America won the race for the atomic bomb against the Axis powers in World War II. America also won the race for nuclear superiority against the Soviet Union in the Cold War that followed. America won these apocalyptic battles, but the Midwest metropolis of St. Louis paid the price. St. Louis paid the price because…
Opinion For more than two decades, storm chasers have often paid their way by marketing their severe weather videos. This industry developed in the late 1990s and flourished during the early 2000s. Several companies were developed by storm chasers to market their videos to news agencies with the goal of covering their storm-chasing costs. As…
Opinion Chinese media have devoted considerable airtime and news pages this spring to the trade war with the United States. China’s President Xi Jinping has drawn guidelines for Chinese media on several occasions since 2013. In particular, he pointed out that the Communist Party’s media should guide the public, serve the country’s overall interests, instill…
Analysis TV news outlets in Chicago often ignore the “cheap” murders that won’t boost ratings. Such non-reporting leaves viewers with a skewed narrative of crime in a city that too often frames victims as the bad guys, says Robert Jordan, the longtime Emmy-winning reporter and weekend anchor for WGN-TV in Chicago. “The effort is phony,…
Opinion During Watergate, President Richard M. Nixon claimed he didn’t have to turn over the White House tapes because the constitutional separation of powers “precludes judicial review of a President’s claim of privilege.” In other words, Nixon claimed the court couldn’t even consider whether he had to turn over the tapes. The Supreme Court disagreed. …
NEWS ANALYSIS When Eric Greitens announced his plans to resign as governor of Missouri, he wore his familiar executive uniform–open necked shirt, blazer and jeans–a wardrobe that was supposed to reflect an approachable administration. But Greitens, a Republican, was anything but open and available, at least as far as the news media were concerned. In…
Opinion Donald Trump is unfit for the office of president because he threatens core American values, ignores hard-won lessons of history and assaults the constitutional role the press and truth-telling play in our democracy. He delegitimizes the press by calling it fake and the “enemy of the people.” He invents an alternative reality – Spygate…
News Analysis JEFFERSON CITY — The special Missouri House committee considering whether Gov. Eric Greitens should be impeached proceeds at times like a court of law and sometimes like a political floor debate complete with shouting matches. But the 10-member panel has yet to hear anything from a star witness, the man who is the…
Opinion Hardly anyone looks good in the story of Eric Greitens’ scandals of illicit sex and shady campaign practices: not Greitens, not some members of the press, not the prosecution, not the million dollar defense team, not the criminal justice system. The scandal is a car wreck of journalistic, legal and civic ethics. No wonder…