Process journalism

CLEAR THE SKIES: I really enjoy reading "process" journalism (sometimes called a "reality feature"), the sort of feature that describes a complex series of decisions or procedures in an accessible and thrilling way. Told well, even mundane topics can be made compelling. This two-part series (1, 2) from USA Today about the events leading to the decision to ground every flight last September 11 and the steps required to make it happen is just the kind of gripping, fascinating process story I like to read.

Another of my favorites is Jon Franklin's 1978 Baltimore Sun piece Mrs. Kelly's Monster (the text is offline, so the link is a Google cached copy), about a surgeon's struggle to remove a massive brain tumor. (Here's a fairly recent profile of Jon Franklin from the University of Maryland magazine College Park.)

Abstract Nixon: "It's nice to be caught by surprise like that sometimes, though I did feel kind of dumb for thinking the worst of him. I was the one making a big deal out of it, not him. I was so busy defensively pretending I was on to him that I couldn't see that he was the one who was on to me."

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