The New York Times is Ground Zero of America’s cancel culture, and the mean spiritedness responsible for the forced resignation of veteran science reporter Donald McNeil has contaminated journalism and popular culture. The success of the Times and other once elite publications is dependent on continuously fueling negativity and anger.
Unless you live in Ontario, Canada, getting caught in a lie or other forms of dishonesty doesn’t have the consequences it once did. In journalism, it’s possibly a career booster.
I recently learned that the Toronto Star, far-and-away the best place I ever worked, has been overrun with woke journalists. My initial reaction was anger. Upon further reflection, I came to feel sorry for them.
Nonprofit companies prey on the public’s mistaken belief they are altruistic organizations doing God’s work. Much too often, they are merely legal tax dodge schemes. Some, like Consumer Reports, engage in business practices they purport to oppose.
Given the national furor over the excessive police force, it’s a wonder that Kamala Harris is rumored among Joe Biden’s top picks for a running mate. Harris once prosecuted a mentally ill woman who was severely injured in a police encounter. She also refused to prosecute a corrupt California utility whose negligence resulted in eight deaths and the decimation of an entire neighborhood.
Liberals were once the champions of free speech. Conservatives have picked up the mantle and fighting the media’s attempts to destroy it.
The circumstances leading to the firing of editor page editor James Bennet make clear that when it comes to dishonesty, intolerance, and creating alternative realities, the New York Times and President Trump are two peas in a pod.
Adversity is a test of a person’s courage and character and the Black Lives Matter protests revealed the leaders who were up to the task and those that weren’t. And, of course, there were the shameful.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey thinks he can regulate truth on his social media site. He’s got a better chance of finding a cure for cancer.
(Apologies if you are receiving this multiple times.)
Reminiscing about my favorite TV characters from years past made me nostalgic for the opening theme songs and sequences that preceded popular shows in the 60s and 70s. Producers of these shows put considerable thought and effort producing them. They serve as visual tombstones to the characters that starred in them.
Here are my favorites.
I’m a journalist and television pilot writer. I previously was president of a New York City-based PR and crisis communications firm. Earlier, I was a business reporter with major newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. I also worked as an advertising copywriter. Born and raised in Toronto, I’ve lived in London (the one famous for snowsqualls), Montreal, Boston, Detroit, New York, San Francisco, and Marin County. I post regularly on LinkedIn and can be reached at: