Press & Politics

Recent Posts

How Robert Menendez Escaped a Senate ‘Debate’ On Twitter

Lauren Ashburn | May 14th, 2013

World Tribune

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Joe Kyrillos, the Republican running against New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, has been trying to get the Democrat to debate him.

When he saw Menendez put out a hashtag #AskMenendez to conduct an online town hall, Kyrillos saw his opportunity. As Social Media Today reports, Kyrillos enlisted the aid of the Heritage Foundation Action Fund in announcing that he’d conduct a virtual debate with Menendez, answering the same questions under the same hashtag.

That would have been a nice bit of guerrilla theater.

How Social Media Has Changed Journalism For An Entire Generation

Ben Jacobs | May 6th, 2013

Is there a generational shift in how young people read the news?

In a long thoughtful piece for the Columbia Journalism Review, Ben Adler describes how millennials consume journalism in a far different manner than previous generations did. Adler describes how young people find stories via social media rather than through the frontpages of websites, let alone the front page of a print newspaper.

How does it change the value of journalism to strip away the context that a credible publication provides? A reader who comes through a social-media side door is given no sense of a story’s relative importance. A blog post on the latest fad diet that would never have made it onto the front page, or even into print at all, can go viral and attract far more readers than the latest news from Syria. Readers who no longer page through a newspaper or sit through the evening news are bound to miss some information they might not click on but could benefit from knowing nonetheless.

 

Daily Download Retraction and Apology

Lauren Ashburn | May 5th, 2013

In a regular Daily Download feature where Howard Kurtz and I comment on the day’s media news, Howard Kurtz made a mistake. And so did I.

Kurtz said that Jason Collins, in a Sports Illustrated article about his sexual orientation, did not disclose that he had been engaged. In fact, Collins did disclose his engagement.

I knew Kurtz was going to make this point about Collins before we taped, and I didn’t double check to make sure it was accurate. As soon as I knew about the mistake, I pulled the video off of the site without acknowledging and correcting the mistake. That was another mistake.

To Jason Collins, who courageously revealed details about his personal life, I am deeply sorry. And, I also apologize to Daily Download readers who trust the information we provide.

As Founder and Editor-in-Chief, I am responsible for what goes on Daily Download. I am committed to being more vigilant to ensure our facts are correct and that we are more transparent if issues arise.  

Lauren Ashburn

Need For Closure: A Reporter’s Journey

Lauren Ashburn | May 1st, 2013

Boy Scouts

As a little girl, my town crier tendencies for the mundane — yet all-important — events in the world of a kid were legendary: “David fell off his bike!” or “The dog caught a rabbit!”  or “The mail is here!”

And now, as an adult and full-fledged journalist, when life is much more complicated, it’s not enough for me to shout from the rooftops what’s happening. I need to understand why and how.  And make it snappy.

It seems I’m not alone.

No matter what the event, there is a proven psychological “need for closure” that drives journalists and the public to learn and process information in a blink of an eye. As Maria Konnikova writes in The New Yorker:

“The term “cognitive closure” was coined by the social psychologist Arie Kruglanski, who eventually defined it as “individuals’ desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity,” a drive for certainty in the face of a less than certain world. When faced with heightened ambiguity and a lack of clear-cut answers, we need to know—and as quickly as possible.”

WATCH: Chris Christie Calls Bullshit On Sand Dunes Opponents

Daily Download Team | May 1st, 2013

ABC News

Chris Christie warned that he was using an indelicate word and told children to cover their ears before calling “bullshit” on those opposed to building sand dunes on the Jersey Shore. Christie made the remarks at a town hall meeting in Long Beach Island, New Jersey.

Fashion Addicts Rejoice! Michelle Obama App

Nikki Schwab | May 1st, 2013

People

The next time first lady Michelle Obama wears something that’s a must-have, there’s an app for that.

Calling all copycats: In the Apple iTunes store style trend watchers and just fans can dress like the Fashionista in Chief.  It’s called “Michelle’s Style List” and can be purchased for $.99.

The app is the brainchild of 28-year old Brit, Helen Barclay, according to the Hollywood Reporter, who created a similar Smartphone app to follow the every fashion move of Britain’s Princess Kate Middleton. “I had noticed how Mrs. Obama had a similar impact in the USA as The Duchess of Cambridge has,” Barclay wrote on the app’s website. “I always knew that I wanted an App for the first lady–there was only one thing holding me back…for President Obama to win a second term in office.” Barclay and her team started building the app as soon as the election results were in, launching it in early April.

Website Reviews

Atlantic Politics

The Atlantic’s page is a thinking person’s site, and featuring a daily menu of political features and a roster of star columnists. These include James Fallows, Megan McArdle, Robert Wright, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jeffrey Goldberg, who almost always have something interesting to say, even when their posts are short.

Real Clear Politics

The site is an all-you-can eat buffet of political links, enough to fill almost any appetite, especially if you like to
gorge on polls (and a very helpful average index of recent polls). But its layout is almost defiantly unfriendly, just
unbroken columns of red-type headlines with no summaries at all.

original pieces by Real Clear’s own reporters.

The links range across the political spectrum…

Political Wire

Taegan Goddard’s website was aggregating political news way before it was cool. Political Wire (one of Daily Download’s partners) provides a steady flow of bite-sized morsels, packed with nutritious links, that draw on an impressive array of sources, from big news organizations to local outlets to polling outfits. Goddard, a onetime Capitol Hill foreign policy adviser and author of a book on political management, brings a distinct sensibility both to his curation of news and his pithy summaries. He embeds his analysis in the items, often topped by pithy…

The Fix

The Fix's Chris Cillizza

This Washington Post blog manages the neat trick of feeding the junkies while also providing hard-core political analysis and having some fun in the process. Primary author Chris Cillizza knows the game inside out, so there’s a sense of smart context and tapping into the insiders. And with seven or eight posts a day, Cillizza [...]

538

Nate Silver is a self-described nerd who moved to writing about politics after a career in crunching baseball statistics. He delves deeply into polling data and dwells in the rarefied realm of forecast models. The results may be a bit geeky for some readers. But Silver is a lively writer and thinker, and the 538 blog (named for the number of Electoral College votes) is adept at both catching political waves and describing the nature of such waves. That means Silver is sometimes wrong (“National Polls Suggest Romney Is Overwhelming Favorite for GOP Nomination,” on Jan. 19); or right at that nanosecond (“New Florida Polls Show Big Swing to Gingrich”) before events break the other way (Gingrich falls behind in the Florida primary).

Rasmussen Reports

Rasmussen Reports

Run by pollster and frequent cable news talker Scott Rasmussen, the website delivers poll results and commentary focused on news coverage, politics, business, lifestyle and more.