In Colin Powell and the American Dream (1995), Judith Cummings and Stefan Rudnicki write about an early choice made by a man who would rise to become an extraordinary leader and statesman. “In 1964, stationed in Fort Benning, Georgia, Powell pulled into a drive-in hamburger stand on Victory Drive. The waitress said she was not allowed to serve him, but if he...

I’ve talked about media analyst Howard Kurtz before. A journalist who specializes in how and what the media reports, Kurtz has hosted the CNN show Reliable Sources since 1998. Along with a panel of journalists, Kurtz has discussed issues like the media’s overblown coverage of Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan. Most recently, he’s questioned the media’s fixation of businessman Donald Trump who’s...

Let’s all bow our heads for a moment of silent prayer for the soon to be departed right Reverend-Professor Beck. Moment over. For those who have not heard the news, Glenn Beck announced last week that he will be leaving Fox News at the end of the year… (with five months notice in the bank). “Not long ago,” Linda Feldmann writes in...

In this excerpt from “Shameless,” I discuss 60s talk show confrontationalist Joe Pyne.   In 1966, I sat before a TV to watch a strange, new kind of entertainment unlike anything I had ever seen before.  It began like this… “The Joe Pyne Show, a fascinating forum of funny, famous, infamous, way out, and factual confrontations and interviews with real...

If you go to YouTube type in: “Charlie Sheen, Winning.” You will see almost two minutes of the actor’s rambling account of what has become the latest cult mantra of lunacy. What remains unclear is whether Sheen’s statement is voiced as an exclamation or a question. I’m not sure Sheen knows himself. That would never happen with Donald Trump. The...

Q: Who gets the blame if Congress chooses to shutdown the federal government? Before I answer that question, let’s take a look at some facts. Although Congress has been in session since January, absolutely nothing meaningful has been accomplished. With Republican control of the House, Speaker John Boehner has talked repeatedly about his promise to cut government spending: “We need to cut spending....

When it comes to opinion media, what raises my ethical hackles most comes from Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Glenn Beck – three individuals responsible for much of the fear, unreason and cynicism that flourishes today. This excerpt comes from the chapter on Glenn Beck, from my new e-Book entitled, Shameless: The Ethical Case Against Three Out-of-Control Critics and the...

What follows is the introduction to the new e-book, “Shameless – The Ethical Case Against Three Out-of-Control Critics and the Need for Civility Now, More than Ever.” More next week. We currently live in a cable news media-induced echo chamber where, much of the time, opinion too easily passes as fact. This is as much the fault of those who...

What can I say about Bill O’Reilly? Well, here’s what I wrote about him in my soon-to-be-released e-book, Shameless. “[Keith] Olbermann is one side of the political coin, with Bill O’Reilly occupying the obverse. While both have sounded shrill and pompous, the difference is Olbermann cares more about an issue; O’Reilly cares more about himself.” Here’s O’Reilly debating with the exceedingly mild mannered Terry...

At the height of all the Watergate scandal coverage in the ‘70s, TIME magazine ran an interesting story about Jeb Stuart Magruder. Don’t remember Magruder? He’s the man frequently mentioned in the first hour of the movie All the President’s Men. Based on the 1974 book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two investigated the initial break-in at...