Donald Trump poses a challenge to all media, because he, well, loathes us and also can’t live without us. In everyday terms, his badgering media for attention and simultaneously calling it “scum” would earn him an order of protection for … Read more
A fast-talking, prolific headline-making man from New York with a controversial record on the issue of race showed up on the political scene to run for the presidency of the richest, most-influential country in the world, and almost immediately the … Read more
What should newsrooms look like in the future? No one knows the answer. But there is energy in uncertainty. And the best way to find an answer is start an adventure. Even if it means getting up at 3 a.m. Read more
When journalism becomes work—as opposed to adventure—it’s time to move on; that’s what I did after three decades as a reporter and commentator in print and television, at the Oregon Statesman in Salem and KGW-TV in Portland. Later, after 14 … Read more
Over decades of reporting, my toolbox has evolved: from a pen and notebook to a smartphone, and for the last year, a 75-pound English Labrador retriever named Bunce. He’s named for Marine Cpl. Justin Bunce, severely wounded … Read more
One way to think of the job journalism does is telling a community about itself, and on those terms the American media failed spectacularly this election cycle. That Donald Trump’s victory came as such a surprise—a systemic shock, really—to both … Read more
I come from a fading industrial town—Albion, Michigan. In 1985 I would read the Chicago Tribune on how great things were in America and wonder which America it was writing about. My America, three hours from Chicago, was still mired … Read more
A man in silhouette, head bowed, stands against a gray background. A dark shadow extends below the silhouette, and the chilling words underneath proclaim in simple white type: “Ronald Bert Smith, Jr. is scheduled to be executed in … Read more
Days after last year’s terrorist attack on a public services center in San Bernardino, California, Kristen Stangas was standing amid a cluster of reporters outside Los Angeles City Hall. Journalists from more than a dozen media outlets were on hand … Read more
President-elect Donald Trump’s recent victory stunned a lot of Americans, not the least of which were members of the elite media, who couldn’t fathom the possibility that A) the so-called experts had been wrong, and B) the American public might … Read more
