Recent Media Commentaries

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The Ethical Take – Two Updates and a “Bombshell”
We’ll get to the “Shocking Details” in our “bombshell” in a moment, but first, a little housekeeping. Deflated Brady – First, football’s “greatest quarterback of all time,” Tom Brady is suspended for four games for being “generally aware” of a scheme to deflate – and thus make the ball easier to control – footballs in the 2015 A.F.C. championship game....
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April 27, 2016
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Go Ahead, Make my Day… Leave a Comment
I was overwhelmed and grateful to have received more than 20 comments on my three-part series, Trust and Confidence, about Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti’s 1998 principled battle with Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. I have discussed this story with a handful of friends who kept wondering when I was going to write-up an analysis of a story that I had...
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April 25, 2016
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Does Civility Matter?
According to supporters, part of the rise of Donald Trump is due to his compulsion to “tell it like it is.” While a large part of his rhetoric is insulting, Trump rationalizes that he does so to wake us all up to the fact that “America isn’t great” anymore. Whether you agree with that last statement or not is a...
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April 6, 2016
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Et tu,Wolf? Et tu!?
Here are the comments I sent to CNN earlier this week: Dear CNN News Producers: (I know you won’t pay attention to this, but I’ll say it anyway.) Please, please, PLEASE STOP all coverage of Donald Trump “controversies.” We know his M.O. We’ve seen enough of his supporters drunk on his Kool-Aid defend him… to the death.  » Read more about:...
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March 30, 2016
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Snake Pit
The Fortune Cookie is a desperately funny Billy Wilder film about an equally desperate con man by the name of “whiplash” Willy, a lawyer (brilliantly played by Walter Matthau), and his schnook brother-in-law, (the equally brilliant Jack Lemmon). Lemmon is a TV cameraman who is accidentally sidelined by a football player while covering a game. After Gingrich learns from his...
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March 14, 2016
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The Ethical Take: Ides of March Edition
Lots to get to, so let’s get to it. Breaking News: “The Republican Party is Shattering” – So says Republican Soothsayer-In-Chief Peggy Noonan. Noonan may be a late-comer to the implosion of her party, but after Trump’s decisive win in 7 states last Tuesday, she now admits that Trump is indeed, “a divider of the Republican Party… [and] unpredictable.” However,...
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March 7, 2016
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Should Germany publish Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”?
In 1925 and ’26, Adolf Hitler published (in two parts, no less) an autobiography of sorts. While the title translates as “My Struggle,” the real substance behind the work has more to do with Hitler’s political ideology than anything else. His central thesis being “the Jewish peril,” Hitler believed in a Jewish conspiracy to expand global leadership. While the question...
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January 11, 2016
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The Ethical Take
In this first month of a new year, The Take examines a few stories from the sane… to the inane. Where’s Colin!? — Former Joint Chiefs Chairman and Secretary of State Colin Powell has been conspicuously absent from all the activities surrounding the GOP presidential candidates. I kept wondering, what’s his take on all this. Wonder no more. According to...
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January 8, 2016
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Line Crossed
What if your neighbors were suspected of being involved in a mass shooting? And after the police and FBI had searched their home, the media were allowed to go through the residence, and among the items broadcast live were photos of you and your family; how would you react? In the aftermath of the San Bernardino shooting rampage, the home...
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December 11, 2015
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Red Cup or Red Herring?
The choice of stories selected by broadcast news directors sometimes amazes me — example: the Starbucks Red Cup “Controversy.” What began as a YouTube rant about Starbucks alleged lack of acknowledgement of Christmas turned out to be a red herring that was a complete waste of news time. After years of offering cheery Christmas designs on their cups, coffee monster...
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November 11, 2015

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
It Was Important Then. It is Important Today
Freedom of speech in America is under attack, not only when people are denied the right to speak, but when lies, intimidation and the deliberate...
When Political Identity Replaces Ethical Judgment
The political and cultural landscape has become a minefield of conflicting beliefs, many now rooted less in public policy than in personal identity. One of...
Principles Matter.
A few nights ago, I was watching The Way We Were, a film I’ve seen more times than I can count. This time, a single...
All the President’s Men 2.0
“Politics had infiltrated every corner of government—a strong-arm takeover of the agencies by the Nixon White House.” —Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, All the President’s...
The Threat to November Is Already Here
“Cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.”—George Washington’s...
Jon Ossoff and the Conscience of Atticus Finch
I’ve written about Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff before, but after watching his questioning of Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence (DNI),...