Guest Thinkers

From a press release out today, detailing the strong commitment from both parties to biomedical research.n Federation of American Societies for Experimental BiologyOffice of Public Affairs • 9650 Rockville Pike, […]

Over at the Daily Kos, University of Washington communication professor David Domke issues a bold call to news organizations. Warning that the McCain-Palin campaign represents a “crisis for mainstream journalists,” […]

“Grandpa” McCain?: The presidential hopeful relies on his wife and aides to show him things online or to read him email messages.As I’ve written, McCain’s admission that he doesn’t know […]

On Thursday, Dec. 4, I will be speaking at the New York Academy of Sciences, located on the 40th floor of World Trade Center #7.It’s a busy academic year, with […]

Back in July, I sat down for an hour long interview with the new TED-like social media site Big Think. The innovative project features “hundreds of hours of direct, unfiltered […]

Expect to hear a lot about this from the Obama campaign over the next few weeks. See the front page article at today’s Washington Post, detailing McCain’s reaction to the […]

That’s the question posed this past week at PBS’ Bill Moyers Journal. The program is a hard hitting examination of the impact of radical right talk radio, books, and TV […]

Piggybacking on last week’s Bill Moyers segment on radical right media and hate speech, Media Matters for America issued the following action advisory last night: Michael Savage is at it […]

While many Democrats and women find Palin’s support for criminalizing abortion to be outrageous, a recent survey by the Pew organization finds that roughly 40% of Americans generally agree with […]

As I’ve blogged before, research shows that The Daily Show is likely to cultivate cynicism among its younger audience while threatening to displace more traditional sources of news that might […]

That’s the argument of Curtis Brainard at the Columbia Journalism Review. As he concludes: Palin might not have the longest political track record to scrutinize, but the environment is clearly […]

As I have written in various articles, when it comes to science debates, the public is far more likely to be miserly in reaching a judgment than fully informed. Most […]

As the Sunday NY Times details, strategist Steve Schmidt has turned around the McCain campaign with brilliant advertising that sets the news agenda and primes voter evaluations. The former Rove […]

“Behold the power and glory of the scientific method!,” quotes The Onionin a satirical spoof of science enthusiasts flocking to a wall stain of the image of Darwin (above.) The […]

Last month Pew released a comprehensive analysis of news audience trends over time and across demographics. One of the key findings (depicted at left) was the continued decline in public […]

How bad have things gotten when it comes to substantive coverage and discussion of the presidential election? Pew finds that at the end of August, just 2% of total news […]

Following up on her testimony before Congress yesterday, MIT President Susan Hockfield writes in the Washington Post today that the U.S. needs a Manhattan Project-scale investment in renewable energy R&D. […]

A few things are interesting about this clip showing a focus group run by Frank Luntz with Minnesota voters on behalf of the AARP. First, when Luntz asks the participants […]

Two essays I wrote on Expelled are now in print and I have placed PDFs of the articles online. The first shorter essay appears at Skeptical Inquirer magazine and reviews […]

The McCain choice of Sarah Palin has made creationism a topic that various GOP spokespeople are now being asked by the press to weigh in on. From the interviews, an […]

Palin has put support for creationism among GOPleaders on the media and public agenda. Everywhere in the news, GOP officials are being asked their position on the matter and in […]

When I first heard that McCain had chosen Sarah Palin to be his running partner, I expected there to be a revolt from the intellectual wing of the GOP party, […]

That’s the take in this recent profile at New York magazine. The far left blogosphere first stung Lieberman when his 2004 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination fell flat but […]

George Lakoff weighs in with an assessment of what Sarah Palin can do for the McCain candidacy: The initial response has been to try to keep the focus on external […]

In otherwise strong performances by Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin, I was struck by the sneering arrogance in their dismissal of community organizers and the rabid reaction of the GOP […]

From the latest Policy Alert of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Republican VP Pick Supports Teaching “Both Sides.” Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s choice for […]

To say that Republicans are anti-science has always been an extreme over-simplification, the type of characterization that carries weight at liberal blogs but doesn’t really match up well with political […]

Adweek asked the creative directors at some of the country’s largest advertising agencies to create their own mock up print ads for either McCain or Obama. Read and see what […]

The people running John McCain’s campaign know what they are doing. By linking their advertising strategy to the news narrative, they continue to successfully counter-punch against an anemic Democratic convention […]

President Bush observing the disaster in New Orleans from Air Force One.For a campaign that appears to be making all the right moves, Mother Nature might be the one variable […]