Trump’s First Meeting with Media Reps

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This is the way that the meeting has been reported in an article written by Emily Smith and Daniel Halper and published in the New York Post: Donald Trump’s Media Summit Was a ‘F—Ing Firing Squad’ Donald Trump scolded media big shots during an off-the-record Trump Tower sit-down on Monday, sources…

Jindalism Casts a Long Shadow

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This is the opening of an article on Louisiana’s continuing budget crisis, written by Heath Allen for WDSU News: “Louisiana’s state colleges and universities face another $18 million in budget cuts as part of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ plan to fill a looming $312 million budget shortfall. “But during a meeting…

Image of the Day

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Don’t be entirely surprised if this Golden Pheasant replaces the Bald Eagle as the National Bird: Photographed at Hangzhou Safari Park in Hangzhou, China (Reuters/Stringer)  

PostTruth Is the OED’s Word of the Year for 2016

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH These are the opening paragraphs of “From Truthiness to Post­Truth, Just in Time for Donald Trump: Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year Should Scare the Hell out of You,” an article written by Erin Keane for Salon: “Remember back in 2006, when Stephen Colbert, the fictional conservative blowhard TV personality played…

Two Writing Prompts for Students (and Faculty)

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This is an announcement from Prose: Dear students: The platform that brought you #Write4Good invites you to participate in a new writing challenge. This one has a chance to make literary history. Let’s take a look at the prompt: It’s record-breaking time. Together, we are going to break the world record for…

Juxtaposition of the Day

BY MARTIN KICH This is a double juxtaposition for the price of one. Note the order of the two articles—the implicit greater concern for the seeming epidemic of dog shootings by police over the incidence of hate crimes. Here are the six “Fast Facts” in the second article: “1. The new report covers incidents that…

Putting the Election Results in Visual Perspective

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Standard Map:   Map Adjusting for Electoral Votes:   Map Adjusting for Population:   None of this changes the results, but it may provide an incentive to change the results in 2018 and 2020. This map does not resemble the maps in 1972 and 1984, and yet the results were very…