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...

On July 10, 1985, among hundreds of newsworthy events around the world, were the following: Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate, charged into an angry mob to save a suspected police informer from being burned to death. An Israeli court convicted 15 Jewish terrorists of murder and other acts of violence against Arabs. A Turkish supertanker was struck by an Iraqi...

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...

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...

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 Ann Coulter. I used to like Ann Coulter back in the day when she’d appear on Politically Incorrect,...

As the economy took a downward spiral in the last several years, the rhetoric from some in opinion media went from blustering bombast to rancorous incivility faster than an out-of-control Toyota. What raises my ethical hackles most comes from the Unholy Trinity of political demagoguery: Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Glenn Beck – three individuals responsible for much of 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...

Between a rock and hard place. That’s how I felt regarding the Sheen-a-thon – “news” coverage of actor Charlie Sheen’s meltdown over five days last week. Recently, I was asked “What’s the difference between news, analysis, opinion, and entertainment?”  My response: News: Last night a ship sank in the Atlantic. Analysis: What caused the ship to sink and how can...

Strange. Erratic. Irresponsible. No, I’m not talking about the obvious behavior by Muammar Gaddafi and Charlie Sheen, I’m talking about Good Morning, America’s extensive, up-close-and-personal celebrity train wreck of an interview called Charlie Sheen. Cut to: Sheen: “I am on a drug. It’s called ‘Charlie Sheen.’ It’s not available because if you try it once, you will die.” This at a time...