arm the people with the power knowledge gives.
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You Can't Bomb Beliefs
Progressives should oppose the US attack on Sadr, because it is an attack not on one man but on the possibility of Iraq's democratic future.
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Dumb and Dumber (and Dumber Still)
CBS's slip-up was such big news because it fit the right-wing script designed to shield the Bush Administration from accountability.
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Press Watch
Scott Sherman : Conservatives & The American Right
It's time for William Kristol to say he was wrong about Iraq.
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The Maxwell Affair
A review of The Pinochet File draws the wrath of Henry Kissinger.
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Al Jazeera Goes to Jail
Christian Parenti : Jails & Prisons
In Iraq's media war, US troops are imprisoning and abusing Arab journalists.
2003
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Journalists Take Flak in Iraq
Laura Rozen : Iraqi Reconstruction/ Occupation
Reporters say harassment and intimidation by American soldiers is growing.
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The Press and Private Lynch
The Pentagon was selling a patriotic tale. It found many eager buyers.
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'Scoops' and Truth at the Times
What happens when Pentagon objectives and journalists' needs coincide.
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Mirror of the Times
James W. Carey : New York Times
The ritual of confession, absolution and penance hides as much as it discloses.
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The New Yorker Goes to War
Daniel Lazare : Media Coverage of the War on Terrorism
How a nice magazine talked itself into backing Bush's jihad.
2002
2001
2000
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Daniel Singer
: Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
Read an appreciation of the life of The Nation's longtime Europe Correspondent and peruse a collection of his writings for the magazine.
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The 'Stealth Campaign'
Jonathan Schell : Presidential Election 2000
A foggy campaign has ended in a deep fog, as if the people, not having been offered a true choice, have simply decided not to choose.
This week: A look at the advocacy group MoveOn.org at 10. Plus: Controversy in Africa over the indictment of the Sudanese President; Amy Alexander and Chris Rabb on the challenges facing minority journalists in their transition to the web; and The Nation's new sex column. (13mb mp3)
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