A lesson for CBS: Live fact-checking is incompatible with good debate moderation

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Sept. 20, Ben Voth, a professor of rhetoric and director of debate at SMU Dallas, for a piece critical of the way some media outlets have been conducting presidential debates in recent years. Published in The Hill under the heading A lesson for CBS: Live fact-checking is incompatible with good debate moderation: https://tinyurl.com/mrxvrccw ​

 

Lindsey Davis and David Muir of ABC News moderated ABC’s Sept. 10 presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The debate, the second of the year, demonstrates the collapse of the traditional Commission on Presidential Debate forums that came into being in 1987. The commission originally planned to host a series of debates this fall that neither of the political parties would agree to for their campaigns.

The collapse of that process led to the current regimen of media network debate events now hosted by CNN and ABC. Most analysts recognize that Muir and Davis engaged in arguably partisan fact checking against the Trump campaign, raising inherent questions about how the next debate among vice presidential candidates Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) might be moderated by CBS News journalists Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan.

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What Interviewing a Suspected Serial Killer and His Victims Taught Me About Empathy

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Sept. 19, Charlie Scudder, a professor of practice in journalism at SMU Dallas, for a commentary examining emotional issues reporters and news sources navigate during the process of storytelling. Published in Texas Monthly under the heading What interviewing a suspected serial killer and his victims taught me about empathy: https://tinyurl.com/8ccapy6y ​

The first time he called, I was home with family on a Saturday afternoon in 2022. I asked if he had time later to continue our conversation. “Yeah, I have nothing planned,” he laughed.

It was a funny line. His name was Billy Chemirmir, and he was in the Dallas County jail awaiting trial on eighteen counts of capital murder. Just a few months earlier, his first trial had ended in a shocking mistrial. Of course he had time. It wasn’t like there were pressing appointments to schedule around while he was incarcerated.

I’d been covering the case against Chemirmir for three years as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News. He’d been accused of stalking elderly women at luxury senior living communities in the Dallas area, posing as a maintenance worker to get access to their apartments, smothering them to death with a pillow, and then rifling through their personal belongings so he could steal their cash and jewelry. He had been linked to two dozen deaths in all.

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Paying More Attention to His Appearance Than Hers

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August 12, Rhonda Garelick, distinguished professor of English and Journalism at SMU Dallas, for a piece about the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz democratic presidential ticket and how age, gender and appearance can be muted or magnified in the presentation. Published in Garelick’s New York Times ‘Face Forward’ column under the heading Paying More Attention to His Appearance Than Hers: https://tinyurl.com/uzaemwbx ​

Historically, women in the public eye have been described as women first, and everything else second: “women politicians,” not just politicians; “women authors”; or “women artists,” for example. Along with the labeling comes the long list of expectations, especially in politics, which typically breaks down into three basic categories: body (Is she pretty enough, or maybe too pretty? Does she dress badly or too well?); temperament (Is she nice or overbearing? Is she too emotional? Too ambitious?); and family (Is she a childless cat lady? A mother? Is her husband really running the show?).

Remarkably though, Kamala Harris seems to be evading much of this, starting with her perceived age. Ms. Harris will be 60 in two months. Yet she seems just somehow outside the category of age — not young, but also not old or even middle age. True, she is more than 20 years younger than President Biden and telegraphs energy and exuberance. She dances; she sings; she laughs; she’s friends with Quavo. But when she rebukes a disruptive protester at a rally with her trademark, “I’m speaking,” she is the adult in the room — fully mature, yet nowhere near “old.” And also free of the staid or matronly connotations of the “middle-age woman.”

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Christopher Roos: We need a new Smokey Bear that embraces good fire

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 August 6, Christopher Roos, an environmental archaeologist and professor of anthropology at SMU Dallas, for a commentary advocating the U.S. Forest Service update its Smokey Bear wildfire suppression campaign to embrace ‘good fires’ and adopt strategies espoused by indigenous cultures. Published in the Chicago Tribune under the heading Christopher Roos: We need a new Smokey Bear that embraces good fire: https://tinyurl.com/52f5w8r7 ​

 

On Friday, the  Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and other federal agencies will celebrate the 80th birthday of the most potent symbol of America’s wildfire issues — Smokey Bear. Born from a public service advertising campaign, Smokey has achieved his pop culture apogee by association with Bambi in the Disney animation multiverse since the 1960s.

Smokey was at his most effective when convincing Americans that wildfires were bad, that nearly all of them were our fault and that, by our own actions, we could choose to live without wildfire. These attitudes are pervasive in American culture today, but they fail to recognize the long history of humans and good fire, as illustrated so clearly in the beneficial practices of many American Indigenous communities.

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The unintended consequences of Trump’s ‘No Tax on Tips’ plan

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August 1, Michael Davis, economics professor at the Cox School of Business, SMU Dallas, for an op-ed analyzing the economic impact of ‘No Tax on Tips’ as proposed by former President Trump. Published in The Hill under the heading The unintended consequences of Trump’s ‘No Tax on Tips’ plan: https://tinyurl.com/mu9dtjm2 ​

No matter what you thought about President Biden’s fitness to serve another term, we’re past that. Now we can focus on what the frontrunner candidates for 2024 actually want to do.

This is, sadly, not always easy.

Policy questions are complicated. It’s hard for regular voters — people with, you know, jobs, bills and maybe kids — to figure out what will be best. And because the candidates want to win, they don’t want to tell people about tradeoffs of their policy pitches. They don’t want you to know that if the government does more of one thing, by necessity it must do less of something else.

So, let me suggest that you consider one small change in the tax code that may be up for grabs.

It’s nothing big and complex like abolishing the income tax in favor of a consumption tax (a terrific idea that will never happen). But it is something Donald Trump floated in detail in his RNC convention acceptance speech last month — and something Vice President Kamala Harris will have to address: “No Tax on Tips.”

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We need a Lincoln right now

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July 29, Dallas Gingles, assistant dean of hybrid education and associate professor in the Perkins School of Theology at SMU Dallas, for a commentary positing that the country needs a leader today with the wisdom and religious guideposts of Abraham Lincoln. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading We need a Lincoln right now: https://tinyurl.com/mtyt7tjd ​

I teach ethics and theology at Southern Methodist University, and this fall I’m offering a course on Presidential Rhetoric and Political Theology. Beginning with Lincoln’s second inaugural address, we’ll examine the ways presidents have used theological themes as a way of helping explain the nation to itself.

I’ve been thinking about this topic for at least the past decade, but listening to this year’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, I was struck by how important this tradition is to our shared self-understanding as a country, and about how impoverished we are because neither Biden nor Trump truly inhabits it. Whether Vice President Kamala Harris better embodies the Lincoln paradigm remains to be seen.

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A very MAGA convention: Trump, Vance, and the transformation of the GOP

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July 21, Matt Wilson, political science professor specializing in elections at SMU Dallas, for a piece analyzing the GOP’s philosophical drift from Reagan to MAGA. Published in the Orange County Register under the heading A very MAGA convention: Trump, Vance, and the transformation of the GOP: https://tinyurl.com/4yww5p6y ​

 

The last night of the Republican National Convention featured professional wrestling legend Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt off at the podium, a rap call-and-response with delegates led by Kid Rock, and an introduction of the former President of the United States by the President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Power Slap.  This capped a week that had prominently featured speeches by reality TV star Savannah Chrisley and model, rapper, and former exotic dancer Amber Rose.  Clearly, this is not your father’s GOP.

These icons of pop culture may have been the most visible departures from Republican conventions past, but they were not the most significant ones. More fundamentally, many of the issues and themes emphasized at this week’s event would have been shocking to a Republican audience as recently as ten years ago.

For decades, throughout the Reagan-Bush era of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, conservative and Republican identity in America rested on a “three-legged stool:” embrace of free market economics, robust projection of American military power to resist tyranny abroad, and support for traditional moral and cultural values.  Of these, only the last clearly remains a part of the GOP agenda, and even it was in some ways soft peddled at the recent convention.

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Proposed new Texas curriculum plays religious favorites

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July 20, Mark Chancey, professor of religious studies at SMU Dallas, for a piece critical of proposed Texas school curriculum that infuses Bible teaching. Published in the San Antonio Express-News under the heading Proposed new Texas curriculum plays religious favorites: https://tinyurl.com/mttj6ms7 ​

 

As Texas neighbors draw the spotlight for increasing the Bible’s place in public schools — a new Louisiana law requires display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom and Oklahoma’s state superintendent has declared that every teacher “will be teaching from the Bible” — the Lone Star State is quietly pursuing its own strategy to the same end.

The State Board of Education is considering a new language arts and reading curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade called Open Education Resources that includes a surprising amount of biblical content, much of it promoting some religious views over others.

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Shannen Doherty was painted as a bad-girl ‘Veronica’ stereotype. She deserved better

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July 16, Rhonda Garelick, distinguished professor of English and Journalism at SMU Dallas, for a piece about the good girl/bad girl personas that shadowed Shannen Doherty for much of her life and career. Published in the Los Angeles Times under the heading Shannen Doherty was painted as a bad-girl ‘Veronica’ stereotype. She deserved better:  https://tinyurl.com/5tpuxbpa 

 

As Brenda Walsh on “Beverly Hills 90210,” Shannen Doherty represented a bit of reverse typecasting. She was a dark-haired, sultry beauty, her green-eyed gaze peeking out through long bangs, but she played the good girl — a Midwestern virgin lost in the Sodom of Beverly Hills. Similarly cast against type, an angelic-looking blond, Jennie Garth, played Kelly, a worldly and experienced SoCal vixen — Brenda’s best friend and, sometimes, treacherous rival.

Had Aaron Spelling deliberately set out to reverse the Betty/Veronica pop-culture (and deeply Eurocentric) stereotype, in which blonds are virtuous and brunets dangerous? Maybe. (The old Hollywood version of this is the 1950s tabloid feud between sexy brunet Elizabeth Taylor and sweet blond Debbie Reynolds, who were friends before Taylor “stole” Reynolds’ then-husband, Eddie Fisher.)

But the age-old dichotomy came roaring back anyway, in the form of a “90210” backstage plotline: Doherty developed an off-camera “bad girl” reputation. Rumors flew about her allegedly demanding and entitled behavior on set. She was a Veronica, after all. Co-stars — reportedly including Spelling’s daughter, Tori — complained, until finally, in a much-publicized move, Doherty was fired. The fallen angel was expelled from Eden.

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The Irony of Dr. Ruth

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July 13, Rhonda Garelick, distinguished professor of English and Journalism at SMU Dallas, for a piece about the impact of the diminutive “Dr. Ruth” Westheimer on American sexuality. Published in Garelick’s New York Times ‘Face Forward’ column under the heading The Irony of Dr. Ruth: https://tinyurl.com/3m55tsuf ​

 

I will never forget the afternoon I spent, about 30 years ago, with Dr. Ruth Westheimer, interviewing her for a now-long-lost magazine article — my first ever. We met at the door of her New York City office in Washington Heights. In a gesture of mingled affection and authority, she thrust her top-handled pocketbook into my hands, while she fished for her keys. Once inside the cozy, cluttered space, I saw the many footstools she kept stowed beneath every chair. At 4-foot-7 Dr. Ruth used them to keep her feet from dangling when she sat down.

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