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In Memphis, a Lab Experiment for Local News
It’s time for another look at new financial, editorial, and technological models for local journalism. You’ll find previous entries at these links: from Mississippi; from Maine; from Massachusetts;...
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‘The Tragedy of the American Military’ Remains
On November 11, known as Remembrance Day through the countries of the British Commonwealth, the public honors those who died in the military service of their nations.The same date is observed as...
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Planting a ‘Trail of Giants’
Last month, as part of a “Big Little Ideas” series, I mentioned a surprisingly valuable short-term step that communities can take, on their own, for positive climate effects. That is to start planting...
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On the Virtues of Statewide Journalism
A few days ago I published an item about a year-old online effort to revive local news coverage in Tennessee, The Daily Memphian. It was part of an ongoing series about efforts to revive, reinvent,...
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In Defense of The Commercial Appeal
A few days ago I published an item about a new online journalistic site in Tennessee, The Daily Memphian. In that item, I quoted some Daily Memphian officials saying that they had been prompted to...
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Democrats Should Talk About Place-Based Policy
Staying versus moving is one of the eternal tensions of American life.Americans have frequently moved: Consider how the geographic center of the population has shifted over the centuries, from east of...
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Report for America Goes Big
It has been another rough period for the financial models behind journalism in general, and local news outlets in particular.Last month Brookings released a sobering report about the spread of “news...
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New Jobs, New Residents, and New Possibilities
Here are news items and developments related to trends we’ve been covering in the recent “Our Towns” series, and elsewhere:The furniture business returns, and is looking for furniture-makers. In a...
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The University of Dayton Is Reinventing Town-Gown Relations
It’s time for another report on Dayton, Ohio, subject of this introduction last month.A century ago, Dayton was known mainly for the things it created, from the Wright Brothers’ airplanes to the cash...
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Dayton, Ohio, Is ‘a Place That Knows What It Is’
Let’s take another look at Dayton, Ohio. For context, here is a report on how the city has dealt with the loss of major industries over the decades, and with the mass shootings in its...
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Two Titans of Journalism
The depths-of-winter holiday season always seems to bring more than its share of prominent deaths. Two I particularly noted and mourned these past few weeks, and that recent news makes more relevant,...
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An Action Plan for the Future of Media
From an author’s point of view, the most important quality of any book is its done-ness. Once you accept that a book is as good as it is going to be, and as finished as you can stand to make it, the...
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2020 Time Capsule #1: Four Ways Trump’s Oval Office Address Failed
Four years ago, when Donald Trump was on his rise—from apparent-joke candidate, to long-shot, to front-runner, to nominee, and on to electoral winner—I wrote in this space a series of “Trump Time...
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2020 Time Capsule #2: The Exceptional Dr. Fauci
As of today, March 13, 2020—three-plus years into the current administration, three months into public awareness of the coronavirus spread, seven-plus months until before the next election—Anthony...
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2020 Time Capsule #3: ‘I Don’t Take Responsibility at All’
This afternoon, on the heels of a widely panned formal Oval Office address, Donald Trump assembled a group of scientific and corporate leaders to talk about dealing with the coronavirus. You can watch...
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The Airport Chaos Is the Product of Negligence
Modern air travel has become so grueling that it is easy to lose sight of its greatest, near-miraculous achievement: Commercial airline travel is astonishingly safe—yes, even given the two horrific 737...
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2020 Time Capsule #4: Trump Is Lying, Blatantly
During press questioning at the White House today, Donald Trump was asked whether his tone about the coronavirus challenge had suddenly changed. For weeks, he’d been mocking the virus threat—at...
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2020 Time Capsule #5: The ‘Chinese Virus’
In a tweet last night, Donald Trump resurrected the term “Chinese Virus,” for the pathogen otherwise known (including by Trump in many earlier tweets) as the coronavirus.Via TwitterThis afternoon, at...
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2020 Time Capsule #6: The Press Conference
These things were notable about yesterday’s installment of what has become the regular daily White House briefing on the coronavirus pandemic:That it happened at all. Early last year, Donald Trump...
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2020 Time Capsule #7: ‘I Don’t Think I’m Going to Learn Much’
Being president is even harder than it looks. Success in the job requires a wider range of talents than any one human being has ever had: Private persuasive and horse-trading skills. Public ability to...
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