Columbia Journalism Review

New in the July issue of Columbia Journalism Review:

How the Mainstream Media Can Stand Tall Again: • Douglas McCollam urges a cowed and battered mainstream media to rise out its defensive crouch, and proposes a strategy for the coming rounds. http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/4/mccollam.asp

AND: How the New York Times Coverage of Pop Culture Catches the Froth but Misses the Current The Times has revamped its culture coverage, mapping new beats and adding dozens of reporters who track every trend and development. But despite its ample staff and resources, and its perch atop the media pecking order, the Times’s report manages to miss a major component of the pop-culture story – its impact on society. Read Michael Massing’s cover piece, Off Course: http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/4/massing.asp

Also in this issue: Trudy Lieberman shows how the press helps push prescription drugs -- sometimes with dire consequences. http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/4/lieberman.asp

And: Michael Shapiro on passion and power at a small town daily; the editors on what Howard Fineman should have said to Don Imus about journalism during wartime; Mariah Blake explores why some world crises get media attention and some remain invisible; John Dinges describes the soul searching among the troubled journalists of Venezuela. Terrence Smith talks to a spy and Deborah Solomon wonders if she’ll get into heaven. And much more.