Media and Politics Must Reads, December 8, 2017

Our weekly roundup of news found at the intersection of media, politics, policy and technology, from the Shorenstein Center and from around the web. Sign up to receive Media and Politics Must Reads in your inbox each week. Also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates.

News from Faculty and Fellows

Tom Wheeler slams Ajit Pai’s plan to kill net neutrality rules. Tom Wheeler, Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow, said that Pai’s plan is “a classic example of regulatory capture, where the regulatory agency bends to the wishes of those they are supposed to oversee.”

Not easily persuasive: E.J. Dionne works hard to write it like he sees it. E.J. Dionne, Jr., William H. Bloomberg Visiting Professor, discusses his writing process with the Harvard Gazette.

Newsrooms Need to Purge Secrets in Order to Heal. Farai Chideya, spring 2016 fellow, discusses WNYC’s unwillingness to address the bullying behavior of its former Takeaway host, John Hockenberry.

Not my Alabama. Ted Gup, fall 2003 fellow, writes that “the Alabama my family knew and knows is only partially reflected in the headlines. It is not the caricature of the ignorant Southerner, not the Bible-thumping congregation that prefers a potential child molester to missing out on a tax cut.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders And The Modern White House Press Secretary. Martha Joynt Kumar, fall 1998 fellow, discusses the White House briefing room on On Point.

Teaching Trump. Khalil G. Muhammad, Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy and Shorenstein Center faculty affiliate, discusses how Trump’s election and presidency has offered additional opportunities to tie historical issues to contemporary ones.

Selling local news, with the help of The Boss and ‘Hamilton’. David Beard, Research Fellow, writes about a publisher who thinks creatively about sustaining her nonprofit newsroom.

News Media Performance

Trump and the Media

Partisanship

Tech and Democracy

Harassment

Media Business

Resources