So sometimes I ride my bike around Central Park. And when I do, I often like to pull off at West 100th Street, which is one of my favorite parts of the Park, and I buy a bottle of water. Today, I did that, and as I was getting off my bike, I was approached […]

My main task this summer, besides prepping three courses for my new gig, is to begin reading for my qualifying exams. I haven’t set a date, but I’m probably going to take them in the spring, likely over spring break at Seton Hall, when I won’t have teaching commitments to interfere with writing. Between now […]

We media types seem to be obsessed–not quite to a creepy extent–with MTV’s The Paper, a “reality” show about a high school newspaper in Broward County, Florida. And I’ll admit to being one of them. I never worked on my high school paper (that was mostly the province of a classmate I barely knew who […]

I attended two conferences a week ago on a sort of crazy schedule: Auburn, Alabama on Friday afternoon; back in New York City for conference number two on Saturday morning. But I presented two papers I care quite strongly about. Friday’s paper was the first in what I hope will be a series developing a […]

I tried to think of a way to make this post have something to do with the media or with education–maybe something about how the media make a celebrity a culture or somesuch. But really, I just thought it was cool that I saw Alex Rodriguez at 61st and Madison today. I regret not stopping […]

The blogging impulse nags at me again. I searched “Press Critic” on Google, and found myself on the first page with Jack Shafer, Jay Rosen, and Jim Romenesko. And searching for “The Wayward Press” puts me ahead of Liebling himself. If the Google algorithm is going to reward me with such comparisons, I feel I […]

…to bring you an important message from CJR Daily. I referred to the then-unpublished study “A Measure of Media Bias” in my 602 term paper, “Enterprising journalists: An empirical search for the source of bias in the media.” In the paper, I am dismissive of it, as I am of all content analysis of journalism […]

Red Sox fans are supposed to be the ones blaming themselves for 86 years of misery, not me. But I’m growing more and more convinced that I’m to blame for the lack of a championship in the Bronx since 2000. In the Spring of 2000, just before the start of the season, I was interviewed […]

A day after I commented on the Washington Post’s Daily Tracking Poll, the New York Times ran its own poll (in conjunction with CBS). But I’m more interested in the sidebar article that tries to explain the methodology behind all of the various news organizations’ polls. I’m thoroughly ambivalent about the idea of polls as […]

I’m addicted to the Washington Post’s Daily Tracking Poll, and I would get the DTs if they took it away. But I’m convinced it’s bad for journalism. Other pundits have talked about how stories covering campaign tactics to the detriment of policy take away from the seriousness of political coverage. I agree, and I think […]