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Category Archives: Columns
Eight in Ten Americans are Concerned About Partisanship. Here’s How ‘The Unum Test’ Can Reunite America – Time Magazine
Healing our divided nation is the defining challenge of our time. Nothing less than the success of the American experiment is at stake. Our problems won’t be solved with a single election or a new president. Hyper-partisanship has poisoned our … Continue reading
Why Trump Can’t Afford to Lose This Election – CNN
President Donald Trump is desperate to get reelected — so desperate that he’s refusing to commit to the peaceful transfer of power. But the New York Times’ report revealing insights from two decades of tax returns might shed some light … Continue reading
Where’s your health care plan, Mr. President? – CNN
Pandemics don’t care about partisan politics. So when Robert Redfield — President Donald Trump’s director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a lifelong conservative — testified to Congress Wednesday that a Covid-19 vaccine wouldn’t be ready … Continue reading
GOP’s Supreme Court hypocrisy in their own words – CNN
In March 2016, Sen. Lindsey Graham brushed off accusations of partisanship and invited critics to hold his feet to the fire after he opposed President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. His reasoning? It was an … Continue reading
Poliwood: The Ups and Downs of Combining Celebrities and Politics – CNN
Poliwood — the intersection of politics and Hollywood — can be a powerful combination, capable of elevating policy debates and inspiring broad audiences. Unfortunately, it can also dumb us down to a nation of slack-jawed spectators. This past week, we … Continue reading
Trump’s McCarthyism Charge is Deeply Ironic – CNN
“Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby!” President Donald Trump tweeted from the final days of his golfing vacation at Bedminster, New Jersey. … Continue reading
Trump, the Saudis, and America’s Disastrous ‘Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend’ Strategy – CNN
“He’s a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is said to have been talking about Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. It was 1939, and you can imagine him, cigarette and martini in … Continue reading
Independent Voters are Trump’s Judge and Jury – CNN
It’s the best of times and the worst of times for independent voters and candidates. With Washington bitterly polarized, the need to break out of the divisive duopoly of Republican and Democrat has never been clearer — especially for those … Continue reading
Our Murrow Moment
The time for hand-wringing and hysteria is over. The Trump presidency promises a civic stress test. In a time of principled fights, citizens and journalists need to respond with fearlessness rooted in fairness. “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty…We … Continue reading
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The Best Columns of the Year – The Daily Beast
I’m a fan of the American art form once known as the newspaper column. That’s why I co-edited two Deadline Artists anthologies with my friends Errol Louis and Jesse Angelo—to honor and archive the best of the past. But the … Continue reading
George Clooney: A 21st-Century Statesman – Newsweek
In the age of Twitter-shortened attention spans, fame is an increasingly powerful weapon of diplomacy. John Avlon on how George Clooney is helping to bring change—and a hefty dose of hope—to Sudan. George Clooney hates the paparazzi. But he also … Continue reading
What News Needs to Do Now
Trump has changed the rules of the game and journalists can’t expect things will return to normal after the election. That’s why news needs to do two things now more than ever: call bullshit and make important stories interesting. When … Continue reading
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The Resilient City – from Empire City: New York Through the Centuries
From “Empire City: New York Through the Centuries” Three hundred and forty-one New York City firefighters. Twenty-three New York City police officers. Thirty-seven Port Authority police officers. Three court officers. Two EMS workers. Thousands of innocent civilians. Numbers alone, of … Continue reading
The Ballad of Lester Maddox
As we’ve been reminded by the fight in Indiana, supporters of discrimination have always cloaked their views in appeals to personal liberty. Once upon a time, a restaurant owner refused to serve people who were different. He said he did … Continue reading
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In Defense of U2 and The War on Apathy
Drill down on all the hipster conventional wisdom and the core complaint is earnestness. With number one albums across four decades, their very success undercuts the rebellious edge that’s at the heart of rock n roll. To their critics, they … Continue reading
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David McCullough on Reading History as Resistance
We’ve had inexperienced and irresponsible presidents before. We’ve had populists and people who weren’t regarded as remotely the best and the brightest. We’ve been always saved by some combination of character and honesty and, above all, a respect for our … Continue reading
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What Macron Can Teach America: It’s Time for Center-Left and Center-Right to Unite
In a time of Trump and deepening populist polarization in both parties, the idea of a radical centrist revolution seems as unlikely as it does quaint. But in 15 months, Emmanuel Macron has created a powerful counter-narrative in a time … Continue reading
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How Corporate Citizens Can Stop Fake News and Hate News—and Help Save Quality Journalism in the Process
We vote for president every four years, but we vote with our wallets and eyeballs every day. Bill O’Reilly’s sudden fall from cable news supremacy happened because over 60 advertisers—under digital grassroots pressure—decided that they couldn’t be seen supporting him … Continue reading
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Why We Stand With Charlie Hebdo – And You Should Too – The Daily Beast
The massacre of cartoonists at the French magazine Charlie Hebdo is a crystallizing moment. The shock brings clarity—a reminder that evil exists and free speech, no matter who might it offend, is a bedrock value of liberal democracy. An attack … Continue reading
How The Daily Beast Will Stand Up to President Donald Trump
We will be the loyal opposition. We will not deny his legitimacy. But we will oppose his worst policies and hold him to account. In 1960, after John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard Nixon, staunch Hollywood conservative John Wayne declared, … Continue reading