Month: March 2012
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New at CJR: Does fact-checking work?
I have a new post for Columbia Journalism Review answering media coverage about the effectiveness of fact-checking. Here’s how it begins: Politics today seemingly has more fact-checking than ever before. As a result, reporters are asking a new question: Does fact-checking work? At the national level, USA Today’s Martha T. Moore described it as “an
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New at CJR: The Etch-a-Sketch press
My new post for Columbia Journalism Review examines how the press has covered the Romney/Etch-a-Sketch controversy. Here how it begins: Yesterday, Etch-a-Sketch became the media’s favorite metaphor for Mitt Romney’s ideological flexibility. But the iconic children’s toy is an equally good representation of the media’s tendency to draw the picture it wants of our political
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The effects of health care reform in 2010 and beyond
Why did Democrats do so poorly in the 2010 elections? The median academic forecast was 44 to 45 seats (PDF). However, Republicans significantly outperformed expectations in picking up 66 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate. After the election, John Sides, Eric McGhee, and I found that Democratic incumbents who voted the
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New at CJR: Arpaio coverage may worsen birtherism
My new CJR column examines coverage of Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio’s birther press conference as a case study in how news reporting can reinforce misperceptions: Last Tuesday, the New America Foundation released a report (PDF) I co-authored with Georgia State’s Jason Reifler on how to most effectively combat misperceptions (summarized here at CJR). Two