This has probably not, in fact, been the worst year in the history of American journalism. But you’ll forgive me if it feels that way just the same. It was, after all, a year in which the country firmly entered the post-factual era, led by an incoming president who has no time for intelligence reports, […]

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free … it expects what never was and never will be.” — Thomas Jefferson There is good news on fake news. As you doubtless know, the proliferation thereof has people fretting. President Obama has dubbed it a threat to democracy. And there is a rising demand for […]

I was sitting in the service department of my Toyota dealer, staring at a book without seeing it as I waited for my car. God was next to me, watching “The Price is Right.” “Eight-hundred forty-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents,” he said. “Huh?” I said. “The retail price of a stainless-steel Kenmore 4.2 cubic foot […]

It happened because a white man was scared. Chase Coleman was on a park road, probably lost and confused, having straggled far behind the pack — he’s a cross-country runner from Syracuse, N.Y. — when the white man got out of his car and shoved him. A witness said Chase flew back 10 feet and […]

So what was it they were trying to kill? After all, the sign standing near the Tallahatchie River is cratered by dozens of bullet holes. More than idle target practice, it suggests a frenzy of gunfire, an attempt to kill something. And the something is not really that hard to name. Memory. They sought to […]

“Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?” — The Coasters from “Charlie Brown” Donald Trump has a victim mentality. If the term sounds familiar, it’s because it has long been the preferred conservative riposte when black people complain of being strangled by housing discrimination, economic injustice or police brutality. The likes of Bill O’Reilly and Rush […]