I never intended to write about the first debate. However, several readers, in private emails or conversation, have made that request, so, here goes. Monday night’s event, (Yes, I went to the movie and recorded the debate), the first of three presidential debates, was, as expected, packed with drama: e-mails, taxes, climate change, race, defense, cyber terrorism, stamina, and the...

Well, boys and girls, here we are – the first of three presidential debates which may decide who goes to the White House: the Reality Star, or the Politically Calculated Czar; the extremely reckless, or “extremely careless.” I was previously invited to attend a screening of The Man with the Golden Arm, part of an Elmer Bernstein film series honoring...

The Gallup organization has been taking the pulse of American’s attitudes regarding social, economic and political issues since 1935. Compromise, trust and transparency – three issues voters say they care about when it comes to the candidates. Compromise – In a poll taken earlier this month (Sept. 7-11) Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport for Gallup Poll writes, “Americans continue to believe that...

The publication of Colin Powell’s private opinions of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump – obtained from hacked e-mails from the former secretary of state’s private e-mail account – is only the latest example of the thorny ethical issues that journalists and media organizations must navigate. In this new universe, everything that’s been hacked appears to be fair game after...

October 2, 2015: a date… which will live… in infamy; at least for one journalist. That look of utter defeat on Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank’s face comes as a consequence of a promise he made last year. “I’m so certain Trump won’t win the nomination,” Milbank wrote, “that I’ll eat my words if he does. Literally: The day Trump...

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....

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...

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...

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:...

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...