Tag: Media

Quality Coverage?

  

My first degree was in radio, TV, and film production, so I remain interested in how the media cover the news. There’s a lot to be disappointed about in the quality of that coverage, and unfortunately, a rather blatant bias sometimes appears. When Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature passed their bill to scale back collective bargaining for public-sector employees, the Democrats kept yelling “Shame, shame” at them. It was quite a spectacle. Quality coverage of that incident would have emphasized… Read more »

A Contrast, Not a Comparison

  

A new theme being promoted by some in the media and, implicitly, by the Obama administration itself, is the similarity between the current occupant of the people’s White House and Ronald Reagan. Time magazine was up front with the linkage this week on its cover: Well, I would like to do a comparison myself. Let’s start with the economy. Both Reagan and Obama inherited a mess. Reagan’s solution was to reduce the tax burden on citizens and cut back on… Read more »

Memorial?

  

Perhaps this will be my last post on the Tucson tragedy. There are a few words more to say, particularly after the memorial with President Obama on Wednesday. First, a final word on the so-called journalism that has dominated the week. The journalistic profession, in my view, was another of the casualties: The irresponsible charges during the week set a new low standard, not only for journalists but for those in politics who sought to use this for their own… Read more »

Personal Reminiscence: Radio Days II

  

Yesterday, I talked about some lessons I learned while working as a radio announcer right after college. One lesson I left for today. It has to do with dealing with people. Although I didn’t have a call-in program, there were some individuals who had the phone number for the radio station because they had been calling announcers there for a number of years to request certain songs be played. I inherited that tradition. The problem was that I was introducing… Read more »

Personal Reminiscence: Radio Days I

  

Today and tomorrow, I’m taking a break from political commentary. I want to share more on a personal level. I guess I’ve always been a communicator, in one way or another. My undergraduate degree was in radio, TV, and film production. From the start, I wanted to use that degree in a Christian ministry. My first after-college job was with the Christian Broadcasting Network, at that time located in Portsmouth, Virginia. Although I began as a behind-the-scenes audio technician for… Read more »

Hubris Personified

  

Let’s highlight three astounding examples of hubris today—people who believe they know everything and/or they try to remake themselves without anybody noticing. Well, it’s not working; people are noticing. Our first example is Helen Thomas. If you haven’t heard about her fiasco, you’re probably not watching any news at all. The video of her telling Jews in Israel to “get the hell out” and go back to Poland or Germany has burned up the internet. The firestorm led to her… Read more »

Arrogance: Where It Leads Us

  

On Tuesday, President Obama met with Senate Republicans to discuss immigration and border security. By all accounts, it was not a productive meeting. Republican senators did not let the president off the hook with respect to his policies and the manner in which he pushes them—without GOP input. According to reports coming out of that meeting, Obama tried to lecture the Republicans on the issues, only to be challenged on his views. He does not like being challenged. One participant… Read more »