The Kicker

As tens of thousands of Americans die of COVID-19, fear and uncertainty devolve into paranoid tribalism. At our most extreme, one side believes science is sacrosanct, and the other claims the pandemic is a plot to destabilize the president. Political commentator Charlie Sykes was once at the center of the American conservative movement. Now he opposes Donald Trump and the right-wing media that enable his cult of personality. On this week’s Kicker, Sykes, founder and editor-at-large of The Bulwark, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss the legitimate argument to be made for civil liberties, and the origins of anti-science sentiment among conservative voters.

The intersection of conflict, climate, and disease has never been more apparent, and neither has public need for “journalistic rigor and urgency.”On this week’s Kicker, E. Tammy Kim, a freelance reporter and essayist, and Mark Hertsgaard, the environmental correspondent for The Nation, speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on what COVID-19 and the climate crisis reveal about the problem of social systems that are exclusionary by design.

Religion is difficult for journalists to cover, in part because it lies beyond observation and resists narrative. On this week’s Kicker, Elizabeth Bruenig, an opinion writer for the New York Times, speaks with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, on how, as we live in a time of enormous loss, we can report on spirituality and death.

Punished for wearing masks, or for asking to have their temperatures taken, our aging prison population is denied basic social distancing, hygiene, and cleaning supplies they need to defend themselves against COVID-19. Governor Andrew Cuomo has not responded to letters from advocates for the inmates, and he claims, falsely, that he lacks the authority to fix the issues.Journalist Rosa Goldensohn, of The City, reports on inmates still forced to congregate, or to sleep in beds 16 inches apart. Stefen Short, a staff attorney for the Prisoners' Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society, fights for the safety of those trapped in prison on technicalities, or for whom COVID-19 constitutes a death sentence. On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Goldensohn and Short on the importance of reporting beyond Cuomo’s daily briefings to tell the stories of individual inmates and the fight for their basic rights.

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s COVID-19 press conferences rely heavily on data, as does press coverage of the pandemic. But when CJR’s Amanda Darrach got sick, she learned how misleading those numbers are. On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Darrach about how we should cover the trauma of COVID-19.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Kim Bui, director of audience innovation at the Arizona Republic, has looked to her readers to help guide the paper’s coverage. Bui says she texts with her readers and works in real time to find the answers they need.On this week’s Kicker, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with Bui and Mathew Ingram, CJR’s chief digital writer, on how newsrooms have struggled to create a two-way conversation with their readers in the past. Without time for cautious planning, papers may learn how to serve their communities best.

When an outbreak like the Covid-19 pandemic hits, local journalists serve as first responders for global surveillance efforts. Elisabeth Rosenthal was a young physician when the AIDS epidemic hit New York City; she later covered the SARS crisis in China for the New York Times. Samantha Pak is senior editor at the Kirkland Reporter, the local paper covering Life Care Center nursing home, where 19 residents have died from the coronavirus. On this week’s Kicker, Rosenthal, who is editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News, and Pak speak with Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about the advantage of the local news template and what happens when we substitute politics for science.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump didn’t visit towns like Storm Lake, Iowa in 2016. This election cycle, things are much different. Art Cullen, editor and co-owner of the Storm Lake Times, and winner of the 2017 Pulitzer for Editorial Writing, has interviewed 15 presidential candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Pete Buttigieg. On this week’s Kicker, he talks to Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, about what national political reporters get wrong and what they should be focused on instead.Cullen is the author of “Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope in America’s Heartland” (Penguin, 2018)

Kadir van Lohuizen reports on the climate crisis with the same techniques he brought to his work as a war correspondent. His photography, video, and written work focus on the point of conflict between the crisis and human life. This week, Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, speaks with van Lohuizen about what kind of climate disaster coverage inspires real action.

Jess Brammar is the new editor in chief of HuffPost UK. She is also 7 months pregnant. When it comes to family leave policy, American news outlets lag behind their European counterparts. On this week’s Kicker, Brammar joins Kyle Pope, the editor and publisher of CJR, to discuss that difference and how family leave might just give newsrooms the diversity they need to survive.