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Monday, November 17, 2008 5:12 AM

Life and Death of a GOP Genius

Before there was Karl Rove, his mentor Lee Atwater was the top Republican strategist in the land. In "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story," producer Stefan Forbes documents Atwater's rise as a brilliant, charming and sometimes vicious strategist
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Friday, August 29, 2008 5:51 AM

The Courageous Kid

It's not often that we feature stories about funerals on News Gems, but Mike White's "Funeral for a Teen Whose Bravery Touched So Many" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette grabbed my heart. White does an amazing job of using simple words to richly describe the
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Thursday, August 14, 2008 6:40 AM

The Best Describers

Which newspaper writers are the best at describing people and places? I have three nominations, all of whom we've featured in News Gems before. Jeffrey Fleishman of the Los Angeles Times has been writing wonderful dispatches from Egypt and the
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008 6:25 AM

The Bishop and the Rabbi

No, this post about a bishop and a rabbi isn't an attempt to repeat one of the old jokes my grandpa used to tell. Instead, it highlights two very different profiles that I've enjoyed recently. Andrew Corsello's "Let God Love Gene Robinson" in
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Thursday, July 10, 2008 6:41 AM

America's Toughest Mayor

The July edition of Esquire features an excellent story about the man who may have the toughest political job in America -- improving life in Newark, New Jersey. Scott Raab's "The Battle of Newark, Starring Cory Booker" profiles the city's young
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Tuesday, July 08, 2008 6:35 AM

Weaving Themes

When AP's Helen O'Neill wrote "Money Ruling a Remarkable Woman's Legacy," she could have focused on any one of several themes: disabilities, discrimination, public policy, triumph and tragedy. But by choosing to tell a love story, she was able to weave
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 6:04 AM

Olympic Dreams

NPR is running some inspiring stories about athletes who hope to compete in this summer's Olympics. "Olympic Profiles: Bound for Beijing" stories describing the Iraqi sprinter who dodges sniper fire as she trains, a shot-putter
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Tuesday, May 27, 2008 6:43 AM

Weaving a Story on the Web

"A Clearwater Girl Is Burned, Not Broken," by John Barry of the St. Petersburg Times, is a fine example of a Web package that combines pictures, text and audio to tell a moving story. When you open the story, your eyes are drawn to a photo of a scarred,
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Monday, May 12, 2008 9:53 PM

Filling In the Blanks

The National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University, collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. Peter Carlson of The Washington
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Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:00 AM

Confronting Cancer

"Facing Fatal Genes," by The Oregonian's Julie Sullivan, is a nicely written three-parter about a genetic mutation that greatly increases women's chances of developing breast or ovarian cancer. Part one tells the story of four sisters whose family carries
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008 7:00 AM

Pulitzer Praise

I'm thrilled that many of the stories we featured in News Gems last year just won Pulitzer Prizes. The Washington Post, which News Gems lauded in January for having the best stories of 2007, won a remarkable six Pulitzers. These include News Gems
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Thursday, April 03, 2008 8:30 AM

When Daddy Goes to War

In "Bedtime Stories for Catherine," Wright Thompson of ESPN.com offers us a haunting portrait of Matthew Conley, a high school quarterback from Alabama who joined the Marines, went to Iraq and didn't come back alive. Thompson shares Conley's
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008 8:30 AM

Painful Policies

Two magazines have done terrific jobs recently of examining torture from the perspective of American soldiers in Iraq. "Exposure: The Woman behind the Camera at Abu Ghraib" by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris in the March 24 New Yorker profiles Army
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Friday, March 28, 2008 8:00 AM

Steve Fossett's Last Adventure

The March issue of Chicago magazine features a brilliant profile by Bryan Smith of pilot Steve Fossett. Smith's "Without a Trace" explores the mystery of how a man who escaped death so many times could disappear during a routine flight
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Tuesday, March 04, 2008 8:30 AM

The Boxer

Richard Hoffer of Sports Illustrated proves he is one of the best sportswriters around with an amazing profile of middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik. Hoffer's "Forged to Fight" weaves Pavlik's story with that of his hometown, Youngstown, Ohio,
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