MSNBC & The Controversy of Truth

To echo the sentiment of Frank Rich and Joan Walsh, you would think that liberals would know better by now than to feed into the Right's feigned sense of victimhood. After all, this is a continuous, pathetic game of gotcha played by the Right every time they are called out for their heinous, bigoted stances …

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An Ode to The Conversation

Ah, The Conversation! We direct it, move it, shift it-- Call it debate, call it Spirited Give it nuance; make it balanced Just make sure you call it The Conversation.   We blog about it, write about it Have them in groups! The dialogue; the discussion; the Panel! Establishment minds, the hottest new pundits-- Old …

Sense and Respectability

This year started off on a bit of a rough note for me, with the news of James Avery's passing. The role he played so masterfully and would be known best for was that of Judge Phillip Banks, affectionately known by most as "Uncle Phil." A powerful, authoritative figure that also showed great love to …

Why I am Cynical on Matters of Race

The calm, dinner table scene in 1998's American History X still haunts me to this day, even more than the scene in which Edward Norton's character, the brutal skinhead Derek Vinyard, curb-stomps one of the Black men that tried to break into his truck. The calm, smooth manner in which Derek's father, a cop bitter about how …

I Want My Thirty Minutes Back, Lena Dunham

Last night on Twitter I joked about who was going to write the first "think-piece" on the HBO pseudo-comedy, Girls. The first person I thought was going to do so was MSNBC's Toure', which I was completely wrong about. In searching for tweets and positive reviews of Girls I thought he had written, I instead found a very interesting …

So What Determines A “Foremost Public Intellectual”?

I have never been a huge fan of the weekend MSNBC show that bears Melissa Harris-Perry's name. At times I have found the show to be frankly self-congratulatory, often indulging in the glow that comes with being given one of the strongest platforms on one of the biggest networks in the country. I've always believed …

The Unfair Rejection of Michael Bloomberg

My wife Jessica, having lived in New York City longer than I have (she had been in the city about two years before I moved there), has always wondered at my immense love of the town we once called home, at times even more than my birthplace of Baltimore, Maryland. She often reminds me of …