The Kicker

John Temple was the editor of the Rocky Mountain News when the Columbine massacre changed America’s perception of safety forever. CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Temple about the media’s sanitation of mass shootings, Temple’s disbelief that more did not change after Columbine, and why the way we cover the violence has not worked.

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Marie J. French and Danielle Muoio, the authors of POLITICO’S “New York Energy” newsletter. They report from the intersection of politics, policy, and the climate crisis, and discuss why it’s time for newsrooms everywhere to embrace the energy beat.

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Bob Garfield, the co-host of WNYC’s “On the Media” and co-founder of the Purple Project for Democracy, on his plan to rebuild American faith in its press and in democracy. They discuss the fragmentation of the media and the loss of civic education, as well as Garfield’s blueprint for November 2019, when he urges outlets to feature non-partisan, apolitical reports on democracy.

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Lauren Villagran and Aaron Montes, both reporters at the El Paso Times, about their paper’s recent collaboration with The New York Times. They discuss their discovery of the Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas and the climate of fear in El Paso after the Trump administration’s unique decision to announce raids ahead of time.

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Maria Bustillo, CJR’s public editor for MSNBC, on the first round of Democratic debates. They discuss Kamala Harris’s small-screen evolution into a challenger for Joe Biden, why one weak debate won’t finish him, and how Bustillo plans to cover MSNBC in the run-up to 2020.

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Azeen Ghorayshi and Rachel Sanders, members of the Buzzfeed News union organizing committee. BuzzFeed’s newsroom voted to unionize in February, a month after a devastating round of layoffs that left some 200 employees out of work. Ghorayshi, an investigative reporter, and Sanders, the deputy culture editor, describe life in the newsroom as negotiations with management drag on, and why unionizing should not have to be an adversarial process.

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Emily Tamkin, our CNN public editor, about CJR’s new public editor initiative. Tamkin asks why CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time continues to invite supposed experts who aren’t in the administration, can’t be held accountable to anyone, don’t have relevant expertise, and refuse to answer a host’s questions.

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope and Delacorte fellow Amanda Darrach speak with with Ed Kosner, the former editor of Newsweek, New York magazine, Esquire, and the New York Daily News. Kosner tells how he moved Watergate transcripts from Washington, DC to New York by “pigeon,” how reporters navigated the old news magazine system, and how journalism has changed since the days before cable news and the internet, when weekly news magazines broke national news.

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Corey Hutchins, CJR’s correspondent based in Colorado, where he is also a journalist for The Colorado Independent. They discuss the ‘orphan county’ phenomenon, where, because of the whim of Nielsen market designations set decades ago, residents “receive no news coverage and political advertising for their own statewide races, irrelevant information pertaining to candidates in the neighboring state who will not appear on their ballots, or both.” An estimated 10 percent of the US electorate lives in ‘orphan counties.” Their chance for change rests in how Congress, the FCC, and news producers decide to define community.

On this week’s episode, CJR Editor and Publisher Kyle Pope speaks with Nick Pinto, a journalist who covers the New York City Police Department, about the notorious opacity of that institution. Pinto describes the impossibility of covering the trial of Officer Joseph Pantaleo, the NYPD officer charged with killing Eric Garner, without public transcripts, recordings, or documents.