By Elizabeth Cherneff, CNN

There's no shortage of media stories on our radar this week as we near the end of the year. To see the latest pieces our host Brian Stelter  is working on, be sure to check back here on the RS blog throughout the week for updates. In the meantime, here are some other headlines that caught our eye this week- join the conversation and tell us what you're reading in the comments section. And be sure to tune in for an all new edition of 'Reliable Sources' this Sunday on CNN at 11am EST!

Invisible Child: Dasani's Homeless Life  In a five-part series published this week, New York Times investigative reporter Andrea Elliott and photographer Ruth Fremson paint a grim portrait of New York's homeless population through the eyes of 11-year-old Dasani. With supplemental videos, graphics and haunting still images, Elliott takes us on a vivid journey through the decrepit halls of Brooklyn's Auburn Family Residence/homeless shelter. The series features extensive sourcing notes and background compiled from Elliott's reporting, which journalists and critics among media circles are praising as a Pulitzer-worthy longform piece of investigative journalism. While New York City's sobering poverty statistics leave many readers coming away from the piece feeling angry or helpless, it's Elliot's poignant writing style and narrative skill that pulls this compelling piece together.

'Conrad Black defends Rob Ford interview' Folks in Canada and around the globe are all too familiar with this year's saga of embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, but it's a Canadian media mogul who's now facing scrutiny over his interview with the mayor conducted this week. On Monday, Canadian newspaper publisher Conrad Black conducted an interview with Ford in which the mayor made statements implying that a Toronto Star reporter was a pedophile. That reporter has since served Ford with a libel notice, but Black is also taking heat for his interview style/ not challenging the mayor on his statements. In a CBCNews interview this week, Black defended his interview, saying, "I put relevant questions to the mayor and he answered them... It's not for me to vouch for the truthfulness of his answers. I don't engage in a debating style on these things."

'A year after Newtown, little change in public opinion on guns'  As we near the one-year anniversary of the tragic Newtown/ Sandy Hook elementary school shootings, the Pew Research Center is out with new statistics that suggest attitudes toward guns haven't shifted drastically in the past year. Surveys taken shortly after the December 2012 shooting showed that respondents viewed the Sandy Hook shooting differently compared with the 2012 Colorado movie theater and January 2011 Tuscon/Gabby Giffords shooting. Public support for tighter background checks was also at a high in the immediate months after Newtown. With the defeat of the Senate bill on background checks and numerous gun control studies showing wavering public opinion on gun control this year, it appears that political and economic factors no doubt still play a role in shaping attitudes on this divisive topic.