The rise of social media, partisan cable news stations, and, yes, political blogs and websites have had an unfortunate effect of making it easier to insulate oneself from views with which you disagree. Today, you can create a nearly impenetrable political bubble that reflects back approval and assurance that you're on the right side of […]
In 1787, as Benjamin Franklin exited Independence Hall in Philadelphia he was asked what form of government the Founders had settled on. He replied: "A republic…if you can keep it." We've had a good run, but it appears as though it's ending. We still have a republican "form" of government on paper, but over the […]
Corrections policies, especially at newspapers, used to be pretty straightforward. In most cases, they'd run in the same, dedicated spot in the section of the newspaper in which the story they were correcting first appeared. So, corrections on AP wire stories often ran on A2. If it was a correction to a feature piece in […]
For more than a year, suggesting that the COVID-19 virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, might have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology was a crazy, right-wing conspiracy theory that was the equivalent of believing the moon landings were faked. Let's start with this: You shouldn't trust anything the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) says. […]
Former President Donald Trump rightly received a lot of flak over his continual failure to stay on message as the spread of COVID-19 eventually led to lockdowns, skyrocketing unemployment, and hundreds of thousands of Americans dead. However, if the public pronouncements of our public health officials under the Joe Biden presidency are any indication of […]
Late last week Facebook fired the first shot in the coming war between Big Media and Big Tech. In response to legislation that passed Australia's House of Representatives, but had not yet become law, that would require Facebook to pay Australian media companies anytime anyone linked to, or shared, an article from a news organization […]
Newsweek magazine has received some criticism recently here at Hoystory for this dishonest piece on comments made by Justice Amy Coney Barrett when she was a Notre Dame law professor talking about the death and legacy of her mentor, Justice Antonin Scalia. Well, here we go again, I'm not sure what's worse, the blatantly dishonest […]
If the current political season is any indication (and it probably is) then there is plenty of evidence that too many people have lost their freaking minds. Two months ago, one of my friends on Facebook linked to this Gallup survey headlined: "25% in U.S. Say Neither Candidate Would Be a Good President." My succinct […]