Alan C. Miller: Upon Reflection

“Upon Reflection” is a collection of Alan Miller’s thoughts on journalism, news literacy, education and related topics, published biweekly during the pandemic school year of 2020-21. He will add to this collection when inspiration strikes.

• Feb. 2: 15 lessons from our first 15 years
• Feb. 2: 14 lessons from our first 14 years
• Nov. 4: News literacy works: Proving the doubters wrong and preserving democracy
• Jul. 1: Cindy Otis and the fight against fake news
• Jun. 17: The media’s dismissal of the Wuhan lab theory
• Jun. 3: Recalling a great newspaper editor and what he represented
• May 20: Supporting journalists serving local communities of color
• May 6: The First Amendment and the need for vigilance
• Apr. 22: Spotlight — a special resonance
• Apr. 8: The 19th* — a nonprofit news startup made for the moment
• Mar. 25: How I became a ‘pinhead’ — a news literacy lesson
• Mar. 11: Fighting the good fight to ensure that facts cannot be ignored
• Feb. 26: Students’ enduring rights to freedoms of speech and the press
• Feb. 11: We need news literacy education to bolster democracy
• Jan 28: 13 lessons from our first 13 years
• Jan. 14: Media needs to get COVID-19 vaccine story right
• Dec. 17: Journalism’s real ‘fake news’ problem also reflects its accountability
• Dec. 3: Combating America’s alternative realities before it’s too late
• Nov. 12: “Kind of a miracle,” kind of a mess, and the case for election reform
• Oct. 29: High stakes for calling the election
• Oct. 15: In praise of investigative reporting
• Oct. 1: How to spot and avoid spreading fake news

Previous columns:

• We’re launching an election season PSA campaign to fight fake news, and we need your help
• Give local journalism a fighting chance by creating a demand for it
• Viral misinformation: Rise of anti-vaxxer movement requires news literacy inoculation
• Across the world, dictatorial regimes use Covid-19 to quash press freedom
• It’s National News Literacy Week, but students need media education all year

About Alan C. Miller:

In 2006, Alan C. Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times, was invited to his daughter’s sixth-grade class to talk about what he did as a journalist and why his work was important. The responses he received led him to think about the impact that many journalists could have if they shared their expertise and experience with the nation’s students. Two years later, he left the Times and established the News Literacy Project. In February 2009, NLP introduced its classroom and after-school curricula in New York City and Bethesda, Maryland. Its mission: teaching teenagers how to discern fact from fiction in the digital age. Today, NLP’s resources and programs are used by thousands of educators in every state in the country, and NLP is working to create educational systemic change. NLP’s vision is that news literacy is embedded in the American education experience, and young people know how to identify credible news and other information, empowering them with an equal opportunity to participate in the civic life of their communities and the country. In July 2022, after more than 14 years leading NLP, Alan turned the reins as CEO over to former COO Chuck Salter. Alan remains active with NLP as its founder and a board member.

Alan began his journalism career at The Times Union in Albany, New York, where he was a political and state investigative reporter. He spent five years as a state and county political reporter at The Record in Hackensack, New Jersey, before joining the Times, where he worked for 21 years, the last 14 as a charter member of the Washington bureau’s high-profile investigative team. His reporting prompted investigations by the Justice Department, Congress and inspectors general in federal agencies and resulted in congressional hearings, reforms and criminal convictions. He received more than a dozen national reporting honors, including the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series on the dangers of the Marine Corps’ Harrier attack jet. His reports on illegal contributions from foreign nationals to the Democratic National Committee in 1996 won the George Polk Award, the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the Investigative Reporters and Editors Medal.

In 2022, Alan received the AARP Purpose Prize. The same year, he also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the East-West Center in Honolulu; in June 2024, during the center’s International Media Conference, he received its award for Journalists of Courage and Impact, which “recognizes the contributions of exceptional journalists from across the Asia-Pacific region.” In September 2024 Alan and three other graduates of Ridgewood (N.J.) High School were named Distinguished Alumni by the RHS Alumni Association. The honor “recognize[s] the achievements of alumni who have made significant contributions to society through their personal lives, individual passions, talents, professional accomplishments, and/or community service.” He was also named a Washingtonian of the Year in 2020 by Washingtonian Magazine.

Alan was a fellow with the Peter Jennings Project at the National Constitution Center in March 2008 and the Japan Society in 1998 and a student participant at the East‐West Center Communication Institute from 1976 to 1978. He has appeared on panels sponsored by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the International Center for Journalists, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Alan received a master’s degree in political science from the University of Hawaii