Russ Baker

Stories with a sexual component have always been instant hits in the ratings, and things are only getting worse. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, last week, media coverage of Congressman Anthony Weiner and his pornographic tweets filled 17 percent of the "news hole" (space and...

Attention Law and Order advocates:

Is the purpose of prison to make people as miserable as possible, or to ensure that if and when they get out, they don't commit a crime again? It turns out that the two objectives may be in conflict.

A new study from...

With Donald Trump now out of the presidential race, can we take a moment to consider the context in which he existed?

First, here's Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank with the conventional bit:

Having Donald Trump in the presidential race gave it the feel of a carnival.

Was Osama bin Laden intentionally shot? Weren't they all sleeping at 1am local time -- and why couldn't the small number of people in the house have been immobilized with gas or stun technology? What was the internal policy on how to handle the ultimate hot potato -- and what...

However many global warming deniers there are, we already see -- or soon will -- more in a category we might call "fracking enablers." These people assure us that the natural gas extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") is as safe as... well, as safe as they were...

Jonathan Rowe was, by inclination, an unobtrusive man. He moved through this world quietly, and he left quietly.

He did not promote himself. He was not comfortable seeking recognition. He concentrated instead on substance.

Jon died the other day, abruptly, with no warning of any kind, and left behind a...

With the nuclear crisis in Japan, suddenly the safety of nuclear energy is of interest everywhere. What will the United States do under Obama? If forgotten history is any measure, perhaps not nearly enough.

First, the current context. As the New York Times reported the other day,

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This just in....

When I wrote a piece the other day about a scandal rocking National Public Radio over "inappropriate" comments NPR fundraising executives make on edited hidden-camera footage, I wondered whether raw footage might provide some useful context. I did not know at the time that such...

You've undoubtedly heard about the turmoil at National Public Radio, where first a top fundraiser and then the chief executive have resigned, clearly under pressure. The issue: "inappropriate" comments made to bogus potential donors, purportedly Muslims but actually agents in a right wing activist sting with hidden cameras.

As

Anyone concerned about excessive government spending -- and looking to make cuts to be financially prudent -- would look at the biggest cost categories. Right? Wrong.

In all the talk about the outrageous salaries and benefits of teachers and government employees, how much discussion is there about the budget for...

While the U.S. government expresses outrage over the brutality of Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi toward his own people, we're missing a complex but significant wrinkle that ties Gaddafi to America's cover-up of the true path to war in Iraq.

In May, 2009, a man named Ibn Shaikh al-Libi supposedly...

In the last few days, demonstrations have spread beyond Egypt and Yemen not only to Bahrain but into Iraq--most notably in the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan. Dozens were wounded and several died after police shot at a crowd of protesters in the city of Sulaimaniya. The demonstrators were chanting...

America's Nazi Secret is not what you'd call extremely reader-friendly material. Sometimes it feels like a chore to read it. But wow--does it ever provide powerful insight into the "deep politics" of US policy.

Born of the Boston Irish, John Loftus never imagined that he would end up tracking down...

In Donald Rumsfeld's new book, Known and Unknown, out February 8, Rumsfeld offers an account of George W. Bush's early interest in Iraq. This was just days after the 9/11 attacks. There were no apparent reasons for Bush to focus on Iraq, instead of on the actual perpetrators of the...

With news reports mostly emphasizing the Israeli government's wariness about events in Egypt, here's an interesting development: It took the Arab-run news outlet, Al Jazeera, to run a piece about Jews being supportive of the Egyptian people's self-determination.

Writes Rabbi Michael Lerner:

Ever since the victory over the dictator...

Here's an ominous development that is likely to pass almost unnoticed: a congressman requesting that the federal government identify to him everyone who has made a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The requester is Darrell Issa, the new head of the House Oversight Committee. He of course paints...

Events keep on underlining the gap between the rhetoric and the reality. Nowhere is this more true than with the disparity between the way we talk about our soldiers and their service and the way they are actually treated. (And if we become indignant about this, we might also get...

A common theme runs through a variety of news stories: There isn't enough money around, and so working people must take a hit. But is that really the only solution? First, let's look at the stories. There's growing talk of letting state governments declare bankruptcy so they can...

During the president's speech, I kept my eyes and ears peeled for anything that a journalist might want to pursue. Here are some random thoughts:

Obama and Congress paid tribute to Gabby Giffords, on the mend from the massacre in Tucson -- but Obama said not a word about...

The other day, USA Today ran an article reporting that 2010 had tied 2005 as the warmest year since record-keeping began in 1880. That's disturbing data, or course. But what really caught my eye was who they chose to question the significance of the news: a climatologist with......