The Pursuit of Appiness
New York Observer, March 30, 2010

The gospel of Apple, like the teachings of yoga, promises to take the disjointed limbs of our personal and professional lives, made stiff from too many pulls in too many different directions, and set them straight again. The restoration of order, we are promised, is a preliminary step that will lead eventually to a substantial increase in power. The arrival of the iPad takes this promise of personal reordering and magnifies it to the entire city. Among other things, the iPad promises to simplify the messy entanglement of advertising and what is now called “content”—the unraveling of which in recent years has left so many members of the New York media tied in knots.

Bizarre Late-Night Love Triangle
New York Observer, October 6, 2009

Outside the fortified walls of the Ed Sullivan Theater, a full moon hung in the sky. Mr. Letterman must have been tired. For the past several weeks, he’d been straining against an apparent outbreak of villainy. Along the way, he had helped concoct a secret sting operation against an alleged blackmailer. He had publicly confessed to having sexual relationships with several of his employees at The Late Show. He had apologized for indulging his own animal impulses, and had repeatedly shown a video clip of a monkey sneezing.

The Crying Game
New York Observer, April 7, 2009

Not long ago, television news was a no-cry zone. The top newsmen were celebrated for their emotional control in the face of gut-punching developments. War, death, terrorism, plague—nothing rattled their composure. But these days, in an era of financial, emotional, and ethical breakdown, everywhere you look you see anchors venting. Emotional apoplexy has become the coin of the realm.

Rage of the Page
New York Observer, March 17, 2009

The rage of a disillusioned TV page tends to burn quietly. They are, by training, a discreet and loyal group. But in recent months, a pack of fed-up ex-pages have banded together at NBC to make their suffering known to upper NBC management. At the same time, they have struggled to keep their unhappiness away from the public eye.

Why no debate for CBS Star Katie?
New York Observer, March 4, 2008

Eight months and more than 20 debates into podium season, Katie Couric has yet to get anywhere near the big stage. How did the highest-paid anchor on evening television get upstaged by so many of her peers?

Primary Scream
New York Observer, February 5, 2008

A day at the races with Chris Matthews, manic oracle of American politics, and he prepares for marathon Super Tuesday coverage and declares Obama in 2008 ‘Bigger Than Kennedy!’

Songs of the Hurdy Gurley Man
Columbia Journalism Review, December 8, 2005

Sociopath stockbrokers. Dysfunctional socialites. Functional alcoholics. Rising social climbers. Fallen aristocrats. Held in George Gurley’s gaze for long enough, these familiar archetypes of New York become more strange, complex, and human. In his ongoing series, called “George and Hilly,” the New York Observer scribe turns his typical approach back on himself.

Mr. Bad Taste
The New York Observer, October 23, 2007

How a Harvard-educated magazine editor, with a masters degree in comparative literature, went from studying the language of Vladimir Nabokov to subtitling the language of Flavor Flav—and rescued Vh1 along the way. A profile of highbrow columnist and lowbrow reality television guru Michael Hirschorn.

Phil Donahue Strikes Back
New York Observer, June 19, 2007

These days, the godfather of daytime television is no longer a card-carrying member of the mainstream media. Ever since February of 2003, when MSNBC cancelled his nightly talk show, Mr. Donahue has been wandering through the outskirts of the American media. Recently, he has settled into an unlikely role: a TV icon turned freelancing filmmaker.

Josh Marshall’s Optimistic Leap to Web TV
New York Observer, June 12, 2007

Can Josh Marshall transform himself from a rumpled, bespectacled link jockey with a monitor tan into a viable Web TV anchor? That might seem like an odd gamble for a guy whose past accomplishments—earning a Ph.D. in American history at Brown University, writing for the likes of The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, and creating one of the most successful political blogs since the form was invented—have depended on his way with the written word. But Internet activists say that such transformations are no longer optional.

The Doctor Is In
New York Observer, November 15, 2007

In recent years, Michael Ausiello has helped breathe new life into the TV Guide brand by bantering with his fans on the magazine’s web site and breaking news about forthcoming plot twists and cast changes. But long before his messianic enthusiasm for popular television won him a strikingly loyal following of like-minded couch potatoes (Ausholes!) it was TV that helped make life bearable for the young Mr. Ausiello, who grew up overweight and gay in a small town in New Jersey. It was there that he learned to self-medicate through television.

Imus is Back
New York Observer, November 13, 2007

Bloodied Radio Cowboy Returns With 21-Second Delay; WABC Says Ad Sales Going at Fast Clip; First Day’s Guest, Carville; Ambivalent Russert Battered on Blogs

James Ottaway’s Dow Jones Odyssey
The New York Observer, July 16, 2007

Ever since News Corp.’s bid for Dow Jones became public on May 1, Jim Ottaway Jr. has become a thorn in the giant paw of the Rupert Murdoch’s ambition. Who is Mr. Ottaway? The retired newspaper executive holds forth on the subjects of censorship, democracy, archeology, Rupert Murdoch, hiking and Homer.

David Halberstam: The Reporter Who Roared
The New York Observer, April 24, 2007

Dominant, instinctual, physical—adversarial and intensely loyal—remembering the New Journalist who reported the living daylights out of Vietnam, basketball, life.

In this Neighborhood, Reality TV Falls Short The New York Times, July 14, 2005

In the summer of 2005, ABC caved to mounting pressure from advocacy groups and cancelled a reality show, called “Welcome to the Neighborhood” (in which 7 “nontraditional” and minority families would compete to win a house in tightly knit, predominantly white neighborhood in Austin, Texas) before it even premiered. In the aftermath of the national controversy, I embedded for a night of barbecue among the embattled neighbors.