New survey tells it like it is in Afghanistan: Primitive COMMENTARY The latest poll by ABC News, BBC and ARD German TV shows disgust with corruption, anger at the Taliban, and widespread poverty almost beyond the imagination of Americans.

Covering Haiti: When the media is the disaster COMMENTARY Human life matters more than property, survivors of a catastrophe deserve our compassion and our understanding, and journalists live and die by words and ideas, writes disaster expert Rebecca Solnit. So why is so much media coverage out of Haiti focused on demonizing 'looters' who are taking necessary supplies to sustain their lives?

Seven things about the economy that everyone should be more worried about than they are COMMENTARY Dan Froomkin explores the likelihood of an anemic recovery, a double dip recession, another stock market crash, more financial-sector follies, deficit hawks stifling growth, the death of the middle class as we know it, and/or other dire possibilities reporters should be writing about furiously.

Some remedies for the Supreme Court power grab COMMENTARY It’s easy to find activism, impossible to find original intent behind the Roberts/Scalia group’s ruling on corporate political spending. Martin Lobel suggests six sharp, practical steps to deal with it.

Obama gave a pass to out-of-control military spending COMMENTARY The GAO showed that contractors’ estimates have nothing to do with reality, and economic hard times may eventually force the President and Congress to rein in outrageously costly warships, planes and missile systems that don’t work. But that time isn’t here yet.

Scare tactics | Yemeni Gitmo detainees now the victims of hysteria
COMMENTARY
The Christmas Day attempted bombing of an American airliner had nothing directly to do with the Yemeni detainees cleared for release from Guantánamo, writes journalist Andy Worthington, who has exhaustively chronicled the stories of those held in the island prison. And by capitulating to the unprincipled fearmongering following the bomb plot, the Obama administration is playing into the hands of those whose only wish is to keep Guantánamo open forever.

Skeptical about Internet | A journalist talks about life after buy-outs
COMMENTARY
Eugene L. Meyer, a former Washington Post reporter and editor, took the first of four buyouts several years ago. Here’s his take on the news business, past, present and future.

Reporting the Collapse | World poverty: so important but so little coverage
COMMENTARY
There are very few reporters who write about poverty, says Jeffrey Sachs, who lists Nicholas Kristof, Celia Dugger and Bob Herbert, all of the New York Times, as exceptions. But it is anti-poverty programs, not military action, that enhance American national security, Sachs maintains.

Reporting the Collapse | Poverty keeps growing in the U.S. but the press is almost blind to it
COMMENTARY
Jeffrey Sachs, a leading figure on world poverty, says the American press follows the lead of politicians by zeroing out coverage of poverty at a time when ‘the U.S. has the greatest income inequality, highest per capita prison population and worst health conditions of all high-income countries.’

Reminiscing… | Crowd sourcing in Des Moines in the old days COMMENTARY Reminiscing: An email exchange between Herb Strentz and Michael Gartner. Strentz, a contributor to Nieman Watchdog, is a distinguished news practitioner and teacher. Gartner has had a long, distinguished career in journalism.

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