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Columns

St. Louis Post-Dispatch says America’s history mustn’t be whitewashed

It’s not easy, but please look at the photograph accompanying this editorial. It shows a formerly enslaved man in Louisiana displaying whipping scars on his back during the Civil War. Made in May 1863 and widely published two months later, it presented gruesome evidence of slavery’s ...

Moms-to-be: Are you really taking advice from Dr. Trump?

On Monday, Donald Trump issued an ignorant warning to pregnant women whose doctors prescribe Tylenol, a brand name for acetaminophen. "Don't take Tylenol. Don't take it," he said. "Fight like hell not to take it." And when in pain, "Tough it out." The idea that Tylenol use in pregnancy may ...

Forgiveness or revenge?

It's been 10 years since a white supremacist shot and killed nine people studying the Bible at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. In a statement that shocked many people, relatives of the dead offered their forgiveness to the gunman. A similar opportunity came last ...

Could Trump’s campaign against the media come back to bite conservatives?

In the wake of Jimmy Kimmel's — apparently temporary — suspension from late-night TV, a (tragically small) number of prominent conservatives and Republicans have taken exception to the Trump administration's comfort with "jawboning" critics into submission. Sen. Ted Cruz condemned the ...

A billion views!

Eight years ago, I left network TV behind. I worried that moving to social media wouldn't work — that not enough people wanted news alongside cat videos. I also worried that not enough of you would donate to pay for it. Unlike most of what you find on Fox News, CNN, etc., we at Stossel TV ...

An obituary for earnestness

A 99-year-old woman died yesterday. Though I'd never met her, I cried as I read her obituary. Her name was Marilyn Hagerty, and even as a nonagenarian, she was still writing the same gentle restaurant reviews that had made her briefly but brilliantly famous. She wasn't famous in the new way ...