After thirty years of service to America, Sen. Jesse Helms has announced he will retire to North Carolina next year and take a well-deserved rest from frustrating the liberal elite, especially the media elite. Those sophisticated scribes have responded in quick and typically venomous fashion: Good riddance, you evil man. This is how Newsweek's Evan Thomas expressed his regret: "He was so wonderfully odious...he was very comforting to the east coast media establishment to know that there was an evil guy out there that you could really fear." Added Time's Jack White: "As a native North Carolinian, the only question... continue reading
The door banged closed, the jet engines began to rev up, and the steward came on the loudspeaker to announce coyly, "Welcome to American Airlines Flight 1250 to Reality." As the plane roared off the runway, over the rugged hills of St. Martin, and across those beautiful, soft turquoise Caribbean waters, I was left to ponder what news I'd missed from the land of Reality during the five days I'd fled. I'm back in the office now, and having caught up on some reading, I can only conclude that if our popular culture is an indication, the world of Reality... continue reading
Bill Clinton may be the toast of Harlem, but the corrosive effects of his political chutzpah are still poisoning Washington. Look no further than the shameful performance of Gary Condit, who's decided to end the stonewalling tactic. The poor-Chandra phase is over; it's poor-Gary time now. Spare us. Condit sexually exploited a woman three decades his junior. When she disappeared, he lied to her parents and the police, and by extension, the nation about their intimate relationship. A decade ago, this would have been cause for an immediate resignation in disgrace. Gary Condit came to office after Tony Coelho resigned... continue reading
Brian Lowry reports on the television business for its hometown paper, the Los Angeles Times. He's by no means a mouthpiece for the networks; but nor, it appears, does he find troublesome one of their most objectionable ongoing practices: offering families an ever-diminishing supply of family television. This trend has been the story of broadcast TV for several years, yet Lowry, like so many of those who cover television, has seemingly failed to recognize its corrosive effects. He is, however, almost alone on his beat where readership is concerned, since his is both huge (the Times' daily circulation exceeds one... continue reading
The second historic transition of 2001 is coming soon. First, adult supervision was returned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now after many distinguished years of service to the nation and to the cause of freedom, Robert Bartley is handing over his duties as editor of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page to the able Paul Gigot. Conservatives often pay tribute to their most powerful influences in their own rather gloomy way: imagining the horror of a political landscape without them. What if we never had Ronald Reagan? What if we never had Rush Limbaugh? What if we never had Robert Bartley's... continue reading
In most struggles over the unborn, the pro-life cause begins with a profound disadvantage. Developed human beings, with all their sins, struggles, and dreams, are easier to embrace than an unknown, invisible human being without a winning personality. It is why we have more sympathy for the plight of turtles than we do unborn children. Now double that problem, or perhaps multiply it by ten, for the debate over embryo-destroying stem cell research. The developed humans can't be accused of callously disposing with their own flesh for convenience, for an undisturbed prom or an uninterrupted college education. Instead, we see... continue reading
A few weeks ago the Cable News Network named a new chairman. The choice was Time's Walter Isaacson, a print man sure to be welcomed by high-fiber, less-tabloid-flab TV news idealists. But what did this say about CNN's perception of its struggle with the upstart Fox News Channel, whose brio has not only earned it thunderous cable ratings, but also is making CNN look evermore like an old battleship headed for moth balls? Isaacson had never seemed to grasp the appeal of Fox and its winning "We Report, You Decide" slogan. After being named Time's Managing Editor, Isaacson went in... continue reading
The late Steve Allen once told me that the mark of an untalented comedian is a reliance on jokes revolving around sex, drugs, or obscenities - in other words, shock. I suspect Mr. Allen never met Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the animated cartoon "South Park." If he had, he would have revised his observations to state that whatever they come up with defines "comedy" at its most tasteless. It's impossible to overstate the damage these two have inflicted on American culture. "South Park," which this month celebrates its fourth anniversary on the Comedy Central cable network, airs... continue reading
It was the winter of 1998. John Elway had just won his first Super Bowl. Bill Clinton had just told his millionth lie, this time about sexual relations he didn't have with that woman. And the Parents Television Council had released a content analysis of broadcast television's "family hour," the first hour of prime time television, traditionally reserved for families. The family hour had been, for the longest time, a rich tradition, a simple show of respect to the family in whose living room the industry was a guest, presenting its wares. The public airwaves are just that, and recognizing... continue reading
The Democratic Party showed Washington its sense of humor by naming Terry McAuliffe to lead the Democratic National Committee. He hasn't disappointed. He continues making us want to laugh. Start with the concept that the nation's biggest bloviators for "campaign finance reform" picked as their top dog one of the country's most notorious soft money abusers. Consider that the same party whose congressional investigators are breathing heavily over teapot tempests like Karl Rove's tardy stock sales is led by a man who's seemingly always in the shadows of sleazy schemes like the illegal DNC-Teamsters fundraising swap that killed union boss... continue reading