News & Opinion

A ProPublica investigation, April 6, 2023, by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski revealed that for the last 20 years, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted luxury vacations from billionaire Harlan Crow without listing them in his financial disclosures. Crow has been active in promoting conservative causes. Crow’s law firm has not had a Supreme Court case when Thomas has been on the bench, and Crow said he has never tried to influence

A few days after the mass shooting at a Nashville school, Tennessee House Republicans voted to expel two Black members for leading a gun reform demonstration on the House floor. In the interests of decorum, Republicans sidelined the need for debate on gun control, said Martin Luther King III. Tennessee director of the American Civil Liberties Union Kathy Sinback said the expulsions were without due process, and raised “questions about the disparate treatment of Black

The American Civil Liberties is suing the Idaho Attorney General for threats to medical personnel who give patients information about out-of-state abortion care. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said after Roe v. Wade was overturned that “under fundamental First Amendment principles, individuals must remain free to inform and counsel each other about the reproductive care that is available in other states.” (Axios, April 5,2023, by Sareen Habeshian and Oriana Gonzalez) Rose Mackenzie of the ACLU,

Fox News reversed itself at the news that former president Donald Trump was indicted. Whereas it offered him little support since January 6, this week it declared that Trump was indicted by a deep-state, corrupt legal system intent on attacking conservatives unfairly. (CNN, March 31, 2023, by Oliver Darcy) Fox News hosts warned that the indictment would make Trump a hero and warned that Trump’s core supporters would rise to his defense. Some urged his

Borja Lozano and Irene Larraz in Poynter, April 3, 2023, write that the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT can write a coherent, persuasive, misspelling-free text but when tested filled in gaps with false information. It can muddle fact and fiction and still seem convincing. There is a need for greater transparency on how the chatbot works and also a greater need to verify information, actually something that could be done by ChatGPT if it were improved.