The shooting rampage in Arizona has shaken Americans and prompted a national debate about heated political rhetoric in the news. Fox news and right wing radio stations have suddenly had the spotlight turned on them. A protest has already ...

A new rule was confirmed this US election season: the more conservative and combative a candidate, the more unwilling they were to put themselves in front of an independent journalist. Why risk an unscripted situation, have your inconsistencies probed or face awkward questions about your past when you can ...

I remember watching Christopher Hitchens debate with his brother Peter in Conway Hall, London, when I first moved to the capital in my early twenties. I can't remember what they were debating but I remember a room full of names like Salmon Rushdie and Tony Benn who all seemed to be burbling with delight ...

US Magazine Rolling Stone has set the news agenda once again by running an explosive profile of America's senior commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal eventually leading to his dismissal. McChrystal and his army aides are reported making disparaging remarks about President Obama ...

In recent years I’ve become an aficionado of American magazines - the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harpers – and their long pieces of reportage. It’s odd that reportage has never taken off in the UK – perhaps because in the UK our news coverage is pretty entertaining and veers into features territory ...