July/August 1998

Features

Money Lust:
How Pressure for Profits Is Perverting Journalism
Welcome to a new era in the American newsroom, where the push by investors and owners of media companies for ever richer returns is diminishing many newspapers, magazines, and news shows.
by Neil Hickey

Now, the Editor as Marketer
What happens when the editing mission and the marketing mission are mixed? Soft coverage — lifestyle, celebrity, service — spreads like kudzu.
by Joseph S. Coyle

Assembly-Line Journalism
Some newspapers use factory-like systems to evaluate reporters' productivity. Then they wonder why passion in the profession is dwindling.
by Doug Underwood

First Amendment
Subpoena Madness
As a matter of principle, editors and news directors long resisted the prosecutor's subpoena for notes or outtakes. That resistance seems to be weakening.
by Michael Gartner

NEWS JUDGMENT
Losing Pol Pot
After The New York Times learned of U.S. government plans to capture and try the former Cambodian dictator, the Clinton administration asked the paper not to run a story — to no avail. Should the Times have listened?
by Konstantin Richter

STANDARDS
Why Books Err So Often (And What Can Be Done About It)
If authors write, agents represent, editors approve, publishers distribute, retailers sell, and consumers buy inaccurate nonfiction books, then something's wrong. But what?
by Steve Weinberg

SCENE
In Washington: Boys Will Be Jerks
Is the White House Correspondents' Association dinner significant enough to take seriously? Yes it is, unfortunately.
by Alex S. Jones

Upfront

• Hoaxes:
  How a Writer Fooled His Readers
  by Ann Reilly Dowd
• Reporting:
  Pushing the Cancer "Cure"
  by Michael Shapiro
• Crime:
  Naming Kid Criminals
  by LynNell Hancock
• Sources:
  Good Story, Bad Result
  by Barry Yeoman
• The Journalism Economy:
  We Got Jobs
  by Jacalyn DePasquale Carfagno
• Web Site Spotlight:
  nando.net
  by Sreenath Sreenivasan
• Language Corner:
  In Transition
  by Evan Jenkins

Departments

• INDEX
  People and organizations
  mentioned in this issue
• PUBLISHER'S NOTE
  Farewell to an Editor with Passion
• LETTERS
• THE WORKPLACE
  Some Moms Who Made It
  by Ann Reilly Dowd
• IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
  TV News: The Great Celebrity Chase
  by Lawrence K. Grossman
• DARTS & LAURELS
• ESSAY
  Why We Are Here?
  by Mike Hoyt
• THE LOWER CASE

CJR World

• Southeast Asia:
  Economic Woes Pummel Thai,
  Indonesia Media
  by Peter Eng
• Sri Lanka:
  Reform's Key Moment
  by A. Lin Neumann
• Canada:
  How Government Foils
  Investigative Reporters
  by John Wicklein

Books

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., by Ron Chernow
Reviewed by Lance Morrow

Book Reports

• William Randolph Hearst
  by Ben Proctor
• Monitoring the News
  by Susan Bridge
• Scooped!
  by David J. Krajicek
• TV or Not TV
  by Ronald L. Goldfarb
• Imaging Education
  by Gene I. Maeroff
  Reviewed by James Boylan

Excerpts

• East to Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart
  by Susan Butler
• Drawing Life: Surviving The Unabomber
  by David Gelernter
• Mayhem: Violence As Public Entertainment
  by Sissela Bok
• Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency
  by John C. Waugh
• No Time to Die, by Liz Tilberis