CJR - March/April 1998 contents

March/April 1998

Features

March/April 98 Cover COVER STORIES/SCANDAL
Where We Went Wrong
Has the indictment of the press in the Clinton scandal been too sweeping or too tame? What is certain: the rush to be first, to be more sensational, has created an image of irresponsibility seldom seen in the reporting and commentary on presidential affairs.
by Jules Witcover

What We Do Now
No matter what happens in the great shoot-out between the White House and Kenneth Starr, the press has already been wounded. The job now is for journalists to analyze how well or poorly they did their jobs, and what useful lessons the profession can distill from it all.
by The Editors

What Will History Say?
Will President Clinton be remembered for steering us into a prosperous era, or for inflicting on us a hilariously degrading spectacle? Beware of short-term media judgments.
by Lance Morrow

Fumble in Dallas
by Terry Anderson

TELEVISION
Is FOXNews Fair?
Rupert Murdoch's fledgling twenty-four-hour, all-news cable network claims to be virtually the only national news organization offering "fair and balanced" coverage "for the independent thinker." Are those slogans just a marketing device and a fig leaf for a news outlet that tilts far to the political right in its news and commentary?
by Neil Hickey

REPORTING
The Rise of Solutions Journalism
Reporters often write about social problems and then walk away, letting other institutions -- like government -- figure out what to do. But lately many newspeople are reporting on what works, as well as what doesn't.
by Susan Benesch

NEWSPAPERS
That Old Black Magic
Canada's Conrad Black owns more than a third of that country's total newspaper circulation, and operates the planet's third largest media empire, with outposts in the U.S., Britain, and Israel. The big question: What's he really after?
by Tim Jones

FORUM
The Erosion of Values
The panel of five leading journalists and moderator Howard Kurtz, media reporter of The Washington Post, debate some of the trade's hottest topics:the rise of the tabloid and the trivial, and the increasing pressure to knuckle under to the values of corporate owners.

ETHICS
When Business Writing Becomes Soft Porn
Americans have been convinced for a long time that "It's glorious to get rich." Yet too many writers in the personal finance field these days treat making money as a moral value. It isn't.
by Jane Bryant Quinn

World

ASIA
High Price of Secrecy
Restricting the press worsened the economic crash. It's not that easy.
by A. Lin Neumann

Germany
The Bid for Both Berlins
by Konstantin Richter

Upfront

Magazines:
Why Wired misfired
by Janice Maloney

First Amendment:
Sammy the Bull meets Son of Sam
by Ellen Alderman

Reporting:
The unsealed envelope - a First Amendment fight
by Lee Hickling

Newspapers:
How accurate are your archives?
by Bruce William Oakley

First Person:
Waking up from a dream job
by Walter Guzzardi

Books

Red Blood & Black Ink: Journalism in the Old West
by David Dary
reviewed by Nathan Ward

Secrets: The CIA's War at Home
by Angus Mackenzie
reviewed by Stuart H. Loory