Column

Before becoming a newspaper columnist I was a broadcast news reporter for local TV stations and occasionally appeared on the NBC radio and television networks. I have some experience at being on the receiving end of hostilities directed at the media. At a pro-Nixon, pro-Vietnam war rally I covered in the early '70s, a demonstrator looked at the NBC logo on my microphone and called me a "communist…

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, "The president's decision to ask Betsy DeVos to run the Department of Education should offend every single American man, woman, and child who has benefitted from the public education system in this country." Expressing similar sentiments, Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond said, "I expect that Mrs. DeVos will have an…

On my blog and readings at The American Spectator, I have repeatedly mentioned how successful the Hallmark Channel has been with family-friendly content rarely seen in the modern television industry. One of its most popular shows is When Calls the Heart, a show produced by Michael Landon, Jr. (the son of Little House on the Prairie star Michael Landon) starring Erin Krakow, Daniel Lissing, Laurie…

I'd almost forgotten how unreasonable the left can be when out of power, but liberals are giving us a daily refresher course, and it's almost hard to take seriously -- except we must. They describe everything President Donald Trump does in hyperbolic terms. He's a fascist. He's destroying our liberties. He disrespects the rule of law. He represents a threat to humanity. He is going to start a…

The media is at it again trying to make news instead of reporting it concerning DC’s Assisted Suicide bill. The media has played cozy with the pro-suicide crowd in framing the argument to their liking, namely that only religious people are opposed to assisted suicide and only because they want to impose their values. They also have taken what has been and should be a bipartisan issue and making…

Here at NewsBusters this was the headline: “NBC News Uses Kids to Criticize Trump in New Video.” The story by Melissa Mullins began this way: “On Sunday, NBC News has resorted to using children in videos to deliver statements criticizing to President Trump just one month into his presidency.  Opening with a young boy eager about an outsider coming to Washington to bring people together, the…

Liberals have been denied another victory. A promising video posted to Facebook Tuesday, which showed a female bicyclist standing up to a van full of sexist males, earned a chorus of “You go, girl” from the media. But sadly, as is so often the case these days, the “spontaneous” moment turned out to be staged. Ultimately, the video was scrubbed from Facebook (though not before it was uploaded to…

WASHINGTON — “Not since Lincoln has there been a president as fundamentally shaped — in his life, convictions and outlook on the world -- by reading and writing as Barack Obama," said Michiko Kakutani, the literary critic of the famed New York Times. Did you know this? Frankly, I did not know President Obama was so wedded to books and the printed word as to be compared to President Abraham…

The traditional media have decided not to take President Trump's insults lying down. After what may be the strongest -- and to his supporters -- most thrilling takedown of journalists by any president, Editor and Publisher magazine featured this headline: "Newspapers Aim to Ride 'Trump Bump' to Reach Readers, Advertisers."  

Former Fort Worth, Texas, police officer Brian Franklin is finally free. But he is still fighting to clear his name. "I've been vindicated," he told me in an interview last week, "but not yet exonerated." Franklin served 21 years in prison -- a harrowing 7,700 days -- of a life sentence after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1995.

It was Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman who made famous the adage, "There's no such thing as a free lunch." Professor Friedman could have added that there is a difference between something's being free and something's having a zero price. For example, people say that there's free public education and there are free libraries, but public education and libraries cost money. Proof that they…

American public school students fall well behind students around the world in math and science proficiency. This is not debatable. According to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, both cited in The New York Times in 2012, "Fourth- and eighth-grade students in the United States continue to lag behind students in…

You might call it The Media versus America. The President of the United States held a press conference on Thursday. On that, everyone agreed. But after that? Words like “unhinged” a particular favorite to describe the event. Here’s a sample of the headline reaction.The New York Times: An Aggrieved President Moves His Surrogates Aside, The Washington Post: Debrief: In an erratic performance, Trump…

The resignation of national security advisor Michael Flynn has the anti-Trump media declaring the new administration a "mess," in "turmoil" and thrown into "chaos." Funny, these same Chicken Littles barely shrugged their shoulders during the turmoil-laden first 100 days of Barack Obama's first term. Some perspective is in order.