It’s that time of year when news reporters run to the hardware store to interview the manager about the number of snow shovels he’s sold. Snow shovels are a measurement of severe weather and when the hardware store is sold …

  Credibility in the news business is hard to get and easy to lose. But at CNN they’re giving it away.   Several of CNN’s major anchors did an advertisement for the new Will Ferrell movie “Anchorman 2,” about the …

One of the stories in the news this Christmas is that there might be a shortage of toys. Hand-wringing business reporters say that because the stores were worried about a soft season, they ordered 2% fewer toys this year, which …

   One of the darkest moments in American history came when the day after Thanksgiving was named “Black Friday”.   What used to be a day with little to do but eat leftovers and hang out with family has become …

The old joke in journalism is “if your mother says she loves you, check it out.” Reporters pride themselves on being skeptical of everything they’re told. People lie to us all the time. It’s a reporter’s job to smoke out …

  If you have ever owned a computer, cellphone, or push-button telephone, you should feel sympathy for the people who rolled out the ObamaCare website. They’re taking a lot of heat for doing what everyone else in technology has done. …

The federal shutdown is a study in what is known in Washington as “messaging”, the political practice in which words are used to influence the outcome of arguments without conveying information or truth. In messaging there is no right or …

Today at least a hundred reporters are doing the worst work of journalism. They are making phone calls and knocking on the doors of spouses, family, and friends of the 12 people killed yesterday in that shooting spree at the …

While Western forests burn through late summer, it occurred to me as a former Senior National Wildfire Correspondent, that it might be helpful to offer fellow television reporters advice and instruction on how to cover wildland fire.   One of …

Never ask anyone “How was your flight?” The answer is that it was bad. I flew with United Airlines recently and they sent me an Email survey that was the corporate version of “How was your flight?” The letter from …