NIEMAN REPORTS Violence, political attacks, layoffs … and still doing vital work Contributors The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University Julia Keller (page 24), a 1998 Nieman www.niemanreports.org Fellow and former cultural critic at the Chicago Tribune, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. “The Cold Way Home” (Minotaur Books), the eighth novel in her series set in her home state of West Virginia, will be published in August. She has taught writing at Princeton University, Notre Dame, and the University of Chicago. publisher Ann Marie Lipinski Lenka Kabrhelova (page 32), a 2018 editor Nieman Fellow, most recently was a James Geary creative producer and presenter at Czech senior editor Radio, the public radio broadcasting Jan Gardner network in the Czech Republic. Prior to editorial assistant that she was a U.S. correspondent for Eryn M. Carlson Czech Radio and a correspondent in Russia. Kabrhelova has reported from staff assistant nearly 20 diff erent countries. She Shantel Blakely additionally worked for the BBC World design Service in Prague and in London. Pentagram Days after a mass shooting at The Capital newspaper, staff members march in the 4th of July parade in Annapolis, Maryland in 2018 editorial offices Michael Blanding (page 6) is a journalist One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, with more than 25 years of experience, MA 02138-2098, 617-496-6308, covering media, crime, culture, and the Contents Winter 2019 / Vol. 73 / No. 1 [email protected] environment. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Slate, and Copyright 2019 by the President and Features Departments Fellows of Harvard College. other publications. His most recent book, Periodicals postage paid at “The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of Where Does Journalism 6 cover From the Curator 2 Boston, Massachusetts and an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made End and Activism Begin? Ann Marie Lipinski additional entries Millions Stealing Priceless Maps,” was This polarized political moment raises Journalism Under Pressure 24 named an NPR Book of the Year. fresh questions in newsrooms about The paradox of journalism today: Niemans@Work 4 subscriptions/business the line between reporting and advocacy Coverage is often exceptional, even Investigating WWII atrocities in 617-496-6299, [email protected] By Michael Blanding as newsrooms and revenues shrink the Philippines, covering the Subscription $25 a year, Shira Springer (page 16) has been a By Julia Keller modern workplace, holding local $40 for two years; sports journalist for more than 20 years. #TIREDOFTHEBIAS 16 offi cials accountable add $10 per year for foreign airmail. Formerly a member of the sports staff at Women’s sports in the U.S. receive The Free Press Under Single copies $7.50. The Boston Globe, she now covers stories only 4 percent of sports media coverage. Threat in Central Europe 32 Nieman Notes 48 Back copies are available from at the intersection of sports and society How—and why—to change that Despite fi nancial challenges and the Nieman offi ce. for NPR and WBUR. She also writes By Shira Springer government pressure, Central Sounding 52 Please address all subscription regular columns on women’s sports for European independent newsrooms Sipho Kings correspondence to: the Globe and The SportsBusiness Journal. are fi nding ways to keep reporting One Francis Avenue, In addition to writing and working in By Lenka Kabrhelova Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 public radio, Springer teaches sports Minnesota Lynx and change of address information to: journalism at Boston University. coach Cheryl Reeve P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108 has been outspoken watchdog ISSN Number 0028-9817 Susan Stellin (page 40) is a reporter and in demanding “It’s Not Just About Real 40 better coverage of Postmaster: Send address changes to an adjunct professor at The New School, women’s sports Estate Anymore” Nieman Reports P.O. Box 4951, teaching a course on ethics and the How newsrooms are tackling the complex Manchester, NH 03108 history of media. She recently completed issues that contribute to and result from a master’s degree in public health at the growing housing aff ordability problem Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) Columbia University and is the co-author of By Susan Stellin is published in March, June, “Chancers,” a memoir about her husband’s September, and December by struggle with addiction, incarceration, the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, and recovery. She has written for The New One Francis Avenue, York Times, New York magazine, The Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 Guardian, and many other publications. PRESS ASSOCIATED THE VIA SUN BALTIMORE REED/THE JAY TOP: OPPOSITE: PRESS ASSOCIATED GAY/THE BOTTOM:ERIC from who called “American Dharma” a “tooth- We are unsure. We seem in search of a new the less bromance,” others with an IndieWire journalistic rhetoric, and the possibilities curator reviewer who said, “This may be the first are both promising and perilous. real window into what it takes to talk back.” A few days after Morris visited Nieman, I But far richer than reviews has been the listened to an unlikely podcast, a conversa- deep debate about how journalists calibrate tion between Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Errol Morris, Steve Bannon, our stories to break through in a moment of and Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris extreme polarization, an important conver- Jones. As the journalist and the politician and American Discourse sation made possible, ironically, by viewing talked about their city, the mayor mentioned a film that few can see. a local critic whose views were pilloried by “What does it mean for journalism What does it mean for journalism when members of the theater community, some of when we cannot examine a subject we cannot examine a subject without ap- whom advocated denying her access to re- pearing to promote it? viewer tickets. Jones publicly defended her without appearing to promote it?” Morris recalled screening his 1999 docu- even as he disagreed with some of her views. mentary “Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred “This country needs to have conversation by ann marie lipinski A. Leuchter Jr.” to a group of college students Filmmaker Errol Morris has faced criticism for his documentary about Steve Bannon and the theater is a place of conversation,” who appeared to be swayed by the subject’s Jones told the mayor. “I think ultimately it or the first time in his long career, populism fueled Breitbart News before he Holocaust denials. “That was not my intent,” supposed to do. I’m supposed to infantilize described as “the Nazi sympathizer next always has to be on the side of tolerance and Academy Award winner Errol Morris imported it to the White House. “American he said wryly. Before releasing the movie, he my audience? I’m supposed to just play to door.” The piece, with its descriptions of it has to be on the side of many points of has made a film that no one will dis- Dharma” has now become its own unknown added direct denunciations of Leuchter, an what’s going to make them happy or feel the man’s Midwest manners and love of TV view. And it has to meet people where they tribute. Perhaps distributors don’t known, something we know that we do not edit he still laments for telling people what to better about themselves?” comedies, unleashed a torrent of criticism are. Not everyone is in the same place in like the documentary. Perhaps they know, a film generating plenty of coverage think rather than asking them to think. He added: “I learned maybe it’s not pos- from readers and media writers who object- Chicago or in America for that matter. And Fdon’t like the subject—Stephen K. Bannon, and opinions but very few screenings. “To me the ironies were so unbelievably sible to make movies like this anymore and ed to anodyne treatment of a white nation- I think the moment you start saying, ‘Well, former chief strategist for President Donald “It’s not a First Amendment [issue] be- strong that you want them just to wash over that I shouldn’t make another political film alist. Some objected to covering him at all. we only want opinions that we agree with,’ Trump. The fact that we can’t quite tell is a cause it isn’t the government suppressing people,” he said. “You don’t want to edito- ever again.” National editor Marc Lacey responded to it’s a slippery slope.” feature of this political moment. It is also a free speech, but what is it?” asked Morris. rialize about them. If they’re incapable of Morris’s troubles with the film coincid- the backlash with what seemed like genuine In what seemed especially relevant to the problem for journalism. “What is it when we’re just afraid to actual- seeing these ironies, then what do you do?” ed with New Yorker editor David Remnick’s introspection, though to some critics that controversy that dogs Morris, Jones added: This is not the first Morris film to docu- ly engage views that we find contrary to the Some argue that perilous political times decision last fall to first invite then disin- too was insufficient. “It goes to the debate among progressives or ment a polarizing subject. “The Fog of War,” way we would like to see the world?” have obviated traditional journalistic in- vite Bannon from the magazine’s annual “We regret the degree to which the piece liberals about whether this is a moment for his 2003 movie about former U.S. Defense I invited Morris to the Nieman quiry and that “American Dharma” should festival. The same week Morris premiered offended so many readers,” Lacey wrote.