October 16, 2025 Secretary Pete HegsethThe Department of War and Censorship Defense Mr. Secretary: In support of the journalists who gave up their press credentials rather than follow your undemocratic rules for covering the Pentagon, I am officially returning my pass. I know it expired long ago: in fact, it’s more out of date than… Continue reading Take the badge. Leave the First Amendment alone.
Category: Trump
Another August
August 7, 2025 Yesterday I caught sight of something I thought was lost: that golden orb in the sky that delivers warmth and light. We'd had several straight days of clouds and rain, with temperatures that, at this time of year in the South, were like an arctic blast. For a while the mercury struggled… Continue reading Another August
McCarthy’s ghost haunts the Voice of America
August 5, 2025 Senator Joseph McCarthy (l) with Trump’s future mentor Roy Cohn in the 1950s If you know about Trump’s campaign to destroy the Voice of America along with PBS/NPR, or you’re merely outraged at his assault on free speech everywhere, this article by the Columbia Journalism Review is a blockbuster: "Joseph McCarthy’s War… Continue reading McCarthy’s ghost haunts the Voice of America
A personal paradise lost
July 21, 2025 This is a hugely depressing story for me, partly because it’s about yet another MAGA type getting his way. This guy bullied the government of Walton County, Florida into letting him drape Trump banners all over his house in spite of a sign ordinance. However, it’s also a bummer because of the… Continue reading A personal paradise lost
The day I made the front page
June 25, 2025 Just rediscovered this in a box in the basement. In 2001, as the Senate correspondent for the Voice of America, I covered an informal press conference by the late Senator John McCain. That’s me sitting in the lower left. I believe the woman next to me is the Post’s Helen Dewar, one… Continue reading The day I made the front page
The show must go on. Or go broke.
June 9, 2025 PBS recently served up a treat for musical theatre fans: the recent London revival of the classic "Kiss Me, Kate." It was extra special for me because I appeared in that show myself when I was just out of high school, in a production of the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Community Youth Theatre. If… Continue reading The show must go on. Or go broke.