A few weeks ago a former elementary school classmate of mine shared a viral post on Facebook about how Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was going to raise taxes for middle income families by 25 percent. I did a quick Google search and found that the post had been fact-checked already by reputable news outlets and was untrue. (For the record, my suspicion was not … [Read more...] about Community journalists should serve as fact-checkers on national stories
‘If the coronavirus is a war, Americans have picked a team’
There is a weariness about life at that moment that I haven’t felt since I was in Iraq reporting on the war. War reporters are used to risk calculations, and it’s an odd thing to get used to, but we do it because otherwise everything would feel too dangerous or nothing would. When nothing feels dangerous, it’s time to go home. That’s when reporters take risks they shouldn’t … [Read more...] about ‘If the coronavirus is a war, Americans have picked a team’
Media outlets covering racial unrest in America need to include an examination of their own newsrooms
We are in the midst of a racial reckoning in our country that is more visible in some places than others, but in all places it is long overdue, including in our newsrooms. The mostly peaceful protests that have swept the nation following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police feel like a turning point for equality and justice, and we have responsibility to … [Read more...] about Media outlets covering racial unrest in America need to include an examination of their own newsrooms
Newspapers are ‘essential business,’ but readers still don’t want to pay
In 2015, Jason Velásquez, a farmer, tax assessor and one-time marketing director for a Shakespeare theater company, started an online news site because he believed--and still does--in the importance of local news. When he founded The Greylock Glass in January of that year, the two main papers in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts had just folded, including one established … [Read more...] about Newspapers are ‘essential business,’ but readers still don’t want to pay
Local editors, publishers should hire journalism students stuck at home for summer internships
It’s been hard in recent weeks to deliver my usual pep talk about journalism to the college students whom I teach. For one, we are not in the same physical space. I’m engaging with students online in bursts and have been since late March. Even so, I can sense their grief, sometimes in their silence and sometimes in their failure to reply to a simple email that would typically … [Read more...] about Local editors, publishers should hire journalism students stuck at home for summer internships
