In the Public Interest

Richard Cohen, the finely-calibrated syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, wrote a column on October 28, 2004 which commenced with this straight talk: “I do not write the headlines for my columns. Someone else does. But if I were to write the headline for one, it would be ‘Impeach George Bush’.” Cohen stated the obvious…

Will this country ever again see the likes of a Senator from Wisconsin—William Proxmire—who passed away this month at age 90?  He came to the Senate, replacing Senator Joseph McCarthy, in 1957 and left in 1989.  He was the legislators’ legislator.  No one worked harder, studied more, listened to more Congressional witnesses or cast more…

There are times when unchallenged commercial greed morphs into institutional insanity. I am referring to the overall advertising-saturated, trivialized performance of the media conglomerates’ utilization of our public airwaves 24 hours a day and their dominance of the ever-expanding scores of cable channels. Take a test. If you are an average consumer of TV or…

On my desk one morning I found a 378-page tome whose name is “Real Simple” with an intriguingly worded “Life Made Easier” subtitle. It was the week when the members of the American Anthropological Association were meeting in Washington, DC. Too bad there wasn’t a copy of “Real Simple” by each of the anthropologists’ hotel…

The debate between progressives and corporatists over the state of the mass media goes like this—the former say fewer and fewer giant media conglomerates control more of the print and electronic outlets while the latter respond by saying there has never been more choices for listeners (radio), viewers (television) and readers (magazines, newsletters and newspapers…

With the Bush regime reeling from its own derelictions and falling in the national polls, the question most frequently put to the leading Democrats is, “What do the Democrats stand for?” This is the question that Tim Russert asked Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, on Meet the Press recently. Mr. Dean responded…

It was Wednesday, November 10th and the Senators had the five bosses of the largest oil conglomerates in the world facing them and the media in a large hearing room. Millions of Americans are indignant over gouging gasoline and natural gas prices and want action. So what did the two Senate Committees do? They blew…

Suppose every day for the past umpteen years, four fully loaded Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets crashed full of African children. Suppose further that no one doubted that similar children-filled jumbo jets would crash at this level every day into the indefinite future. Don’t you think that at some point something big would be done about…

Ask a Washington, DC taxi driver about student activism in the United States and you will likely hear about student involvement in the Civil Rights movement and student opposition to the war in Vietnam. If you push a bit, the driver may mention Earth Day. Don’t blame the driver for providing you with a snapshot…

I recently spoke to Rev. William Sloane Coffin about the war in Iraq and what concerned citizens can do to stop this illegal and unjust war. Rev. William Sloane Coffin was a leader against the war in Vietnam and is a leading advocate for civil rights and opponent of nuclear weapons. Coffin was an Army…