Mark Bittman has been creating short videos of himself preparing simple recipes on the NY Times website. Now he is providing a deeply felt, outspoken commentary on important issues related to food safety that are ignored by most journalists. He is to be commended for finding an opening to take on an important, essential role .

This is incomplete in that it would be useful to know where/on what (other than political contributions) the top 1% are spending/investing the 40% of wealth that they control.

An important issue to add to the discussion in a year when states are struggling with difficult choices to balance their budgets, and drug-related violence has escalated to a dangerous extent in Mexico and is spreading in Central America.

Identifying clear solutions to significant problems (in this case, the spread of infections untreatable by antibiotics and the effect on medical costs), and the barriers that prevent implementing effective solutions (in this case, agribusiness lobbying) are an essential role of journalism. Today, Nicholas Kristof is one of the all too few journalists who plays this important role.

This is a very brief AP report, yet it captures the key points of an important speech.

Here is an attempt at local reporting, a collaboration between the CUNY graduate school of journalism and the NY Times. This report, which reads like minutes of the meeting, certainly does not replace the investigative local reporting that the FCC report seeks, but it is an opening. Perhaps a better model would be a link to the minutes could be posted on the page, with a more in-depth analysis of one or two key issues as the journalistic component. One example of an issue of broad significance here, which demands more attention (and, incredibly, given its broad impact, has not been getting it from the NY Times and other NYC mainstream news media) include the local impact of the pending expiration of the rent stabilization laws

An essential story that has taken too long to be written---a look under the surface at the origin and history of Fox News.

This is a brief analysis of a major challenge facing the Federal Reserve, combined with a description of comments by a key Senator opposed to the author's confirmation, comments which reveal ignorance of the issue.

Krugman is making an important distinction between two issues that have been confused. In challenging himself and others to focus more on mechanisms to lower unemployment, he points out that people who see no way to improve the situation are treating political barriers as if they demonstrate limits of economic policy. In other words, Krugman is advocating a discussion of potentially effective economic solutions, whether or not they appear to be politically feasible, as a necessary first step to address the problem of high unemployment of skilled and experienced workers. In particular, he points to the flawed arguments conflating the failure of political action with the unavailability of possible solutions..

Indirectly, this points to a an ongong problem with Meet the Press--- We do not need talking heads babbling their opinions and predictions (which, if you look back in time, typically turn out to be wrong). What we do need is a thoughtful analysis of the numbers and implications by substance-oriented people. Failing that, at least the producers could balance their panels.

This is a simple news report. Sometimes it's important for journalists simply to show up. I am amazed at how little attention this war on our southern border gets in the US media, especially since it appears to be enabled both by drug use in, and assault weapons smuggled from, the US. This report comes at the story from the local level, focused on the displacement of people from their homes .