Time to Think

Sleeping Watchdogs By Hank Silverberg             (Stakeout at the  Richmond, VA courthouse)         Journalists are supposed to be watchdogs, protecting the general public from government excess, corporate greed, and individual scallywags. That’s what our founding fathers had in mind, but these days the watchdogs seem to be lost in the deep woods. So, there’s a message I want to send to all those men and women who practice journalism: stop whining! The American public really doesn’t care about your comfort level, your ego or your Q score from your employer’s latest focus group.      It is time for reporters, producers and editors to return their attention to getting stories right, and producing stories that really matter. They should pay less attention to the minute details inside politics that drive cable pundits wild and drive TV viewers to Netflix, cat videos on YouTube or the latest so-...

               Comedy & The First Amendment                By Hank Silverberg       It was painful to laugh this week.      A few hundred journalists, politicians, White House staffers and friends got together this past weekend at the Washington Hilton for what is jokingly called the “nerd prom,” and formally called the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. It’s an annual event that raises money for scholarships for aspiring journalists, and hands out awards for some great work by reporters. It began in 1914 as a celebration of the First Amendment.      I have been to a few of these during my years as a Washington reporter, and I can tell you they are sometimes fun, sometimes boring.   It’s a good chance to network if you are job hunting, or socialize with people you normally compete against. You could tell which news o...

A Special Preview  by Hank Silverberg       Over the past 11 weeks I have written about all kinds of real issues facing the country or the world. Today's edition of "Time to Think" is something different. Below you will find the Prologue and part of Chapter 1 of my book, "The Campaign," which was published late last year. It's a novel. It's not #fakenews. It's fiction. It's been said, write about what you know, so my novel is about politicians, reporters and political and international intrigue.          Please read the excerpt, enjoy it and at the bottom, there will be instructions on how to order the book if you wish. It's available in hard cover, soft cover and E-book.                                                                        ...

    Never Again!         By Hank Silverberg    “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it"                                                             -- George Santayana                                                            It is a startling figure. Twenty-two percent of millennials, and 11 percent of all American adults aren’t sure they know anything about the Holocaust which killed nearly 17 million people in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The figures come from a study released on Holocaust Remembrance Day this past week by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germ...

Clear and Present Danger                                                                                                           By Hank Silverberg                                                                        I am troubled. Some of our basic rights are being threatened, and no one seems to notice or care.         Our founding fathers took more than 25 years to create a system in this country which, with a few amendments, has held up very well over the last 200 years.  ...