The Student Journalists Who Never Let the Cornell Assault Case Go by Emma Goldberg

I’ll start by acknowledging that I’m strongly biased in favor of student media. That disclaimer out of the way, I am nonetheless certain that the dedicated young staffer of The Cornell Daily Sun are deserving of heaps of praised for their dogged pursuit of journalistic justice in a horrible sexual assault case that otherwise would been forgotten by everyone except the young woman who survived it. Instead, the assault and tepid response by university officials is a scandal receiving national attention. Writing for The New York Times, Emma Goldberg recounts the effort that went into reporting on the crime, including the bold, welcome choice to name the perpetrators. Goldberg’s colleagues at the Old Gray Lady should be taking notes. The Daily Sun students are demonstrating what fearless reporting looks like.

How President Trump Broke the Kennedy Center by Elizabeth Williamson and Julia Jacobs

After throwing some shade on the Times‘s overly tentative coverage of the outrages of the current U.S. presidential administration, I’ll now give credit where it’s due. This recent piece about the relentless sullying of the Kennedy Center to appease the damaged self-esteem of the lifelong criminal occupying the White House is uncommonly clear-eyed in its assessments of the situation. To wit: “Mr. Trump’s threats this past week suggest that saving face, not lives, better explains why he shuttered the Kennedy Center on Tuesday for what officials said would be a temporary closure.” It doesn’t quite call a lie a lie, but it comes far closer than most of the front-page reporting about this misbegotten egomaniac and his sycophantic underlings. Elizabeth Williams and Julia Jacobs do fine work.

Can Two Friends Complete a Game No One Has Ever Finished? by Victor Mather

Here’s one more article from The New York Times, albeit one in a much lighter vein. Victor Mather profiles a couple of chums who are mounting an effort — with accompanying podcast, of course — to successfully play the 1979 game The Campaign for North Africa to completion, a feat that perhaps no one has done before. Their story is sweet, amusing, and even oddly inspiring.