From TNR, Marc Tracy on the pivotal, behind-the-scenes story of how the Game Change guys get sources to talk. From Politico, take This Town and shove it: A White House reporter’s tale of sex, booze and the briefing room (and more). Could Politico transform their glib approach to political news? The answer is yes — they have successfully taken a shallow, celebrity-obsessed form of political journalism and made it much longer. Erik Wemple on Politico’s Mike Allen, native advertising pioneer (and more by Jonathan Chait). Given the reality that Politico has suffered little to no reputation damage from the Mike Allen payola scandal, it seems like selling favorable coverage, whatever the ethical merits, is in fact a brilliant business strategy. Natasha Lennard on why the Guardian editor should not have to love his country: Alan Rusbridger, grilled in U.K. parliament over Snowden leaks, had patriotism questioned — it should be irrelevant (and more). John Paul Titlow on how journalists at The Guardian built that epic NSA story. Tom Slee on how Pierre Omidyar’s journalistic venture is another of his efforts to fuse philanthropy with profit — so far, not so good. What would journalism look like without conventional standards of objectivity? Conor Friedersdorf interviews Jay Rosen about the quarter-billion-dollar experiment he's joining. Limiting democracy: Glenn Greenwald on the American media’s world view, and ours (2010). John Judis on how Glenn Greenwald and Bill Keller are wrong about objectivity in journalism (and more by Tim Carmody).
