‘Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History’

Columbia University Press: "Long before the current preoccupation with “fake news,” American newspapers routinely ran stories that were not quite, strictly speaking, true. Today, a firm boundary between fact and fakery is a hallmark of journalistic practice, yet for many readers and publishers across more than three centuries, this distinction has seemed slippery or even …

Virginia Legislature Passes Resolution Honoring Historian and Journalist Charlie Clark

I've previously posted about my friend, journalist, and historian Charlie Clark, who died in the fall of 2023 of a rare illness. Click. To honor him, the Virginia "House of Delegates, and the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of Charles Stuart Clark, a venerated journalist and cherished …

Not A Single Vote Will Change Over Ages of Biden Or Trump

Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940 and 1944 set the standard. In my e-newsletter, I observe Joe Biden's comeback, with a strong State of the Union address, clearance of criminal behavior for withholding classified documents, and revelations that his faulty memory was greatly exaggerated by the media and manufactured a political crisis. Polls show Biden and …

FDR’s Illness in Last Years of His Presidency Pose Lessons for Biden and Trump Campaigns

Franklin Roosevelt's declining health in 1943-45, as reported by the National Park Service, included poor memory and sometimes, disorientation. Yet few would argue in retrospect that the U.S. would have been better off with another president at the helm, and certainly not Thomas Dewey, the stiff and remote Republican governor of NY. The GOP at …

Henry Luce’s American Century Has Ended. Or Has It?

Henry Luce (1898-1967) was an American media and magazine magnate who in 1941 formulated a vision of an American Century of world dominance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u49E06KGv2g He founded Time, a weekly news magazine in 1923; founded Fortune, a global business magazine in 1929; acquired and transformed Life into a picture magazine in 1936, and launched Sports Illustrated …

Local Historian-Journalist Charlie Clark Lives On in the Vast Archive He Created

My dear friend Charlie Clark, 70, a journalist and historian in Arlington, Virginia, just outside the nation's capital, died November 15, 2023, after a brief illness from an extremely rare disease. But he lives on in his huge archive of local history and leaves a deep legacy of connections in the DC metro area, as …

Walter Winchell Criticizes 1939 Nazi Rally

Walter Winchell (1897-1972) “was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids.” Wikipedia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzT-hjdnoEc Related: Nazi Town, USA, in the 1930s Who Goes Nazi? Know the Difference Between Nazis and Socialists Night of the Long Knives in …

How Media Changes Our Perceptions

The media we consume does not necessarily persuade us what to think, but it does persuade us "what to think about." It sets the agenda of public debate and places weight on the scales of our thinking. It places a lot more weight on perceived scandals and thereby encourages deep cynicism. Researchers now confirm that …

Harrowing Story, Long Journey Home

As a follow-up to my story of an American acquaintance, Emad Shargi, who was freed from Iran after five-and-a-half years as a hostage, and the incredibly strong PR-media advocacy of his family to push the Biden Administration for his release -- on Substack, I posted a post-release profile of Shargi and his family from "60 …

Barbara Tuckman’s Law: Perpetual Readiness for Disasters

To visit Israel or the greater Middle East right now, during the Israel-Palestine War might seem terrifying. But historian Barbara Tuckman, author of "The Guns of August," "The March of Folly," and other historical classics, in "A Distant Mirror" fleshed out what she called Tuckman's Law: "Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from …