Ray Long is either the luckiest man in Illinois journalism or he has an inside source. His just-released book about former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan came out only a few weeks after a headline making 22-count federal indictment was filed by the U.S. Justice Department against the 79-year-old career politician. “I turned…
Even though media outlets relied on journalists without science backgrounds during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, their stories tended to temper claims rather than exaggerate the conclusions of studies on masking, spread and who was getting sick and why. A recent study by two University of Michigan School of Information faculty members found that…
Two American journalists were killed within days of each other this week in Ukraine, a reminder of just how dangerous it is for correspondents covering war. Award-winning Arkansas filmmaker Brent Renoud and Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski both died on the urban battlefield in Ukraine. Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova, also reporting for Fox, was…
Six months after St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones’ administration promised to reconsider its defense of legal doctrines that protect abusive police, it is continuing to defend them, prompting charges of “betrayal” from civil rights lawyers. In campaigning for office, Jones spoke frequently about the need for greater police accountability, citing the deaths of George Floyd…
Police officers almost always avoid legal liability for abusing citizens because of the doctrine of qualified immunity. The doctrine has its roots in ugly chapters of American history — from enforcement of racial segregation at a lunch counter in Mississippi; to the National Guard killings of students at Kent State; to President Nixon’s firing of…