Roll Call, April 3, 2010
A recent caller to a C-SPAN morning show said the network was allowing so many black viewers to call in that it should change its name to “Black-SPAN.”
Commentators from Mediaite to Jon Stewart noted host Bill Scanlan’s composure as he listened to the caller, with some arguing he should [...]
Continue Reading →Journalists have an old rule of thumb: When in doubt, interview a senior citizen. Even if nothing interesting has happened to them recently, they always have a good story from sometime in their life.
As he turns 90, Clayton Meech has more than his share of good stories. I’ve heard a few of them over [...]
Continue Reading →Eleanor Colbert Beckwith never stopped learning.
My grandmother was born Sunday, April 10, 1921, in Stanton, Nebraska, one of a string of dusty farm towns nestled between the railroad and the Elkhorn River a hundred miles northwest of Omaha. Her father, Leon Colbert, was a rural mailman and an Army veteran; her mother, Arlotta, raised [...]
Continue Reading →The News & Observer, Jan. 21, 2009
WASHINGTON — How do you get front-row seats to history?
Several people with North Carolina ties found their way to the steps of the U.S. Capitol for President Barack Obama’s inauguration Tuesday.
The only people with better seats were members of Congress, former vice presidents and other dignitaries [...]
Continue Reading →For posterity’s sake, I collected a few of the nice things people said about Under the Dome while I was running it.
“It’s the Jon Stewart version of the venerable political column. Political junkies will enjoy Dome, of course, but so will others who don’t care as much about politics as they do about issues, [...]
Continue Reading →The News & Observer, Dec. 2, 2008
When it comes to sending corrupt politicians to prison, the U.S. attorney’s office in Raleigh has some big trophies.
Under Republican leadership for the past six years, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of North Carolina have taken down a state agriculture commissioner, the speaker of the state [...]
Continue Reading →The News & Observer, Election 2008
During the 2008 primary and general elections, I developed the format, wrote 18 individual fact checks and helped design three special display features.
See a PDF of a Claims Department page.
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