I think that the Times new media critic Ben Smith - formerly chief editor of Buzzfeed, - is injecting a much needed edge to coverage of journalism and media. He rightly focuses on the pro-Biden, /anti- Sanders coverage that has dominated the …
Even I didn’t think that a triumphal Boris Johnson would risk blowing his considerable capital ( he won an 80-seat majority against the hapless Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn) by targeting the BBC. Yet Johnson appears to be doing exactly that. The Murdoch…
Living out here in deepest Oregon, I’m rediscovering just how important a source of international news is is the Al Jazeera English news channel. AJE has done first rate reporting and analysis on President Trump’s ordered killing of Iran’s Soleimani. W…
Very sad news about the death of Ward Just. He died yesterday. His reporting in Vietnam for the Washington Post was hugely admired. But then he gave up journalism to write novels that were always told against the backdrop of history and politics. He cr…
One of the great correspondents of my generation, Joe Schlesinger, died on February 11th at his home in Toronto. He celebrated his 90th birthday last May. This was a milestone that few of us thought that he'd reach given how many physical and health o…
The day after the House of Commons overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister May's Brexit bill, I was in Brussels at an event that had been scheduled long before we knew there'd be this historic vote the night before. Yet there we were celebrating the 20…
I've just finished watching the 4 -part documentary series on the New York Times. It should be mandatory viewing for any aspiring journalist and recommended viewing for citizens wanting to become more media literate. Whatever you think that you knew ab…
I’m still coming to terms with the sudden death of my lifetime friend Phil Wasmuth who died last week in his sleep at his home overlooking beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. We grew up together in small town Huntington, Indiana. …
As we watch the tumultuous events taking place in Zimbabwe and find out what will be Mugabe's ( and his wife's) fate, I think about courageous Zimbabwe journalists who were driven out of their beautiful country and paid a terrible price for trying to r…
In his brilliant (and lengthy) new New Yorker piece, correspondent Evan Osnos, on the ground in Pyongyang, writes about having dinner with a Foreign Ministry official who wants to know: "...what is the power of the President to launch a war?" He then…