From the Editors Archives - Page 9 of 172

Media

Has the Press Corps Learned Nothing?

Journalism, when done right, should change a person

November 9, 2021 • by John Stoehr

Members of the Washington press corps like to tell a story about the heroes of the Washington press corps “holding power to account.” This seems noble, and it can be, but more often than not, it’s not noble. In practice, what “holding power to account” means is countering the dominance over ...

Economy

Five Years of Silence

How states and corporations use public records exemptions to cover up deal details

November 1, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

The Tennessee legislature last week approved a massive new deal for a Ford electric vehicle and battery plant at a site about 50 miles east of Memphis. The legislation creates a “megasite” authority that will dole out $884 million in state funds: $500 million in corporate handouts to Ford and ...

Interviews

Unearthing the Complexities of Girlhood with Melissa Febos

In this interview with Public Seminar, the memoirist discusses complex mother/daughter dynamics, enthusiastic consent, and finding clarity through the “privacy of the page.”

October 20, 2021 • by Melissa Febos and Madeleine Janz

New School alum and bestselling author Melissa Febos sat down (virtually) with Public Seminar intern Madeleine Janz to discuss writing about those you love most, complicated “almost” traumas, and the inherited shame of female adolescence. Febos’s newest book, an essay collection entitled Girlhood (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021), was on The New School’s Alumni Bookshelf this year and is available for purchase here. Madeleine Janz [MJ]: To ...

Unearthing the Complexities of Girlhood with Melissa Febos

Media

The Biggest Media Bias That No One Is Talking About

How newspapers are obscuring a violent Republican crime wave

September 22, 2021 • by John Stoehr

When most people think about “bias” in news coverage, they usually think of some kind of ideological bent, as if the Washington Post, say, is trying to advance some kind of political agenda with its journalism. While this does apply to right-wing outlets, like the Washington Examiner, most of the rest of ...

The Biggest Media Bias That No One Is Talking About

Columnists

For the Freedom to Vote

The protection of voting rights seems more vital than ever

September 15, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ This week, the team of Democratic senators working on a voting rights measure that could meet the demands of conservative Democratic West Virginia senator Joe Manchin released their bill. The 592-page document is described as a bill “to expand Americans’ access to the ballot box and reduce the influence of ...

Media

Are White People Really in Decline?

No, but when the mainstream media reports changing racial demographics as a contest for social domination, they validate white supremacists’ worst fears

September 15, 2021 • by Karen Gaffney

_____ When the United States Census Bureau released its 2020 census on August 12, 2021, the news media highlighted two important trends in race and ethnicity: a drop in the number of white people and a rise in the number of people who identify with more than one racial group. Both facts represent ...

Climate & Ecology

A Near-Future Novel for Our Gorgeous and Beleaguered Present

Alexandra Kleeman chats with Helen Schulman about her new book, Something New Under the Sun

September 10, 2021 • by Alexandra Kleeman and Helen Schulman

_____ Upon the publication of her new novel, Something New Under the Sun (Hogarth, 2021), New School faculty Alexandra Kleeman sat down with Helen Schulman, faculty and fiction chair at the Creative Writing program, to talk about Los Angeles, the climate crisis, and writing about the very near future. The interview was presented by the Creative Writing ...

A Near-Future Novel for Our Gorgeous and Beleaguered Present

Journalism

Branding Myself

How a freelance writer’s summer internship made her reconsider how to market herself

September 1, 2021 • by Hannah Hightman

_____ This past summer, I was an intern at Sarankco, a creative studio and consultancy located in Manhattan. According to the firm’s website, Sarankco specializes in “developing brands that create awareness; designing experiences that influence behavior; and creating communications that drive engagement.” As a freelance writer who had previously written for The ...

Interviews

In the Aftermath of War

What the post-1975 history of the Vietnam War should teach us about the days, months, and years after the United States leaves Afghanistan

August 27, 2021 • by Claire Potter and Amanda Demmer

_____ As the military situation in Afghanistan began to unspool at the end of July, and comparisons to the United States 1975 evacuation of Saigon proliferated, I wanted to know more. So I reached for Amanda Demmer’s After Saigon's Fall: Refugees and US-Vietnamese Relations, 1975–2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2021) to think ...

Columnists

The Un-Canceling of Biographer Blake Bailey

W.W. Norton took a financial bath on Philip Roth: A Biography, and Skyhorse Press will make all the profits. Is this the end of cancel culture?

August 25, 2021 • by Claire Potter

_____ A little less than three months ago, charges emerged that Blake Bailey had groomed female middle school students for sex and that he had pestered and sexually assaulted adult women. After what were undoubtedly agonizing internal debates, W.W. Norton exercised the morals clause in Bailey’s contract, putting his 2014 memoir ...

The Un-Canceling of Biographer Blake Bailey

Columnists

Is Bad Faith Sabotaging the Fight Against Covid?

To our country’s elites, it makes perfect sense that if the CDC wants the public’s trust, it has to do better

August 25, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Nicole Carroll is the editor-in-chief of USA Today. Earlier this month, her newspaper ran an interview between her and her brother. Chris Carroll refuses to get vaccinated. He’s educated, conservative, religious, and Texas-proud. He’s a Trump supporter, too. Nicole ran the piece to explain why some Americans refuse to do ...

Is Bad Faith Sabotaging the Fight Against Covid?

Columnists

How Do We Solve a Problem Like ‘Vaccine Skeptics’? Stop Respecting Their Excuses for Bad Behavior

We’ve tried respect. It didn’t work

July 21, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Henry Enten used to be a very fine writer for FiveThirtyEight before he became a talking head for CNN. I don’t hold that against him, though. He’s a number-cruncher. In this day and age, we need number-crunchers. And we need them to do more than crunch numbers. We need them ...

From the Editors

Has the Press Corps Learned Nothing?

Journalism, when done right, should change a person

Five Years of Silence

How states and corporations use public records exemptions to cover up deal details

Unearthing the Complexities of Girlhood with Melissa Febos

In this interview with Public Seminar, the memoirist discusses complex mother/daughter dynamics, enthusiastic consent, and finding clarity through the “privacy of the page.”

The Biggest Media Bias That No One Is Talking About

How newspapers are obscuring a violent Republican crime wave

For the Freedom to Vote

The protection of voting rights seems more vital than ever

Are White People Really in Decline?

No, but when the mainstream media reports changing racial demographics as a contest for social domination, they validate white supremacists’ worst fears

A Near-Future Novel for Our Gorgeous and Beleaguered Present

Alexandra Kleeman chats with Helen Schulman about her new book, Something New Under the Sun

Branding Myself

How a freelance writer’s summer internship made her reconsider how to market herself

In the Aftermath of War

What the post-1975 history of the Vietnam War should teach us about the days, months, and years after the United States leaves Afghanistan

The Un-Canceling of Biographer Blake Bailey

W.W. Norton took a financial bath on Philip Roth: A Biography, and Skyhorse Press will make all the profits. Is this the end of cancel culture?

Is Bad Faith Sabotaging the Fight Against Covid?

To our country’s elites, it makes perfect sense that if the CDC wants the public’s trust, it has to do better

How Do We Solve a Problem Like ‘Vaccine Skeptics’? Stop Respecting Their Excuses for Bad Behavior

We’ve tried respect. It didn’t work

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