Recent Media Commentaries

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The Revenant
“As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe… keep breathing.”         – Hugh Glass, “The Revenant” At the second presidential debate, Sunday, Trump sure did a lot of breathing… [fact check, Jim] … okay, actually it was sniffing. Rather than show voters – and people watching all over the world –  » Read more about: The...
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October 12, 2016
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Done!
The latest Trump revelation, coming last Friday (Oct. 7), confirms that the Republican nominee is not only a loutish, repulsive man, but has been – by his own chirpy admission – a sexual predator. Coming from an 11-year-old conversation between Trump and Access Hollywood host Billy Bush where the reality star is preparing to do a cameo for the soap...
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October 10, 2016
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If The Election Were Held Today, For Whom Would You Vote?
John Zogby is a pollster and author who has the ability to write analysis in a way most of us can understand. Recently, John sent me the following political conundrum: In the election of 2016, the candidates for President are: Republican, The Emperor Nero of Rome, narcissistic, extravagant, and tyrannical. He felt the burn almost 2000 years ago. Democrat, Catherine...
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October 7, 2016
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That First Debate
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...
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September 28, 2016
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A Debate Which May Live in Infamy
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...
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September 26, 2016
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The Ethical Take – The Gallup Edition
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...
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September 23, 2016
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Ethics and the Powell E-Mails
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...
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September 19, 2016
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Eat It!
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...
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May 16, 2016
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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