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Saul Friedman: Anyone Remember Glass-Steagall?

Here is one difference between the generations of reporters. The older generation was (and is) skeptical of big business and trusted government more to provide protection from the cold blasts of laissez faire. The younger, Dow generation, while cynical of government and almost everything else, believed that stocks and property values will always go up. [...]

Saul Friedman: An Untouched Issue: The Aging of America

If I may interrupt the campaign for a moment to bring up a mega-issue that is barely discussed but will confront the next several presidents–the aging of America and its consequences. Older people, according to most polls, are the most diligent voters. And according to a September Pew Research study, people 50 years and older [...]

Saul Friedman: 3,983—but Who’s Counting?

Conventional political wisdom keeps saying that people have lost interest in the Iraq war, that it’s no longer an issue. It’s the economy again, stupid. Well I know at least eight American families who would disagree. They are grieving for eight soldiers killed March 10 in separate incidents in the non-Iraq war. Another four were [...]

Saul Friedman: Mainstream Black Columnists and Barack Obama

If race is not an issue in this presidential contest (and I believe it is and will be), then how come virtually every mainstream black columnist has been effusively and unabashedly supporting Sen. Barack Obama, and highly critical of and even caustic towards Sen. Hillary Clinton? Columnists have every right to their views, even if [...]

Saul Friedman: Any Pundit Jobs Available?

For this election season, I would like to be a television pundit, commentator, consultant or whatever title seems appropriate (and pays well). I have the credentials: I do not have a steady day job. I have not covered or been involved in politics in a generation. I am white, generally liberal, and Jewish. I can [...]

Saul Friedman: The Press, The Religious Right and the Wall of Separation

I often wonder why most of the mainstream reporters and editorialists don’t make the connection between the first two most basic guarantees in the First Amendment and their own responsibilities for making them whole: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of [...]

Saul Friedman: The Sleeping Press and the Coming of the Thought Police

Just the title of the bill making its way through the Congress ought to frighten hell out of us or at least prompt a reporter worth his or her computer to find out more: “The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism and Prevention Act.” Yet so far no one in the Main Stream Media–newspapers, television or [...]

Saul Friedman: The Breathless Coverage of Hillary Clinton

When will the American press grow up and realize that America may at last be adult enough to catch up with the 21st Century and elect a woman as president. One doesn’t have to support the candidacy of Sen. Hillary Clinton, or her positions to take a little pride in that possibility and to consider [...]

Saul Friedman: How to Challenge the Talking Points

As I predicted here in July, George W. Bush, the president of all the people, is once again vetoing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), despite its overwhelming (75 percent) support among Americans, health care professionals and members of Congress. The basic reason was and is ideological; he’s against government sponsored health care. White [...]

Saul Friedman: On Social Security–Just the Facts Please

Reporters and editors who are about to cover the 2008 presidential and congressional campaigns will almost certainly have to deal with the issue of Social Security, which won’t go away. But they’ll do it badly, unless they get a few facts straight. Here is an example of what I mean. On Bloomberg.com, which is supposed [...]