The mysterious and provocative Dr. Ink burst onto the American journalism scene in 2001 and wrote more than 300 columns for Poynter’s Web site. He appeared — and then disappeared – in a flash, leaving his legion of fans distraught… Read more

Dear Readers: Dr. Ink is sniffing a little too much wind beneath our wings these days. After a generation of anti-heroes, heroes are back in style. It took the terrible events of September 11 to remind the nation of the… Read more

Dear Readers:

Dr. Ink has been awakened from months of contemplative slumber by a dream. He dreamed that a possible future First Lady of the United States told a newspaper editorialist to “Shove it.”

The flames of that spontaneous… Read more

Dearest Readers:

This will be the last Dr. Ink column for a while.

There will be great speculation in the days ahead about why Doc is going on sabbatical, on safari, on a pilgrimage, on special assignment, on vacation, on… Read more

Dear Readers:

Perhaps, some day, an enterprising reporter will write a book entitled “The Secret Life of Jim Romenesko.” What a sensational story that would be about the Elvis of bloggers! With the creation of “Media Gossip,” Romenesko changed the… Read more

Dear Readers:

Dr. Ink loves his readers — madly. Which is why it pains him to ask these impertinent questions: Aren’t you spending a little too much time online these days? If you are a journalist, shouldn’t you be out of… Read more

Dear Readers,

There are many moments in a profession when incompetence is confused for corruption. Rush Limbaugh just proved that in a big way.

Hired by ESPN to drag his huge radio audience to the pre-game football show, Limbaugh stepped… Read more

Dear Readers:

A perennial complaint of reporters is that headline writers “give away the ending.” Some stories have “kickers,” or special endings that reward readers for getting to the bottom. (The term ‘kicker’ is mysterious in its origin. Doc likes… Read more

Dear Readers:

Dr. Ink mourns the passing of George Plimpton, a writer known in popular culture for his adventures as the “participant observer.”  His book “Paper Lion” describes his misadventures as a stunt stand-in for a professional quarterback.  He also tried… Read more

Doc,

Andrew Kohut had an article in The New York Times entitled “A Chink in the Armor.” Now, I know that “chink” is used correctly in the headline. But, I wonder what you might have to say about using… Read more