Author: William H. Freivogel

Trump says he IS the law

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. 

The fantastic fictions of an unfit president

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

Winners of GJR awards

Winners of GJR awards. The Gateway Journalism Review presented five awards at last week’s 7th Annual First Amendment Celebration.  From left, Bill McClellan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist who received the Lifetime Achievement award; Dawn Chapman and Karen Nickel, co-founders of the Just MomsSTL environmental group, winners of the Whistleblowers award; Thomas Harvey, co-founder of ArchCity Defenders,

Media’s false equivalencies about Comey and Trump

opinion One thing the press does badly in its admirable pursuit of balanced coverage is create false equivalencies.  That’s what’s happening when the press says the exchange of accusations between former FBI Director James Comey and President Trump is just another “food fight.” That term – used by Fox’s Chris Wallace and House Speaker Paul

[Opinion] Echoes of Watergate, Pentagon Papers and imperial president

President Trump’s narcissistic claim that the search of his lawyer’s office was an “attack on our country” echoed from the days of Watergate, the Pentagon Papers and the imperial presidency. Trump, like President Nixon, is conflating himself with the country, mistaking his welfare for the nation’s. The press has a special role disabusing presidents of