Political Anger

Steven W. Webster, Elizabeth C. Connors, and Betsy Sinclair have written a study titled “The Social Consequences of Political Anger.”  The abstract: A functioning democracy relies on social interactions between people who disagree—including listening to...

The Decline of Local News

\ Jack Shafer at Politico: In 2009, just as the apocalypse befell the newspaper industry but while local news was still in relative abundance, many readers gave it an apathetic shrug. A Pew Research Center survey from that year found that an astonishing 42 percent...

Grim Days for Newspapers

Mason Walker and Katerina Eva Matsa  at Pew: Staff layoffs continued to pummel the beleaguered U.S. newspaper industry in 2020. A third of papers with an average Sunday circulation of 50,000 or more experienced layoffs last year, a period complicated by the impact of...

Russian Disinformation

From the Treasury Department: Russian Intelligence Services, namely the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), play critical roles in propagating Russian disinformation online. The FSB, GRU,...

Problems That Need Attention

Michael S. Johnson at New GOP Forum: Congress, as it has been frightfully clear for some time needs reform. Begin with the stark reality that the institution is highly vulnerable to violent occupation, guarded by a 2,000-person police force that let down its guard...