News & Media

Psychologist and family therapist Dr. Dan Gottlieb's new book Letters to Sam is a collection of lessons on life he wrote to his grandson. Two decades ago, Gottlieb became a quadriplegic in an automobile accident. His grandson is autistic, and the letters have lessons about what it's like to be different.

Come up with a list of the dream writing jobs in comedy and at least three of them are likely to come up on one man's resume: Ben Karlin is executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and co-executive producer of The Colbert Report, both on the cable channel Comedy Central. Before that, Karlin was editor of the satirical weekly newspaper The Onion.

A new book details the scandalous, sensational, partisan press — of the 1700s. Fox News journalist Eric Burns' Infamous Scribblers: the Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism tells the stories.

Not long ago, "new journalism" referred to changes in approach and style, ushered in by such writers as Hunter S. Thompson and Joan Didion. They're the subject of Marc Weingarten's new book.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sonia Nazario talks about her new book, Enrique's Journey, which traces the path of a young boy from Honduras to the U.S. as he reunites with his mother. Nazario found that 48,000 children, some as young as 7, make the journey alone each year.

Race and politics add to the tension of a detective's search for a kidnapped child in Freedomland, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore. The film's screenplay was written by Richard Price; the story is based on his novel of the same name.

The lobbying scandal that engulfed the career of Jack Abramoff and threatens that of Rep. Tom DeLay was first reported two years ago, by reporter Susan Schmidt. Her colleague, R. Jeffrey Smith, is covering the DeLay angle of the story.

While reporting on the torture scandal at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Jackie Spinner was nearly kidnapped. Shaken by the experience, the Washington Post journalist returned to work, spending a total of nine months in Iraq.

The newsroom Jim Amoss leads was widely praised for its unflinching coverage of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. In a piece one month ago, Amoss said "New Orleans has become two cities -- an enclave of survivors clustered along the Mississippi River's crescent and a vast and sprawling shadow city where the water stood, devoid of power and people."

New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins has been covering the recent elections in Iraq. In April, he received the George Polk Award for War Reporting for "his riveting, first-hand account of an eight-day attack on Iraqi insurgents in Falluja."

Investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell writes for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., and specializes in unearthing new evidence from Civil Rights era criminal cases. His coverage has led to the convictions of four Ku Klux Klan members, starting with Byron De La Beckwith for the assassination of Medgar Evers. Recently, Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty of orchestrating the murders of Civil Rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. Next week Mitchell will be honored with the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism.

After 25 years as the host of ABC's Nightline, news anchor Ted Koppel is retiring. Nightline started out in March 1980 as extended news coverage of the hostage crisis in Iran. Koppel has won 37 Emmys and 6 Peabody Awards, as well as many other honors.

In today's sexual politics, are women equal — and are men even needed? That's the question New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd asks in her new book, 'Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide'.

TV news veteran Mike Wallace has just published a book about his favorite interviews, titled Between You and Me. He shares behind-the-scenes details from encounters with politicians, celebrities and criminals.

In several ways, the age of "infotainment" is foretold in Good Night, and Good Luck, set in the 1950s. The film tells of newsman Edward R. Murrow's fight against Sen. Joe McCarthy -- but it also details "the inherent debasement of mass news in a commercial culture."

A need for foreign workers in Iraq -- and the flood of American dollars into the country -- have created a labor network that critics call misleading, illegal and even dangerous. Chicago Tribune correspondent Cam Simpson retraced the fatal journey of 12 men from Nepal.

Barbara Ehrenreich's latest book is Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. In it, Ehrenreich details white-collar unemployment and the industry that sells unemployed resume assistance, job fairs, and networking events.

Actor, producer, writer, director George Clooney directed and co-wrote the new film Good Night, and Good Luck, about the showdown between legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy that took place in 1954.

Army National Guardsman Jason Christopher Hartley. While serving in Iraq, Hartley kept a blog of his experiences until his commanders forced him to shut it down. He’s now back from Iraq, and has a new memoir, “Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq” (HarperCollins).

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Good Night, and Good Luck, a new film about Edward R. Murrow, tells the story of the famed newsman's clash with Sen. Joe McCarthy. The film, with David Strathairn in the title role, was directed by George Clooney.