The narrative of the Nikole Hannah-Jones saga that has engulfed the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been pretty straightforward: Evil Republicans on the Board of Trustees unexpectedly deny the fundamental academic right of tenure to a black female journalist because of politics and racism. The reality is a lot more complicated. Reasonable...
My undergraduate degree is in journalism, and my graduate degree is in history. That just means I’m interested in the history of journalism. In our constitutional republic, the importance of a free and honest press and informed citizenry can’t be overstated. As I look at the state of media today, I’m thankful that independent news...
This week, a column from the Carolina Journal was cited in an article in the Triangle area’s local News & Observer. The column, written by Dallas Woodhouse, in “The Woodshed” contained analysis and informed speculation after U.S. Census numbers revealed that North Carolina would gain a 14th U.S. House seat. In the initial version, Woodhouse presented...
Even perfectly legal private decisions to cancel people for their political opinions will, over time, weaken the culture of free expression. We need that culture.
In an AP story Oct. 1, Nicholas Riccardi, Jonathan Drew, and Scott Bauer, discussed what they called “the unusually aggressive, hyperlocal legal strategy the Trump campaign is activating as voting begins.” The Associated Press reporters wrote that Republicans have been “piling new pressure on the often low-profile election officials on the frontline of the vote...
When reporters aren’t around to cover counties, municipalities, and school boards, the public lacks the basic raw material with which to practice self-government.
Be careful not to let your favorite “narrative” blind you as you pursue the truth.
District Court Judge Pell Cooper of Rocky Mount thinks we got it wrong. We’ll let you, and others, decide. The judge, who’s the brother of Gov. Roy Cooper and has been on the bench since 1999, took issue with a recent Carolina Journal story by Don Carrington. It asserts that Pell Cooper’s role as the...
The following editorial appeared in the December 2016 print edition of Carolina Journal: When it comes to plans to pack the N.C. Supreme Court with new members, the John Locke Foundation instigated nothing. Yet frenzied left-of-center partisans and even some mainstream media outlets fingered JLF as the source of an idea that circulated within the...
On one point, President-elect Donald Trump has it right. Reporters, as he often intimated throughout his successful campaign, are biased. But not in the ways you may think. Or in ways in which politicians and pundits have led you to believe are true. News organizations lean one way or the other because they are a...
Have you ever seen a news story reported in a national or regional media outlet about your hometown, or a place you know well, that portrays the area in such a light that you just can’t recognize it? The piece might use anecdotes or other information about the area to make a larger point, perhaps...
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