Released at a time when America's faith in journalism was undergoing serious turmoil, George Clooney's drama Good Night, and Good Luck was a stirring reminder of the importance of the institution.
We seem to iconize certain newsies which is maybe why we have two new biographies in audio and print about veteran television newsfolk: Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather.
Serious journalism doesn't get the viewers anymore. Loud music over a waving U.S. flag and flickering lights bring in the audiences. Journalism is now clipped to a sentence that scrolls at the bottom of the screen.
"Any communications strategy plays second to reality. So as long as deaths from misplaced drone attacks, atrocities by soldiers and videos of Abu Ghraib exist, you are not going to fool anyone regardless of how many tweets you send out."
Several people report they cannot forgive Eisenhower's moral and political failure to speak out and repudiate McCarthy. That is not how it went down with Ike, according to Jim Newton's excellent new biography, Eisenhower: The White House Years.
Indeed, all these shows had their forebears in the days of radio. But, for the sake of argument, let's leave our family-tree tracing to the early days of TV. There are really only four models for most reality shows, four shows from which all others spring.
While our politics have become a shouting match of pander and slander, name-calling and talking points, celebrity media and instant misanalysis, C-SPAN shines as an exemplar of what a free press in a free nation should be.
"Frank Sinatra is, well ... Frank Sinatra," said Edward R. Murrow on his show 1956. He was introducing a rare "Person to Person" segment wherein the s...
In his time Murrow never favored Person to Person, not only because he seemed bored with the format but also because it was referred to as "Murrow Lite."
In an ideal world, families, churches, and volunteer organizations -- exemplifying the idea that we Americans take care of our own without relying on government -- would be the safety net. But this isn't an ideal world.
CBS News announced on Thursday that the network will revive its famous "Person to Person" series with "CBS This Morning" host Charlie Rose, and "60 Mi...
Find me a few stars of stage, screen and song with the principle and courage that Frank Sinatra showed when he stood up for his brother Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1950's and you can change the world and help end this cold season of hardship and discontent.
It was easier during World War II. You knew who your enemies were--Hitler, Tojo, the Red Skull. And you knew who your allies were, too--Churchill, Stalin, the Submariner.
Keith Olbermann has expressed concern about the influence of corporate ownership of news media. Until Al Gore entered the picture it was impossible to fully quantify the impact of corporate ownership of news. With his new show, we'll finally see.
Did the bill pledging federal funds for the health care of 9/11 responders become law in the waning hours of the 111th Congress only because a comedia...
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...
Just yesterday I was reading about Ted Sorensen and his involvement with choosing the head of America's propaganda agency, USIA, after Kennedy's elect...
Last year, I was part of an official U.S. delegation that met with members of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. President Obama had just given ...
Just a few weeks before his death on Friday, I interviewed the 93-year-old journalist about his career, which spanned 60 years as a correspondent for CBS, CNN and NPR.
The nonagenarian voice of NPR, one of "Murrow's Boys" at CBS, Daniel Schorr, has died at 93. In honor of his passing, let's take a moment today and think about the state of media in America.