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Caryl Rivers
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Professor Caryl Rivers is the author of many books, including Slick Spins and Fractured Facts: How Cultural Myths Distort the News; Indecent Behavior; a collaboration with Rosalind Barnett on She Works, He Works: How Two Income Families are Happy, Healthy and Thriving; and her latest book, Camelot, a novel set in the Kennedy administration.

Her television drama, A Matter of Principal, won a Gabriel Award as one of the best television dramas of the year. Professor Rivers contributes regularly to The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, and other major U.S. newspapers. She is a frequent public affairs panelist on Boston television stations and is considered an expert on the Kennedy family.

Blog Entries by Caryl Rivers

The Atlantic's Woman Problem

11 Comments | Posted January 19, 2012 | 1/19/12

When will the Atlantic finally deal with its women problem?

The venerable magazine regularly publishes thoughtful reporting and analysis about the Middle East, U.S. politics, the future of China, the global economy, climate change -- on and on. It's only when the publication gazes on the 50 percent of...

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A Counterpoint to the View From Everywhere

Posted November 7, 2011 | 11/7/11

Should we abandon the tradition of journalism that calls for the nearest approach possible to balance and fairness?

That's the argument made by NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen, who found some areas on which he and conservative critics could agree. He argues that transparency is the new objectivity,...

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This Time, the White Knight Is a Woman

Posted October 31, 2011 | 10/31/11

The allegedly bluest of blue states is like the Gobi Desert for female statewide candidates.

No woman has ever been elected governor of Massachusetts. Jane Swift held the post as acting governor in 2001, but only after Paul Cellucci resigned. She was quickly dumped by the Mass. GOP when...

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Blood, Marble and Dr. King

Posted October 19, 2011 | 10/19/11

As thousands of tourists file past the monumental statue of Martin Luther King just dedicated in Washington, they will be soothed by its serenity. The new memorial is indeed beautiful, but perhaps too pristine and too peaceful in its verdant setting.

We Americans tend to turn our heroes into...

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Co-education Is Good Science

Posted October 4, 2011 | 10/4/11

Finally, a few (very) good words about co-education.

For years, self-appointed gurus have been successfully promoting single-sex classrooms in public schools, arguing that they boost achievement and help children.

Leonard Sax, head of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education and best-selling author of Why Gender Matters and...

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Americans As Welfare Queens? It's a Dangerous Right-Wing Narrative

Posted August 15, 2011 | 8/15/11

Conservatives are spinning a narrative that pictures the U.S. as a profligate, lazy, "entitled" society, one in which the Protestant work ethic has withered on the vine and citizens live beyond their means and rely on government handouts.

In a recent Time essay, "One Nation, on the...

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Virtuous Political Women? Maybe Not

Posted June 22, 2011 | 6/22/11

The arguments over the nature of men and women in the wake of the recent sex scandals -- Weiner, Schwarzenegger, Edwards etc. -- often miss the point

It's argued that women are more moral than men, "hardwired" not to stray from their mates. The old limerick puts it this way:

...
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The Greedy Geezers Libel

Posted May 25, 2011 | 5/25/11

"Greedy Geezers" is a trendy new media narrative. Even former senator Alan Simpson, co chair of President Obama's debt commission, said of seniors, "We had the greatest generation -- I think this is the greediest generation."

Comedian Albert Brooks has a new book (2030) in which cancer...

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Saving the Past

Posted April 27, 2011 | 4/27/11

The past is in trouble in the U.S. Nobody knows much about it.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute issued a report in 2008 titled Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their History and Institutions.

While 56 percent of Americans could name Paula Abdul as a judge on American...

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Isn't It About Time We Gave Moms a Break?

Posted April 9, 2011 | 4/9/11

"The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" controversy just doesn't seem to be going away. The parenting book by Amy Chua is not only a major bestseller, but it has created a firestorm of media attention.

The news from Harvard that Chua's daughter, Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, has just been admitted...

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Kicked Out of the Hammock?

Posted February 1, 2011 | 2/1/11

Compassionate Conservatism has crashed and burned. The Thousand Points of Light are Sputtering out. John Calvin is bidding to replace Jesus Christ in the religious lexicon of American politics.

Christ said "When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be...

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Arsenal of Democracy or Fantasy Island?

Posted October 8, 2010 | 10/8/10

Has the one time Arsenal of Democracy turned into Fantasy Island?

Armed with ever growing information and technology, we used to be up to a challenge. We built towers that did indeed scrape the sky. When we were attacked at Pearl Harbor, we turned the whole nation's industrial capacity into...

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Farewell to A Scold

Posted August 29, 2010 | 8/29/10

by Caryl Rivers

The Great Scold of Radio is gone, and I say good riddance.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger announced she was leaving her popular radio show after three decades, following a controversy over her use of the "N Word" repeatedly on the air.

Dr. Laura was like your mean...

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The End of Men? Not So Fast

Posted June 24, 2010 | 6/24/10

Are we seeing "The End of Men?"

That's a hot media story these days. Atlantic has a cover piece titled "The End of Men," and New York magazine has a story asking if men are the second sex. The New York Times, in an article that that traveled all...

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Have You Had Your "Information Debris " Today?

Posted April 7, 2010 | 4/7/10

Welcome to the post-fact world, where Information Debris has replaced real information.

Think of the "news" we've recently heard about. Government sponsored "death squads" to kill grannies; internment camps to indoctrinate kids with socialist dogma; accusations that the Bush administration not only planned 9/11 but blew up adjacent buildings; claims...

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Tweeting for Poor Folks? That'll be the Day!

Posted March 25, 2010 | 3/25/10

A pop quiz: who haven't you heard much about from the media and politicians in the last year:

A) Tea Partiers
B) Netroots bloggers
C) Sarah Palin
D) Wall Street bankers
E) The poor.

If you guessed E, you get a gold star on your forehead....

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The New Dating Game? Not So Fast!

Posted February 10, 2010 | 2/10/10

Has feminism destroyed civilization and upset the natural order of things? Are we doomed unless we go back to the old days of male dominance and female chastity?

That's the argument made by Charlotte Allen for the Weekly Standard.com that is creating a lot of "buzz "on the internet.

Allen...

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Rage and the Crisis of Masculinity: An Incendiary Mix

Posted February 5, 2010 | 2/5/10

The tea parties and their populist rage, on display in Nashville, are not a new phenomenon in America. This rage often surfaces when times are hard, and also, when there is a crisis of masculinity in the culture. Especially when it concerns white Christian manhood.

When white men can't...

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Blood Sport in Mass: All Politics Is Local

Posted January 20, 2010 | 1/20/10

It's time to remember the immortal words of Tip O'Neill: all politics is local.

The chattering classes who spend little time in the state keep referring to "liberal" Massachusetts. They seem to think we are a collection of Harvard intellectuals, radical students, gay rights advocates, tree-huggers, feminists and thousands of...

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The New Media Politics of Emotion and Attitude

Posted December 1, 2009 | 12/1/09


By Caryl Rivers

More and more American are moving to "hot," emotion-laden methods of getting news, and away from cool, more objective forms of information, and this fact has already begun to affect our politics.

Unlike newspapers, magazines and network newscasts, 24-hour cable, talk radio, the internet...

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