December 10, 2025 Photo by Daniil Ustinov on Pexels.com It’s a bit of a rough time. First, I learned of the passing of yet another longtime colleague from the Voice of America, someone I liked and respected. These losses mount with each year and are always hard. Right now, with VOA itself fighting for life… Continue reading My own private solstice
Tag: Voice of America
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
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
Lost voices of democracy
March 17, 2025 In "Youngstown," Bruce Springsteen's searing elegy for America's industrial heartland, an ex-steelworker laments that by shutting the mills, "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do." Trump and Musk have now accomplished what Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and several previous generations of dictators never could: silencing the Voice of America. The shutdown… Continue reading Lost voices of democracy
From cold to warm and back again
February 28, 2022 I'm sure glad my wife and I had a safe room built into the basement of our house. We did it because we were worried about tornados and the dangers of climate change, but it'll make a fine fallout shelter too. Source: AP 2/27/2022 To someone who was born early in the… Continue reading From cold to warm and back again
The memories I wear
October 7, 2021 The old guy in his fab new shirtDiary of a decade Back in the 90s, I spent some time truckin' around the country reporting on presidential politics for the Voice of America, trying to make sense of our quadrennial circus for a radio, TV, and eventually online audience all over the world.… Continue reading The memories I wear