In his latest column David Brooks argues against what he calls “economic determinism” in analyzing the underlying causes of poverty in America. After telling his readers he isn’t going to blame the poor for being poor because of their bad behavior he plows right ahead and blames the poor for being poor because of...
The Wall Street “veteran” Leon Cooperman has written an “Open Letter to President Obama” that provides us with a glimpse into the mindset of our 21st century corporate overlords. He’s upset not with President Obama’s Treasury Department or his Securities and Exchange Commission, or even his Department of Justice or the IRS. No, what’s...
The mainstream press has been predictably abysmal in its coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Andrew Ross Sorkin, one of the “money honeys” over at the New York Times, looks at the demonstrators as anthropological curiosities, as if they’re from a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea. The Times’ Ginia Bellafante calls the...
In an article in today’s New York Times, “Senate Records Show Doubts on ’64 Vietnam War Crisis,” senior national security correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller writes: “Even at the time, there was widespread skepticism about the Gulf of Tonkin incident . . . ” Wait a minute! Is that so? “Widespread skepticism?” The New York Times...
In his piece in Sunday’s New York Times, “Identity Politics Leans Right,” Sam Tanenhaus raises some thought provoking questions for historians. He uses the current debate raging inside the Texas State Board of Education about what should be included or axed in the American history curriculum. He uses the Texas case as a point...
With the Supreme Court ruling by the “Fabulous Five,” Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a single corporation will be able tap into its deep pockets and disfranchise a million citizens. A group calling itself “Citzens United” has just won a fight to give huge corporations more control over our politics. Even the 1886...
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...
Brit Hume of FOX News once compared Iraq’s murder rate to California’s to downplay the level of American casualties because the two places are similar in geographical size. On August 26, 2003, Hume opined: “Two hundred seventy-seven U.S. soldiers have now died in Iraq, which means that statistically speaking U.S. soldiers have less of...
WikiLeaks Exposes More Than Documents
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...
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