When Spiro Agnew was compelled to resign the vice presidency after pleading no contest to tax evasion charges, I made the mistake of accepting an invitation to appear on David Susskind’s televised talk show. It was, I naively thought, … Read more

Gerald Ford may have been the most genuine person ever to serve in the White House. He was basic, real, without guile or pretense.

When two deranged women made attempts on his life during his brief presidency, my editors at … Read more

The truth is I’m not opposed to tabloids. I When we first were developing zoned sections in Philadelphia we made them tabs, so they would be distinctive, would slide out of the mainsheet with ease, would give the readers in … Read more

Not long after Bob Rosenthal was posted to Nairobi for The Philadelphia Inquirer, he and a Los Angeles Times correspondent were imprisoned by Idi Amin’s soldiers in a remote part of Uganda. Editors at the two newspapers had to … Read more

At Poynter, we know our first obligation is to you, the teachers and students who come to participate in our seminars. With that in mind, we’ve devised these protocols in case a national emergency disrupts your life en route to, … Read more

Welcome to The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

We don’t always say those last three words: For Media Studies.

Most people know us as Poynter or, in an oddity I’ve never understood, THE Poynter.

Some know us by our marketing … Read more

We were taken aback by a letter on impressive bond paper from a law firm in New York (with offices in Washington, Los Angeles, Miami and, of course, Paris) alerting us to the risk that Jim Romenesko’s MediaNews could be … Read more

This is part of a series of essays under the general title, “Why It Matters.” Poynter faculty members will write these essays with new journalists in mind, but we think their advice will inspire journalists of all ages and levels … Read more

When the Persian Gulf War began a decade ago, journalists reminded one another of their ethical obligation not to disclose national security information. At the newspaper where I worked, we had sober discussions about exercising prudence.

It came, then, as … Read more

The reporting should begin carefully finding answers to the questions on the minds of everyone: Who did this? If Osama bin Laden was to blame, who is he? Tell me more about Afghanistan, where he and his group are based. … Read more