Judith Davidoff

Madison

President and Editor at Isthmus

Editor and president of @Isthmus.

Featured in: Favicon

isthmus.com Favicon

madison.com Favicon

channel3000.com Favicon

newsbreak.com Favicon

bendsource.com Favicon

ourcommunitynow.com

Articles

The co-founder of Isthmus, described as one of Madison’s best writers, has died

6 days ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff |Jason Joyce

Legendary Madison journalist Fred Milverstedt, who co-founded Isthmus in 1976 with Vince O’Hern, has died. Mike Baron, a comic book author and former Isthmus writer, reported the news Monday on his Substack. Milverstedt was a Madison native, graduating from West High School in 1960.
‘Hooked’ loon on Lake Monona rescued after eluding capture for two days

1 week ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Linda Grenzer runs Loon Rescue out of Tomahawk, Wisconsin, with her husband, Kevin. Wednesday night Grenzer posted on Facebook an update to the two-day saga of a wounded loon spotted on Lake Monona. “A Madison Community Coming Together to Save a Loon in Distress,” she wrote. “Once rescued a disturbing find that X-rays revealed!” The group was alerted to the “hooked” loon Monday morning by Nate Stade and Andy Swartz, who saw it near Olbrich Park.
Can we get some answers here?

1 week ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Last month I wrote about trust in the media. In a nutshell: Americans generally distrust national media, but generally trust local media. The more people are connected to their community, the more they are likely to engage with local news and trust local news. The reverse is also true. The more informed people are, the more connected and active people are in their communities. That puts a lot of pressure on us in the news-gathering business to keep people informed.
In ‘media’ we don’t trust

1 month ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Americans, in general, don’t have a lot of trust in the media. Gallup has tracked the matter over the years, sticking with a question it first asked in 1972: “In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media — such as newspapers, TV and radio — when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly?
‘A Road at Night’ is not about basketball. It’s about drunk driving.

1 month ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Former UW-Madison assistant basketball coach Howard Moore survived a May 2019 car crash caused by an intoxicated driver as did his son, Jerrell, who was 12 at the time. His wife, Jennifer, and 9-year-old daughter, Jaidyn, died from their injuries along with Samantha Winchester, the drunk driver who was going the wrong way late on a highway outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Not long after leaving the hospital Moore suffered a debilitating heart attack. Less than a year later the world shut down.
Testing norms, teaching civics

2 months ago | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

In an interview on WPR’s Wisconsin Today, host Rob Ferrett asked U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin) about President Donald Trump’s attempts to restrict federal funds that had already been appropriated by Congress. “Some people are making the argument that these are appropriations passed by Congress, signed by presidents in the past,” Ferrett said. “Congress famously has the power of the purse as described in the American Constitution.
Local news in the time of Trump 2.0

Feb 10, 2025 | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Just one week into the administration of Donald Trump, the widespread panic from the news coming out of Washington, D.C., was palpable. There were the executive orders, a federal funding freeze, a court-ordered administrative stay on said funding freeze, the rescission of the funding freeze, and the administration’s insistence that there was no rescission of the funding freeze.
‘A tinkerer’s paradise’

Jan 7, 2025 | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

With head down and feet splayed, “Sad Yeti” sits alone atop a table on the third floor of the Madison Children’s Museum.
Let’s all take a minute

Jan 6, 2025 | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

It was the “y’all” heard ‘round the world. During a news conference on Dec. 17, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway was fielding questions about the tragic school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School when a reporter asked why the names of those shot had not yet been released, more than 24 hours after the shooting occurred. Rhodes-Conway, who had already made a case for respecting the privacy of the victims and their families, lashed out at the journalists in the room.
10 reasons to support Isthmus

Dec 11, 2024 | isthmus.com | Judith Davidoff

Count me among the journalists CNN media analyst Brian Stelter referred to in a piece he wrote a week after the Nov. 5 election. “Some journalists are feeling defeated in the wake of Trump’s victory — not necessarily because they preferred Harris, but because they are acutely aware that many voters tuned out the fact-driven news coverage of Trump and Harris altogether.