 Drawing by Oliphant; Animation by Froomkin |
I write washingtonpost.com's White House Watch column, a pugnacious daily anthology of White House-related items from news Web sites, blogs and other sources. I am also deputy editor of NiemanWatchdog.org, a Web site from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University that encourages reporters to ask more probing questions and hold the powerful accountable. I previously worked as a producer and editor at washingtonpost.com. I joined the Web site in 1997 as senior producer for politics, was later Metro editor, and was named editor in 2000, serving three years as the second-in-command of editorial operations. Before that, I spent ten years as a daily newspaper reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal, the Miami Herald, and the Orange County Register. In 1995, I was awarded a Michigan Journalism Fellowship (ergo this Web page.) In 1996, I served as Editor of New Media for Education Week. I've also taught journalism at the American University Graduate School of Communication and the Poynter Institute.
This page, hoary as it is, contains some links to my past.
| Washingtonpost.com |
- Ideas for Online Publications: Lessons From Blogs, Other Signposts
- Why Beat Reporters Could Be News Sites' Greatest Secret Weapon
My first job at washingtonpost.com, in 1997, was as senior producer for political news, where I created "Special Report" packages on key topics in political news and national policy.
By writing straightforward explanatory essays, selecting relevant background stories, finding useful Web links and pulling out certain aspects of an issue for close examination, I hoped to create a model of how a Web site can complement and supplement breaking news stories from a daily paper by offering the readers context and depth.
This was particularly appropriate in the area of politics, given the much remarked-upon revulsion the public seems to feel over the incremental, conflict-obsessed, horserace-oriented, "gotcha!" nature of modern political coverage. By putting the daily stories in context, I hoped to bring renewed attention to the genuinely exciting and important issues that face our nation.
Then Monica happened. So I applied my skills to that story as well. Everything's horribly out of date, but last I checked, still there: Clinton Accused and Whitewater, Campaign Finance, Social Security, Welfare, Affirmative Action, Tax Policy and Encryption.
| Book Reviews |
- Stiffed, by Susan Faludi, Oct. 23, 1999
- Lucky Bastard, by Charles McCarry, Aug. 23, 1998
- A Hope in the Unseen, by Ron Suskind, June 14, 1998
- Strip Tease, by Carl Hiaasen, Sept. 12, 1993
- Free Fall, by Robert Crais, May 23, 1993
- Night Manager, by John Le Carre, July 9, 1993
- Rum Punch, by Elmore Leonard, Aug. 8, 1992
| Education Week |
I developed a lot of my ideas about how the Web can improve daily journalism during my one-year stint as Editor of New Media for Education Week in Washington, D.C. And the Web site has gotten quite a bit better since I left in 1997! Go check out Education Week on the Web.
The Daily News feature was one of the first human-powered news aggregation pages on the Web.
| Michigan Journalism Fellowship |
I was a 1996 Michigan Journalism Fellow, which explains what this site is doing here as well as how I ended up in new media after a decade as a print journalist.
I cannot say enough about the value of taking some time off in one's career and reassessing. It made all the difference to me.
| Print Journalism |
My resume is on line. It takes you to all my various haunts, including the Orange County Register, the Miami Herald, the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina and the National Journal.
Highlights from my six years at the Orange County Register include:
- My coverage of the "Honor Roll Murder"
- The inspirational story of UC-Irvine Professor Lynn Carpenter's attempts to heal the rain forests of Costa Rica
- My accessible profile of the normally inaccessible Jacques Derrida
- My explorations of cyberspace
- My visit with the Cal-State Fullerton virgins
- My attempt to convey just how bizarre a place Orange County is through my 1994 Year in Review piece
| The Dan Archive |
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Many of my articles for the Register, as well as a few from the Miami Herald and National Journal, can be found on this site. There's a comprehensive list of my top stories here.
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