journalism blog

It’s back. After over ten years, Court TV has returned to television both over the air and on cable through Katz Networks, a division of E.W. Scripps Company. I was part of a group of journalists in the summer of 1991, who took founder Steve Brill’s idea to cover trials live, and created a form

It sounds ridiculous. It’s obviously redundant. I heard it again recently, this time by a network news correspondent. She’s not the only one. It says something about the state of television news writing and editing. It falls in line with our tendency to emphasis to the extreme. It’s not just television news reporters, we all

No one wanted to go to the theater that night. General Ulysses S. Grant said no because his wife couldn’t stand Mrs. Lincoln. They made the excuse that they were going to New Jersey to visit their children. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, and even President Lincoln’s own son

Later this week will mark 17 years since that phone call woke me at 1am. It was my mother. She said, “I’m at the hospital. Your father died.” It was a shock. He was 74 years old. He had been retired for over 15 years. He rode an exercise bike every morning. Watched his weight

Finally, someone is going to prison for one of the greatest crime sprees in history. Australian Cardinal George Pell was just sentenced to six years in prison for sexually abusing two 13 year old boys in a sacristy after Sunday mass in 1996. He was convicted of five counts in December. Under Australian law, the

Tonight we get an hour closer to spring with the arrival of Daylight Saving Time. Much has been written about the rites of spring. A season of renewal, new growth, and of course, warm weather. Nothing symbolizes the awakening of spring for those of us living  in the land of snow and ice, as spring

You’re suppose to get an annual physical, especially as you get older. I hadn’t had one in two years. I had a family history question that I thought I could get answered on the phone. I called the doctor’s office, and asked if I could speak with him. The receptionist said sure. He’ll have to

They call it “A Happy Place”. There are a lot of reasons. First, the weather is monotonously perfect. It’s like “Groundhog’s Day”. You wake up everyday and it’s sunny, with a bright blue sky, puffy clouds that look like big balls of cotton, temperature in the mid 80s, and a gentle breeze. The daily mean

We just completed “The Year of the Woman” that ended with a record number of women being elected to the US House of Representatives. Women were energized by the #MeToo movement. Almost a hundred years ago, they were fighting for the right to vote, never mind actually holding office. The fight for the right to

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper.” Sound familiar? How about this, “I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed…the vulgarity…of those who write for them.” No, it’s not one of our worst presidents. It’s one of our best, Thomas Jefferson. All presidents have issues with