Investigative Journalist in Houston, Texas
What is the function of journalism? How hard is it to become a journalist? Why is it so important? Find answers from a real journalist.
Paul Bradshaw wrote an interesting review of Living Stories, Google’s vision of how news should be read, shared and discussed online. Related: What’s Evernote for? How about making a vast, searchable archive of all your files Partnering with the New York Times and the Washington Post, Google has created an experiment that tries to move … Read more
In this great post at Mashable, Leah Betancourt profiled five journalists, including yours truly, and asked why we use social media: There’s a lot of hype behind measuring social media ROI. But what about the payoff on an individual basis? Those who invest time into social media on a daily basis need to see a … Read more
Mayor Julian Castro and San Antonio City Council members are criticizing CPS Energy for failing to disclose the true financial costs of a proposed expansion at the South Texas Project nuclear plant. They’re asking why a city-owned utility can’t be more transparent. All this cloak-and-dagger suspense reminded me of a weird encounter I had with … Read more
Last week the New York Times ran a story about Internet companies selling imaginary things: These so-called virtual goods, like a $1 illustration of a Champagne bottle on Facebook or the $2.50 Halloween costume in the online game Sorority Life, are no more than a collection of pixels on a Web page. But it is … Read more
The Texas Tribune came up with a new way to fact-check and add context to political speeches. Called “Stump Interrupted,” the Trib is adding VH1-style pop-up bubbles in videos of speechifying public officials, such as U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry. There’s factual information mixed in with humor — I laughed at … Read more
Scott Huddleston covered the shootings at Fort Hood last week and helped write an amazing profile of Kimberly Munley, the police sergeant who, along with Sgt. Mark Todd, opened fire on Nidal Malik Hasan and stopped the rampage. Scott talked to one of Munley’s neighbors and learned a revealing anecdote about Munley’s no-nonsense attitude: As … Read more
Helen Zhang at Mediaite points out the sudden interest in the Texas death penalty case of Cameron Todd Willingham was prompted by a ginormous, 16,000-word article by the New Yorker magazine. The story is long — but it’s hard to stop reading it: The fire moved quickly through the house, a one-story wood-frame structure in … Read more
One of the interesting things about journalism is you learn something new every day. And this odd story definitely qualifies. Jarrette Schule found what appears to be an anti-tank missile launcher on his rural property in the Hill Country. When I visited Jarrette and saw the missile launcher, I realized I would have to try … Read more
There’s more news, interviews and criticism this week about the Texas Tribune, an ambitious nonprofit news site led by former Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith and venture capitalist John Thornton: The Tribune announced today that it received a $750,000 grant from the Houston Endowment and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Mallary Jean … Read more
Randy Bear, one of the more thoughtful bloggers in the San Antonio area, lamented the slow decline of newspapers and cautioned his readers yesterday that blogs aren’t authoritative: Bloggers such as myself don’t have the time to invest in vetting stories to make sure the information is completely accurate. In many cases I rely on … Read more