By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Public trust and confidence in the American press and mass media has fallen to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, according to the latest survey on the subject. Only 32 percent of Americans now say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the…
By Peter Funt – November’s biggest loser might not be Donald Trump — even if he gets clobbered at the polls. The person with the most to lose is Sean Hannity, the Fox News Channel host from Alabama, who isn’t just hitching his wagon to Trump’s campaign, he’s almost single-handily building the wagon on his…
By Glynn Wilson – FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Upon recently discovering the Windmill Market restaurant and bar in this artsy community on Mobile Bay’s Eastern Shore, I was urged to show up Tuesday night to get a glimpse of and hear the sound of something quite unique: A new dynamic duo out of Alabama by way…
By Glynn Wilson – In the wake of all the stories about Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server scandal, there is a story still making the rounds on Facebook from the liberal San Francisco news magazine website Salon dot com that first ran on the media criticism website Media Matters. The headline? The George W. Bush email…
By Glynn Wilson – The Cable News Network formerly owned by Ted Turner has a long history of getting stories wrong since Time Inc. took over and ran Turner off. In the latest incident, CNN reporters and anchors have been reporting that the U.S. Secret Service had met with and questioned Republican presidential candidate Donald…
By Carl Golden – Renowned 20th Century philosopher Dennis Rodman, he of professional basketball, tattoo and body piercing fame, once responded to a reporter’s question about whether he was bothered by the critical news coverage of him by saying: “The only bad press is an obit.” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, it seems, has bought…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – Isn’t it about time someone did a take down on the Internet meme? If we truly want to change people’s attitudes and create a more just world, what the world needs is scientifically objective journalism, not more partisan viruses of the mind being spread in all the…
EDITORS NOTE – I knew there was something fishy about this Pokemon game. – By Jordan Riefe – Controversy and Oliver Stone have never been strange bedfellows. He courted it with movies like “JFK,†“Nixon†and “Natural Born Killers,†and last week, he made headlines in the unlikely milieu of Comic-Con, where he spoke about…
Media Incest On Display: Will Anyone Notice? The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – On the eve of the Republican convention in Cleveland Ohio, a remarkable thing happened. No, not another police shooting. Not just a tell all article about Donald Trump. It is an event that should send shock waves through the capitalist…
Why the social-media honeymoon may be over for some activists. By Sarah Jaffe – Around the country, thousands have returned to the streets again to protest the deaths of black people at the hands of the police. One of those deaths, the shooting of 32-year-old Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, was broadcast on Facebook…
By Neal Gabler – Moyers & Company – When we talk about the media’s effect on our political discourse, usually we’re referring to the way politics are reported. There are, of course, lots of other ways in which media mediate the political process, from ads to organizing to community building to fundraising, all of which…
By Todd Gitlin – To readers who follow taxes and finance — subjects often introduced with the adjective “arcane†— David Cay Johnston is one of America’s best-known reporters. Johnston has worked on the staffs of Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and from 1995 to 2008, The New York Times, where his…
By David Underhill – The American South is conservative. This is repeated so often that it resembles church liturgy uttered without thought to display adherence to a creed. But it won’t bear examination. The civil rights movement sprang from the South and convulsed the whole country, which quivers still from the effects in this presidential…
By Glynn Wilson – Defying the odds and the oddsmakers in the mainstream media, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is still alive in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, and one of the reasons his campaign resonates with so many people is because the traditional press in America would rather focus on the conflict…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — President Barack Obama is America’s political Jackie Robinson. There, I said it, again. Hate me too if you must. I admit it. I am the only journalist in the United States or the world to recognize this — without fear or favor. Why is…
By Phil Kerpen – A Conservative View – Many conservatives are waving off concerns about Facebook manipulating its Trending News feature because it’s a private company. In addition to legal concerns related to the fact the feature was deceptively misrepresented, there is a bigger reason Facebook’s conduct should set off alarm bells: the company has…
“By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible. These voices will increase in number and volume. They cannot be ignored. Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by…
Who Will Hold Them Accountable? – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – There is so much rotten egg on so many faces in Alabama this week it is hard to decide where to begin. But I guess the biggest news is the egg all over the faces of just about every major law…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The fetus is the new Jerusalem. Medieval crusaders fancied they were on a divine mission when they marched toward the Holy City to save it from the Muslim infestation. The sanctity of this quest gave them permission to do whatever advanced toward the goal. Rape and plunder propelled…
“I can see clearly now … I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. I think I can make it now, the pain is gone. All of the bad feelings have disappeared. Here is the rainbow I’ve been prayin’ for. It’s gonna be a bright, bright…
