You all know the cliche - "if it bleeds, it leads." Local news, and increasingly national networks, promote stories off the police scanner. As a result, for decades, the perception of crime has exceeded the reality of crime across society. Naturally, if you've been mugged or a neighbor's house broken into, crime is indeed a …
Category: Media
To debate or not debate: new rules are the question
So, now he's said it. President Biden told Howard Stern recently that he'd be willing to debate Donald Trump. With all due respect, I disagree. I just don't think there's anything to be gained. I have always embraced the high-minded goals of candidate debate: well-reasoned,fact-based discussion; values-driven argumentation; clarification, prioritization of positions. Dignified dialogue serves …
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Reflections on my 1,000th blog
This is the 1,000th blog I have written since creating marjoriearonsbarron.com. These essays follow 20 years and several thousand editorials written and aired for WCVB-TV, Channel 5, Boston's ABC affiliate. Above my desk at the station hung a framed picture of a self-satisfied, slightly overweight pussycat with the inscription, "Everyone has a right to my opinion." Back …
DNC delivers optimism, hard work ahead
It's all right to exhale. The Democrats delivered four well-produced creative and nearly seamless nights, and Joe Biden did extremely well. The four days were a huge success, from Michelle and Barack Obama to Kamala Harris to unknowns like Kristin Urquiza, whose late father died of COVID-19. He was, she said, a Trump supporter whose …
Nation at a crossroads, not a replay of ’68
The lump in my throat won't go away. It's not the onset of the coronavirus. It is the result of another terrible disease afflicting this nation, the lethal virus of racism and racial injustice. I close my eyes and see the video that grips the country, African-American George Floyd pinned on the street, the knee …
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COVID-19 crisis: silver linings and rot at the top
There are so many good things that are happening as we adjust to the scary new normal of hunkering down, staying at home. But every time I listen to the President at a White House COVID-19 task force press conference I am simultaneously repelled and outraged, and the good things happening on the ground slip …
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Bloomberg’s missed opportunity
For all of his hundreds of millions spent in promoting his candidacy in polished and effective ads, billionaire philanthropist and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg bombed in his first appearance on the Democratic presidential debate stage. He would have been well served had he hired Boston-based consultant and political advisor Michael Goldman. Goldman shared …
New York Times comes down squarely on both sides
editorial board deserves some praise for revealing its process for endorsing in the Democratic Presidential primary. Some, far smaller, newspapers started years ago to post their candidate interviews on their websites. Last night, The Times expanded its weekly documentary, "The Weekly," from 30 minutes to one hour, to provide a video including several candidate interview …
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Missing Tim Russert; Chuck Todd disappoints
It wasn’t just Buffalo’s NFL Wild Card loss yesterday that got me thinking about long-suffering Bills fan Tim Russert, who set the gold standard for a tough but fair Sunday news show interviewer. When Chuck Todd eventually became his successor on Meet the Press, I was heartened. For years, Todd had been a data-driven analyst …
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My love-hate relationship with the news
I emerge from three weeks of flu, bronchitis and related maladies on World Press Freedom Day and want to take more than a moment to hail the work of so many journalists who put themselves on the line to give us the information we depend upon. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a stunning …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 