Questions the Press Should Ask http://www.NiemanWatchdog.org The low Florida primary turnout -- a decline of 15 percent from 2008 -- continues to show GOP voters as indifferent to their presidential candidates. Only South Carolina, where Gingrich won big, seems to have been an exception. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view/backgroundid=608 Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00 EST Creating a phony need, getting treatment of it Medicare-reimbursable – and greatly increasing the danger of esophageal cancer and other serious health problems. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view/askthisid=551 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00 EST New research shows that racial disparities in federal sentencing can be traced back to the higher likelihood that prosecutors will charge blacks with offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences. And one of the researchers -- a law professor at the University of Michigan -- writes that it may be easier to change the law than to change prosecutors. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view/askthisid=550 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00 EST Rather than more questions about Romney's taxes or Gingrich's adultery, debate moderators would be better off asking the candidates their views on a unanimously adopted RNC resolution stating that God wants a one-state solution for Israel, writes Paul Pillar. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view/backgroundid=607 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00 EST Henry Banta writes that Mitt Romney may not be a capitalist at all, but a pre-capitalist, right out if the Middle Ages, when workers (i.e., those not in the noble 1%) were kept in their place. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view/backgroundid=606 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00 EST Mike Lofgren, the former Republican congressional staffer who recently decried the descent of the GOP into lunacy, blames the press for not holding politicians accountable for their budgetary flimflam in the service of the rich. The result: A miserably misinformed public. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view/backgroundid=605 Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00 EST A former CIA station chief sees no threat to the U.S. from Iran, but a huge threat from attacking Iran. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view/askthisid=549 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00 EST GOP voter turnout in Iowa and New Hampshire has been lackluster. Reporters should pay attention to how many Republicans (not including crossover independents) vote in the upcoming primaries, and not just to the order of finish. Is the pattern continuing? http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view/askthisid=548 Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00 EST Tax breaks for upper-income brackets are unlikely to help job creators, studies find, despite all the political rhetoric. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view/backgroundid=603 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00 EST Henry Banta points out that corporate leaders' goal is to make a profit, and that ‘any sane businessman wants to employ as few people as he can.' If jobs get in the way of profits, the jobs go – as Mitt Romney well knows. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view/backgroundid=604 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00 EST New program addresses the growing need for fresh ideas and research in news reporting. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=showcase.view/showcaseid=167 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00 EST When it comes to caring for the elderly and the disabled, fiscal austerity and moral imperatives come into direct conflict. So as the baby boomers enter their twilight years, a scholar at the Claude Pepper Foundation writes, the nation will have a stark choice between communal values or neoliberal ones. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view/backgroundid=602 Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00 EST With the entire country watching (or at least the entire news media), fewer than 20 percent of Iowa Republicans showed up to vote on Jan. 3. With such a scant turnout, why should anyone pay attention to the results? And, asks Gilbert Cranberg, shouldn't party leaders consider dropping Iowa from the lead-off spot? http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view/askthisid=547 Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00 EST The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service kills millions of animals a year, often in grisly ways. And it does it to help private industry. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view/askthisid=546 Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00 EST Michael Gartner says Republican presidential candidates and their supporters should read Iowa's 2˝–year-old same-sex marriage ruling instead of bashing it. If they did, they would find a ringing endorsement of freedom of religion, not a rebuke or challenge to it. http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view/backgroundid=601 Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00 EST