Jan 27Is This The End of the World?I was going to ask ChatGPT to write this story, and based on what I have read, it probably would have done as good a job as this, or maybe better. (Or maybe ChatGPT did write this. Who can tell.) ChatGPT is just the latest iteration (and the first warning)…5 min read5 min read
Dec 13, 2022An Idea To Save The NHSAs an American who moved to the UK a few years ago, I was astonished at the entire concept of an NHS. I had, of course, for my whole life spent a fortune on health insurance, and despite that, I ended up in endless fights with the insurance companies who…Nhs3 min readNhs3 min read
Oct 15, 2022An Alternative To TaxesHere’s an interesting idea for Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt, but you better hurry. Time is short. We are approaching the tax season, and living both in the UK and the US, we find ourselves in the rather unenviable position of having to pay taxes in both and then work…3 min read3 min read
Jun 24, 2022Why Can’t We Get Our Novel Published?Nearly 40 years ago, or maybe it was more, I was a photographer on an archeological excavation in northern Israel at Tel Akko. It was there that I met Neil Silberman. That’s him on the left, me on the right. We were young then, just starting out careers. He was…Books4 min readBooks4 min read
Jun 2, 2022Big News About The Heard-Depp TrialThe Heard-Depp trial is big news and it tell us a lot about the future of news. Personally, I did not follow it. But that clearly makes me something of an outlier. More than 18 million people watched it on TV news coverage in the United States. I am sure…Media3 min readMedia3 min read
May 12, 2022Who Gets To Decide What is News?According to recent polls anywhere from 67% to 78% of Russians support the ‘special military action’ in Ukraine. This support is entirely a function of the ‘news’ that they see. For most Russians, according to The BBC, their main source of news and information is television, and television news in…Journalism4 min readJournalism4 min read
Apr 19, 2022Journalists Love a Free Press — Until They are Actually Confronted With OneElon Musk’s vision of Twitter is a truly open platform — a ‘town square’ where people can say whatever they like. This is the essence of a Free Press. Yet this vision sends a wave of terror through the journalism community. Journalists love to champion “Free Press,” that is, until…Elon Musk3 min readElon Musk3 min read
Apr 1, 2022Is The United States Ungovernable? — Pack The House Instead of the Supreme CourtAs an American with homes in the United States and the UK, I have had the unique opportunity to experience first hand the governments of both nations. Trust me, the UK works better. It works better for a fairly simple reason — it is really a representative government. Members of…Congress3 min readCongress3 min read
Mar 26, 2022RIP Dirck Halstead- You Taught Me A LotIn 1990, when I founded Video News International, an all VJ (or MMJ) global TV news company, the concept was unique. No producers, no camera people, no editors and no on air ‘talent’. Just a journalist with a video camera. My first investor in the new business was a man…Videos2 min readVideos2 min read
Feb 16, 2022Is This Really Necessary? The Complexity of TV News.I am a regular viewer of news on The BBC. I think they have the best news programs (or should I say programmes) in the world. I like to start each day with BBC Breakfast and end each day (as least news-wise) with BBC News At 6. Yesterday, their top…News3 min readNews3 min read