In an unprecedented move, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer last Friday, barred “journalists from the New York Times, CNN, Politico and BuzzFeed—which have been criticized by President Donald Trump and his administration for their reporting—from [an off-camera press briefing]. Reporters from the Associated Press and Time Magazine boycotted the event in protest,” The Wall Street Journal reported (Feb. 24)....

Milo Yiannopoulos is an obnoxious, loud-mouthed, hate-spewing – now, former editor of Breitbart “News” (quotations added because the organization is known to publish falsehoods and conspiracy theories, as well as intentionally misleading stories). In love with the First Amendment, Yiannopoulos firmly believes that his right to free speech trumps… anything else (well, almost), and that’s one reason why HBO comedian...

While news stories about extremism and terrorism abound — infiltration, online radicalization, lone wolf attacks, etc. — these are symptoms. The real question is, how do we address the disease of terrorism itself? The answer to that question has seen little public attention. In his book, The Great War of Our Time, former deputy director of the CIA Michael Morell...

Over the last several years, I have usually talked about Lincoln on Presidents’ Day. So, here’s to little equal time to our nation’s first president, George Washington. It’s interesting to note that unlike others running for office, Washington never went looking for the job. In fact, in August 1788, he was quite content in the role of retired gentleman farmer...

It’s getting harder and harder to keep politicians accountable, particularly when it comes to financial contributions. That’s where Montana Senator Jon Tester’s plan comes in. In a story researched and written by the Center for Public Integrity – a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization in Washington, DC – earlier this month (Feb. 2), “Tester’s legislation… would require US Senate candidates...

Heroes are hard to come by. With the death of Lt. General Hal Moore last Friday, the loss is particularly acute given his extraordinary leadership skills. There are two types of heroes, those who demonstrate physical courage in the face of extreme danger, and those who reveal moral courage – the fortitude to stand by your principles no matter the...

From time to time I receive private e-mails from readers who wish to offer opinions without posting them directly to a story. Recently, I was asked why so many of my commentaries over the past year have veered from ethics into politics. The simple reality is that politics and ethics are constantly intersecting. When it comes to issues of accountability...

While President Trump’s Executive Order imposing a temporary travel ban may be decided by the Supreme Court, one argument that might be used to defend the president’s action may come from a portion of a 1944 decision. Not long after the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing that all individuals of Japanese ancestry,...

I’ve written about Edward Snowden twice before, (Citizen Who?, Mar. 5, 2015; and Revisiting Snowden, Jan. 3, 2014). A former NSA contractor, Snowden was responsible for leaking thousands of classified documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill. In Revisiting Snowden, I wrote, “Both The New York Times and Britain’s Guardian newspapers offered editorials in support of clemency...

Since President Trump signed an executive order (Jan. 27), temporarily banning all travel from seven countries and suspending immigration of refugees from Syria to the U.S., much has happened in one week. Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen: “These countries,” the BBC News reports (Jan. 30), “were already named as ‘countries of concern’ after a law passed by...