A Media Meltdown—In a lengthy report, the non-partisan Project for Excellence in Journalism describes a field of endeavor in decline, in terms of the quality and quantity of newspapers, newsmagazines, and radio and television news programs. “The State of the News Media in 2004” finds that “Americans think journalists are sloppier, less professional, less caring, […]

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In our last issue we recalled the famous Democratic slogan: “It’s the economy, stupid!” It originated in an outburst from James Carville, a former Clinton campaign aide nicknamed “the Ragin’ Cajun.” This campaign year we’re hearing a variation of that Clinton classic from the Democrats: “It’s the intelligence, stupid!” Last month Senator John Kerry of […]

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Missing Millions—Like the government’s billions of dollars in solid gold bars buried in underground vaults at Ft. Knox, KY, the underground pelf in Washington would be invisible if it were not for one of America’s most journalistically excavating weekly magazines, the National Journal. The cover story in its February 21 issue reports in devastating detail on […]

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Editor’s note: Along with their helpful nitpicks, readers of the Washington Spectator have been filling our in-box with thoughtful pieces on what our founding editor, the late Tristram Coffin, chose 30 years ago as this publication’s main output: “untold stories.” He meant information neglected or buried in the mainstream media. One of those convoluted sagas is what […]

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A Broiler or a Spoiler?—The presidential candidacy of Ralph Nader as an Independent—he and the Green Party have split—raises again, as it did in the 2000 election, the question of whether his searing whacks at the Bush administration will offset the Democrats’ fear that Nader will take away enough votes in November to throw the […]

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