
The Chicago ed beat: Why do politicians fight back when teachers want to feel safe?
Education reporters cover one of the most emotional facets of the Covid-19 pandemic. The political obsession with keeping public schools open during the latest Covid-19 surge does not match the desires of parents. In fact a recent poll shows that the less income a child’s household has, the more caution the parents express about in-person schooling. On this week’s Kicker, Tracy Swartz, who covers Chicago Public Schools for the Chicago Tribune, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discu...
14 Jan 202221min

Julie K. Brown, Lucia Osborne-Crowley, and coverage of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial
The Ghislaine Maxwell trial has highlighted the court system’s bullying of sexual assault victims—those who take the stand, those who come to bear witness, and even those who sit on the jury. On this week’s Kicker, Julie K. Brown, an investigative reporter with the Miami Herald whose work led to Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein’s arrests, and Lucia Osborne-Crowley, a lawyer and a reporter for Law360 who broke the story that a Maxwell juror was a victim of sexual assault, join Kyle Pope, editor and...
7 Jan 202237min

Twitter on a tightrope
Journalists on Twitter are faced with an impossible task, a choice between building their following or avoiding harassment. More often than not, they face those risks without the support of their editors and newsrooms.On this week’s Kicker, Jacob L. Nelson, an assistant professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss Nelson’s latest report, published by the Tow Center for Digital Jour...
13 Dec 202123min

Ian Urbina on Libya, the Outlaw Ocean Project, and the rules of engagement
As Ian Urbina’s investigative work uncovered human rights abuses and climate destruction across the world’s oceans, he realized he needed to diversify his audience—beyond even the reach of legacy outlets like the New York Times.On this week’s Kicker, Urbina and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss this week’s story on Libya’s migrant prisons, and the journalism model Urbina built to change the rules of global engagement.
3 Dec 202130min

Deep on the Steele beat: Erik Wemple & Marcy Wheeler
On this week’s Kicker, Marcy Wheeler, an independent journalist, and Erik Wemple, a media critic at the Washington Post, speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about media accountability and where press discussion of the Steele dossier fell short.
19 Nov 202129min

COP26: Who do we edit out of the climate crisis?
Most reporters in the developing world can’t afford to attend high stakes climate conferences like the COP26 held in Glasgow this month. Neither can most climate activists. What is lost?Jon Allsop, author of CJR’s newsletter “The Media Today,” spent the past week at COP26. On this week’s Kicker, he sits down with two conference attendees, Disha Shetty, a public health journalist from India, and Mark Hertsgaard, co-founder and executive director of Covering Climate Now and the environment corr...
12 Nov 202128min

What does the Facebook data dump mean?
As journalists struggle to cover the latest revelations in the Facebook story, they also endeavor to write stories that land with the general public. How much context is sacrificed for the sensation of something new?On this week’s Kicker, Renee DiResta, who is the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory and an ideas contributor at Wired and The Atlantic, and Mathew Ingram, our chief digital writer, speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on how to connect th...
1 Nov 202136min

On the trail of ‘pink slime’
The network of websites that pose as local news outlets but aren’t has grown exponentially in the run up to next year’s midterm elections. Who funds the sites, and how can we track them? And why are they called “pink slime”?On this week’s Kicker, Priyanjana Bengani, a senior research fellow at Columbia Journalism School's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, sits down with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss her study of these op-up sites, how to find and follow them, and what th...
22 Okt 202118min





















