Kevin Lerner
@klerner.bsky.social
Professor and Chair of Journalism and Sports Media at Montclair State University. I am a journalism historian, studying press criticism, and literary & alternative journalism.
Dick Pollak, who I knew best as the founding editor of the 1970s journalism review (MORE), died last week. He was a terrific journalist and editor and thinker, and he was also a mensch, generous with his time and his bound volumes. I’m proud to have known him.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/b...
Richard Pollak, 91, Dies; Edited Magazine That Criticized the Media
www.nytimes.com
January 2, 2026 at 9:33 PM
Dick Pollak, who I knew best as the founding editor of the 1970s journalism review (MORE), died last week. He was a terrific journalist and editor and thinker, and he was also a mensch, generous with his time and his bound volumes. I’m proud to have known him.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/b...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/b...
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
Nice compilation by CNN of all the 1st Amendment threats this year www.cnn.com/politics/fre...
Trump tests the First Amendment: A timeline | CNN Politics
Within weeks of retaking the White House, President Donald Trump boasted that he had “brought free speech back to America.” But since then, he has tested the limits of the First Amendment time and aga...
www.cnn.com
December 22, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Nice compilation by CNN of all the 1st Amendment threats this year www.cnn.com/politics/fre...
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 AM
Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
My Nieman Lab prediction for this year is a rant. It's a five alarm fire for journalism (and other things as well) and it's time to fight. (we won't.) www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/the-...
The year we band together and fight back
"It is, yes, time to be an advocate (I said it)."
www.niemanlab.org
December 18, 2025 at 8:32 PM
My Nieman Lab prediction for this year is a rant. It's a five alarm fire for journalism (and other things as well) and it's time to fight. (we won't.) www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/the-...
Always love the @niemanlab.org predictions for journalism, but extra-psyched this year to have two colleagues who prognosticated. Read the work of @brizzyc.bsky.social and @jamditis.bsky.social (And then come study journalism with us at Montclair State University!)
www.niemanlab.org/collection/p...
www.niemanlab.org/collection/p...
Nieman Lab's Predictions for Journalism 2026
Each year, we ask some of the smartest people in journalism and digital media what they think is coming in the next 12 months. Here’s what they had to say.
www.niemanlab.org
December 18, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Always love the @niemanlab.org predictions for journalism, but extra-psyched this year to have two colleagues who prognosticated. Read the work of @brizzyc.bsky.social and @jamditis.bsky.social (And then come study journalism with us at Montclair State University!)
www.niemanlab.org/collection/p...
www.niemanlab.org/collection/p...
Rob Reiner is responsible for more films that I can quote almost verbatim than pretty much any other director. In the last week, I've watched Stand by Me and the original This is Spinal Tap. Princess Bride is probably my most re-watched movie. Just crushing on top of Brown and Bondi. So, so bleak.
December 15, 2025 at 4:52 AM
Rob Reiner is responsible for more films that I can quote almost verbatim than pretty much any other director. In the last week, I've watched Stand by Me and the original This is Spinal Tap. Princess Bride is probably my most re-watched movie. Just crushing on top of Brown and Bondi. So, so bleak.
I always wait to do my year-end top ten lists at the end of the *fiscal* year.
December 11, 2025 at 5:21 PM
I always wait to do my year-end top ten lists at the end of the *fiscal* year.
While I don't like the idea of newspapers living and dying entirely because of billionaire philanthropy, I vastly prefer that to a world with no Daily News (or daily news!)
MacKenzie Scott can I interest you in purchasing and endowing The Daily News for posterity, so there's at least one metro newspaper left in this city?
NEW YORK (AP) — Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott increased her donations to nonprofits in 2025, giving $7.1 billion.
December 9, 2025 at 7:47 PM
While I don't like the idea of newspapers living and dying entirely because of billionaire philanthropy, I vastly prefer that to a world with no Daily News (or daily news!)
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
"I spend much more time with NYT Games (daily average is 24 minutes, right around when I give up) than I do with the actual New York Times (daily average is 9 minutes)." www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/jour... by Jacob L. Nelson
December 6, 2025 at 10:45 PM
"I spend much more time with NYT Games (daily average is 24 minutes, right around when I give up) than I do with the actual New York Times (daily average is 9 minutes)." www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/jour... by Jacob L. Nelson
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
wow do you want to be an editorial intern at a cool cooperatively owned company and write blogs for the summer????
apply here! defector.com/would-you-li...
apply here! defector.com/would-you-li...
Would You Like To Be Defector’s Sixth-Ever Editorial Intern? | Defector
Big news: Defector is looking to hire editorial interns for the summer of 2026. Wow! That could be you! How could it be you? I am here to answer that question, and many more. What will a Defector inte...
defector.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:55 PM
wow do you want to be an editorial intern at a cool cooperatively owned company and write blogs for the summer????
apply here! defector.com/would-you-li...
apply here! defector.com/would-you-li...
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
On Fridays I get to drag my Slate colleagues in to our studio and together we laugh at the news. Truly one of my fave things I’ve been doing this year slate.com/podcasts/wha...
SchadenFriday: Feelin’ Nuzzi
Broken bonds and bottle blondes.
slate.com
December 5, 2025 at 8:48 PM
On Fridays I get to drag my Slate colleagues in to our studio and together we laugh at the news. Truly one of my fave things I’ve been doing this year slate.com/podcasts/wha...
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
The United States men's national team will play Paraguay, Australia and then one of Slovakia/Kosovo/Türkiye/Romania at the World Cup on home soil next summer.
Wondering how they got there? It's a bizarre and funny story.
I've written a book about it.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/722130...
Wondering how they got there? It's a bizarre and funny story.
I've written a book about it.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/722130...
The Long Game by Leander Schaerlaeckens: 9780593653876 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
The gripping account of the U.S. men’s national soccer team’s winding saga from obscurity to the global stage as they stand on the brink of a seminal World Cup in 2026 For almost half a century,...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
December 5, 2025 at 7:16 PM
The United States men's national team will play Paraguay, Australia and then one of Slovakia/Kosovo/Türkiye/Romania at the World Cup on home soil next summer.
Wondering how they got there? It's a bizarre and funny story.
I've written a book about it.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/722130...
Wondering how they got there? It's a bizarre and funny story.
I've written a book about it.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/722130...
We need great, small, independent journalism. But we also need the big institutions. Because the big institutions are the ones who have the resources to do things like this.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/b...
New York Times Sues Pentagon Over First Amendment Rights
www.nytimes.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:13 PM
We need great, small, independent journalism. But we also need the big institutions. Because the big institutions are the ones who have the resources to do things like this.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/b...
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
Omg. Everything I teach is selected with so much thought towards relevance and necessity. But those things by definition require not just expertise but CRITICAL JUDGEMENT. That’s why people not robots teach and there is a large sphere of rational disagreement about those words.
December 2, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Omg. Everything I teach is selected with so much thought towards relevance and necessity. But those things by definition require not just expertise but CRITICAL JUDGEMENT. That’s why people not robots teach and there is a large sphere of rational disagreement about those words.
My friend Jake (that’s Dr. Beck to you!) on the crisis in Texas universities.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
Professor: Texas used to have universities
Former Texas Tech professor takes issue with the actions of Texas universities to restrict what topics can be discussed. Doing so makes them something other...
www.dallasnews.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:57 PM
My friend Jake (that’s Dr. Beck to you!) on the crisis in Texas universities.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
November 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
People will die, and are currently dying, because RFK was granted one of the most powerful megaphones in the country. Two people who could have thrown barriers in front of his climb decided not to; there's a sex scandal here but it is not the biggest scandal.
I love many things about this @brianphillips.bsky.social piece, including all of the many very funny parts, but also this hat tip to good editing and the kicker, which puts deserved faith in student journalists.
www.theringer.com/2025/11/25/n...
www.theringer.com/2025/11/25/n...
November 27, 2025 at 12:19 AM
I love many things about this @brianphillips.bsky.social piece, including all of the many very funny parts, but also this hat tip to good editing and the kicker, which puts deserved faith in student journalists.
www.theringer.com/2025/11/25/n...
www.theringer.com/2025/11/25/n...
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
On Monday, December 1, Columbia University Press will be selling all books at 50% off! (And some books at 70%!) tinyurl.com/7wzhyfmv @columbiaup.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 1:01 AM
On Monday, December 1, Columbia University Press will be selling all books at 50% off! (And some books at 70%!) tinyurl.com/7wzhyfmv @columbiaup.bsky.social
Happy 55th birthday to the Gateway Journalism Review, one of the few remaining from the 1960s and 70s. Was proud to offer some historical context for this article. gatewayjr.org/institutions...
Institutions of journalism accountability disappear
Who still is holding American journalism accountable?
That is the question after the disappearance of many outside and inside checks on the news media.
When the Gateway Journalism Review was fou...
gatewayjr.org
November 22, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Happy 55th birthday to the Gateway Journalism Review, one of the few remaining from the 1960s and 70s. Was proud to offer some historical context for this article. gatewayjr.org/institutions...
As a rule, journalists shouldn’t seek to be famous for anything other than their journalism.
November 22, 2025 at 5:39 PM
As a rule, journalists shouldn’t seek to be famous for anything other than their journalism.
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
They make games and movies like they used to. So many of them. Same with books.
But the mechanisms you learned about them were totally gutted and changed to only amplify shit that's already popular.
It's still there! You're just mostly on your own to find it.
But the mechanisms you learned about them were totally gutted and changed to only amplify shit that's already popular.
It's still there! You're just mostly on your own to find it.
November 19, 2025 at 12:16 PM
They make games and movies like they used to. So many of them. Same with books.
But the mechanisms you learned about them were totally gutted and changed to only amplify shit that's already popular.
It's still there! You're just mostly on your own to find it.
But the mechanisms you learned about them were totally gutted and changed to only amplify shit that's already popular.
It's still there! You're just mostly on your own to find it.
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
damn this is well put together
Congress released a cache of documents this week that were recently turned over by Epstein’s estate. Among them: more than 2,300 email threads that the convicted sex offender either sent or received between 2008 and 2019.
The Epstein Email Cache: 2,300 Messages, Many of Which Mention Trump
An analysis of documents released this week by Congress shows President Trump was mentioned in more than half of the messages.
on.wsj.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:37 PM
damn this is well put together
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
Restoring the role of public editor would be the best thing the Times ever did for itself, as I've said for a decade.
gray lady could use someone the public actually trusts now, a bridge, and it gave that up because, it said, social media had made that role redundant. bold strategy cotton. let’s see how that works.
One reason you need a public editor, representing the readers and their rights.
November 13, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Restoring the role of public editor would be the best thing the Times ever did for itself, as I've said for a decade.
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
Condé Nast folded a beloved magazine that treated youth and feminism as political topics, not trends. Read Sarah Leonard.
www.cjr.org/feature/the-...
www.cjr.org/feature/the-...
What the closure of Teen Vogue means for journalism.
Condé Nast folded a beloved magazine that treated youth and feminism as political topics, not trends.
www.cjr.org
November 12, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Condé Nast folded a beloved magazine that treated youth and feminism as political topics, not trends. Read Sarah Leonard.
www.cjr.org/feature/the-...
www.cjr.org/feature/the-...
Reposted by Kevin Lerner
New favourite example of structural ambiguity
November 5, 2025 at 4:54 AM
New favourite example of structural ambiguity