When MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow recently asked the journalist and commentator Frank Rich on her show if he believed the “physical manifestation of discontent” was imperative to the Occupy Wall Street movement’s cause, Rich replied that it was “not always that important” since the movement was polling well among Americans. I disagree. The ideas that...
The State Department documents that WikiLeaks is making public expose the desire of many mainstream journalists and commentators to stand up and be counted as the dutiful water-carriers for the prerogatives of United States foreign policy. Rather than focus on the substance of the diplomatic cables, American journalists tend to either frame the story...
All in all, I think Glenn Beck’s riff on my article was far more measured than I would have expected. Compared to the ad hominem attacks I’ve endured from many of Beck’s followers in the comments sections of various blogs, Beck himself was comparably very civil and fair. A former student had emailed me...
The Reverend Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University recently conferred upon Glenn Beck an honorary doctorate in the humanities. It’s official: Beck is now a doctor of philosophy. Liberty University’s honoring of Beck is fitting because he has clearly established himself as Fox News’s resident “historian,” with his area of expertise being American civilization, with emphases...
Each year we’re subjected to the spectacle of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner where the elite Washington press corps rubs our noses in the fact that we live in a plutocracy. The blow-dried crème de la crème of our vapid infotainment universe gather in an exclusive hotel banquet room, put aside their roles...
The most devastating natural disaster to hit the Western Hemisphere in decades inundates the American news media. The humanitarian effort from across the globe in response to the disastrous earthquake in Haiti has been astounding. Mainstream television has produced an array of shocking and heroic visuals sandwiched between car commercials and ads for Viagra...
Losing the Narrative on Public Employee Unions
Despite what some polls are telling us the Democrats at the national level are rapidly losing the narrative thread on the issue of collective bargaining rights for public employees. The frame of the “debate” on public worker pensions, and the role of labor unions in American society generally, has already largely moved in the...
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