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Congressional honor? A breeder of hope? Hold not your breath …
Is hope a descendant of honor? If if is, perhaps a little hope can be derived from recent statements of members of Congress in response to the lunacy of the GOP candidate for president. Donald “I am...
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Clinton, Trump plans to fix nation’s infrastructure offer little
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, says she wants to spend $275 billion over five years to rebuild American roads and bridges. As noted here last year, that’s nowhere near enough...
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In just a decade, ‘content’ trumped ‘news’
Ten years has seen the evisceration of newsrooms; the alteration of form, function, and distribution of information; and the emergence of a distorted public discourse. Oh, joy. Since 2007, I’ve written...
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Next time, ask the Reagan question before you vote
On January 1, 2019, as President Trump approaches his third state of the union address, people in America should pop the Reagan question: Are you better off than you were four years ago? Those in the...
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Despite campaign promises, Donald can’t revive coal industry
President Donald wants to revive America’s coal industry. He says regulations, most notably from the Environmental Protection Agency, have forced coal plants to close. So he wants to do away with those...
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Narcissism, promises, and job approval: a bad mix for President Donald
An inability to focus on consequences that do not center on him. Check. An absence of empathy for others. Check. A lack of impulse control coupled to a need to lash out at perceived offenses (and...
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Obama, Holder to lead fight against gerrymandering
Competition is good. Free markets are good. Give everyone a shot at the brass ring. Get rid of regulations that stifle competition and opportunity. Thus spake many a Republican (and often a Democratic)...
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President Donald’s already shrunken government
The Trump transition team has yet to name all its executive branch officials, moving to fill only about 4 percent of positions needing Senate approval. President Donald has yet to flesh out the rest of...
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If they lie, journalists should stop covering the White House. Let the...
President Donald’s press secretary boldly and bluntly lied to the White House press corps last week. Yawn. Well, so what? Politicians and their spear carriers have prevaricated, evaded, fibbed,...
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Few rules, fewer regulators — Donald’s shrink-the-government plan
The end game of the heavily mediated engine driving American political strife boils down to these questions: What is the appropriate size of the federal government? Who should decide that? Who should...
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The overlooked battlefield in the war against the press
CNN reporter Jeremy Desmond asked Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, under fire because of four deaths at his jail, for an interview. On Friday, Clarke replied on Twitter: Donald Trump has labeled...
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The ‘enemy of the American People’ doesn’t work at your local newspaper
It engenders anger to know the president of the United States says that what I did for a living for 20 years — and what I’ve spent 25 years teaching — represents the acts of “an enemy of the American...
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If Congress decides to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure, keep tabs on who...
The grades are in. The nation’s infrastructure is close to failing. The 2017 report card of the American Society of Civil Engineers, posted today, gives the infrastructure on which America depends for...
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Unnamed sources? Journalists should teach readers why they were used
On Thursday, four journalists for CNN reported: The FBI has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the...
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Live in a rural area? Can you find a doctor when you need one?
The vascular surgeon who removed my gangrenous gall bladder last month received his early medical training in Lahore, Pakistan. He’s been a member of the medical community in my rural valley for more...
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Anniversary journalism? Well, mostly it just sucks.
In early April 1970, I walked into the newsroom of my hometown newspaper and asked the editor if he knew anyone at the state department of natural resources. I’d just received my undergraduate degree...
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United Airlines and its ‘calculated misery’: happy customers just aren’t...
The future of Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United Airlines, has just been re-accommodated. You remember him, of course. After airport dragoons dragged a boarded, seated, paying customer off a United...
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Export U.S. coal to Asia? Not so fast, say three West Coast states — and Canada?
News item from October 2016: BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A coal company with mines in Montana and Wyoming said Thursday that it’s begun exporting fuel to Asia through a Canadian shipping terminal, after its...
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Freedom of the press means little if audiences are trapped in bubbles
It’s nice, I suppose, in this era of Trumpian Twitter bashing of the press, that journalists trumpet right back about bolstering freedom of the press, citing its absolutely necessity to the survival,...
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Donald’s new executive order gives really rich people another dark-money weapon
President Donald signed an executive order this week, intending to relax tax-law consequences on churches that endorse political candidates. In his zeal to “protect and vigorously promote religious...
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