Maybe it’s a touch of air sickness (as I write this from 30,000 feet on Virgin America WiFi) but I have the sense that I saw the future this weekend — and it isn’t pretty. Let’s see if I can actually verbalize what was essentially a visceral sensation. In the best of the inverted pyramid [...]

Just got back from the rally on the National Mall. Lots of people. Good vibes. Disappointing show. Near the end, Jon Stewart asked what’s the point of this anyway? A good question for which he didn’t have much of an answer. Here’s my full report as just published on the site of the Jewish Journal [...]

Washington D.C. Greetings from inside the Beltway where  I am here to attend the annual conference of the Online News Association. Like many of my peers, I will be skipping out for a few hours tomorrow for the Jon Stewart-Steven Colbert Restore Sanity/Fear Rally. I suspect it will be a lot of fun and I [...]

Here’s my report on Friday’s USC rally of 40,000 with Barack Obama as its appears on The Nation website.

Officials at USC, where I work, anticipate a turn-out of as many as 30,000 when Barack Obama speaks on campus tomorrow. That would make it the largest event of the almost-over 2010 midterm campaign season. I want to give a shout out to my great journalist-students at USC Annenberg who have been doing great reporting [...]

I should send a bill over to NPR.  Seems like it’s the only thing I’ve been writing about lately.  But I can’t help it. After the NPR P.C. Police warned even its clerical staff that it would be an ethical violation to attend the upcoming Jon Stewart rally, now it has gone ahead and fired [...]

The only thing that kept me from screaming in painful loss as Mad Men went on hiatus last night for another six months or so was the balm of watching a new episode of the mesmerizing Boardwalk Empire. But back to Don Draper. What a season finale! What a knock-out punch! Draper dumps the wonderful [...]

Paging the Chilean miner rescue teams. They need you in Washington D.C. this week to help extricate NPR from the hole it continues to dig itself into over banning its employees from attending –or even watching from the sidelines– the upcoming Stewart-Colbert rallies on the mall. NPR’s official Church Lady ombudsman, Alicia Shepard engages in [...]

I teach journalism students all day long and if there’s one thing that drives me crazy it’s an aspiring journalist who has nothing to say. Don’t we have enough them already?  I want my reporters to have drive, passion and commitment, Apparently, I’m giving them bad advice.  Leading MSM news organizations are tying themselves into [...]

I’ve spent the last two nights dinging the MSM. Let’s switch it up this time around and take a shot at the, um, “alternative” media — as in alternative universe.  I have written extensively on the slow-motion demise of listener-sponsored Pacifica Radio — and it’s local affiliate KPFK in specific. Tonight, a new chapter in [...]

I’m sitting here watching the Chilean miner rescue on cable TV and I am consumed by a whipsaw of conflicting emotions.  Who cannot be moved by this incredible human story, the miraculous rescue of 33 trapped miners from a half mile below the surface?  As pinhead MSNBC anchor, Chris Jansing, gushed a few minutes ago: [...]

I LOVE this headline from Bloomberg news service: Obama Engages in Class Warfare With His Campaign for Democratic Lawmakers.  The same accusation is made in several other MSM and online publications as well as by GOP pols. Why? Because Obama has called for the expropriation of the capitalist class? Because he has called for confiscating [...]

It’s hard to say if the poor devil in this pic will soon be a subject of ABC News or if he is an executive of ABC News. Though, it;s more likely the network suits look like this. In a truly bizaarro world development, ABC News, which you will remember is a branch of the [...]

Sorry to have been sort of AWOL but have been very, very busy working at our USC publication, Neon Tommy, which is experiencing a growth boom. But I couldn’t resist saying a few words about Rahm Emanuel and his decision to leave the White House and run for Mayor of Chicago. Let’s cut to the [...]