The $6 Million Social Worker

The New York Yankees just bought a first baseman for $180 million. For the next eight years, Mark Teixeira will earn about $22.5 million a season. The week before, the Yanks bought seven years of pitcher CC Sabathia's life for $161 million, about $23 million a season--and five years of A.J. Burnett for $82.5 million, about $16.5 million for each season, according to the Associated Press. None of the salaries include any incentive pay or outside endorsements, which add millions to each salary.
DECEMBER 2008
Social Worker>>

One Leg Raised on the Bush–Cheney Legacy:
Deconstructing the Spin and Propaganda

The chairman of the Republican National Committee may have begun an irreversible descent into a future as a fear-bound paranoid victim of functional amnesia, possibly caused by a hysterical post-traumatic event such as the overwhelming victory of Democrats in the 2008 election and the nation’s repudiation of Republican policies.
DECEMBER 2008
Legacy>>

Hit me, Congress, One More Time:
Bailing Out the Auto Industry

Congress should bend over, dig into the public coffers once again, and give the auto industry everything it wants—even though 61 percent of Americans oppose a bailout, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll.

A couple of weeks ago, CEOs from GM, Ford, and Chrysler, known collectively as the Big 3, revved up their corporate jets' engines, dropped in on the Senate, and testified that without a $25 billion bailout western civilization would collapse.
DECEMBER 2008
Bail Out>>

They Auto Know Better:
Fueling Anti-Union Fires

My local newspaper editor, as he does regularly, once again attacked unions as the problem in America. This is the same editor who once said "all the laziest goof-offs and goldbricks in the newsroom" where he began his career were union officials—and that the unionized New York Times editorial writers are nothing more than "limousine liberals."
NOVEMBER 2008
Anti-union>>

A Turkey By Any Other Description—
Is Still the Governor of Alaska

President Bush, as has every president since his father began the practice in 1989, annually pardons a Thanksgiving turkey.

Amid hundreds of spectators, most of them members of the media, the president makes a few cute comments, issues a pardon for the turkey and a "runner-up" (in case the Main Bird can't fulfill all the duties), and then sends the turkeys off to a petting zoo or ranch, where they live about a year.
NOVEMBER 2008
Turkey>>

Making an Invisible Minority Less Invisible

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama was called mentally unstable; his supporters were called unpatriotic. At Sarah Palin rallies, in newspaper letters-to-the-editor, on conservative radio and TV talk shows, supporters spewed hatreds, resorting to the Bush tactics of fear mongering to support their own candidate.
NOVEMBER 2008
Invisible Minority>>

McGhosts and Ogoblins

There are a lot of scary things in this world, but one of the scariest is that Halloween and the Presidential election are only five days apart. It's hard to miss the parallel between tricks-and-treats and the promises-and-panderings of politicians masquerading as the most caring, most vital, most sincere candidate. While standing behind their lapel flag buttons, they are quick to dress their opponents in something less patriotic.
OCTOBER 2008
McGhosts>>

America’s Buddy-Buddy
Campaign Press Corps

It’s a little more than a week before the presidential election, and I’m worried about what happens afterwards. I’m not worried about the candidates, the people, or the country. I’m worried about the media.

First, I’m worried about the TV ad salespeople. For more than a year they haven’t had to do much other than sit back and open digital files from the politicians. Now, the salespeople will actually have to go to work to fill airtime.
OCTOBER 2008
Press Corps>>

Going Negative Not a
Positive Way to Get Votes

During the final debate last week, Barack Obama called John McCain on the negative ads, saying that 100 percent of his radio and TV ads were negative. Not true, replied McCain. True, according to the Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin. Almost every ad in a one-week period before the debate was negative.
OCTOBER 2008
Get Votes>>

Conservative Group Is Right:
Free Speech Is Not a Political Issue

The Sunbird Conservatives, a student group, put out some pro-McCain literature at a recruiting table at Fresno Pacific University a week ago.

Seemed innocent enough. The conservatives weren't harassing anyone, nor were they blocking any sidewalks.  

But, administrators at this Christian-based college didn't like it. A dean told the students to either remove the McCain literature or to agree to what he said was university policy to present both sides. The dean correctly noted that the First Amendment applies only to government intrusion. A private university, unlike a public university, may curtail any free speech it wants.
OCTOBER 2008
Free Speech>>

Sarah Palin Wins Debate—by Darn

The vice-presidential debates proved one thing. At the very least, Sarah Palin can be trained.

For several days, she had camped out in one of John McCain’s Arizona houses, where she underwent Debate Boot camp conducted by drill instructors who make Marine DIs appear to be slaggers.

With a few “darns,” “betchas,” and “ya”s, Palin managed to get all her talking points into the debate, even if she constantly changed the question to suit her note cards.
OCTOBER 2008
Palin Debate>>

Stampeded by Fear, Scammed by Lies:
Why the Bailout Failed

The Republican leaders of the House of Representatives grabbed a half dozen bags of sincerity, looked directly into every TV camera they could find, and lied.

The House had just defeated, 228–205, a bipartisan $700 billion bailout bill. But it was the Democrats who were the subject of vicious rhetoric.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “poisoned our conference,” screeched Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Republican minority leader. He said the House would have voted for the bill “had it not been for the partisan speech the Speaker gave on the floor of the House.”
SEPTEMBER 2008
Bailout>>

Seizing America by Withholding
the Mother’s Milk of Politics

It was Monday evening and the phone rang—again. It was probably the fifth time in two hours. A pleasant voice said she was from the—oh that really doesn’t make any difference. Both presidential candidates have volunteer minions on the phones and Internet day after day, month after month, for what seems like years.
SEPTEMBER 2008
Seizing America>>

Burning the First Amendment

“Got a match?”

I didn't know where he came from, but there he was, right behind me—as usual. “You know I don’t smoke,” I told Marshbaum. “Come to think of it, you don't either. What's up?”

“Not much. Planning to roast some marshmallows and hotdogs. Burn some books.”

“Marshbaum,” I commanded. “You can’t burn books.”

“Sure I can. All I need is a match. See, first you—”

“Burning books is against everything this country stands for.”
SEPTEMBER 2008
Amendment>>

No Wolf Whistles for Sarah Palin's Compassion

Defibrillator usage increased last week after John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate and only a heartbeat from the presidency. But, shortly after most Republicans were shocked back to life they circled the wagons to declare she was the perfect choice. Apparently, the cure also included a dose of psychotropic drugs as well.
SEPTEMBER 2008
Sarah Palin>>

Labor Pains: Unions, the
Mass Media, Economy, and
an Anti-Worker Administration

Once a year, I and a few dozen other reporters and columnists write a Labor Day story. And, like most Americans we don't remember our history.

We don’t remember that the Knights of Labor created the first Labor Day in 1882 and that Congress made it a national holiday in 1894.
AUGUST 2008
Labor unions>>

No News is Bad News

During the time that Bill Clinton was rocking the Democratic convention, ABC, CBS, and Fox were showing re-runs, NBC was showing the second hour of “America’s Got Talent,” and the CW was showing the second season finale of “Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious.”

Less than two decades ago, the networks gave the conventions gavel-to-gavel coverage. This year, the networks are giving only four hours prime time coverage to each convention.
AUGUST 2008
Bad news>>

Americans Need to
Tear Down This Wall

The “star” of the Olympics may not be multiple medalists but the Great Wall of China. Every TV network covering the Olympics took the world to see the Wall. It seemed as if almost every newspaper and magazine reporter also visited the Great Wall.
AUGUST 2008
Olympics>>

Downsizing the News
And Pretending to
Increase Quality

Executive management at the Allentown Morning Call recently laid off more than two dozen persons from its newsroom, most of them veteran reporters drawing higher salaries. Management plans to cut 35–40 positions, according to a letter sent by publisher Timothy Johnson. The cuts are about one-fourth of the news staff. The remaining reporters are being told to write more stories under the same deadline constraints. Coverage of local meetings has been put into secondary importance; bureaus have been combined. The Morning Call is not alone.
AUGUST 2008
Downsizing>>

'Medaling' With Free Speech at the Olympics

President Bush sounded just like a liberal.

Yes, you read that right. Bush. Liberal. Same sentence.

At the new U.S. embassy in Beijing on the opening day of the Olympics, he said, “All people should have the freedom to say what they think.” Without even blinking, he also told the world, while directing his comments at the Chinese, “We strongly believe societies which allow the free expression of ideas tend to be the most prosperous and the most peaceful.”
AUGUST 2008
Olympics>>

Geo Beach:
A Swamp Yankee in the Last Frontier

When Geo Beach looks you in the eye and says that “Tougher in Alaska,” his 13 week series on the History Channel, isn’t Reality TV, you believe him.

It might be the sincerity seen in his penetrating blue eyes.

It might also be that not many will challenge a bald-headed 6-foot-3, 225 pound man who looks like he could have been a pro football linebacker, but was really a firefighter/medic, logger, and commercial fisherman.

But, it’s probably because, above everything else, Geo Beach, an award-winning journalist, knows the media. And right now, he knows that his series definitely, absolutely, is not Reality TV.
JULY 2008
GeoBeach>>

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

George W. Bush looked into the TV camera, Tuesday morning [July 15] and tried to assuage the fears of about 300 million Americans who believed they were in the middle of a Recession.

“The economy is growing,” said the President. “Productivity is high,” he told us. “Trade’s up. People are working,” he said. In the Bush White House, the “R Word” is just a myth. Of course, the man who once wanted to be known as the Compassionate Conservative did say he knew “It’s been a difficult time for many American families.”

“Difficult” doesn’t even begin to describe what has happened to Americans the past seven years.
JULY 2008
Economy>>

The Rocket’s Red Glare
May Be Chinese

Wearing a pith helmet and brandishing a blunderbuss, Marshbaum burst into my office and ordered me to the floor. I looked at my faux friend and media foil, about to ask him what his latest scheme was. With Marshbaum, who was fed “Honeymooners” episodes by IV when he was a child, everything is a scheme to make money. But, in the fraction of time I had before he yelled for me to get under my desk and cover my head, I quickly determined he was serious.
JULY 2008
Rocket>>

Squabbling Over the Pigeon Bill:
Pennsylvania Legislature Won’t Be
Able to Soar Like Eagles Until It
Shoots Down Animal Cruelty

Dave Comroe stepped to the firing line, raised his 12-gauge Browning over and under shotgun, aimed and fired. Before him, a pigeon fell, moments after being released from a box less than 20 yards away. About 25 times that day Comroe fired, hitting about three-fourths of the birds. He was 16 at the time.
JUNE 2008
Animal Cruelty>>

More Columns