Objectivity is a difficult ideal to uphold, as it requires reporters to get outside their subjectivity. That doesn’t mean it is worth junking. It just means training and self-discipline. Read more
Has the country learned little about Jonestown except for its mass-murdering cult leader? The public deserves — yes, deserves — stories in which the monster that was Jim Jones is put in the context of other lead players. Read more
Difficult though it may be, local- and regional papers need more team-oriented investigative journalists like the late Robert Greene, author of the book that inspired the 2013 film “American Hustle.” Read more
A mere two days after my post on factual errors appeared, in my day job I made an error of a different kind. I used a simple catchall phrase to describe a Washington-based interest group. In fact, the organization had a slightly more elevated function, which made my error akin to describing the Supreme Court as a body of federal judges. Read more
While editors advise reporters to double-check quotes and statistics, I recommend going one step beyond. Follow the techniques and rituals of a professional fact-checker. Read more
Interviewing high-level government officials is a skill that can be cultivated like shooting a basketball or grilling a hamburger. It doesn’t require being a suck-up, an insider, or a seducer. If a former paperboy like me can learn, most people can. Read more
For years, writers have pledged to avoid Twitter, the addictive micro-blogging service du jour. If only more of them had succeeded. Better if they learn a lesson the ancient Greeks and Romans taught and I have followed. To get rid of a habit, you should add a new one. Read more
The word “rhetoric” has a messed-up etymology. It represents the opposite of its original meaning. Aristotle defined the word as “effective writing or speaking”; think Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Yet rhetoric connotes sophistry or “empty” and “phony” words. How can our words reflect true rhetoric rather than sophistry? In a word, sincerity. Read more
For professional writers who read William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s “The Elements of Style,” there is a sad, unsettling reality. The popular writing guide omits the most important writing principle, the superstar principle, the principle that wins you readers and paychecks alike. Read more
On January 22, 1973, Howard Cosell, ABC television’s announcer for the heavyweight-title boxing match between champion Joe Frazier and challenger George Foreman, uttered what may be the most famous line in the sport’s history. “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!” Cosell said after the 214-pound pugilist fell to the canvas in the first round of their bout in Kingston, Jamaica. Read more
