President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran formally begins his second term this week after “winning” his disputed election. The June 12th election and the aftermath, which saw thousands of protesters take to the streets of Tehran, has complicated U.S. plans to forge a new engagement with Iran. This report in The New York Times notes the […]
“Uncle” seems almost condesending — I don’t mean it so. Walter Cronkite was more than an avuncular presence in American homes. He was a serious newsman at a time when TV news was being invented and we were all a bit in awe of the new medium and its ability to broadcast images as well […]
This AP wire report notes that Secretary of State Clinton has returned to the national stage with a major foreign policy speech after a long absence recovering from her fractured elbow. I thought the report was interesting because it notes her absence from Obama’s recent trip to Russia, Europe and Africa and speculates about her […]
After several high profile trips abroad, many met with great popular interest and acclaim, we can now ask if President Obama has succeeded in improving the global view of the U.S. role in the world. The World Public Opinion group recently conducted a global poll on this subject: A new WorldPublicOpinion.org poll finds that around […]
Summer weekends can be rather distracting, so if you missed it, President Obama gave a historic speech during his visit to Africa and several websites have great coverage to get you caught up on events. The speech has been widely seen as an outline of U.S. policy toward Africa. I’ve been impressed the the coverage […]
President Obama is joining the leaders of allied countries in the annual G8 Summit, this year hosted by Italy. The G8 is not a formal alliance, it was not founded by a treaty and it does not have a permanent headquarters. It’s merely an informal gathering to discuss major international issues and try to chart […]
President Obama has completed his first ever Russia Summit dealing with The Big Issue. Actually, I guess the status of nuclear forces used to be The Big Issue, those days are gone. Still, I have to admit to a certain sense of expectancy at seeing the U.S. and Russian presidents meet to discuss nuclear weapons […]
The popular news media is obsessing over Michael Jackson today with non-stop coverage of the memorial service in Los Angeles. I’ve never devoted any attention to celebrity news in this space and had not planned to consider it at all until I saw this Associated Press report. The report has me thinking about this in […]
As President Obama heads to Russia to meet with the new and not so new Russian leadership to discuss nuclear arms control treaties, The New York Times offers this glimpse of the President’s vision for a nuclear-free world. I wanted to highlight this report because I’m rather interested in why the idea of a nuclear-free […]
A friend forwarded me an e-mail, one of those that are making the rounds as the Independence Day holiday nears, you may have also received it. The subject is “The Price They Paid,” and it describes the high price that the signers of the Declaration of Independence paid for their rebellion. It relates what we […]
Today, a tale about what journalism has become, with implications for all those concerned with the weakening firewall between “news” and “message.” It’s a tale of two Posts — Washington and Huffington. A revolution is underway in the news media, one neatly illustrated by how these two competitive news gathering organizations — the Washington Post […]
Today marks a milestone in the history of U.S. involvement in Iraq as the U.S. completes the withdrawal of combat forces from Iraqi cities. Will the Iraqi security forces be able to keep the peace? This report from The Washington Post reports that the withdrawal is off to a rocky start: At least 26 people […]
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