Bernie Sanders campaigning
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What Winning New Hampshire — and its Media Frenzy — Could Mean for Bernie Sanders

The New Hampshire returns tell us a lot about the leading candidates.

Of Womb-Furie, Hysteria, and Other Misnomers of the Feminine Condition

Clare Beams on women's bodies and the power of names.
Marchers carry a banner that reads "Lesbian & Gay Rights - Human Rights"

The History of 'Coming Out,' from Secret Gay Code to Popular Political Protest

In the 1950s, 'coming out' meant quietly acknowledging one's sexual orientation. Today, the term is used by a broad array of social movements.
Abortion advertisement in the National Police Gazette, 1847.

“Female Monthly Pills” and the Coded Language of Abortion Before Roe

Our future might look much like our past, with pills as a major part of abortion access—and an obsessive target for abortion opponents.
William F. Buckley, Jr. being interviewed on What’s Happening Mr. Silver.
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On the Right: NET and Modern Conservatism

In the 1960s, the precursor to PBS explored the burgeoning conservative movement, providing a remarkable window into the history of conservatism.

Assassination as Cure: Disease Metaphors and Foreign Policy

The poorly crafted disease metaphor often accompanies a bad outcome.
Drawing of people sitting and standing on crossword boxes while attempting to solve the puzzle

How the Crossword Became an American Pastime

The newspaper standby still rivets our attention a century later.

The Old Internet Died And We Watched And Did Nothing

It’s 2020 — do you know where your content is?
Host Jack Barry and two contestants on the game show "21."

Think Presidential Debates Are Dull? Thank 1950s TV Game Shows

The only debate arrangement that everyone could agree to 60 years ago remains in place today – the game show format.
Dictionary definition for "they."

The Rightness of the Singular ‘They’

This year, Merriam-Webster added a new definition to the word “they”: “used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary.”

The Decade America Terrorized Itself

The next 9/11 never came. Instead, we got Sandy Hook, and Las Vegas, and Parkland…
Newspaper clipping of article titled the rise and fall of facts.

The Rise and Fall of Facts

Tracing the evolution and challenges of fact-checking in journalism.
Mexican tenor Alfonso Ortiz Tirado, La Prensa publisher Ignacio Lozano, and Hollywood actor Antonio Moreno before a performance to benefit the Mexican Clinic in San Antonio

How Three Texas Newspapers Manufactured Three Competing Images of Immigrants

In Depression-era San Antonio, polarized portraits of Mexicans appealed to the biases of readers.
Soldiers inspecting damaged helmets in a scene from John Huston's 1945 film "The Battle of San Pietro."

The War Documentary That Never Was

John Huston's 1945 movie The Battle of San Pietro presents itself as a war documentary, but contains staged scenes. What should we make of it?
Elizabeth Pryor

Why It's So Hard to Talk about the N-word

A professor explains the trauma of encountering "an idea disguised as a word."

The Hipster

It happens every year.
Close-up of Spiro T. Agnew as he points his finger from podium.

He Was Trump Before Trump: VP Spiro Agnew Attacked the News Media 50 Years Ago

When Vice President Spiro Agnew gave a speech in 1969 bashing the press, he fired some of the first shots in a culture war that persists to this day.
News correspondent inside Berlin Wall tunnel.

The Battle Between NBC and CBS to Be the First to Film a Berlin Wall Tunnel Escape

Declassified government documents show how both sides of the Iron Curtain worked to have the projects canned.
Big Bird on the set of 'Sesame Street'

The Unmistakable Black Roots of 'Sesame Street'

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the beloved children’s television show was shaped by the African-American communities in Harlem and beyond.
Trump through a television camera.

How TV Paved America’s Road to Trump

“A brand mascot that jumped off the cereal box”: a TV critic explains the multimedia character Trump created.
Rush Limbaugh.

From Entertainment to Outrage: On the Rise of Rush Limbaugh and Conservative Talk Radio

How the alienated margins arrived at the center of American politics.

Editing Donald Trump

What I saw as the editor of “The Art of the Deal,” the book that made the future President millions of dollars and turned him into a national figure.

Disinfo Redux

Wherever there has been power, there has been a struggle for narrative control.

The Difference Between Nixon and Trump is Fox News

Fox News shields President Trump, but his love for their conspiracies might bring him down.

The Surprising Origins of the Phrase 'You Guys'

When did people start using the phrase to refer to a group of two or more?

A Brief History of Mostly Terrible Campaign Biographies

“No harm if true; but, in fact, not true.”

How Media was Social in the 1790s

What would the French Revolution have looked like on Twitter?
Supreme Court building under dark rainclouds.
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Could Footnotes Be the Key to Winning the Disinformation Wars?

Armed with footnotes, we can save democracy.

From the Battlefield to 'Little Women'

How Louisa May Alcott found a niche in observing the world around her.
Rush Limbaugh sits next to Newt Gingrich during NBC's "Meet the Press" taping on Sunday Nov. 12, 1995.

They Just Wanted to Entertain

AM stations mainly wanted to keep listeners engaged—but ended up remaking the Republican Party.