Christopher Harper

HARPER: Has the press turned on Obama?

Journalists who once wrote glowingly about President Obama have turned on him — at least for the moment.

November 6, 2013

HARPER: Obamacare’s sticker shock

As many journalists focused on the technical problems of HealthCare.gov, the website for signing up for the Affordable Care Act, few looked at a much more serious problem — the actual cost of Obamacare for individuals and families.

October 30, 2013

HARPER: New York Times doesn’t care what you say

I tried recently to comment about a column on the Times website, but I found I could not do so. It appears they allow comments on only 17 articles each day. Moderators reject posts for being "inflammatory," including material considered off topic, name-calling, profanity ...

October 23, 2013

HARPER: Sharing the blame: Shallow Western press, Obama’s empty promises

As the U.S. government reportedly plans to cut back significantly on its aid to Egypt against the wishes of key Arab allies and Israel, a question looms over the American relationship with one of the most important countries in the region: Who lost Egypt?

October 16, 2013

HARPER: Al-Jazeera due some criticism

Al-Jazeera America, the new network bankrolled by the Persian Gulf kingdom of Qatar, has criticized other U.S. news organizations for their coverage of the budget battle, despite providing little significant insight itself about the conflict.

October 9, 2013

HARPER: U.N.’s latest climate report buries inconvenient facts

Some inconvenient truths have emerged recently for those who argue man is to blame for excessive global warming, but most of the media tended to shrug at these and other facts.

October 2, 2013

HARPER: Not buying into idea of government subsidizing media

The leftist duo of a college professor and a journalist has begun crisscrossing the country again, arguing the media should get sizable subsidies from the government.

September 25, 2013

HARPER: Mixed feelings as Congress weighs media shield law

It took the Senate Judiciary Committee 837 words to define a journalist. That's nearly 20 times as long as the First Amendment. The definition has become part of the Free Flow of Information Act of 2013, which passed the committee last week by a vote of 13-5.

September 18, 2013

HARPER: In Syria war debate, media are missing in action

As the American public, Congress and the president grappled with the apparent use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government, the media failed to provide a coherent understanding of what the United States should do and why.

September 11, 2013

HARPER: Is U.S. willing to pay the price in Syria?

It was Sunday — a day of rest for the American troops at the Marine compound in Beirut. Sgt. Steve Russell stood guard duty early that morning when he heard a yellow flatbed truck rev its engine and head for the entrance. The truck, carrying the equivalent of 21,000 pounds of TNT, exploded. Sgt. Russell survived, but the attack killed 241 America troops, mainly Marines, who had come to Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission. Fifty-eight French soldiers died in another attack across town.

September 4, 2013

HARPER: Lethal toll on journalists clouds view from Syria

French journalist Yves Debay died in Aleppo. Yara Abbas, a reporter for Syrian television, was killed by a rebel sniper in Al-Qusayr. Hozan Abdel Halim Mahmoud, a citizen-journalist working for a rebel website, died covering a battle near Syria's border with Turkey.

August 28, 2013

HARPER: A voice for democracy and secularism is silenced in Egypt

After more than a dozen death threats, longtime Egyptian journalist Mohamed Gohar decided he finally had to leave his Cairo home for Canada.

August 21, 2013

HARPER: Journalism education

As I ponder retirement, I wonder who's going to educate the next generation, particularly as journalism professors and communications scholars, including me, arrived last week in Washington, D.C., for the annual get-together of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

August 14, 2013

HARPER: Skepticism required in the face of Obama’s terror warnings

As new information surfaces about last year's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and as the National Security Agency scandal continues to swirl throughout the media, the Obama administration has come out with a worldwide warning about the possibility of serious terrorist attacks.

August 7, 2013

HARPER: James O’Keefe and guerrilla journalism

James O'Keefe III may not be a household name, but his work has made headlines in the past few years. He and his colleagues provide an example of what's right about journalism.

July 31, 2013

HARPER: A tepid Trayvon protest, despite what you read

Despite the Rev. Al Sharpton's call for rallies and President Obama's insistence he could have been Trayvon Martin, last weekend's protests met with mostly indifference — except in the media.

July 24, 2013

HARPER: Media reveal their prejudices in Zimmerman coverage

If you had any doubt about the prejudicial attitude of the media toward George Zimmerman, you only needed to read or listen to the vitriol directed toward him and the Florida jury that acquitted him of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

July 17, 2013

HARPER: As case collapses, media play race card against Zimmerman

Despite a prosecution case in tatters against George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer accused of killing Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old, the media have not been shy about playing the race card throughout the trial.

July 10, 2013

HARPER: Sharpton crosses the line — again — in Zimmerman case

The Rev. Al Sharpton, host of MSNBC's "PoliticsNation," remains one of the most divisive forces in U.S. race relations, a reputation he is only enhancing with his current role in the murder trial of George Zimmerman.

July 3, 2013

HARPER: Media misreporting rampant in Trayvon Martin case

A combination of pressure through social media and poor journalism led to the trial of George Zimmerman, who is accused of second-degree murder in last year's shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

June 26, 2013