Wake of Echoes

I don't know if I can do it. I just don't know if I have the stomach to watch tonight's debate. Just to remind you of my position on the upcoming presidential election, this pretty much sums it up: via GIPHY My niece, Amy, who will be voting in her first presidential election this year, put it this way: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump might be the most un likable, un trustworthy and un sympathetic presidential candidates in the history of forever, leaving most of us completely  un enthusiastic about how this election is going to turn out -- no matter how it turns out. And yet, tonight's debate is expected to have as many viewers as the Super Bowl . So we hate them, but we love to watch them? I guess so. Which leads me to these questions: What can we expect from Hillary and the Donald tonight? More specific to our discussion of fairness and bias, what can we expect from the media during and after the debate? The media are already showing their...

When I was in third grade, a family of Vietnamese refugees moved to the small Eastern Washington town where we lived at the time. The family was large and included two school-aged boys, Wa and Him, who started going to our school. Wa was in my class and I wanted to make them all feel welcome, so one day after school, my sister and I walked to their house and knocked on the door. Wa’s family welcomed us inside and gave us watered down Coke to drink. None of them spoke English, but they smiled and nodded at us while we drank our Coke. I don’t remember much else about the experience except that my feelings were all positive, they were super nice and I was glad that our little town had taken in refugees from a war-torn part of the world. I tell this story to remind you of who I am. To soften you for what I am about to say next. Because I STILL want to accept refugees from war-torn parts of the world and from our neighboring countries to the south. My heart bleeds for people despe...

Are modern-day journalists watchdogs or guard dogs? What's the difference? Watchdogs have their eye on public interests, sniffing out corruption or controversy and holding people accountable. But guard dogs protect, keeping people out, shielding preferred ideologies from closer inspection. When I was at Arizona State University, Bill Moyers visited campus to receive the Walter Cronkite School’s Excellence in Journalism Award. During a Q&A session, Moyers called on me. I asked him: “Is it possible for a conservative to have a successful career in Journalism?” Moyers shifted in his chair. I got the impression he was either uncomfortable or irritated with my question, but he quickly said “Yes. Yes, of course.” Then he started ticking names off his fingers. But here’s thing: I didn’t recognize any of the journalists he named and he never got to his fifth finger. I asked the question because I was concerned that I would find it difficult to work in the field I...