By Matt Carroll <@MattCData>
Jan. 4, 2017: Cool stuff about journalism, once a week. Get notified via email? Subscribe: 3toread (at) gmail.
- The coolest investigation with Legos you’ve ever seen: The Tampa Bay Times had a complicated story to story to tell about bridge construction. They turned to Legos. Why? Because everyone loves Legos*. And they are perfect for building bridges. The story is awesome. Congrats to the staffers who worked on this.

2. The long, sordid history of fake news (but there’s a silver lining): Fake news has been around for centuries, causing chaos and sometimes even death and destruction. But there is a silver lining. People can only take so much crap — reams of fake news leads to pushback from readers who search out quality news. A good read by Jacob Soll of Politico.
3. A love letter to the copy desk: In an era of cutbacks, it seems that copy editors are among the first to lose their jobs. Here’s a wonderful read by David W. Dunlap of the NYT about these important, if often under appreciated, folks.
* Except when you step on one in the middle of the night heading to the bathroom. Ouch.
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Matt Carroll is a journalism professor at Northeastern University.