January 21, 2004
Read The Big Story 2003
We've Been Here Before
by James Fallows
What can we learn from the past? The Atlantic's James Fallows contextualizes today's national security crisis by taking a tour of the Great War and its aftermath. Woodrow Wilton, in particular, ushered in the era of modern propaganda, and the press has never been the same.
Privacy is Hard
Shades of Gray: Why is Privacy So Difficult To Cover? by Jeffrey Rosen
Author Jeffrey Rosen on why our coverage of privacy is often simplistic, and what we should do about it.photo by David Krantz Copyright 2003.
The Best coverage, the worst of coverage, and the stories that deserved more play than they got. Stories we did like and those we didn't.
And Tech IS Hard
Dull But Important: Why Tech Coverage Mostly Misses the Mark
by Michael Zuckerman
The mainstream press tends to like pre-digested stories that don't stray far from consensus reporting. Michael Zuckerman on why technology coverage mirrors this trend, complicating our understanding of the security/privacy debate.
From Senator Church and State: Why History Matters in A Post 9/11 World
by Marc Rotenberg
Before Watergate and in the wake of Vietnam, the Church Committee weighed the balance between national security and civil liberties. What they decided should not be lost on us given the climate of today's debate.
You Are Your Digital Identity
by Mary Hodder
...taking a tour through the issue of digital identity, where civil liberties, technology and national security collide.
illustration by Hae Youn Kim
From Duck and Cover to Duct Tape:
Coverage of civil defense then and now.A Few Digital Minutes With William Kristol:
Creating a Detailed Online Profile.The Kids Are Okay
(For Now). Kids are the most connected generation yet. What does it mean when the electronic trail covers everything they do?.Getting Your Facts Straight:
How Newsrooms Keepin check
One Year Later... Still Getting His War On:
David Rees continued to rail against the War on Terror in his own inimitable style, adding John Poindexter, John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act to his repertoire.
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...One Year Later... Still Getting His War On:
David Rees continued to rail against the War on Terror in his own inimitable style, adding John Poindexter, John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act to his repertoire.
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by Kai Hafez
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...The Self-Censors
by Dieter Wild
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Get Your Dark Humor On
Some argue that the go-go '90s were fallow years for dark humor. If that's the case, September 11 and the ensuing War on Terrorism were a monsoon and a huge bag of fertilizer.Sept. 11: The Ultimate Field Day for Conspiracists!
From Lyndon LaRouche using a Sept. 11 radio show for campaign material, to Chandra Levy as a recruit from the Israeli Mossad, conspiracies abound.
So what's the next Big Story? As much as the media has learned from September 11, we believe media decision makers haven't internalized the most important lesson of all - prioritizing what really matters to the American public. No better example can be made than the Condit-Levy case. When poor Ms. Levy's body was found in late May, threats of nuclear attack were once again pushed off the front pages and screens of American media for 'live' reports from the scene.
Find out our prognostications of what the next Big Story might be.
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Where Left and Right Meet:
National Security Versus Personal Privacy
An odd union of conservative and liberal.Erato in the White House
Can bad poetry ever be considered a threat to national security? Poets for peace, poets for war. With Tators and Bacon, by Lloyd Drako.One Israeli, One Palestinian: Middle East News in the U.S.
Scant coverage of the purported civil- and human-rights abuses suffered by Arab-Americans in teh name of national security.Habla Espanol?
Univision (The Spanish Language Network) covers the boarder immigration issues post 9/11.Unfettered by Objectivity, the Online Fight for Privacy
Online privacy groups say the answer should be a no-brainer: civil liberties shouldn't take a back seat to national security.
Media Matters: The relationship between the Pentagon and the press
Most people agreed that the war on terrorism was a new kind of war. But what may not have been expected was the Pentagon's handling of reporters trying to cover the war.Warriors of information: The changing role of war correspondents
by Renaud Revel
French journalist Renaud Revel recently took a look at what it means to be a war reporter covering conflict in foreign countries. In this story that originally appeared in L'Express, he spoke to both young and experienced photojournalists to find out how war reporting has changed over the past several decades.
The Big Story writers and editors consult a diverse body of informational resources in the creation of each issue.
Here's a sampling of resources we used to get this issue out.
