By Kent R. Kroeger (July 6, 2021)

“Our political opinions and attitudes are an important part of who we are and how we construct our identities. Hence, if I ask your opinion on health care, you will not only share it with me, but you will likely resist any of my attempts to persuade you of another point of view,” New York University psychologists Philip Pärnamets and Jay Van Bavel wrote in Scientific American in 2018.

Pärnamet, Van Bavel and their associates at Lund University in Sweden had previously found that manipulating a person’s opinions and attitudes is not as…

By Kent R. Kroeger (June 28, 2021)

DUBAI, June 22 (Reuters) — The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it seized 36 Iranian-linked websites, many of them associated with either disinformation activities or violent organizations, taking them offline for violating U.S. sanctions.

Several of the sites were back online within hours with new domain addresses.

Writer’s note: It should be acknowledged that the websites blocked by this U.S. action were on servers owned or controlled by U.S. companies — hence, a violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran.
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There was a time when another country — the Soviet Union —…

By Kent R. Kroeger (June 25, 2021)

In his classic 1984 Duke Law Journal essay, The Marketplace of Ideas: A Legitimizing Myth, Law Professor Stanley Ingber described the news and information landscape within the U.S. in ways easily applied to today:

“In our complex society, affected by both sophisticated communication technology and unequal allocations of resources and skills, the marketplace’s inevitable bias supports entrenched power structures or ideologies. Most reform proposals do little to help the marketplace reach its theoretical potential. Instead, such suggestions perpetuate the marketplace’s status quo bias or result in unacceptable levels of governmental interference and regulation.”…

By Kent R. Kroeger (June 10, 2021)

In one of my favorite scenes from 1992’s A Few Good Men, Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), who is defending two Marines accused of murder, meets the prosecuting attorney, Capt. Ross (Kevin Bacon), at a bar to tell him he has a credible witness (Lt. Kendrick) implicating Col. Jessup (Jack Nicholson) in a criminal conspiracy involving a ‘Code Red’ order. Capt. Ross confidently responds:

“Don’t you dare lump me in with Jessup and Kendrick just because we wear the same uniform. I’m your friend and I’m telling you, I don’t think your clients…

By Kent R. Kroeger (June 3, 2021)

Don’t get me wrong, I love superhero movies.

I stood in line in 1978 for Superman: The Movie with a level of anticipation only surpassed later by the birth of my children and the final episode of The Sopranos.

But after 40 plus years planning my summer vacations around movie premiere dates, I’ve had enough. And, as I am starting to suspect, much of the core superhero audience may be feeling the same way.

My evidence?

It starts with the two Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV shows released on Disney+ earlier this year…

By Kent R. Kroeger (June 3, 2021)

A family member attached this May 13th New York Times article — Activists and Ex-Spy Said to Have Plotted to Discredit Trump ‘Enemies’ in Government — to a spirited email that started: Do you still defend Project Veritas?!

It took me the 15 minutes required to read the article to do just that — defend Project Veritas.

First off, however, I don’t think I’ve ever “defended” Project Veritas in the past. To the contrary, I do not care for the Mike Wallace/60 Minutes-pioneered form of ‘hidden camera’ journalism that Project Veritas has heavily…

By Kent R. Kroeger (June 3, 2021)

“We have not yet finished our mission. But we do not foresee staying indefinitely. Once the sovereignty of Mali is restored, once MISMA (a UN-backed African military force) can replace our own troops, we will withdraw,” the French President told a news conference in Bamako, Mali.

Those were the words of French President François Hollande in February 2013, days after a French-led military offensive had driven Islamist rebels out of the country’s north, except for the city of Kidal.

Eight years later — French troops remain in Mali.

And in that time since…

By Kent R. Kroeger (May 25, 2021)

Unknown at the time, President Donald Trump’s prospects for re-election may have ended on June 20, 2019, when he unilaterally decided — against the wishes of his hawkish foreign policy and military advisors — to abort a planned retaliatory strike against Iran.

Revealing a side of Trump few in the news media acknowledged or believed to exist, the president cited his fear that Iranian civilians would be among the victims of an American airstrike against the Iranian military installations suspected to have been used a day earlier to shoot down a U.S. …