The New York Times has an article this morning on non-profit journalism — an idea that has been around for a while. In fact, the Christian Science Monitor had a similar article, spotlighting the VoiceofSanDiego as the Times article did, back in February. There are also articles in the Columbia Journalism Review, American Journalism Review, • Read More »
Richard Monastersky, a senior writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education, has an article in a recent edition of the publication pointing out a number of things about the election of Barack Obama and Joe Biden with regard to higher education. Obama is a former professor. He taught at the University of Chicago Law School • Read More »
National Public Radio had a story this morning speculating on how open the new Barack Obama administration will be. The story quotes former University of Alabama student (and friend) Christi Parsons, who covered the state legislature in Springfield for the Chicago Tribune when Obama was a state senator. The gist of the story is that • Read More »
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller returns in Michael Connelly’s last mystery/thriller. And this time, Connelly teams him up (sort of) with Harry Bosch, the author’s long-running detective character. Haller is not your paragon of virtue, but he is clever and interesting. Haller is returning from a year off, much of • Read More »
Congratulations, Barack Obama. President-elect. Truly remarkable. Truly. And congratulations to Senator John McCain for your unquestioned patriotism and courage and your service to your country.
Barack Obama wrote his own book — no ghostwriters or co-authors. He did the literary heavy-lifting himself. It was with plenty of audacity and no small amount of hope that Barack Obama sat down in the early 1990s to write his life story. He had just turned 30 in 1991 and could reasonably assume that • Read More »
A good book review in the mainstream media (MSM) is getting harder to find. Not many of the MSM have retained strong book pages or coverage. The New York Times, of course, is the exception, as it has always been. There is not only the Sunday Book Review, which I have read for many years, • Read More »
Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley rating: 4 of 5 stars Just finished Christopher Buckley’s Supreme Courtship. Very funny in places and a bit silly in others. Still, an enjoyable read and always a dig at the powers that be. Pepper Cartwright is a very popular TV judge who is nominated for a U.S. Supreme Court • Read More »
The narrative and the central idea of a McCain presidency has not emerged during the campaign. The presidential campaign of John McCain comes under the scrutiny of the New York Times Sunday Magazine this week in a long and revealing article by Robert Draper. The author uses the motif of the “shifting narrative” to explain • Read More »
The day was gray and the field muddy when the Vols and the Tide met in Neyland Stadium in 1966. Despite the conditions, the players on both sides played like champions and produced one of the greatest meetings of the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry. As one of 56,000 rain-soaked fans in Neyland Stadium, I peered out from • Read More »
The World Series begins tonight. Let’s hope for the best. The World Series: two vaunted teams with rich baseball histories, a couple of well-known and wiley managers, big stars on both sides set to make each inning a drama-filled delight, a bit of controversy or personal animus thrown in just to spice things up. Well, • Read More »
Two web sites came onto my radar this weekend that set me to thinking about the shape of journalism on the web. A friend recommended Publishing 2.0, an excellent and provocative gathering of articles about journalism put together by Scott Karp and Robert Young. The article from this site that got my attention showed up • Read More »
A little coherence and evidence of intellectual activity from the presidential candidates — is that too much to ask? David Ignatius, columnist for the Washington Post, noted the following about this week’s presidential debate in Nashville: Is it “presidential” to speak in clear sentences that have a beginning, a middle and an end? If so, • Read More »
Rule No. 1 in writing an Amazon review: Be honest. Rule No. 2: Keep it short. Lunch conversation with my good friend Cyn Mobley the other day turned toward our writing group and the things the group could do to help each other promote our books. She asked me to come up with a list • Read More »
Part of the origin of the “public figure” in libel law began with the 1962 Alabama-Georgia football game and the legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. The game between Alabama and Georgia tonight on ESPN calls to mind a game between the same two teams 46 years ago that had an important impact — not on • Read More »
Tom Clancy, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain and Satchel Paige — they were all writers (of sorts). And they have all made it into this first volume of The Writing Wright. The Writing Wright is now available on Amazon. If you are fascinated by writers and writing, The Writing Wright offers a box of chocolates you • Read More »
Just created a fan page for The Writing Wright on Facebook. The Writing Wright is a book of essays, quotations and snippets about writing, the language, journalism and the writing life. The book is illustrated with the author’s pen and ink drawings. Doing the fan page once wasn’t too hard. I’m sure when I do • Read More »
Just created a fan page for The Writing Wright on Facebook. Doing it once wasn’t too hard. I’m sure when I do it again, it will be even simpler. I loaded a few of the drawings that are in the book into the first photo album, and I’m going to take some screen shots of • Read More »
• Sarah Palin is no longer the focus of the rabid attention of the news media herd. Why is that? Interesting that only a couple of weeks ago, the news media were 24/7 about Sarah Palin, the fighting hockey mom who could stare down the Ruskies. But the last few days all we have heard • Read More »
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly Rating: 5 of 5 stars This is one of the best books that I have read in the past few years. From the very first page, the reader can identify with Mickey, the protagonist, and what he has to go through to maintain his ambulance-chasing law practice and make • Read More »