If Sarah Palin wants to a be a serious candidate for president, she must master one thing above all else: above knowing the issues, above building her base and above reconciling with the corner of Republican leadership who see her as a toxic mix of ambition and self-destructive unpredictability.

She...

You wouldn't think a fortysomething journalist would have much in common with the late King of Pop.

But my life and Michael Jackson's have run along somewhat parallel lines for years, back to our earliest days growing up in the shadow of steel mills in Gary, Ind. (See photos of...

Barack Obama is a president who has no problem playing the media game.

From allowing two dozen NBC cameras access for a largely complimentary, two-night profile, to a lighthearted cameo in Stephen Colbert's week of shows from Iraq, Obama has shown a willingness to appear on camera in ways more...

I've figured out what annoys me most about the media circus that has erupted in the wake of Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

It's not watching a long procession of white males -- and a few females -- dissect what Sotomayor meant when she said eight years ago...

A few over-excited Arkansas AT&T employees gave fans of American Idol finalist Adam Lambert something new to grouse about, helping supporters of winner Kris Allen place "power texting" votes for him during the singing competition's widely-watched finale.

They also provided a another argument for something I've been advocating since...

Watch a supremely confident Adam Lambert navigate the final moments of the biggest competition on network TV, and you begin to wonder if this American Idol finalist knows something you don't.

For sure, part of surviving the juggernaut that is Idol involves grace under pressure; keeping...

If Adam Lambert doesn't win American Idol, it won't be because he's too theatrical. Or because it seems likely that he's gay -- though I'll talk more about that in a moment.

I'm convinced a Lambert loss may come simply because the show wants him to win so badly,

It's a refrain I heard a lot while fielding responses and offering commentary on the New York Post's awful cartoon depicting the authors of the Obama administration's economic stimulus package as a crazed chimp killed by police:

This doesn't really matter.

Indeed, when the New York...

Minutes into watching the crazy octuplet mother calmly explain to news actress Ann Curry the totally nonsensical reasons why she thinks a single mom with no job and a small house can raise 14 kids by herself, I got an odd feeling -- like watching an accomplice get away with...

It took staunch anti-Communist Dick Nixon to forge a relationship with Communist China and anti-interventionist George W. Bush to engineer the biggest experiment in nation building of this century.

So maybe it will take a Democratic president to let the free market handle America's switch to digital TV.

Most of...

A long time ago, I heard a TV critic talk about how most media follows society, they do not lead it.

What that means, is because outlets such as television depend on the purchase of advertisements, they must offer content that both the advertiser AND the viewer find compelling...

It came to my office at the newspaper, as so many of these missives do, with no return address or signature -- the first proof that whoever sent it wasn't convinced enough of their words to put their own name on the line.

"Congrats all niggers of the world" read...

Some media critics already have compared Barack Obama to John F. Kennedy when it comes to the way he handles himself on television, especially when measured against some of the Nixonian, less TV-friendly visuals of his rival, John McCain.

So on Wednesday, when Obama made history by spending millions to...

Viewers Thursday night finally got something closely resembling a debate between the two candidates for president -- though moderator Bob Schieffer, good as he was, didn't have a lot to do with it.

I'm crediting instead all the complaints about the last two debates between John McCain and Barack Obama,...

These days, a lot of white folks are asking me about how race is going to affect the presidential election.

It's a question I've often found amusing. After all, most white people these days know enough to avoid expressing racially insensitive ideas around people of color....

As somebody who gets paid to put his opinions in print every day, I've always thought columnists have one, overriding duty to their readers and the profession:

Intellectual and emotional honesty.

Our goal is to channel our convictions, values and perspectives into compelling arguments, respecting facts and contrary views. Even...

I have just one plea for Bob Schieffer, the next 70-something TV anchor preparing to quiz the two candidates for president in the third and final presidential debate Oct. 15.

Please, actually moderate the debate. Please.

Becuase, if there's been any clear loser in these presidential election debates, with a...

There's a telling moment in Barack Obama's first book, Dreams From My Father, in which the future presidential candidate heads back to his father's homeland in Kenya, only to find a huge number of relatives jockeying to know him because they hope he can give them something.

He eventually finds...

This is a column I originally wrote for the St. Petersburg Times a few days ago, about what I called the fist pound explained 'round the world.

When Barack Obama exchanged a playful touching of fists with wife Michelle before going on to announce his historic ascension as the...

It's tough to look at the cavalcade of sexist comments assembled by the Women's Media Center of pundits mouthing off during the Democratic primary race, and not conclude that media-fed sexism played some role in Hillary Clinton's electoral troubles.

That said, this media critic doesn't think sexism was her...