Is a no-fly zone an ethical imperative or a risk too far? — A thread I posted on Twitter, asking questions: It is likely a mistake to think aloud here on Twitter but I will confess I am unsure what to think about US/NATO involvement in a no-fly zone over Ukraine. I am gun-shy, literally, after my errors regarding Iraq. But… How can…

My statement to a Judiciary Subcommittee hearing — This will not make some people happy. Here is a statement I submitted to my senator, Cory Booker, as a member of a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, which is holding a hearing called “Breaking the News—Journalism, Competition, and the Effects of Market Power on…

Beside journalism’s addiction to prediction lies another comorbidity: its presumption to set expectations. Of course, we are well familiar with this co-occuring condition in coverage of politics, where journalists think they bring value to public discourse — which they do not — when they predict who will win an election…

Lessons about culture and memory from two new books: ‘The Library: A Fragile History’ and ‘Bitstreams’ — All culture is conversation. — Neil Postman Culture is made up of what remains after everything else has been forgotten. — Jean-Philippe de Tonnac I’ve spent the last few years working on a book about the end of the Gutenberg Age and the lessons we can learn from our entry…

It is *a* problem that can distract us from others — Yes, disinformation is a problem. But by treating it as the problem, we can cause more: We give malign actors the attention that feeds them as we spread their messages. We defer facing society’s real ills. We ignore voices too long not heard. We present a distorted and dystopian view…

A course in designing the future of the net — This spring at CUNY, my colleague Douglas Rushkoff and I will teach a course in Designing the Internet. Students will propose and design a feature of the net they want to see. Some might start from the entrepreneurial perspective: a product, service, feature, or company. But I hope students will…

And She saw that it was good — Chapter 1 1 God made a social network. It was called Earth. Even She could not be certain what would follow. Chapter 2 1 For the longest time, or so it seemed to the people of Earth, She allowed them to roam free, to explore, to commune, to be social. 2 Then She decided…

Yes, 9/11 affected me. Arriving on the last PATH train into the World Trade Center as the first jet hit, I witnessed the second jet’s impact and stayed to report. I still cannot bring myself to speak of some of what I saw. A block from the South Tower as…