How Fighting Monopoly Can Save Journalism
“Hey Journalists, Nobody Is Coming to Save Us.” So reads the headline of a recent opinion piece in Nieman Reports, a venerable publication affiliated with Harvard University that describes itself as...
View ArticleCharles Peters, 1926–2023
James Fallows Charles Peters, born in Charleston, West Virginia, just before Christmas in 1926, died at his home in Washington, D.C., on Thanksgiving Day. He was 96. Charlie, as he was universally...
View ArticleA Trump Coup Trial Primer
Until now, the highest-level criminal trial in American history was the case of former Vice President Aaron Burr, who was acquitted of treason in 1807. But the Burr trial—and all of the tabloid-fodder...
View ArticlePsst: Joe Biden Has Solved the Student Debt Crisis
This past fall, with student loan payments set to resume after the pandemic pause, dread was setting in. My pre-pandemic monthly payments had been a crippling burden that made saving money impossible;...
View ArticleAl Sharpton Stands Up for Israel
At a time when many Black leaders have opted to remain circumspect or to place blame for the war in Gaza squarely on Israel’s shoulders, Reverend Al Sharpton has used his bully pulpit to call for calm...
View ArticleHow to Fix the Supreme Court
Not so long ago, John Roberts patiently explained to reform-minded folk on Capitol Hill that the Supreme Court had no need for an ethics code. It was December 2011, and despite a recent scandal...
View ArticleShowdown at Railroad Valley
In May 2018, the scientist Carol Bruegge drove eight hours from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to a remote stretch of federal public lands in Railroad Valley, Nevada. She’d...
View ArticleJoe Biden’s Economic Headwinds
Looking at Joe Biden’s negative job approval ratings, especially on the economy, brings to mind a metaphor. Imagine a cross-country airline flight. The skies are clear during most of the trip, but...
View ArticleAfter a Decade of Left-Populism, What Have We Learned About Political Change?
How can progressives best produce meaningful change? Navigate the corridors of power from the inside, or rally the public to pressure politicians from the outside? Aim for incremental progress or...
View ArticleThe Sick Man of North America
A few decades ago, as Germany was painfully navigating the path to reunification, it was often labeled “the sick man of Europe.” Since then, the country has recovered nicely, and it is now the United...
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