Last week, when I wrote about the urgent need for journalists to contribute to journalism policy debates, I said that having a powerfully funded public media in the U.S. would be amazing but probably wouldn’t happen anytime soon. A reader (thanks Abby!) asked me why. In a word: politics. It’s hard to sustain a public…

My review of Kyle Chayka’s new book, “Filterworld.” My final piece as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times is a review of Kyle Chayka’s new book, “Filterworld”: Chayka’s view is that the proliferation of recommendation algorithms on services like Netflix, Spotify and TikTok since the 2010s have created a cultural world that’s flatter,…

The worst thing journalists can do is give up hope. This is my last day at the Los Angeles Times after more than 11 years as a staff writer. I’ve taken the buyout. It’s been an extraordinary ride, but it was also just time to go. Journalism, famously, breaks your heart. But in the words…