Corporate Media on the Dock HERE’S AN IDEA: Ask the Indiana Secretary of State to deny incorporation for newspapers owned by out-of-state entities.  Preposterous? Somewhat. The legal hurdles would be daunting. It might be interesting, though, to hear corporate publishers testify under oath how they are functioning mediums for the First Amendment. If allowed as a friend of the court I would enter two pieces of evidence to the contrary.  The first would be the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette’s…

The Star Explores Outstate Indiana THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR  has sent a team of intrepid newswomen to the far corners of the state to learn what we are about out here, heavy on those man-on-the-street interviews of hapless “average” Hoosiers. One dispatch from the hinterland began, “The hills of southern Indiana look different than the manufacturing industry-dotted lakeshore in northwest Indiana or the at-times crowded suburban streets of Indianapolis’ doughnut counties.”  So although a sincere and appreciated effort…

A Social Contract: Health and Human Capital ‘SALUS POPULI suprema lex esto” (Let the health of the people be the supreme law) was Cicero’s test of good government. It is the core social contract of our society, both the justification and the limit of state power. But an adjunct of this foundation, Dr. Berry Keating, will argue in the winter journal that Indiana is failing Cicero’s test. “The goal of the increases in insured coverage and spending has…

Our Cultural Disconnect WITH THE 250th ANNIVERSARY of the Declaration of Independence ahead of us, we asked our assistant, Grok, to review recent polling on what American youth know about this founding document. I leave the results with you to decide whether we have reached a state of total cultural disconnection: The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Civics Knowledge Survey asked the question of ages 18-29, “What does the Declaration of Independence do?” Multiple choice: 1) establishes the U.S.…

Redistricting Disassembled O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mockThe meat it feeds on.” (Othello 3.3.165-167)  THERE IS A WAY to make sense of the Republican rift over redistricting. You start by eliminating all the stated explanations: Which leaves us with what is at the heart of every political story — a hidden agenda. Could it be as simple as that Mike Pence, Eric Holcomb, Mitch Daniels and Rodrick Bray have…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. Now that the final 2025 MLB baseball game has been played, fans can start dissecting the past season.  Of course, that also means examining the media coverage of the season, especially during the  playoffs. Some observations easily avail themselves.  If Ohtani’s greatness is owed in part to his being a two-way player, then older players who exhibit the same greatness should also be accorded the utmost respect.  Babe Ruth was the…

A Defense of ‘Christian Nationalism’ THE GENERATION now managing our words — the activist journalists and social-media influencers — seem to think nothing happened before they were born. No, they can’t really believe that on mature reflection, but they do act like that in practice. And with that state of mind comes the compulsion to rename everything to fit the narrative of the moment. A prominent example is “antifi” to describe the disgruntled among us, a…

by Mark Franke Thanksgiving Day seems late this year and by the calendar it is. Contrast that with my general sense of time’s moving much too fast, especially as I am looking at leaves still on the trees and thinking in terms of mid-October. If I am not confused enough, I have four and one-half inches of snow in my back yard as I write this.  One of the history lessons I most enjoyed in…

Rodric’s Redistricting Guess INDIANA SENATE PRO-TEM Rodric Bray and ex-governors Mike Pence and Mitch Daniels, in tacitly opposing a redistricting measure that would have improved the national party’s position going into the midterm elections, have made a two-part tactical calculation — a political guess, if you will. The first part is that the Indiana supermajority is a reflection of grassroots GOP popularity. The second part is that opinion surveys accurately show redistricting to be unpopular. Republican values…

‘The Mamdani Effect’ (Part II) “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.” — Zohrnan MamdaniI READ that many cities are ready to make bids for businesses fleeing Zohran Mamdani’s New York. I assume that Indiana metropolises will be among them. The question, though, is in what way does the leadership here disagree with Mamdani. It is not clear to…