It’s a joyous day as marriage equality comes to the entire United States. While there’s still a lot of work to be done on many different fronts, let’s take a moment to appreciate the unbelievable week of progress we just witnessed.
Facing our own greatest threat
The latest mass shooting in South Carolina more than qualifies as terrorism. If you look at U.S. history, it’s the definition of terrorism. In this quick take, why the context and political motivation of this incident can’t be overlooked.
The force that breeds unrest
Building anger over police brutality blew up in Baltimore as riots overtook what had been peaceful protests. The destruction is a shame, but the violence from police that triggered it is the story. In this piece, I take down three short-sighted reactions to the uprising and refocus on the real problem.
When hate is a lingering tradition
The stark, blatant racism of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma caught us by surprise, but perhaps it shouldn’t. In this quick take, I discuss how institutional racism lets hateful traditions prevail.
Stephen Colbert’s lasting legacy
After 9 years of The Colbert Report, or 17 years including his time at The Daily Show, the time has come to say farewell to “Stephen Colbert”, an unprecedented character the likes of which we’ve never seen anywhere else in pop culture.
The lie of ‘justice for all’
A grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, decided not to bring charges against a local police officer in the controversial death of Michael Brown. In this quick take, my immediate thoughts following the prosecutor’s callous statements.
Barack Obama for president
This time, the choice is clear. Barack Obama has shown the knowledge, courage, judgment, and temperament to be the next President of the United States. He already beat all odds to become the Democratic nominee earlier this year—his life story is one of the most fascinating examples of success.
Ethics of campaign coverage
We’re in the midst of the longest U.S. presidential campaign in recent memory — perhaps the longest ever. The endless news cycle and the overexposure of election coverage lead TV news journalists to undermine the seriousness of the situation, and worse, ignore established journalistic and ethical standards.This being the year 2008, we’re also more connected than ever, with more access to cable television and the Internet than ever before. Along with all the access to information also comes an unprecedented amount of presidential campaign and election coverage.
The dark ages of the Bush era
In an episode of the PBS series Flashpoints, hosts Bryant Gumbel and Gwen Ifill and their guests analyzed and criticized the state of news media in the United States. The assessment was bleak: Media corporations act in their own interests, push political agendas, disregard hard news in favor of tabloid-like stories; and after 9/11, they refused to challenge whatever Bush was selling.