Opinion Polls and PR Jujitsu “There’s life and then there’s life in the newspapers.” Lillian Hellman, American author. WITH LESS THAN TWO WEEKS before the election, Jim Banks, Mike Braun and Todd Rokita can rest easy. The corporate media hate them, an essential condition these days for a political victory. In fact, against all conventional wisdom, the smart play is to poke a reporter in the nose — figuratively, of course. This relationship between negative media…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. Not long ago, a bit before 2017, my wife and I hiked to the highest point in the United States between the Rockies and the Spanish Pyrenees.  We visited Custer State Park, in one of the flatter U.S. states, and hiked to the top of Harney Peak.  I even bought a t-shirt.  The front said “Hiked It, Liked It”; the back had a picture of a fire tower atop a mountain…

LET’S DISPATCH one of our most vexing of public issues: Why is mass media so worthless? Spoiler alert, neither the Internet nor conspiracy theories has anything to do with the industry’s low favorability rating (sub 30 percent). The reasons can be organized in a logical cascade. It begins with the realization that individuals, specifically proprietary publishers, have quit investing. This is particularly true at the regional and state level. In Indiana, there is not a single statewide medium that even vaguely resembles a traditional,…

by MARK FRANKE Americans are deeply divided along political lines. Everyone knows this, but I recently learned how intrinsic this division is. At a recent lecture sponsored by the Fort Wayne-Allen County Historical Society, Michael Wolf from the political science department at the university formerly known as IPFW cited an eye-opening statistic: Democrats give their children names with more vowels than Republicans do. I trust Dr. Wolf implicitly, having known him for several decades, but this…

‘The Unhoused’: A Sign of the Times GOVERNMENTS ARE GOOD at making warning signs of all sorts — “No Left Turn,” “Cattle Crossing,” “Detour,” “Masks Required” and so forth. We propose hanging one in the Indianapolis mayor’s office. It would read, “Moral Hazard Ahead.” Let me explain. I depend on my Indianapolis Star for the latest harebrained scheme to perfect mankind. It rarely lets me down. Earlier this week I found this headline: “Housing Is Key to Reducing…

by Rep. Jake Teshka You can tell a lot about what a person values by examining how they spend their money. In fact, right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” (Mt. 6:21). By extension, you can tell — or rather you should be able to tell — what society values by examining government expenditures.  As the 2025 budget session of the…

by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. Pew Research noted that “The rise in gun deaths among children and teens is part of a broader recent increase in firearm deaths among Americans overall.” Indiana may be contributing to the increase. WRTV posted a story on Aug. 19 entitled “IMPD voices concerns after 3 children were shot in Indianapolis Sunday.”  The subtitle stated, “Police and local gun shop owner feel accidental gun shots are completely preventable.” On the same day, the Indianapolis…

by James O’Donnell, M.B.A. “Once upon a time . . . they lived happily ever after.”  We all know those words and likely have happy memories of reading them to our children or maybe recalling hearing them ourselves when we were young. In fairy tales, things work out – “they lived happily ever after.” There are no wars, no genocides. Everybody makes up in the end, and we sleep tight. Not so usually in the real…

by MARK FRANKE Many of the things I read in the national media don’t resonate as true for where I live in northeast Indiana. And that is usually a good thing. Take, for example, a recent CNN report on attitudes children have about playing with other children. Children have been playing with each other since time immemorial with the usual mix of sheer fun and the occasional contretemps that is quickly settled, mostly without the involvement of…

An Unconscious Indiana GOP IF YOU ARE ONLY slightly concerned about the efficacy of Indiana’s Republican officeholders, attend one of their fundraisers. You will be deeply concerned  I’m not talking about their policy proposals, the usual fare of quasi-reforms and adjustments to what would soon return to a status quo ante. What is concerning, existentially concerning, is their unawareness of how desperate the rest of us feel about the direction of our state and nation. For everything is hunky-dory in Indianapolis. The super-majority, bolstered with new conservative voters activated by the…