James Fallows

Simple Things I Learned About China

The world is full of China-policy articles. For instance, here’s a recent good one by Noah Smith, and another by Robert Wright. This post is not about policy specifics, important as they are. I’ve written about those before and will again. Instead…

The Cirrus Has Landed

I’ve spent the past 24 hours immersed in the world of small-plane flying, one of my passions over the decades. In several books—Free Flight, China Airborne, and Our Towns—I’ve discussed the never-tiring fascination of seeing life from 2500 feet up,…

From the Mailbag: Journalistic Hubris, Aviation Close Calls, High-Tech Responsibility

Back in the pre-internet era, after you wrote a book or magazine article you’d get a slew of “letters”—documents written or typed on actual “paper,” and sent through the U.S. “mail.” The envelopes you were afraid to open had a tell-tale ransom-note…

Learning from Disasters: Political Media Edition

We all make mistakes. People, organizations, countries. The best we can do is admit and face them. And hope that by learning from where we erred, we’ll avoid greater damage in the future. Relentless and systematic self-critical learning is why…

Update: The Passengers at JFK Last Week Were Very Lucky

This post is a followup to my previous report on the January 13 runway incursion at JFK airport in New York. I’ll do this Q-and-A style, quoting some comments on the original post, plus data, analyses, and insights that have appeared in a variety of…

That Runway Incursion at JFK: What Went Wrong and Right

The purpose of this post is to provide a clearer guide to what happened on Friday at John F. Kennedy airport in New York, where controllers had to intervene at the last second in a potentially catastrophic situation. As with everything in aviation,…

Wins, Bravery, and a Loss

Here are several links and appreciations on topics that are not in the headline news of this instant but that I think deserve notice. Down below I’ve included info on recent realities of my own life. And I’m putting that in a footnote because of…

REVIVING AMERICA, ONE COLLEGE TOWN AT A TIME

How symbiotic relationships between colleges and their communities have reaped rewards in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Waterville, Maine. As described in this post, Deb Fallows and I have been supporters of The Washington Monthly for even longer than…

OK, There Was Something Positive in the Speaker-Vote Debacle

There is a category of jobs for which the greatest day is the day your appointment is announced. It all gets worse from there. Being an NFL coach in Washington D.C. is one of those. Ambassadorships generally are another. Many (though not all)…

‘Everyone Is Here’: Prose Poetry

Two weeks ago I wrote about the remarkable care and eloquence of Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. Four days ago, on New Year’s Eve, Zelensky released a 17-minute video presentation, so carefully timed that he…

A Few Questions (and Some Answers) About the Latest Airline Meltdown

There’s a lot we don’t know yet about the system-wide Southwest Airlines collapse this week. What we do know mainly includes the hardship for huge numbers of people through the height of holiday travel. Here are a few questions I would ask, and…

The Thinking Behind the Remarkable Zelensky Speeches

Five days ago, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky made his eloquent and powerful speech to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress and to a live audience of many millions. Three days ago I explained why I thought the speech was so skillfully crafted…

The Skill Involved in Zelensky's Congressional Address

This post starts with some major “staging” choices Volodymyr Zelensky made for his address to Congress this week, including that he would deliver it in English and while dressed in his familiar wartime wear. Then we’ll move to some significant…

Turning North America Back into 'Beaverland'

Last month I mentioned my admiration for Leila Philip’s new book Beaverland, which explains how the economic, cultural and even geographic past of North America could be connected to the history of the beaver. And how a sustainable future for the…

Some Good News From the Tech World

Before we get back into the Slough of Despond known as politics and media, here are a few positive tech-related developments. These are connected only by being interesting (to me) and deserving wider notice. They all involve people you probably…

More Questions for ProPublica

I have long-standing, deep admiration for ProPublica as a civic and journalistic institution. Many of my friends and colleagues work there. I wish them only the best. I did not admire or even respect a splashy ProPublica / Vanity Fair project back in…

On That ProPublica ‘Chinese Lab Leak’ Story.

This post is about China, and language, and how the press responds to criticism and handles its mistakes. It centers on a big story from ProPublica and Vanity Fair six weeks ago, which I thought was fishy from the start and only looks worse on…

December Update

This post is a “where are they now?” update on several topics previously covered in this space. Its purpose is to close some loops and offer some tips before an upcoming installment, on whether the mainstream press can learn from its recent deep…

From Around the Nation: ‘When Tipping Points Happen, They Happen Fast.’

Here are several updates on the national perspective of “accelerating the inevitable” in the shift from uniquely polluting gas-powered lawn equipment to battery alternatives, and on the local developments in Washington D.C. 1) Washington Post: ‘How…

Learning from Disasters

This post is about aviation. But really it’s about institutional self-correction. I intend it as a Part 1 setup to a Part 2 post coming up, about media and politics. The connecting theme is how to learn from mistakes — as individuals, as companies…