The Other Reason “Spotlight” Is Still Relevant Today
Every year my wife goes off on vacation, and I use the time to catch up on Oscar-winning movies from years past. This summer I saw maybe a half dozen, all of which were superbly [...]
Why I’ve Hit the Pause Button on Dialogue
Not so long ago, most of my writing was devoted to dialogue. Dialogue and Donald Trump. Dialogue and the debate over guns. Dialogue and why my website isn’t called Dialogue Venture anymore. A whole book [...]
The Media and Other Groups That May or May Not Exist
Spend 10 minutes discussing any hot-button issue, and you will inevitably hear something about the media. Most of us take the term for granted, as though we all know exactly what it means. It’s like [...]
Rx for Your Trump Hangover
Note: this piece originally appeared in The Huffington Post on January 31. It's written primarily for my progressive friends, and the intent is not to bash Mr. Trump (though I do criticize him--in a measured way, I [...]
How Much News Do We Need?
Last night, BBC’s World News America led with yet another story on the suffering in Syria. I was reluctant to watch it—not because I don’t care about that horrendous conflict, but because it was yet [...]
When Grey’s Anatomy Trumps the President
If you were channel surfing in the U.S. last Thursday evening, you might have caught Grey’s Anatomy on ABC or Bones on FOX. It’s what you’d expect on Thursday, right? Not this past Thursday. Right [...]
More to the News Story than Meets the Eye
It doesn’t feel good to criticize The PBS NewsHour. The program is one of my favorite sources of news and insight; the producers take extraordinary care in selecting guests for each segment, bringing together experts [...]
Fox News, Paul Ryan, and Standing Knee-Deep in Campaign Verbiage
Sometimes, in this U.S. election season, you have a dig through a certain amount of misleading verbiage to get a better handle on the story. This came to mind last week when a startling tidbit [...]
Reading the Media That Tell Me I’m Right
How many conservatives read Mother Jones? How many progressives ever tune into FOX News? If Michael Kitchens’ research is any indication, the answer to both questions is: not many. An assistant professor of psychology at [...]
Dialogue and the Balanced Media Diet
Forget bias. Never mind sensationalism. The biggest problem with the media today is that human beings are involved. Why is that a problem? Because every human being comes with her own upbringing, experiences, values, and [...]