Current national and global events.
It’s only Oct. 1, and my prescription for Damnitol is nearly out. I may not have any more refills authorized. Dr. O’Connell probably thinks I’m popping them like peppermints. Maybe I am. This week, though, I’ve figured out a drug-free solution, maybe even drub free: Form a club: the Basket of Responsibles. This is a third […]
America is not a nice country. Hardly any of the other countries think so. If they say the U.S. is a nice nation, that’s for show, to stay on our good side. It’s just to be nice. We are a nation led by elected officials, often compromised by “contributions,” as we call them. We are […]
This week, comedian Bill Cosby resigned as a trustee of Temple University in Philadelphia, on whose board he sat 32 years. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the decision came after a petition drive and other pressure on the performer’s alma mater, which followed a flurry of news this fall on years’-old allegations of sexual assaults, for […]
Spring for journalists marks the end of contest entry season and the beginning of conferences and workshops. Heavy thinking threatens the daffodils. Ethics committees of two groups, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association, are marking this climate change with proposals. SPJ’s is revising its Code of Ethics, last dolled up in […]
Ethics Presentation for “News Reporting II” (This is not a blog post per se but an outline for a talk I’m giving to a class. It’s not a PowerPoint-like slide show, although a short video is included. It’s both for my use and for students if they wish to check links etc.) I. The slaying […]
May I predict, with perverse pleasure, the coming split of both the Republican and Democratic parties. I am not referring to the politics as usual intra- and interparty squabbles. The GOP is as strong as ever, but it’s not without the occasional flare. Mid-month and again this week it was over the pronouncements of Sen. […]