What Do We Need From Campaign Journalism?

Whether It’s 1968 or 2020, It’s Necessary to ‘Reveal the Truth About a Campaign’

What kind of campaign reporting serves our democracy, and what sort of political journalism undermines it? How have the methods of reporting on presidential contests changed over the course of American history, and what is different now, in 2020—a year that was going to be unprecedented even before a global pandemic got involved?

Two journalists who covered presidential campaigns in different eras—NPR To the Point host Warren Olney and Zócalo California editor Joe Mathews—visited Zócalo to discuss what campaign journalism means to the country right now, and how to make it …

by Sara Suárez | September 10, 2020

My Summer at the Graveyard

Observing That Final Resting Sites Aren’t Always Quite So Final, KCRW’s Warren Olney Considers What He Wants for His Own Remains

by Warren Olney | August 20, 2020

We never heard about “recycling” when I grew up, during the Age of Plastics. But, during one summer off from college, I learned that one form of the practice is …

America Takes a Capitalist Licking and Keeps on Ticking

The U.S. Owes Its Prosperity, in Part, to Its Tolerance for Bad Times, Says The Economist’s Adrian Wooldridge

by Eryn Brown | January 25, 2019

The United States enjoys a special place atop the global economic heap, driven in large by Americans’ willingness to embrace change—even when it hurts.

But the country’s remarkable run could be …

Can Criminals Be Genetically Determined?

Just Five Percent of Families Commit Half of All U.S. Crimes. Is It Bad Genes, Bad Family Values, or Both?

by REED JOHNSON | October 25, 2018

When veteran New York Times reporter Fox Butterfield first met the Bogle family, he believed that nurture mattered more than nature in influencing people to commit violent crimes.

But how, then, …

Why Martin Luther King Saw His Life as a Sacrifice

A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographer Sheds Light on the Civil Rights Icon’s Spiritual Trials

Interview by Warren Olney | September 27, 2018

David J. Garrow is the author of Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1987. Warren …

Only You Can Defeat Vladimir Putin

Russian Interference With America Is Profound and Systematic, So the Best Self-Defense Is We, the People

by Reed Johnson | September 17, 2018

Vladimir Putin has done a masterful job of sowing hatred and confusion in the West. By tampering with elections, hijacking social media platforms, and cranking out reams of bogus conspiracy …

Get More Zócalo