A Right-Wing Congressman Dishes Out Hate and the Paper of Record Dithers The New York Times has a problem with the framing of some of its political coverage, especially when it comes to calling out the bigotry of those in high places. It took the paper much of the four-year Trump term to find language to describe Donald Trump’s language as lying…

On Freedom, Vaccines, and an Ethics of Being in the World We’re in a line for a Covid-19 booster shot. Dozen or so before us. A good sign. People are getting their shots. Building and maintaining immunity. // Numbers matter. It’s not about me. It’s about a “building a wall of immunity,” says Dr. Elie Berbari, chair of the Division of…

MLB and Other Major Sports Leagues Have Bought Into the Online Betting Craze I’m watching the Mets play the Cubs. End of inning. Go to a commercial. Fan Duel. Draft Kings. Wagers. Bet on who will get the next hit. Next home run. The next pitch. Headline the next day in The New York Post: “Yankees, Mets have splits bettors can cash in…

Hunger is a Feature of the Capitalist System. Not a Bug. The following appears on my Channel Surfing newsletter at Substack. 1/ Breadlines: A scene outside a church on New Street. Cold morning. Bright sun. Before the doors open. Before COVID. Before the job purge that was still a few months in the future. // Men and women in heavy coats…

‘Hey Joe’ is the Song of the Moment. Unfortunately. Willy DeVille’s version of “Hey Joe” appears on Backstreets of Desire. Willy DeVille on the radio. Sings “Hey Joe.” Mariachi-style. Sings with a growl. A talking blues. A run of questions. Where you going, Joe? Why? // The answer. To murder “his old lady.” To exact revenge. To free himself…

There Are Different Kinds of Biases, as The TImes Shows in Its Take on the Border — From Channel Surfing: Immigration is among the most emotional issues we face as a nation, with American attitudes showing an incredible elasticity in their opinions, depending on the words and images used by the media to explain what may be happening at the nation’s borders. Consider the history of Gallup’s…

Word Choice and Syntax Color a Story on Immigration in The Post A story in The Washington Post the other day offers a textbook example of how small choices — word choice, syntax, sources — can create unintended bias in our news stories, allowing underlying assumptions to color the way readers read and understand the news. Written from the perspective of national…

Freed Inmates Were Detained, Causing Fears In The Immigrant Community — Originally posted to my Patreon and Substack pages. Nearly 100 New Jersey inmates were released into federal immigration custody during a release that was supposed to be part a humanitarian prison amnesty program designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 in state prisons. The release, reported by NJ.com and also…

A Six-Year-Old Thought Experiment and Personal Essay Has Trump Supporters and Other Conservatives in a Rage Conservatives are on the warpath about this piece from Ezekiel Emanuel, accusing him of endorsing euthanasia and calling for a cap on how old we can get. Their arguments are absurd and based on…