Covering a “Major Policy Address”
Jay Rosen has been wondering about the “interpretive challenge” the Trump campaign presents for journalists. How do you use the tools of reporting to cover a person who won’t follow the general master...
View ArticleWhere I’m Coming From
Back in the day, I wrote this: As I learned early in my journalistic career before becoming an academic, there is no such thing as an objective point of view. And the ideal of fairness is almost as...
View ArticleWhen Stenography Matters
So I’ve spent a lot time here grousing about stenography. But the candidacy of Donald Trump is changing the game of journalism a bit — including my game. It’s been easy to point out examples of the...
View ArticleA Quick Interjection in the Silence
Rhetorica, as a site examining media-political rhetoric, remains retired. But I have to call your attention — whatever is left of my readership — to Jay Rosen’s current entry on PressThink. The whole...
View ArticleI Bought A Digital Subscription
I just renewed my digital subscription to The New York Times this week. Last night I added, for the first time, a digital subscription to the Washington Post. I’m a sucker for that “democracy dies in...
View ArticleNo. Just no.
The ancient Greeks put a lot of stock in the ability to speak well in public. They understood effective speakers to have political and cultural power. They made moral judgments about their fellow...
View ArticleBig Lies, Small Lies, and Child Abuse
The government is telling lies about its abuse of children on the southern border. Like any fallacy, logical or otherwise, this tactic can certainly be employed as a rhetorical strategy. Big news...
View ArticleHarshing the Civic Mellow
Nail. Head. Hit. When it comes to protests, mean words, civil disobedience, boycotts, public shunning, we may disagree when one or other is wise or called for. But these are entirely legitimate tools...
View Article“Every Child” to Screen at Public Affairs Conference
My student documentary team and I have finished another short film entitled Every Child. It premieres as part of the 2018 Public Affairs Conference at Missouri State University. The conference opens...
View ArticleThe Rhetoric of Fake News
Without a proper academic study, it’s difficult to say just how much the passing along of fake news (mostly by linking and tweeting) is the result of not knowing something is fake but passing it along...
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