Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Ugly campaign ads and car wrecks: Why we can't turn away

Person being overloaded with messaging

Political ads are expected to increase by 25 percent over 2020.

AndreyPopov

Klug served in the House of Representatives from 1991 to 1999. He hosts the political podcast “ Lost in the Middle: America’s Political Orphans.”

If you live in a battleground state, here’s a little nugget to ruin your week.

Reuters says political advertising in the upcoming campaigns will be up more than 25 percent from 2020 and will likely exceed $13 billion. The radio, TV and internet bombardment is just around the corner for swing state voters.


They are already heading for the air raid shelters inErie, Pa., as the barrage rains down from the skies in the bellwether county. Since 2008 there have been 25 statewide elections in Pennsylvania, and this northwestern corner has picked the winner 92 percent of the time.

Mary Buchert, an Erie swing voter, is one of the “political orphans” featured in my podcast, “Lost in the Middle.” She freely admits she hates the ads but finds herself staring at them. “It’s like rubbernecking at an accident, “she said.

In 2022, Pennsylvania Democrats launched a new dangerous strategy that was soon deployed nationwide. During the gubernatorial primary race that year, they spent millions against the moderate Republican campaigning – in order to ensure their candidate would run against a Trump acolyte in the general election.

When they used the same tactics to beat a moderate Michigan Republican who voted to impeach Donald Trump, a cadre of prominent Democrats wrote to the national Democratic Party saying it was a very risky gamble.

Former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer was a leader of the pushback. “To me it’s wrong on so many levels. Why would we risk promoting an election denier? Keep playing this game and you will eventually lose.”

But his warnings went unheeded this spring when the Democrats played the same cards to help a Trumper win the Republican Senate primary in Ohio.

Erie businessman Tim Wachter is delighted he won’t see all of the negative ads this cycle. Once very active in politics, the 2022 election drove him to cancel his cable.

“Once you extract yourself from all of it, it’s really quite liberating,” he said.

Ugly campaign ads and car wrecks: Why we can't turn away by Scott Klug

Read on Substack

Read More

The Importance of Being Media Literate

An image depicting a group of people of varying ages interacting with different forms of media, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

AI generated

The Importance of Being Media Literate

Information is constantly on our phones, and we receive notifications for almost everything happening in the world, which can be overwhelming to many. Information is given to us in an instant, and more often than you think, we don’t even know what exactly we are reading.

We don’t even know if the information we see is accurate or makes sense. Media literacy goes beyond what we learn in school; it’s a skill that grows as we become more aware and critical of the information we consume.

Keep ReadingShow less
Fox News’ Selective Silence: How Trump’s Worst Moments Vanish From Coverage
Why Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems is good news for all media outlets
Getty Images

Fox News’ Selective Silence: How Trump’s Worst Moments Vanish From Coverage

Last week, the ultraconservative news outlet, NewsMax, reached a $73 million settlement with the voting machine company, Dominion, in essence, admitting that they lied in their reporting about the use of their voting machines to “rig” or distort the 2020 presidential election. Not exactly shocking news, since five years later, there is no credible evidence to suggest any malfeasance regarding the 2020 election. To viewers of conservative media, such as Fox News, this might have shaken a fully embraced conspiracy theory. Except it didn’t, because those viewers haven’t seen it.

Many people have a hard time understanding why Trump enjoys so much support, given his outrageous statements and damaging public policy pursuits. Part of the answer is due to Fox News’ apparent censoring of stories that might be deemed negative to Trump. During the past five years, I’ve tracked dozens of examples of news stories that cast Donald Trump in a negative light, including statements by Trump himself, which would make a rational person cringe. Yet, Fox News has methodically censored these stories, only conveying rosy news that draws its top ratings.

Keep ReadingShow less
U.S. Flag / artificial intelligence / technology / congress / ai

The age of AI warrants asking if the means still further the ends—specifically, individual liberty and collective prosperity.

Getty Images, Douglas Rissing

Liberty and the General Welfare in the Age of AI

If the means justify the ends, we’d still be operating under the Articles of Confederation. The Founders understood that the means—the governmental structure itself—must always serve the ends of liberty and prosperity. When the means no longer served those ends, they experimented with yet another design for their government—they did expect it to be the last.

The age of AI warrants asking if the means still further the ends—specifically, individual liberty and collective prosperity. Both of those goals were top of mind for early Americans. They demanded the Bill of Rights to protect the former, and they identified the latter—namely, the general welfare—as the animating purpose for the government. Both of those goals are being challenged by constitutional doctrines that do not align with AI development or even undermine it. A full review of those doctrines could fill a book (and perhaps one day it will). For now, however, I’m just going to raise two.

Keep ReadingShow less
An illustration of AI chat boxes.

An illustration of AI chat boxes.

Getty Images, Andriy Onufriyenko

In Defense of ‘AI Mark’

Earlier this week, a member of the UK Parliament—Mark Sewards—released an AI tool (named “AI Mark”) to assist with constituent inquiries. The public response was rapid and rage-filled. Some people demanded that the member of Parliament (MP) forfeit part of his salary—he's doing less work, right? Others called for his resignation—they didn't vote for AI; they voted for him! Many more simply questioned his thinking—why on earth did he think outsourcing such sensitive tasks to AI would be greeted with applause?

He's not the only elected official under fire for AI use. The Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, recently admitted to using AI to study various proposals before casting votes. Swedes, like the Brits, have bombarded Kristersson with howls of outrage.

Keep ReadingShow less