FEATURES

Almost Famous, Columbia Journalism Review

Can a star-studded documentary series make people care about climate change?

Can Tony Haile Save Journalism By Changing the Metric?, Columbia Journalism Review

A profile of Chartbeat's quixotic founder

Protecting Freelancers, Columbia Journalism Review

James Foley's murder thrust GlobalPost into the middle of an industry-wide debate about the ethics of working with the inexperienced, poorly paid freelancers who increasingly cover the world's wars

I Automated My Apartment—And It Kind Of Creeped Me Out, Esquire

From technology's point of view, I was an intruder in my own home. Living in the 'Internet of Things.' 

Cloudy with a chance of amazeballs, Columbia Journalism Review

The Weather Channel is reinventing itself for the digital age

And from the left...Fox News, Columbia Journalism Review

There's more to Fox's strategy of hiring liberals than creating a public boxing match

COMMENTARY

The problem with the surgeon myth, Aeon

Telling the tale of two young black men, Columbia Journalism Review

A bungled case, a villain, and a slew of sympathetic, media-savvy advocates pushed Trayvon Martin’s tragedy into national headlines—but should it take such a perfect storm?

Is Planet Hilary ugly or just ahead of its time, Columbia Journalism Review

Art directors say some provocative covers grow better with age, but The New York Times Magazine illustration is a gaffe

My full Observatory archive is here; some selections below:

Journalists and PTSD: Is it about guilt?, Columbia Journalism Review

Research suggests that journalists convinced their work inflicted harm suffer more from covering violence

The Galdwellian debate, Columbia Journalism Review

Why are we still listening to Malcolm Gladwell's cherry-picked gospel?

Michael Pollan and Amy Harmon talk it out, Columbia Journalism Review

The talking points that launched a thousand tweets

A 'very special' Esquire story, Columbia Journalism Review

The magazine claims that advocacy and good intentions exempt them from a scientific critique

A lot: that's how many, Columbia Journalism Review

New study has journalists in a jellybean-counting contest over just how many Earth-like planets are out there

Openly accessible, Columbia Journalism Review

The backlash over a Science magazine sting raises questions about the scope of investigative journalism and the rigor of open access publishing

Reuters global warming about-face, Columbia Journalism Review

A survey shows the newswire ran 50 percent fewer stories on climate change after hiring a “skeptic”

Your fertility, checked, Columbia Journalism Review

An Atlantic cover story uncovering a decade of botched reporting should sound as a warning to journalists to examine the fine print of scientific studies

Assorted:

Why The Poor May Be More Prone to Asthma, OnEarth 

A pollen-trapping research installation suggests higher levels in low income neighborhoods.

Hollywood's Native Truth, Mother Jones

"Maybe we as Americans have arrived at a point where we can look at even terrible aspects of the American past—essentially the removal of Native American peoples from the eastern half of the continent in the 18th and 19th century—and see the people involved in the round."

Single Black Female Seeking....a Response, Salon

On the dating site OkCupid, men of every race give African American women the cold shoulder.

I Dream of Genius, Wired

Can over the counter herbal smart-pills cure your brain fuzz? Or does pseudo science have its limits?