The way journalists report on criminal justice and law enforcement has evolved over the past 10 years. In 2014 when Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, we saw the beginning of this reform, and in 2020 following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, we saw even greater change. This year…
Perfectly objective journalism seems like the perfectly moral life—unattainable by ordinary humans. But recent experience has reaffirmed the importance of the classic journalistic virtues of open-minded fact-finding, and fair, accurate, and complete reporting. Today we have the most technically sophisticated data-rich information system ever. But it hasn’t satisfied our need for what Walter Lippmann called…
Podcasting. Snapchat. Video. Virtual Reality. Podcasting, again. Clubhouse. As a digital director for media companies and now the digital advisor for West Virginia University’s Student Media department, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had well-meaning publishers, editors, and now college students come to me excited about the hot new thing everyone is using.…
Car headlights streak by as I drive on Route 154 in rural northeast Missouri. The glow from my car’s clock glows back at me – 4:50 A.M. Gravel under my car crunches as I pull off to a general store near Paris, Missouri. “Oh I didn’t see you there!” the register worker tells me under the…
An effort to discipline Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., for his statements about the 2020 presidential election has received a final rejection from state legal authorities, leaving the man who led the effort feeling “ripped off.” In two recent letters to Alan B. Hoffman, the retired St. Louis lawyer who led the group seeking punishment, the…