Recent Accountability Commentaries

Featured image for “What Happened to Bob Costas?”
What Happened to Bob Costas?
Sportscaster Bob Costas has arguably been the best in the business since Jim McKay. Combining a likable manner with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of football, Costas speaks to both fans and non-fans alike. And his range of sports coverage is unequaled by anyone of his generation: boxing, NASCAR, golf, baseball, basketball, hockey, thoroughbred horse racing, and from 1988 to 2016, the...
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April 5, 2021
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The Spirit of America – Conclusion
Only historians are likely to recall Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, the Mississippi Representative who, in a speech that brought tears to the eyes of many battle-hardened House members, spoke passionately of “the South’s most implacable enemy, the Radical Republican who helped make the Reconstruction Period a black nightmare the South never could forget,” Kennedy wrote in Profiles in Courage. In...
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March 31, 2021
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What Will it Take?
What will it take for some Americans to stop believing the false narrative that Democrats want to abolish the Second Amendment? In 1996, the Dunblane primary school shooting left 16 fifth and sixth graders and the teacher that tried to protect them, dead. The public outcry was loud and long. In 1997, UK’s prime minister, John Major, passed the Firearms...
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March 26, 2021
What is Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson’s Skill Set?
The “brilliance” of the Wisconsin Senator cannot be overstated. Embed from Getty Images In his last 4 “productive” years, Johnson initiated an investigation into Joe Biden’s connection to the Ukraine conspiracy. Lot’s of attention. Big headlines. But Johnson found no evidence that Biden had participated in any wrongdoing. Last November, Johnson, the Republican Chairman of Homeland Security,  » Read more about:...
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March 24, 2021
Trump and the First Amendment – Conclusion
Trump has been banned from all social media. That’s good news, right? Embed from Getty Images Gone is the misinformation, false conspiracy theories, lies, bigotry and personal attacks. Perhaps, more importantly, gone is the media’s Fugitive-like obsession, (well, not completely), in covering every tweet, twitch and tongue lashing coming from his chubby fingers. But… …what about Trump’s First Amendment rights...
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March 22, 2021
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Trump and the First Amendment – Part 1
Donald Trump has been banned by social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Amazon web services, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitch, Liquid Web and Shopify have all banned the ex-president from tweeting posting, chatting and twitching his rants and lies. Many of his staunchest supporters are banned, as well, including Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani. Twitter also banned the MyPillow guy Mark Lindell...
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March 19, 2021
The Compassionate and the Moralizer
Two stories about the coronavirus vaccine caught my attention. Embed from Getty Images In a recent letter to New York Times ethicist, Kwame Anthony Appiah, one reader writes: “I work for a hospital, but in an administrative job. I do not interact with patients. I have worked from home since March. I am not at high risk for contracting Covid-19...
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March 5, 2021
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Social Media’s Algorithm Problem
For too long, Social media has become a haven for third-party shares of misinformation, false conspiracies and blatant lies. As belief turns to anger, and anger to hate, some have become radically motivated, violent extremists. While many of these companies have taken some steps to stem the tide of hate and violence, our worst impulses have rapidly overtaken and divided...
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March 3, 2021
The Problem with Social Media
The last four years has seen a dramatic erosion of facts and truth, one of the essentials of our democracy. In its place are conspiracy theories, misinformation and blatant lies....
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March 1, 2021
The Darkness
“It is written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.” – Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness The poison that is Donald Trump has so deeply infected followers that they forcefully speak out against any unfaithful Republican who dares speak against him much less hold him accountable for the attack on the Capitol. Embed from Getty Images Here’s...
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February 19, 2021