The Media
What Chorus Girls Do Backstage
“According to the Chorus” put us in mind of experiences of living through the AIDS epidemic that gripped the nation in the 1980s.
The New York Times: A New Climate Denialism?
No longer can any rational person claim that climate change isn't happening. Instead, the new deniers argue that people will be able to adapt to climate chaos and that swift, decisive action is "magical thinking."
Will Elon Take Twitter Down?
Twitter verges on collapse as wWorkers quit in revolt against 'notorious union-buster' Elon Musk.
Will Media Outfits That Spread Election Lies Pay a Price?
Right-wing spreaders of false narrative face reckoning in court.
Chief Twit Looking for Profits from Twitter, Not Any Global "Town Square"
Musk’s greed is the central fact to keep in mind when attempting to predict what his ownership of Twitter means.
How News Deserts Damage Local Elections
Limited options for accurate local news can make voters more vulnerable to misinformation.
Elon Musk Threatens Democracy
Musk thinks Twitter is his personal ‘digital town square’. In reality, it’s a global publisher that needs to act responsibly. Can the Joker be trusted?
Alex Jones Deserves Sympathy? In Whose World?
The wide latitude given to press organizations has a downside: it protects bad actors like Jones.
Musk and Twitter: Dangerous Child's Play
His Sunday tweet shows he has neither the judgment nor character to manage the platform.
US Imperialism and Hashtag Activism
The social media hashtag is sometimes where serious politics goes to die. It can be a tool of empire used to fool well-meaning but uninformed people.
Free Assange: Thousands Demand Release of WikiLeaks Founder
"Julian is a journalist," said Labour Party MP Jeremy Corbyn. "Journalism is not a crime. If he is extradited to the U.S.A., any other investigative journalist is at risk."
Should Musk Get Twitter Just Because He Wants It?
Or is Twitter more like Times Square or a bar of soap?
What’s Behind National Media’s Mass-Trashing of San Francisco?
The supposedly “liberal” national media seem obsessed with unseating progressives for unknown reasons – certainly not objective factualism.
Centering Community Voices Key to Solving the Local-News Crisis
The future of local news is too important to be left to market forces, and the media conglomerates that got us into the local-news crisis aren't going to get us out of it.
Burning Books (or Rather Book Companies)
Looking back on my years in — and out of — publishing
Why Does American Media Love British Royalty
Mainstream media all make certain basic assumptions, like the necessity of maintaining a welfare state for the rich.
Torturing Language
Now, due to the internet, we’re reverting to images: The internet is a high-tech reprise of cave drawing and graffiti.
Why I Won't Be Dr. Phil's Punching Bag
The point I want to make isn’t solely about Dr. Phil. It’s about the people who produce popular TV talk shows.
How Propaganda Works: Silencing the Lambs
Leni Riefenstahl said her epic films glorifying the Nazis depended on a “submissive void” in the German public. This is how propaganda is done.
Digital Soldiers in an Online Forever War
America’s war-making mindset now dominates basic aspects of our domestic political landscape, transforming what once were civil disagreements into a form of partisan or ideological combat.
Balanced Journalism Requires Truth-telling
Balanced journalism doesn't give equal weight to liars and to truth-tellers. It seeks out the truth and exposes lies.
Louisville Journalists Join Growing Unionization Wave
35 Courier-Journal newsroom staffers have announced that they want to join The News Guild-Communications Workers of America Local 34070.
What and Who to Believe about Ukraine?
In our terribly polarized political world, it is terribly important to know which sources, and not just historical ones, are trustworthy.