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Dan Froomkin: Time For Real-Estate Watchdogs To Start Howling Again

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 [...]

Dan Froomkin: The Media Has Dispersed, But Questions About The Oil Spill Remain

The Natural Resources Defense Council is trying to remind journalists that there are still a lot of important, unanswered questions about the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Press coverage of the spill took a nose-dive after the blowout was contained and the White House misleadingly but successfully used a scientifically sketchy [...]

Dan Froomkin: Fraud, From Top To Bottom – But Especially Top

In an interview with NiemanWatchdog.org’s John Hanrahan last October, University of Texas economist James Galbraith argued that the press has paid too little attention to investigating the “criminal and felonious behavior” involved in the economic crash. Galbraith said the crisis “was the product of wide-scale criminal fraud,” just as was the case in the savings [...]

Dan Froomkin: Ponzis, Ponzis, Everywhere?

In the course of researching a story on the role of fraud in the financial crisis, I ended up speaking to James D. Ratley, who is the president of an organization called the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He talks to reporters a lot, he says, and he had a complaint. “We see a lot [...]

Dan Froomkin: Disqualified From Public Service

(This item originally appeared in The Huffington Post, where Froomkin is Washington Bureau Chief.) Senator Chris Dodd announced on Jan. 16 that he is relinquishing his office. He didn’t really have much choice — the voters of Connecticut were prepared to take it away from him in November even if he had tried to keep [...]

Dan Froomkin: Fool Me Over and Over and Over Again

Our elite media has been repeatedly suckered into trumpeting glaringly unsupported assertions about the number of Guantanamo detainees that have “returned” to the battlefield. This was quite a week for it. The most blatant and distressing previous object lesson came early last summer, when New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt appropriately spanked reporter Elisabeth [...]

Dan Froomkin: ‘A Failure of Editors’

What is it about the culture of our elite newsrooms that led the nation’s major newspapers and television networks to fall so short in the run-up to the war in Iraq? Why were the spurious claims from the Bush administration greeted with credulousness rather than the appropriate skepticism? Michael Getler – who was Washington Post [...]

Dan Froomkin: Where’s the Peace Movement?

A health majority of the American public now opposes the war in Afghanistan. More and more Democrats, some leading Republicans, and even members of the military are calling for, if not outright withdrawal, at least an exit strategy. So where’s the peace movement? Where are, if not the massive peace marches, at least the quiet [...]

Dan Froomkin: Time for the Really Big Questions on Afghanistan

Andrew Exum, the widely respected counterinsurgency expert who goes by Abu Muqawama in the blogosphere, recently came back from a month in Afghanistan, where he had taken part in new Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s 60-day review of strategy and operations. On his return, his number one conclusion was: Winning in Afghanistan will be really, [...]

Dan Froomkin: My New Job at The Huffington Post

I’m delighted to announce that starting later this month, I’ll be taking on the duties of Washington Bureau Chief and Blogger for The Huffington Post. This is a wonderful opportunity for me. It’s a marvelous platform — Arianna Huffington has built a large and thriving community of readers by adhering to the best principles of [...]