By William (Bill) KovarikIn speeches filled with hatred and falsehoods, a public figure attacks his enemies and calls for marches on Washington. Then, after one particularly virulent address, private media companies close down his channels of communication, prompting consternation from his supporters and calls for a code of conduct...
We have a crisis of credulity in this country. We’ve become a nation of dupes. The inability of far too many Americans to separate fact from fantasy, and the people who are eager to take advantage of that failure, are the root of the rot in our country.
The consequences,...
People who value local journalism should be trembling at the announcement that a notorious hedge fund — dedicated to wringing out every last penny of profit moreso than informing the public — has targeted Tribune Publishing. The Chicago-based company’s media outlets include The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, billed as the...
Journalism, of course, isn't a popularity contest. The value of the work isn't meant to be judged by how many people click on a given story.Indeed, wise reporters and editors stop questioning early in their careers why some stories, especially those that might seem more trivial, take flight while...
A version of this article originally originally appeared in the Behavioral Scientist, a magazine that examines the world through the science of human behavior.
By Elizabeth Weingarten and Rosii Floreak
If you were trying to picture a misinformation spreader, your first step probably wouldn’t be to look in the mirror. But in our work examining the...
A hairy mini-monster from Virginia is drawing worldwide attention.It is invading, taking over our state and making us vomit.Except that it isn’t.The 1½-inch-long venomous creature, called a puss caterpillar, can indeed hurt you, as it did a New Kent County woman on Sept. 4. But the little creeper’s threat...
The Virginia Mercury staff won 11 first-place awards in the 2019 Virginia Press Association contest, the first year the publication, launched in 2018, was eligible to compete.Reporters — including current staff writers Ned Oliver, Sarah Vogelsong and Graham Moomaw and former reporters Mechelle Hankerson and Katie O'Connor — won...
In the long and dubious history of nasty presidential politics, the anti-Trump attack ad that the pro-Democrat super PAC Priorities USA paid NBC affiliate WJFW-TV in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, to televise in America’s 134th largest market seemed tame enough.The 30-second spot uses rapid-fire audio snippets of Trump dismissing the seriousness...
Every detail of the interview for my first full-time newspaper job editing a small Mississippi Delta weekly remains vivid and indelible in my memory.The paper’s owner asked me what the first duty of a newspaper was, and I was ready with a load of fresh journalism school rhetoric...
Not many people would bet next month’s rent money on the accuracy of the next political horse race poll proffered by the media. Can you blame them?The perception is that recent polls have failed us spectacularly. Just ask Joe Biden, whom polls showed firmly in control of the Democratic...
