But particularly when the media profess to strive toward objectivity, gatekeepers play a crucial role in helping people navigate the news to make educated political decisions.

While history never repeats itself, political patterns do.

Americans have always evinced some distrust of government, but the current situation has exacerbated this to a degree that may be unprecedented.

We live in a media world simultaneously obsessed with technology and personality.

More and more, Democrats are starting to worry they that they have a more um, colorful version of Jimmy Carter on their hands. Obama acts cool as a proverbial cucumber but that awful '70s show seems frightfully close to a rerun.

As a parent and a citizen, I'll take a Bill Gates (or Warren Buffett) over Steve Jobs every time. If we must have billionaires, better they should ignore Jobs's example and instead embrace the morality and wisdom of the great industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

American journalists tend to treat inequality as a fact of life. But it needn't be.