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...

Amid all the protests in Wisconsin over Governor Scott Walker calling for cuts in both benefits and bargaining rights for state employees, MSNBCs Rachel Maddow weighed in by declaring “Despite what you may have heard about Wisconsin’s finances, the state is on track to have a budget surplus this year,” she said. “I am not kidding.” According to Politifact, the...

At the age of sixteen, George Washington copied, by hand, 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. Based on rules composed by French Jesuits in 1595, the conventions outline how we demonstrate respect for others. In a time of widespread self-interest, the rules focus on others. In his biography of Washington, historian Richard Brookhiser writes, “all modern...

Tributes to Ronald Reagan occupied much of this past weekend on what would have been the 100th birthday of the 40th President. It’s always interesting to observe that the longer a 20th century president has been out of office, the more glowing the tributes.  While many such tributes seem forced, such is not the case with Reagan. Ronald Reagan was...

Last Wednesday, President Obama spoke in words elegiac at the memorial for the shooting victims in Tucson, Arizona.  Four days later, John McCain wrote a great op-ed that appeared in The Washington Post. “President Obama gave a terrific speech Wednesday night,” the Republican Senator wrote. “He encouraged every American who participates in our political debates – whether we are on the...

The following, written by David Krieger, gives us a closer examination of President Eisenhower’s final thoughts before leaving office, regarding the growth of military budgets. It’s interesting to look at in light of today’s continuing build-up of nuclear weapons in particular. Yesterday, January 17, 2011 was the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the nation in which he...

After closely following these commentaries and reading the results of the survey, Discordant Voices, I’m sure you’re all asking… “So, where’s the promised book, Jim?” While I was hoping the e-book– an ethical examination of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter – would be ready this past fall, I’m now looking at a March release date. Besides making sure that all...

In their annual roundup of factually incorrect stories of 2010, Politifact.com, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning project set-up by the St. Petersburg Times, offered this example from Fox News’ Glenn Beck. “On his Nov. 22 radio show,” Politifact reports, “Beck told the story of Wilmington, a town of 13,000 people in Southwest Ohio that lost about 8,600 jobs when DHL Express, its largest employer,  » Read...

This idea of self-restraint and the press is a debate that often comes up. The last several weeks has seen hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents made public by founder Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. To Assange “all transactions between nations and leaders should be transparent,” Time magazine wrote in a recent profile. It’s interesting to note that contrary to...