It's been over fifty years since Edward R. Murrow walked the corridors of CBS, his mother ship network for decades of highbrow radio and television broadcasting. The Murrow reputation for putting quality content before network profit makes his shadow loom large as the patron saint of American broadcast journalism. His...

Call this episode "The Men Who Stare at Senators."

We've been down this road before, that is, the U.S. military pulling out all the stops to sell an unpopular war.

A Rolling Stone article by Michael Hastings, yes he of General Stanley McChrystal fame, reports that illegal...

Two weeks ago today I was in Montgomery, Alabama. Montgomery is called the Capital City of the American South, home to the short-lived Confederate presidency of Jefferson Davis to birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. Its motto: Change happens here.

The sky was a typical Alabama bright blue, the...

Fifty years ago on that Friday, November 25, 1960, the best-fed people in the world were still recovering from Thanksgiving. They weren't prepared for the feast of the mind on CBS at 9:30 that evening -- the opening music of Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" followed by a...

Just yesterday I was reading about Ted Sorensen and his involvement with choosing the head of America's propaganda agency, USIA, after Kennedy's election in 1960.

Sorensen, who died today at age 82, put together an outline of the qualifications needed for telling America's story to the world:

• Experience in...

I was taking my regular ocean walk near Marina del Rey when a friend called and said, "Hey, did you hear about your photographer friend Ernest?" Surprise, he said, your guy turned out to be a Civil Rights movement FBI informant.

I was thunderstruck at this news. This African-American...

Ten years ago while teaching political science at New England College in New Hampshire, I directed Common Cause, the nonpartisan good government lobby known for controlling--or trying to--the floodgates of money in politics.

In 2010, mega money in politics is at its highest watermark. Case in point:...

Today I was transcribing the memory of another American journalist, Edward R. Murrow, when I briefly visited my Twitter page and saw that @DanielSchorr was trending. That could only mean one thing.

The nonagenarian voice of NPR, one of "Murrow's Boys" at CBS, Daniel Schorr, has died at 93.

Hey friends, try the search term "BP Sucks" and see what you find.

Those good folks at British Petroleum don't want us to miss out on the company's herculean efforts to clean up the Gulf of Mexico.

That's why you can find all the BP-sponsored advertising links when you...

There's much talk these days about the say-do gap in communications. The best communication narrows that gap between what you say and what you do. Certainly anyone in a position of authority (parent, teacher, officer) may be able to get away with a wider gap, but what when what you...

This is the first in a series of reflections on the legacy of Edward R. Murrow as Director of the United State Information Agency. The series is inspired by the research for my forthcoming book, Truth is the Best Propaganda: Edward R. Murrow in Washington.

Forty-nine years ago this past...

I just love to talk to people about where they grew up and journalist Cynthia Tucker is no exception. As soon as I knew she was a daughter of Monroeville, Alabama, I felt an instant chemistry with her. I'm a Deep South soul sister with roots in Virginia, Georgia, South...

Surfeit (noun)

1. excess; an excessive amount.
2. excess or overindulgence in eating or drinking.
3. an uncomfortably full or crapulous feeling due to excessive eating or drinking.
4. general disgust caused by excess or satiety.

We live in the proverbial Information Age, but...

President Obama has more special appointees than there will be combined gold medals awarded to Canada, the United States, Norway, Austria, Sweden, Russia and Germany at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The latest administration appointee is Rashad Hussein, an Indian-American Muslim who's just been appointed Special Envoy to the Organization...

A big thank you goes out to the Birmingham chapter of Mississippi's First Alumnae Association (MFAeA) for setting up a memorial scholarship to honor the four young Mississippi University for Women students who lost their lives to a fire at the Days Inn in Hoover, Alabama in January.

I can't believe that my friend and mentor Howard Zinn is gone.

He was 87, born in August 24, 1922 in New York City. We all have to go at some time, but Howard's joie de vive seemed to place him in another category. His critical work was never...

This is a story about the loss of four young women that gets worse as more information is revealed.

One week ago I was lying on my aunt's couch in Birmingham, Alabama, unable to fall asleep from the stress of watching her lie almost motionless in a hospital bed....

So much sad news as 2010 begins--Haiti, the most noteworthy. But the loss of four women fulfilling promise in Birmingham hits very close to home.

Spike Lee's Oscar-nominated documentary film, "4 Little Girls" came to mind this weekend when I heard the tragic news about four young women who...

Susan Sarandon loves Ping Pong. But you already knew that.

Last year the New York Times featured the sexty-three-year-old actress as an avid table tennis player and fan. On December 7, the best-known American ambassador of table tennis went on Jay Leno's floundering prime time show and,...

(This entry is based off a much longer paper written for Dr. Nancy Snow's War, Media and Propaganda class at Syracuse University.)

The sun never shined on a greater cause.

Liberty, property and no stamps!

Let us consider ourselves as men - freemen - Christian freemen - separate from the...