The metaphorical beating of breasts and rending of garments over CNNs’ “town hall” with Donald Trump is a salient lesson that providing live air time for proven liars and dissemblers, noted for a proclivity to control the narrative, is the equivalent of allowing them to write the script, and there’s enough of that done by flaks and sycophants without adding to the pool.… Read the rest
The outpouring of punditry, comments and editorial cartoons in the U.S. media and on social networks, expressing everything from bemusement to criticism and derision over the coronation of King Charles III, has led me to ponder what it is about the American psyche, or at least that of a significant portion of the population, that I don’t understand.… Read the rest
“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough”. Health concerns aside, Mark Twain’s aphorism is an apt way to measure the reporting booze-up of the Trump arraignment. Too much of nothing happening on air for too long distilled the live coverage into a vintage more akin to a cheap blend than a fine single malt.… Read the rest
The mid-term elections having defied predictions and avoided catastrophe, it would be a wise decision for the U.S. and a welcome relief for the rest of the world, if Americans heed an observation from one of their most trenchant homespun philosophers, Mark Twain: “The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”… Read the rest