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America, History, Impeachment Trial

Every Completed Senate Impeachment Trial in American History Has Had New Witnesses

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An analysis from the Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington reveals that every impeachment trial completed in the Senate’s 231 year history has featured witnesses who had not testified in the House: Every impeachment trial completed in the Senate’s 231 year history has featured witnesses who had not testified in the House, according to…

America, History, Television, Wisconsin

On the American Experience: McCarthy

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Tonight, on the American Experience on PBS, an episode on Sen. Joe McCarthy: McCarthy chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who came to power after a stunning victory in an election no one thought he could win. Once in office, he declared that there was a vast conspiracy threatening America…

America, Blogging, History

But We Never Went Away…

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Writing at NiemanLab, Joanne McNeil offers a prediction for 2020 in A return to blogs (finally? sort of?): One reason we might see a resurgence of blogs is the novelty. Tell someone you’re starting a new newsletter and they might complain about how many newsletters (or podcasts) they already subscribe to. But tell them you’re…

America, History, Holiday

A Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863

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The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail…

Art, Diversity, History

Recreating a Famous Painting, 241 Years Later

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John Trumbull’s founding-era painting, Declaration of Independence, is one of the most famous in America. Recently, Ancestry.com commissioned the recreation of Trumball’s scene in a photograph with the descendants of the Declaration’s signers.  The recreation is truly hopeful:  

America, History, Liberty, Never Trump, Politics, Trump

After This Conflict Is Won

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These last years have been difficult, and one can reasonably expect worse from Trumpism before that ideology is consigned – as it will be – to the political outer darkness. A necessary condition for optimism is an understanding of the present from which one can build a better future. (Local boosterism and babbittry are failures…

America, Blogging, History, Newspapers, Press, Press Release, Public Relations

Sullivan on Public Officials as Reporters

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Editors of small-town newspapers sometimes lack the judgment (and self-respect) to remain independent of government.  During these lapses of decision-making, one finds that elected or appointed officials become, themselves, reporters on their own stories.  (For a case like this in Whitewater involving a school board member, see Public Officials Should Not Be Reporters.) Margaret Sullivan, of the…

Cats, History, Music

Hep the Hepcat (December 1946)

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From the Library of Congress: Caption from Down Beat: Probably no dance band ever has played to so many empty tables consistently as the Sam Donahue ork [orchestra] during the recent double booking with Lionel Hampton at the Aquarium. The operators decreed that Sam should play afternoons, and the place isn’t open in the afternoon!…

America, Babbittry, City, History, New Media, Newspapers, Press, Social Media, Writing

The Media’s ‘Post-Advertising’ Future

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Nationally and locally, the media (whether profit or non-profit) continue their significant transformation: the decline of print, the rise of (interactive) digital media, and the collapse of a middle-of-the-road partnership of boosterism between mediocre newspapers and middling officials. Print’s doomed, and so is digital that merely repeats the same banal style of contemporary print. Traditional…