journalism blog

The song says “Summertime and the livin’ is easy”. August is the height of summer vacation season. We call it the “Dog Days” because the dog star Sirius rises at the same time as the sun. The ancient Greeks figured it out. August used to be called “Sextilis” because it was originally the sixth month on

The two weeks of Republicans and Democrats telling us what’s wrong with the country, who is to blame, and how they are going to fix it have left us with the tale of two countries. As the two gladiators climb into the ring for the ultimate prize, they will be fighting not only for our votes, but

One of the big stories to come out of the bizarre Republican Convention was Melania Trump being accused of plagiarizing Michelle Obama, of all people, in her speech on the first night of the convention. It just snowballed and got more bizarre. First an out of work Tampa journalist discovers the word for word lifting of

It cost five dollars. It was five feet across and a foot deep. It was plastic and blue. I bought it last year for our four little granddaughters to play in at our house at the Jersey shore. Last Fourth of July our two sons, their wives and their daughters were all here together for

It’s been just over 31 years since the worst day in Philadelphia’s history. It was the most difficult and frightening day for one local television news operation that stood up to the challenge, and upheld the highest standards of journalism under tremendous pressure. If you are old enough, and from Philadelphia, you probably know about MOVE.

Rory, Jordan, and Jason. They may not be known just by their first names yet like Arnie, Jack, and Tiger. But Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, and Jason Day are more than just the three best golfers in the world. They’re the refreshing, youthful face of sports. Three exceptionally gifted athletes from around the world we can root

It’s unofficially the start of summer, and we feel frustrated, helpless and angry. The only happy person seems to be the laughing  woman in the Chewbacca mask who became the latest internet sensation and even got to ride to work with James Corden. A recent poll of voters by AP and the NORC Center for Public

It marks the beginning and the end at the same time. It’s your coming out party into the adult world. It’s the end of your life in the cocoon of childhood, your teenage years, and those college years where you had the last chance to be carefree, and yes, stupid. You could put that college

It has fewer than 80 pages. It’s a book every writer, reporter, and anyone interested in writing just about anything should have. “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk and E.B. White is a simple guide to beautiful writing. It was originally written, and privately published in 1919, by Cornell University professor William Strunk  who used it

We all have the dates of days that are important to us. Birthdays, anniversaries, deaths. As someone interested in history, and its impact on the present and future, I’m probably a little too obsessed with historical dates. But they give me a guidepost to events and help me understand the flow of history. It makes