This is a rather typical wire service story with enough verifiable facts to justify the title, so it's "good" journalism. Is it exceptional journalism? No. There is a lot of context to this story that is skimmed over, as this simply isn't the forum for an in depth piece on the subject
Dale Penn
Founding Member (since April 2006)
I have been a news junkie since I was a child watching the Huntley-Brinkley report with my Uncle. As a teenager I became fascinated with history and economics. As an adult I have remained interested in world events, and have become increasingly dismayed by how polarized and distrustful of one another we are becoming as a society.
Never before has it been so convenient for people to simply go to the news sources that tell them what they want to hear. I am hoping my involvement with News Trust will in some small way help honest journalism win the day.
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I often find Forbes to be a reasonably good source. This is the top story in their daily morning newsletter. I'm downgrading my source rating for Forbes from 4 to 3 as this opinion piece offers so little information to substantiate any claims other than an "incredible" paper on the topic written by Gordon. I'll seek links to the paper and information on Gordon to provide further research sources for those who wish to evaluate this highly opinionated piece further.
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Not So Unequal, After All
See All NT Reviews » NT Rating: 2.5
The named sources seem to be simply restating their previously held positions. The headline is supported by unnamed sources.
This is an important story with national implications. Links provided seem to substantiate the writer's final comment and her bias is obvious throughout. The piece requires a willingness on the part of the reader to visit the links provided and consider the story within the context that (I imagine) is contained within those links. Given the initial apparent local news flavor of this post, I imagine few readers who don't already realize they have a horse in this race will take the ... More »
The author makes a generally logical and succinct argument in favor of maintaining arts funding in Miami-Dade County in this opinion piece. He has a clear bias, and discloses it transparently (I share his bias, by the way). The argument that funding for the arts is an investment rather than an expense is compelling to me, however this is a very Clinton-esque argument and isn't likely to sway conservative commissioner votes needed to fund the arts. The County government, ... More »
The arts portion of the Miami-Dade County budget represents a mere 2.75% of the entire budget. The proposal by the Mayor to cut this portion of the ... More »
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Miami-Dade County, Florida Profile, Ranking and Population (Pending)
See All NT Reviews » NT Rating: 1.0
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Cutting arts funding a bad investment
See All NT Reviews » NT Rating: 3.3
This article tells the story of a growing trend toward secular humanism within our society. It speculates at times as to the reason for this, but mostly relies on facts and quotes to make its case.
So many people I know go to church primarily for the social interaction and freely admit it. It's human nature to become accustomed to ritual and ... More »
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More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops
See All NT Reviews » NT Rating: 3.8
I know next to nothing about this subject. The blog post comes off as a scholarly work worthy of serious consideration. It makes me want to read Sand's book. I haven't read other NT commentary as I write this, so I'm eager to see what others think. I plan to forward this to a number of Jewish friends who may have a clearer understanding of the subject than I. This sense of wanting to know more tends to make me believe that this is in fact good journalism.
Here is the response from a friend who is very involved in the Anti-Defamation League: "I cannot speak about the history but to me it is ... More »
While this story provides facts about the decreased funding in wind in Britain and provides quotes from several parties who are friendly to the cause of wind energy, it fails to explore why wind energy funding is apparently falling behind not just in Britain but elsewhere. Clearly the government has set new priorities. It would have been good to see a quote or two from those who have made this choice in order to go beyond speculation as to why this is happening.
Well written regional story with national implications. Well balanced with quotes from all sides, the author could have spent more time explaining the legislative steps required to amend the Iowa constitution (see link provided).
Such an amendment requires the votes of a simple majority in both the Iowa House and Iowa Senate in two consecutive sessions, followed by a passing vote of the people of ... More »
This well written article provides national context to the same-sex marriage stories that came out yesterday. The title is not totally supported by the article quotes provided, as advocates of same-sex marriage say these victories "will give the opposition movement new energy."
Representative Robert South, a freshman Democrat from a conservative district, said he reversed his position after 228 of his constituents reached out and urged him to ... More »
Concise would be nice. In a world of 142 character tweets this 8 page dissertation is likely to lose many who start reading because it's about Facebook. I waded through, but frankly wished for a Reader's Digest version by about page 2. The author brings up interesting points, again and again.
I would have liked more background on how Vermont came to this point. Comment from legislators who passed this and the governor's office seems lacking, but perhaps this is breaking news.
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Amending constitution is a long, difficult process | DesMoinesRegister.com | The (Pending)
See All NT Reviews » NT Rating: 1.0
This concise opinion piece offers serious reason for concern about the mixture of politics and the judiciary. News coverage on this story would be helpful in order to understand the circumstances that have allowed things to get to this point.
The 3% HIV infection rate in DC is the basis of the story, but there is no reference given in the report as to where the numbers come from. Experts appear to be interviewed more for the purpose of human interest than to substantiate the claim of the story.
Reasonably in depth coverage from the AP, with insight into a story that was likely hard to cover given the closed lipped nature of churches on their finances. There must be successful church development projects out there yet that information is not provided. it's difficult to tell from this story just how widespread this problem is.
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Boom-years borrowing hits churches
See All NT Reviews » NT Rating: 3.6
Informative and factual, this story is nicely focused and provides a peek into what the future could look like without newspaper boxes on the corner. The author slips in a personal and somewhat biased opinion at the very end of the story that caused me to downgrade this ever so slightly.
This study provides a snapshot of how poorly the public, ni various demographics, view local newspapers. Rather than focusing on what local issues readers seek out in their local newspapers, this article somewhat strangely veers off into what national news stories garner the greatest interest. I'm left wondering what a local news interest index would look like, and how closely local papers are attuned to that interest. The article seems to place blame on the failure of local ... More »
This article points out a problem that seem to me to be the achilles heel of local newspapers without ever drawing that conclusion. The news ... More »
Is this journalism? Maybe not. But it demonstrates the use of the web to promote an agenda at a level I'm not sure I've seen before. News cycles become less relevant when the government has instant, direct contact with its constituency. Perha
Is this journalism? Maybe not. But it demonstrates the use of the web to promote an agenda at a level I'm not sure I've seen before. News cycles ... More »
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Organizing for America Pledge Project
See All NT Reviews » NT Rating: 3.8
Provides an intimate look at one web based publication and its effort to fill voids left in coverage of state government news by print publications. Some of her work is published by the New Haven Independent so their take on the shift taking place in print news might have added a bit more balance to the piece.





As a supporter of equal civil rights, I was disappointed but not terribly surprised by this vote. There is a great deal of context surrounding this ... More »