The Moral Contamination of Free Speech
We find ourselves living in an age where free speech is considered by many as a concept that only right-wingers care about. “You think free speech is important?” I’m asked.…View Post
View ArticleFarewell, Esquire?
On a layover in Toronto en route to Phoenix several weeks ago, I purchased the latest issue of Esquire magazine at a news shop before boarding my plane and shuffling…View Post
View ArticleGrowing Up Online
In my first few weeks of high school in Australia, I remember a classmate messaging me something inflammatory on MSN Messenger (the equivalent of AOL for Americans). Though I don’t…View Post
View ArticleEnlightenment Contested
Steven Pinker's new book is drawing criticism. But is it justified? View Post
View ArticleAre Campus and Media Conservatives Asking For It?
Recent interruptions of Christina Hoff Sommers at Lewis & Clark College (and reactions to Bari Weiss’s New York Times editorial about them), and the Atlantic’s quick hiring and firing of Kevin…View...
View ArticleSeparating Art from Propaganda
Fair warning: this article is propaganda. It was written to change your mind. I have a point to make and an argument to support this point, with the intended result…View Post
View ArticleElon Musk, Celebrity, and the Information Age
Elon Musk was pissed off. The capo di tutti capi of this era’s visionary disrupters recently tossed his super high-end gauntlet down at the feet of the media. Musk was tweeting…View Post
View ArticleShould Journalism Speak Truth to Power?
If you teach journalism, as I have for several decades at a trio of US universities, you will hear your most engaged students gush one or both of the following…View Post
View Article“Donald Trump Is Like an Old Friend”: Parasocial Relationships and Politics
Walking down a New York City street while still in my teens, I spotted a television film critic I admired walking in the opposite direction. I said, “Hello, Gene.” He…View Post
View ArticleNetflix Has Their “Han Shot First” Moment with 13 Reasons Why
Netflix recently announced they have bowed to pressure from complainants arguing that their show 13 Reasons Why’s graphic portrayal of a youth suicide was insensitive. Netflix have stated that they...
View ArticleMedia Bubbles and the Polarization of American Society
A common worldview is one of the most important things that hold a society together. In 2020, Americans have been pulled apart by incompatible perspectives more than ever before. Opinions… View Post...
View ArticleJournalistic Objectivity: What Is True and What Is Important?
The objectivity, reliability and transparency of the news have become hot topics in recent years. Ours is the era of supposedly fake news, in which there is little consensus about… View Post The post...
View ArticleA Fairness Doctrine for the Twenty-First Century
Michael Goldhaber, who popularized the term the attention economy, said of the US Capitol insurrection: “It felt like an expression of a world in which everyone is desperately seeking their… View Post...
View ArticleThe Free Speech Crisis Runs Deeper Than You Think
The question of whether freedom of speech is under threat has been a point of debate for several years now. Some have argued that the notion of a free speech… View Post The post The Free Speech Crisis...
View ArticleAutism and Its Abusers: The Contrasting Cases of James Damore and Greta Thunberg
In July 2017, engineer James Damore was fired for writing an internal memo entitled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber.” Although the memo offered ideas on how to make the company more… View Post The...
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