If Harry S. Truman were with us today, would his opinions of commentators such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh be printable? I was led to wonder about that on reading a letter he sent to his good friend Dean Acheson, the former Secretary of State, after leaving the White House. “Well, I have the [...]

I was preparing to put Peter Turnley’s celebratory photos of Tahrir Square on this site when word came that Lara Logan of CBS had been brutally assaulted even as he was taking the pictures. The photos are ones of marvelous triumph. A 2001 Nieman Fellow, Turnley is an expert at this kind of thing: when [...]

This column first appeared in Nieman Reports. When I arrived at Lippmann House in early August 2000 to begin my tenure as curator, I had only an inkling of the sweeping changes that would wash over journalism and mainstream news organizations during the coming decade. My predecessor, Bill Kovach, in announcing his retirement, had a [...]

You might not know it from reading the news, but the nation’s housing prices are in free fall again. For the many Americans who have (or had) most of their wealth tied up in their homes, the consequences of this will be profound. The effect on nationwide consumption will inevitably be severe. In fact, there [...]

Once upon a time I was elderly. I called it quits with that demographic after learning from The New Yorker’s James Surowiecki about the anti-social antics of my former cohorts. Surowiecki wrote that the mid-term election results might accurately be called the “revolt of the retired”. The elderly not only turned out in unusually large [...]

By Nick Schwellenbach, Angela Canterbury and Danielle Brian Crossposted at the Project On Government Oversight blog. While many in DC are crying into their beers or measuring the windows of their new offices, POGO has a different take on the election. We have been hearing a lot of talk from both Democrats and Republicans characterizing “oversight” [...]

By Michael Smallberg, crossposted with the Project On Government Oversight Inspector General (IG) investigations expose some of the most egregious examples of misconduct by federal officials—everything from whistleblower retaliation to the abuse of taxpayer dollars—and the public has every right to see the (non-classified, non-redacted) results of these investigations. Yet in many cases, agencies have [...]

In my work secrecy was a no-no and the right to know sacred watchwords. So when my wife had emergency surgery and the pathology report revealed untreatable cancer, why did I want the truth kept from her? Because she was not an abstraction but a complicated person with anxieties who would be far better off [...]

By Nick Schwellenbach, crossposted with POGO My friends over at the Center for Public Integrity unveiled a wallop of a story on Sunday afternoon—dozens of Members of Congress who decried the Recovery Act, better known as the “stimulus,” were simultaneously sending letters to government agencies asking for a piece of the action. The Center got [...]

Newt Gingrich either has a serious memory deficit or he simply will say or do anything to call attention to himself. Gingrich’s latest is to declare that the GOP is the party of paychecks and Democrats the party of food stamps. Catchy, no? Reflect on it a bit and you realize that Gingrich has sacrificed [...]