Month: December 2013
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New at CJR: Political centrism is not objectivity
My new CJR column examines how the media often confuses centrism with objectivity in its coverage of budget politics, which frequently suggests that deficit reduction is a value-neutral priority that should take precedence over other possible objectives: How should the United States choose among the difficult tradeoffs it faces in setting the federal budget? There’s
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New at CJR: Stories vs. evidence on Obama’s fate
My new CJR column is on the media’s tendency to construct simplistic stories about President Obama’s political standing. Here’s how it begins: Journalists rightly seek to tell compelling stories, which can bring abstract or dry topics to life, but the need to create a compelling narrative can be dangerous in politics. As we’ve seen in
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New at CJR: Pizza parties won’t fix DC
My new column at CJR examines the claim that members of Congress are so divided because they don’t spend time together and shows how an excellent story in the Boston Globe illustrates the problems with that hypothesis. Here’s how it begins: Why can’t members of Congress just get along? Critics of polarization often suggest that
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David Gergen calls for more David Gergens
David Gergen is the prototypical Washington wise man, an experienced operative who has served under four presidents and was famously brought into the Clinton White House to provide more experienced leadership. When he’s not working in the White House, though, he often makes the rounds as a pundit – and you’ll never guess how he