Tag Archives: news

Birds of a Feather

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Last week The New York Times published a photograph it had acquired that showed an upside-down American flag flying on the pole at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. This incident occurred in January 2021, just days after former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. The flag is associated with Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Alito says he had no involvement whatsoever in the flag flying. The flag, he said. was briefly placed by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs. Alito also claimed he did not participate in the decision to display the flag. Sounds to me like Alito is throwing his wife under the bus.

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Credibility

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***** THERE IS AN UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM 3/27/2024 *****

If you are a journalist, at the end of the day, that’s what you have standing behind you. You either have credibility, or you don’t. And in the 21st century, it is often a debatable subject. The debate has turned into an insurrection at NBC, following the announcement that the company has hired Ronna McDaniel, the former chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), as a political news contributor.

NBC News senior vp politics Carrie Budoff Brown wrote her staff, “I’m pleased to announce Ronna McDaniel is joining us as an NBC News political analyst. She will contribute her expert insight and analysis on American politics and the 2024 election across all NBC News platforms.”

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Let the Games Begin

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Let there be no doubt. The 2024 State of the Union address kicked off the 2024 campaign for president. And it promises to be a raucous race.

I’ve watched many a state of the union in my day. But I’ve never seen one like the third state of the union of President Joe Biden. This was without a doubt a campaign speech. An in-your-face speech directed at the Republicans in Congress, the Republicans at home, and the Republican’s all-but-anointed candidate for president, Donnie Trump. Yes, my friends, it’s deja vu all over again.

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Charles Osgood

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I heard him long before I met him. I remember sitting in the cafeteria CBS had set up in the basement of New York’s Madison Square Garden to feed the hundreds of staff members it had brought to the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Believe it or not, in those days the political conventions meant something and, in part because of legal requirements, they were extensively covered by broadcasters.

Just two years out of journalism school, I had been sent by my employer, WBBM-TV, the CBS owned station in my hometown Chicago, to manage our coverage. Along with me was a terrific video crew and a wonderful reporter who needed no supervision and little assistance, and an anchorman who definitely needed both. Those are stories for another day. Today, I just want to talk about the voice.

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Jim Lehrer and the Future of News

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Jim Lehrer - PBS NewsHour

Jim Lehrer, co-founder and for 36 years the anchor of the PBS NewsHour, died Thursday at the age of 85. He was also the executive editor of the broadcast, moderated 12 presidential debates, and wrote books of fiction and non-fiction, often on topics informed by his interest in journalism, politics and history. The NewsHour remembered and eulogized him on the program that night.

I cannot come close to the heartfelt feelings expressed by his NewsHour colleagues and I highly recommend the program to you. Although I worked for nearly three decades for the public television program Nightly Business Report, public television is about as siloed a group as you will find and I had the pleasure of meeting Lehrer only once. I do remember being tongue tied at meeting the man who is now being mourned as a “giant in journalism.” He of course was friendly and unassuming with me.

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