It’s time to do more than just say the economy is the No. 1 issue ASK THIS If voters are to go into the midterm elections with any understanding at all, the press needs to get away from he-said, she-said reporting and look into the positions that candidates and the two parties are taking. Martin Lobel offers some vital questions.

A pretty view, hiding some ugly stuff inside (AP photo) What a broken Senate looks like from far away...and why it matters COMMENTARY Our correspondent in Australia has ideas on how to improve things a little. But he’s not optimistic that anyone on Capitol Hill will be interested.

How severe is the public employee pension problem across the U.S.? (Hint: Is a $3 trillion debt severe?) ASK THIS Columnist and author Steven Greenhut looks at the ongoing pension issue, including abuses of it, and deals with some of the key questions.

Prescription drugs included | For a model health care system, how about Australia's?
ASK THIS
'Medicare for all' isn’t just an expression in Australia, it’s a reality, and there aren’t any death panels or government intervention in the choice of doctors or treatment. Bill Claiborne, a longtime Washington Post reporter now living in Australia, describes the system.

'Painful reminders' | Why the torture story needs to be told
COMMENTARY
Bill Minutaglio, in the Texas Observer, says the news media need to investigate the Bush administration’s “dark story of torture…not just to affix blame, but to help rebuild our international image and ultimately strengthen national security.”

Cui bono? | Six essential questions about the deficit, Wall Street and Washington
ASK THIS
Fiscal expert Stan Collender points out that the bond market is not demanding deficit reduction -- in fact, quite the opposite. So where is the Washington establishment's obsession with the deficit coming from? Whose interests does it serve?

Bad cover | The real story behind Time’s Afghan woman cover: American complicity
COMMENTARY
The repressive and misogynistic forces the picture depicts are the very ones that were bolstered by U.S. policy in the early 1980s, and again now. The head of Jobs for Afghans proposes an answer to 'warlordism' and its medieval attitude toward women.

Steaming mad | We’re hot as hell and we’re not going to take it any more
COMMENTARY
Senate inaction on global warming leads environmentalist, author and grassroots organizer Bill McKibben to have a Howard Beale moment. He proposes three steps to establish a politics of global warming.

| The Gambia: A dictator's anti-media war
COMMENTARY
On the 16th anniversary of the military takeover in The Gambia, Alagi Yorro Jallow, a 2007 Nieman Fellow, writes about the government's ongoing repression of journalists in his country.

A how-not-to guide | News flash! Journalists prepared to once again utterly misread annual Social Security Trustees report
ASK THIS| August 04, 2010
Thursday's report will once again describe an essential program in admirable fiscal health. But every year, journalists twist the facts to fit a narrative favored by the political elite: that the program is in crisis. Rather than manufacturing a false drama that shakes people's confidence about their future benefits, two Social Security experts write, reporters should stick to the facts.

Page: 1 of 107

Next page >