Journalism has been my life. For almost 30 years, I worked as a reporter and foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. Later, I taught the art and craft of journalism as a professor and dean of the College of Media at the University of Illinois. I share those bona fides …
Historical myths say that Lucrezia Borgia was a seductive poisoner who carried a hollow ring filled with venom, hosted orgiastic banquets, and eliminated lovers and rivals at will—an archetypal 16th-century Renaissance “femme fatale.” As Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia exercised a lot of agency: she managed a sophisticated court, patronized artists …
Today is Veterans Day. Given that only 6 percent of the people of this nation have ever put on a uniform–including those currently serving–I am not sure many Americans have any idea why Veterans Day is a holiday. Yes, it means schools and most government offices are closed. But it …
When I was a sergeant in the United States Army Security Agency, there was no confusion about who the enemy was. It was the communists. Of course, that was in the 1960s, before socialist/communists like newly elected New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Chicago’s Brandon Johnson, and Los Angeles’s Karen Bass …
London’s Daily Mail newspaper predicts 800,000 people will flee New York if Muslim communist Zohran Mamdani wins today’s mayoral election. The poll, conducted by J.L. Partners for the Daily Mail, may be understating the mass exodus from New York if Mamdani takes over Gracie Mansion. Already, the New York Stock Exchange …
A recent Gallup poll has just confirmed what most Americans have known, or at least suspected, about America’s mainstream media over the past couple of years. The news media have lost credibility at an alarming rate, and confidence that the news is being impartially reported has dropped to its lowest …
When I was teaching journalism at the University of Illinois, I often gave my students a test designed to see just how observant they were. Observation, as I have pointed out in previous posts, is a critical skill writers need to master IF they are to provide clear and vivid …
How can the methods of reporting and writing practiced by professional journalists possibly benefit those who write fiction? After all, the rules of journalism demand that you shape your writing to your material, not the other way around. The answer can be found in the fundamentals of the writer’s craft: …
Without a doubt, one of the best places to learn the craft of writing is in the professional newsroom. The number of successful authors of fiction and non-fiction books, who began their careers as journalists, is remarkable. Here is a list of 10 (It could be 50 or 100): Charles …
This is a re-post of a blog post I did a while back. It is one of those timeless pieces about a one-of-a-kind journalism professor and his love of words and writing. Take a look. I bet you will find it fascinating and helpful. In any case, I hope you …