Last month, Citizenfour was awarded an Oscar for best documentary in 2014. The film concerns intelligence thief Edward Snowden, and the massive amount of documents he leaked to the media regarding a variety of NSA programs. The title comes from the pseudonym adopted by Snowden in an encrypted e-mail sent to director Laura Poitras in which he offered her inside...

Around Oscar time, it has become routine for critics to partner with historians and scrutinize historically-based movies for their accuracy or inaccuracy regarding the facts. A documentary documents a non-fiction event(s) or person(s) usually mixing interviews, archive film, possibly recreations of an event or events, usually with a narrator who details what happened. A fact-based movie is a dramatization of...

James Comey tackled a tough topic last week. Speaking to students at Washington’s Georgetown University (Feb. 12), this is the first time I can remember the top law enforcement official at the FBI stepping forward to talk about an issue that’s long been simmering: police and race relations. “At many points in American history,” Comey points out, “law enforcement enforced...

What do we not know about Lincoln that historians and authors think we should know about the much favored 16th president? Last Sunday’s New York Times Book Review offered reviews of three new books. How many books, would you imagine, have been written about Lincoln? According to the website, The Inquisitr (yes, that’s the way they spell it), “the people...

The E.T. hasn’t been around for awhile. So, let’s get started. The Two-fer – Brian Williams out for six-months without pay; Jon Stewart says adios to The Daily Show. While an internal investigation continues into how NBC Nightly News Anchor Brian Williams misled the public with a story about how the helicopter in which he was travelling in Iraq came...

The Age of Reason, (aka, the Enlightenment), must have been a remarkable time to live in – to challenge the conventional wisdom that relied on the traditional forms of authority, and instead, stress analysis, individualism and reason. Can you imagine having discussions on the issues of the day with the likes of Francis Bacon, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Immanuel Kant...

Ever since Sunday’s incredible and unpredictable end to this year’s Super Bowl, talk has been circulating across the media. Let’s go to NFL.com columnist Mike Silver: “Seattle was 1 yard away from securing a second consecutive championship — but instead of handing the rock to Marshawn Lynch, the most powerful goal-line runner in football, [Seattle Coach Pete] Carroll called a...

In a big step to change the culture of misconduct on its campus, Dartmouth College President Philip J. Hanlon announced last Thursday, that it would ban hard liquor on campus. “The measures Dr. Hanlon announced Thursday in a speech on campus had been expected and were based largely on the work of a panel he created nine months ago to...

Last week, the Associated Press reported (Jan. 11), that two members of the famed 100th Fighter Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, died on the same day. Lifelong friends, Joseph Shambrey and Clarence Huntley (pictured), enlisted in 1942 and were shipped overseas to Italy in 1944. Both were mechanics who kept the planes flying. “Huntley,” the AP writes, “serviced...

“Je Suis Charlie,” (I am Charlie) has become a symbol not only of free speech, but freedom itself. Looking like a scene from the Broadway musical Les Miserables, more than a million, including leaders from around the world, marched in the streets of Paris on Sunday in support of freedom of expression. Despite the murderous attack on the offices of...