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...

The final moments of the men’s final at the All England Club last Sunday were simply spellbinding. Every time Andy Murray made one incredible shot, each time he made the impossible look possible, cheers exploded from Wimbledon to Dunblane, Scotland, Murray’s home town. Murray took three straight sets from Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1 player in a Grand Slam...

Scandal, political unrest, uncertainty. Henry Brooks Adams, an American journalist, was the grandson of John Quincy Adams and great-grandson of John Adams. His specialty was exposing political corruption in the late 19th century, and according to historian David McCullough, Henry believed the country was indeed, going to hell in a hand basket. “They went at each other on the floor...

I’ve written before how, in an effort to be first, some journalists will report on a story without thoroughly checking a number of source points. However, when the story is reported live, in the middle of an ongoing crisis, the consequences to one’s credibility can be harsh. CNN National Correspondent John King’s credibility came into question when he was one of...

Last week taught us a lot. We learned that in spite of increased security measures since 9/11, we are still vulnerable to attacks from individuals bent on changing our way of life. We learned that intelligent, seemingly normal teens growing up in a country that advocates freedom and liberty for all can still be susceptible to radicalization by others. We...

My opponent and I slowly walked to our lecterns. While I was confident of my argument, I was nervous for the simple reason that this was my first debate and I had absolutely no idea how my audience would react, much less what kinds of questions would come in the second part. The topic was “Television in the Classroom” and...

In order to understand why some in the media don’t like the new HBO series The Newsroom, here’s how TIME magazine’s James Poniewozik began his review: “The fourth episode of Aaron’s Sorkin’s The Newsroom is called ‘I’ll Try to Fix You.’ That may as well be the title of the whole series. Like Sorkin’s The West Wing, the show wants to fix America,  » Read more...

On February 26, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman near his home in Sanford, Florida. The 17-year-old, unarmed Martin was returning home after visiting a convenience store. Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer claimed that he shot Martin in self-defense. After Florida’s special prosecutor Angela Corey met with Martin’s parents she stated, “We did not promise them anything. In...

In August 2000, I contacted Dr. Jeffrey Wigand to contribute to my book, What Do You Stand For? Jeff is notably remembered for his interview with Mike Wallace for the CBS News show 60 Minutes as well as the subsequent legal turmoil in which Brown & Williamson threatened CBS with a multi-billion dollar lawsuit if the interview was aired. What did Wigand know that...

Last Wednesday, (Mar. 21) comedian Bill Maher wrote an Op-Ed for The New York Times; the gist of it being that he’s tired of all the apologies. From celebrities to politicians, anyone and everyone with a voice in the media for what Maher believes are incidental infractions of polite society. “I don’t want to live in a country,” Maher writes, “where...