DES MOINES—Granted, it was a one-word slip, an adjective out of place. But still its usage rankled — given how the religious right dominates politics in Iowa. So, within seconds of the close of the WHO-TV 6 P.M., news cast, I emailed the anchor and the news director: “Why on earth in its profiles tonight [...]

Cleaning up in the wake of the 2010 Iowa State Fair will be daunting this year. In addition to the mess left by nearly 1 million visitors and thousands of farm animals, we have a continuing saga of news coverage that told of possible racial assaults and then, in Saturday Night Live fashion, appears to [...]

(Editor’s note: The incidents described here have become part of a developing story, as this Google link shows.) The Des Moines Register’s reluctance to identify criminal suspects or victims by race has turned into an outright refusal to do so. The closing night of the Iowa State Fair was marked by an observance not exactly [...]

What would you think of a U.S. political leader who said, “I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount?” In today’s environment, one might think such a person was courting votes from [...]

The Iowa caucuses haunt political news and reporting in the Hawkeye state. News stories pop up all the time about whether Iowa will retain its “first-in-the-nation” status in screening presidential candidates and whether the parties in Iowa will agree on the date for the 2012 caucus carnival. Meantime, likely candidates are weekly visitors at fund-raisers [...]

When the world simply does not make sense — or maybe even worse, when it does — who you gonna turn to? One of my better refuges is George Orwell, and here is why: Orwell’s “passion for liberty and intellectual honesty” is at least an opener. Geoffrey Wheatcroft offered that epitaph for Orwell in a [...]

One of the riddles of news coverage of Iowa politics, at least for me, is why the Iowa Republican Party is not reported for what it is: Not a political party, but a driven assembly that wants to force feed its perspective on Christian beliefs down the throats of the rest of us. More than [...]

Mindful of the awful winter besetting much of the nation and the political news frustrating all of us, here are 10 travel tips and trivia should you decide to escape Down Under to Australia and New Zealand. (Accommodations provided by our son-in-law’s family and friends not included.) 1. Qantas is an acronym: Queensland and Northern [...]

Hey! Where is everyone? The Iowa caucuses are only a few weeks away — Jan. 23. Remember the 2008 caucuses when U.S. Sen. Barrack Obama (D-Ill) began his road to the White House? So where are all the pollsters, network TV news types and print pundits this time around? Doesn’t anyone care who gets elected [...]

Thanksgiving Day stuffing is a tradition in journalism, celebrated on front doorsteps across the nation as subscribers pick up their newspaper. With all the advertisements and inserts, the stuffed Thanksgiving Day paper could be the size of a small turkey. It’s the biggest newspaper of the year, has been so for 80 or more years. [...]