Police officers who abuse citizens usually escape punishment because of an array of legal doctrines that stack the law in an officer’s favor. That was true before the murder of George Floyd and killing of Breonna Taylor and it’s true after the uprising that those events caused. The guilty verdict and stiff sentence for Derek Chauvin, Floyd’s murderer, felt like a … [Read more...] about Abusive police officers evade punishment through an array of legal roadblocks to accountability
Publisher’s Note: The First Amendment’s nervous breakdown at 230
230 years after its ratification, the First Amendment is having a nervous breakdown. Billions of bits of information and misinformation flood the public sphere every day leading people to throw up their hands because they can’t figure out what or whom to believe. Bedrock principles of Enlightenment philosophers and great First Amendment champions, Justices Oliver Wendell … [Read more...] about Publisher’s Note: The First Amendment’s nervous breakdown at 230
Remembering William ‘Reck’ Recktenwald
Remembering a great journalist, investigator, teacher, mentor and friend When I woke up the day after William A. Recktenwald died this week, the first thing I heard in my head was his gravelly voice asking, “How are you doing my friend?” It was a greeting I had heard from “Reck” dozens of times over the past 15 years at the SIUC School of Journalism where we were … [Read more...] about Remembering William ‘Reck’ Recktenwald
‘Front Page’ to Ferguson: A memoir of half a century of St. Louis journalism
As a rookie reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch five decades ago, I sat directly in front of Ted Link, a Post-Dispatch legend. Link never said a word to me. I never said a word to Link. But I looked up to him as one of those crusty veterans who had made the Post-Dispatch great. One thing about Link unnerved me. Each morning, he walked to his desk, opened the bottom … [Read more...] about ‘Front Page’ to Ferguson: A memoir of half a century of St. Louis journalism
Jan. 6 insurrection raised misunderstood 1A issues about censorship and incitement
The Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol raised a host of questions about free expression where the law of the First Amendment is widely misunderstood. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who went to Stanford, graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, claimed Simon & Schuster assaulted the First Amendment by canceling his book contract because … [Read more...] about Jan. 6 insurrection raised misunderstood 1A issues about censorship and incitement