Like many another established institution, the U.S. press tends to suffer criticism badlyeven when it comes from within. Editors do often read with respect the magisterial preachments of the Columbia Journalism Review, which for ten years has ranged with cool competence over the triumphs and trials of American journalism. But the C.J.R., published bimonthly by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, has neither the staff nor the space for consistent critiques of how the press performs at the local level.
In the past three years, a new kind of journalism review has sprung up...