Category Archives: media news

local news, media news

Can’t have too many issues

I have been blessed beyond measure to be able to do what I did professionally for nearly 37 years.

Damn near every day I went to work, I entered my place of employment with a smile on my face. There is, however, a paradox, given that the source of my smile was one of this nation’s most horrific episode. I refer to the 9/11 terror attacks on New York, on Washington and aboard the United Airlines jetliner that crashed into the Shanksville, Pa., field.

I can relate the paradox to 9/11 because since that fateful day, I became faced with an opinion page editor’s dream: having to decide which issue I can set aside for another day. In other words, I generally had more to comment on than otherwise.

Writer’s bloc? Didn’t happen since Sept. 11, 2001.

Where am I going with this post? I want to reiterate how much fun I had writing editorials and signed columns for two newspapers in Texas and in my home state of Oregon. I once thought that you couldn’t have “fun” while working for a paycheck. What in the name of serious discussion is wrong with that? Not a thing, I’ll tell you.

I always took my task each day with absolute seriousness. But not myself.

I guess that’s where the fun comes together. I wish the dwindling number of daily newspaper reporters and editors can grasp that work and fun can mean the same thing.

local news, media news, national news, political news

Paxton ‘debut’ awaits election result

No matter the outcome of the Nov. 3 midterm election for the U.S. Senate seat from Texas, we’re going to get a good look at the type of man Democratic candidate James Talarico calls “the most corrupt politician in Texas.”

I refer, of course, to Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

I want to stipulate two key points. One is that I want Paxton to lose the contest to Talarico. I want there to be no doubt who wins this race. My hope is that Talarico wins by a healthy enough margin to forgo any sort of mandatory recount. The second point is that even though Paxton has been AG for more than a decade, I cannot ever recall hearing him make a speech in public.

It has been a brutal campaign for the seat now occupied by John Cornyn, whom Paxton defeated in the Republican Party primary. Paxton has been troubled by ethical and legal difficulty almost since the day he took office in January 2015.

I am wondering what kind of man emerges when the dust settles on Election Day. If lightning strikes and Paxton actually wins, will he give his opponent his due as a worthy foe? Or will he aim his rhetorical guns at the “liberal media” and the “communists and socialists” who despise him? I suppose I can wonder the same thing if Paxton comes up short on Election Day.

For his part, Talarico — a state legislator from Austin — has campaigned on his record as a Democratic man of faith. He refers frequently to New Testament scripture that instructs us to love our neighbor and, yes, our adversaries. Paxton, though, has been poisoned by the hate spewed by Donald Trump and other MAGA morons.

It’s not clear to me what kind of speechmaker Paxton is or can be. He’s been in the public eye for a long time, yet he remains a bit of a mystery.

We well could learn a whole lot about him … quite soon.

media news, military news

Good for POTUS to back off livestreaming execution

I hereby give credit to Donald J. Trump for having the good sense to call of a planned livestreaming of a man condemned to die by firing squad in December.

Trump re-thought a decision to allow the public to witness the killing of former Army Major Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009. He backed away from that ghastly decision, proclaiming that the execution will go forward … just not in public view.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been making a lot of hay about televising the execution, proclaiming that allowing the public to view it could deter future lunatics from doing what Hasan did. I don’t think so. I do believe that Hasan’s death at the hands of an Army firing squad will be sufficient deterrent, if it, indeed, does deter anyone from killing innocent victims.

Trump and Hegseth had gotten a lot of backlash from both sides of the political aisle over the decision livestream Hasan’s death. I am glad that the commander in chief thought better of it. I want him now to fire Hegseth, who is unfit to lead the Pentagon … period, full stop.

legal news, media news, national news

Back to the beginning with Trump

One of my initial arguments against Donald Trump ever seeking, let alone winning, an election to the White House has proven to be true beyond measure.

I said prior to his ride down the escalator in Trump Tower in the summer of 2015 that the candidate-to-be lacked any exposure to public service. His entire professional life had been staked to his personal enrichment. His glorification. His desire to be recognized for every good deed that occurs on this planet.

As I look back on his nearly a decade in politics, I find that my assessment of the individual was correct. I don’t say this to brag about it. I wish I was wrong. I also wish Trump would prove me wrong and that he would have brought a level of success to the only public office he has ever sought.

I scan the immediate past of this guy’s record and I see his desire to put his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; he wants to build a triumphant arch; he has torn down the East Wing to build a gold-encrusted ballroom; he keeps insisting he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize; he contends he was elected in 2024 in a landslide; he hired the world’s richest human to cut the daylights out of Medicare, Medicaid, USAID, CDC with no understanding of how it affects everyday humans’ lives.

The man has called military vets “suckers and losers” because they want to don the uniform of their country. Thanks a lot … Donald, you loser!

These examples only prove what many of us have said all along. Donald Trump has no business in the office he occupies.

media news, national news, political news, State news

What? No mention of policy?

As many of you are experiencing the same thing that’s occurring at my home in North Texas, I want to share an observation I made after reading — from front to back — a campaign brochure sent by Donald J. Trump on behalf of GOP U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton.

In the piece, Trump offers his “complete and total endorsement” of Paxton, who is in the fight of his political life against Democratic candidate James Talarico.

The text covers four full pages. I want to share an observation of what I have determined to be an error of omission.

Not once does Trump mention a policy decision from the White House that Paxton allegedly endorses. Nothing on the tariffs that are a regressive tax on all Americans who purchase items that come to us from offshore sources. No mention of the Iran war that Trump launched; so far 20 Americans have died in this “forever war” that Trump vowed he never would start were he sent to the White House in 2024. Not a peep from POTUS on the Ukraine war that Russia launched three years ago.

Trump has experienced difficulty defending these policies all by himself. Every president since Republican Herbert Hoover has called tariffs a tax. This guy says foreign governments are paying them. That is utter crap. The wars both have gone badly for our side, although Ukraine might be on the verge of declaring victory against the marauding Russians.

The brochure is vintage Trump. It is short on substantive debate and long on invective. He and Paxton spend most of the space in the letter to voters like me denigrating Talarico, his background, even making fun of his name.

If the POTUS is going to proclaim his endorsement for a damaged candidate such as Ken Paxton, it would seem to make more sense to explain why the candidate’s apparent endorsement of Trump’s policies is a reason to vote for him.

Oh, wait! Never mind! Trump won’t go there because he knows what we all know … that his policies have stunk up the campaign trail.

legal news, media news

Ex-POTUSes are clear … media doing their job

Listening as I have done for the past few days to the words spoken by recent former presidents of the United States leaves me with the clear impression that they understand the media’s role in maintaining a free and powerful nation.

And that the current president doesn’t get it.

Donald Trump wants media to report news as he sees it, not as they see it or how others see it. He says the nation is doing “great,” and wants the media to foment that lie. Others see the media role differently. They see the media as being faithful to its duty to report the news, even as it contains information critical of Trump.

Republican and Democratic presidents all understand. The GOP’s Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, both presidents Bush and Ronald Reagan all know that the press’s protection in the First Amendment is intended to protect the media from the kind of political coercion being applied by Trump. Same with the Democrats who have held the high office. JFK knew it, as did Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Obama, a Democrat, recently pointed out that he didn’t always like the news reported about him, but he understands the media is obligated to report the truth, even if it runs afoul of what presidents think about their reporting.

Republican and Democratic presidents all sang from the same political hymnal.

Until Trump came along. He doesn’t get it. He never will. He provides a never-ending litany of proof of his unfitness for public office

legal news, media news

Trump lacks knowledge of the truth

These videos keep cropping up showing Donald Trump trying to justify his order banning certain news organizations from the White House, as if that’s going to stop them from reporting “fake news.”

It won’t. Indeed, what CNN, MSNow and Politico have been reporting has been the truth. It’s just that the truth hurts the individual who’s being pilloried — justifiably — for the impact that the truth is having on Americans.

The news outlets being targeted are not peddling lies. They are reporting the news. Its favorability in Trump’s eyes depends solely on the content they contain.

Is it “fake news” to report the Iran war’s impact on goods we buy and the inflation all Americans are feeling? Or what about the collapsing morale aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln? Or the confusion in the Pentagon under the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth? How about the existence of a presidential aide with no high-level security clearance?

Trump wants to keep these items from being reported to the public that has a right to know how its government is functioning. He wants to shield the administration from the scrutiny that a free press can provide.

Every man who has preceded Trump in office has recognized the value of free press to the representative form of government it is covering.

Donald Trump is simply unwilling to accept the media’s role it performs in building a “more perfect” government. He lacks the intellect required to let the media do its job … which is protected specifically by the First Amendment.

 

legal news, media news

Wow! Trump tells the truth!

While ranting about the dangers of a free press, Donald Trump actually told the truth … he uttered a statement that holds up to scrutiny.

“We live in a country that allows people to report things that are negative,” Trump said while invoking a ban on certain news agencies from the White House.

So help me, I didn’t think I could report on this blog an actual truthful statement from the POTUS. But there it is. Holy smokes! Stop the presses!

Trump, of course, issued what is looking like a patently unconstitutional order by banning CNN, MSNow and Politico from the White House. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declares that the government cannot “abridge the freedom of speech, or of the press.” The president, therefore, cannot prohibit the media from doing its constitutionally protected job.

Trump will get his comeuppance once the courts get hold of this case and his banning of news organizations will be send to the scrap heap, where it belongs.

As for the ability to “report things that are negative,” what in the world is the alternative? The way I see it, the alternative lies in a totalitarian state where the media are banned by law from reporting negatively on government decisions. Violations of such a law would result in imprisonment or worse.

Thank goodness we live in a country that allows the press to function independently without fear of punishment.

media news

Trump has gone insane!

It’s official … my mind is blown. To smithereens. Into teeny-tiny pieces. Shards of brain matter are scattered all over creation. Donald Trump has become certifiably nuttier than a Payday bar.

The prevaricator in chief has just banned CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House. No more access for these news outlets. I swear to Almighty God in Heaven, I cannot fathom what I am reading about this idiot.

He calls them merchants of “fake news,” and says that effective immediately, they will have no more access to White House sources. At this moment, not a sound from the right-wingers out there who have been giving Trump a pass on every single idiotic step he has taken since his first day in office in January 2017.

Just imagine Presidents Obama or Biden banning Fox News from the White House. It didn’t happen in the 12 years these men served as president. What do you suppose would be the right wing’s reaction to such a travesty? The MAGA morons would go ape-dookey in an instant. And they would be justified!

Therefore, I am going out-of-my-noggin nuts over this news from the White House that Donald has taken this course of action.

Just remember, this is the dipshit who has the nuclear codes at his disposal.

local news, media news, military news

Recalling quick trip through history

I have spent a good chunk of today recalling the tremendous, emotion-packed weekend I just spent touring the nation’s capital with friends … and acquaintances who have become my friends.

I took part in an Honor Flight to D.C. to receive a pat on my back for the service I delivered to my country as a snot-nosed teenager, who ended up serving the Army in Da Nang, South Vietnam. Words are inadequate to describe the feelings that overwhelmed me at times during our quick-as-hell visit to Washington.

There were 45 Honor Flight participants on this trip. Many of them served in ‘Nam; others served nearby in places like Thailand and the Philippines. Others still didn’t serve in a war zone, but they too were eligible to take part in an Honor Flight. They came and received the love that Honor Flight organizers give everyone who dons a uniform and choose to serve.

Three events caused me to show my sappy side. The first was the Love Field Fire Department firing water hoses into the air in an arch to celebrate our flight as it departed the airport in Dallas; the fire department salute came after being applauded by onlookers as we entered the ticket area to prepare for boarding. We received countless expressions of thanks from those who clapped at us we walked through the airport. We each had “guardians,” volunteers who served as our helpers. If we needed wheelchair aid, someone to carry gifts, or just be there to serve as our companions, the guardians were there. My guy was a former Air Force airman who lives in Tyler. He’s now a dear friend.

No. 2 occurred on our arrival at Reagan National Airport in D.C. Staffers and onlookers began applauding us as we deplaned. So help me, I thought of The Gipper — and wondered if he would have been there to applaud us as well.

We scurried from memorial to memorial the first day. It was a busy time, but we got through it. Our hotel accommodations were first class.

The next day was much like the first day. Breakfast was served. We chatted with each other, had plenty of laughs over our remembrances.

Then we departed for Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Our return from BWI was set and we took off for Love Field, where event No. 3 awaited me.

We landed and were instructed to let the non-Honor Flight passengers depart first. We did. Then we exited the aircraft. I had told the jetliner captain to “have a good flight” when we boarded and thanked when we got by saying, “Good job, Skipper. The flight was great.”

While waiting at the gate we were instructed — again! — to stay put until we got the signal to head for the front door.

We got the “high sign” and headed out of the airport … where we were greeted by a huge throng of folks, chanting to the sound of a Scottish bagpipe band playing that Scottish anthem you always hear at these events.

They were cheering, clapping, thanking us for our service. My family was there. My sons, my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter were there to tell me of their love for me and thanked all of us for serving our nation.

It was an unbelievable experience that I will take with me to the moment my time is up.

I am thrilled to have taken part in this wonderful moment.