Category Archives: Uncategorized

How One Question About Nuclear War Cost This Man His Career, But Maybe Saved the World

Ron Rosenbaum shares the fascinating story of Major Harold Hering, who was undergoing missile training at the Vandenburg Air Force base when he decided to ask how he could know if the order to launch was actually “lawful.” Hering’s question … Continue reading

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A good question from John Perry Barlow

Tuesday night, November 19, Columbia University panel on Burning Man, Technology, Religion and the Future: “I once asked a group of Wall Street types: if you had to give up one thing, all your assets or all your friends, which one … Continue reading

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How One Question Can Change the Course of History

This is a guest post from Roger MacDonald, director of the television archive at the Internet Archive. At a news conference in London September 9th, the following question was asked by Margaret Brennan, CBS News correspondent, of John Kerry, US Secretary of State: … Continue reading

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Iraq War at 10 and “The Questions We Didn’t Ask”

Veteran Washington journalist Howard Fineman has written a fine, self-critical article about how “we”–meaning “the decision-making machinery of Washington, including elected lawmakers, appointed officials and the national media”–allowed Dick Cheney and George W. Bush’s “warped vision” of the possible threat … Continue reading

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What They Didn’t Ask Hagel About

James Fallows put together this great word-cloud showing how often particular terms were mentioned during the recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, former Senator Chuck Hagel: As Fallows points out: What do … Continue reading

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Kids Ask the Darnedest Things

An 11-year-old boy, David Williams, recently went to a Dallas city council public hearing to ask some questions about school safety and guns. But when he noticed that he still had some time left over–and that council members were barely … Continue reading

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#GoodQ: $500,000–Does that guarantee you access to the President?

Here’s a nice example of White House reporter Ed Henry doing his best during the February 25 press briefing to get Jay Carney to answer a direct question about whether donations of $500,000 or more to Organizing for Action result … Continue reading

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How to Not Ask About Guns, 2012 Version

Between May 5, 2011 and February 16, 2012, there were twenty televised debates featuring the Republican candidates for President. According to Jay Rosen and his students in NYU’s “Studio 20” class, these debates included 839 questions asked of the candidates … Continue reading

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How to Ask New Questions

Here’s a fun bit of video of film-maker Robert Weide asking director Woody Allen twelve original questions. It’s a great example of doing your homework before talking to a public figure; Weide tells Allen that since he’s been interviewed so … Continue reading

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Have You Read Fifty Shades of Grey?

That was asked of U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and her challenger, lawyer Wendy Long, during the “lightning round” of last night’s New York Senate debate by Daily News journalist Liz Benjamin. As you can see from this clip, the audience … Continue reading

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