CSI is a CBS-TV crime drama that follows “Crime Scene Investigators” – like William Peterson, Ted Danson, Elizabeth Shue and others – as they solve murders using science and analytical skills. ESI is my own ethical-sense investigative process used in researching and examining stories like the three-part series, Conspiracy Theory. (Think of me as Ted Danson… with darker hair.) The purpose of...

Early in All the President’s Men – a film that follows Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein track down and piece together the 1972 Watergate scandal – there’s a moment where editor Harry Rosenfeld is listening to Woodward read through a list of the five men caught in the break-in at the Watergate complex. When Woodward mentions that one of the...

Who was Michael Hastings and why would anyone want to assassinate him? Author-Journalist Michael Hastings was a reporter for the Internet based website, BuzzFeed and contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine. Hastings profile rose after an interview he conducted with General Stanley McChrystal in which the four-star general was both candid and critical of individuals in the Obama administration. Hastings himself spoke...

“Evidence Indicates Michael Hastings Was Assassinated” “Hastings Sent Chilling E-mail to Colleagues Before Death” “Did the Pentagon Murder Journalist Michael Hastings?” Those are just a few of the story links that stood at the top of a Google search I conducted into the death of Michael Hastings. I’m not in the habit of running down conspiracy theories that are suggested...

“We are probably going to have to bomb them,” the President said after looking at the U-2 photographs. He then turned to his special assistant, Ken O’Donnell. “You still think the fuss about Cuba is unimportant?” “Absolutely,” O’Donnell snapped. “The voters won’t give a damn about Cuba.” During my August break, I spent time reading Richard ReevesProfile of Power, a...

This is what inspiration looks like. Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani girl who survived an assassination attempt by Islamic extremists for campaigning for women’s education, delivered another moving speech at the opening of a library in Birmingham, England. In a voice both settled and soothing, the young woman spoke to a small crowd with simple, confident words. In light of...

Trust – whether it’s the current crisis in Syria, Congress or the economy – is the vital component that drives confidence. So important to the national temperature that polls are regularly taken to determine the public’s trust in individuals and institutions. Dr. Robert Hurley is a Professor and the Director of The Consortium for Trustworthy Organizations at Fordham University. He is also...

All focus is on President Obama and Congress as to whether the U.S. will enter into a “limited” attack on Syria as a response to their use of chemical weapons. This is a difficult issue and there are no easy answers. As The New York Times (Sept. 5), recently made clear, the rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have demonstrated their own...

Oprah Winfrey hit a racial hot-button recently when she compared the death of Trayvon Martin to Emmett Till. “Trayvon Martin parallel to Emmett Till, let me just tell you. In my mind, same thing.” Winfrey is referring to the 1955 Mississippi case where a 14-year-old black teen was brutally tortured and murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His...

O’Reilly apologizes, Trump doesn’t, a Montana judge needs some fresh air and the NFL steps up. 14.2.3.2.1. – That’s the little-known bylaw in the N.C.A.A. rule book that said that former Marine Steven Rhodes had to forfeit two years of eligibility due to his former participation in an organized football league – “with publicized schedules, official scoring and predetermined rosters”...