Jonathan Alter
Jonathan Alter
Jonathan Alteris an American journalist, best-selling author, and television producer who was a columnist and senior editor for Newsweek magazine from 1983 until 2011, and has written three New York Times best-selling books about American presidents. He is a contributing correspondent to NBC News, where since 1996 he has appeared on NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC. Alter was one of the first magazine or newspaper reporters to appear on MSNBC. When the shows were on the air, he could often be...
class united-states warfare
Unless the digital divide is narrowed soon, the United States may be headed to the class warfare of a century ago, the last time the economy changed so fundamentally. It won't be pleasant.
bush claimed comment compromise desperate held imagine knew national paper press problem reveal running
The Times will not comment on the meeting, but one can only imagine the president?s desperation. The problem was not that the disclosures would compromise national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference. ...No, Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story?which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year?because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker.
loyalty government incompetence
The price of loyalty is incompetence.
powerful thinking littles
It sometimes takes a while for executives to figure out that the reporters they think of as little bugs to be squashed or spun can be more powerful than they are.
men discovery media
In the press grandstand where I watched Discovery rise against the cloudless sky, the media hit the abort button on cynicism. The Earth shook to the sounds of man, three miles away. The candle lit. . . only someone stripped of awe can leave a launch untouched.
education teaching keys
The key to fixing education is better teaching, and the key to better teaching is figuring out who can teach and who can't.
government easy easier
If it's easy for the government to learn about us, it should be easier for us to learn about the government, what they're doing.
emotion logic convince
Logic can convince but only emotion can motivate.
art silly analyzing
The only thing worse than a silly politician analyzing art is a silly artist analyzing politics
cancer modern-life littles
Every patient reacts a little differently, both biologically and psychologically. The only constant in cancer is inconstancy; the only certainty is a future of uncertainty, a truism for all of modern life but one made vivid by life-threatening illness.
ideas house done
The only reason the House hasn't done even more damage is that the Senate often sands down the most noxious ideas, making the bills merely bad, not disastrous.
ideas journalism problem
The basic problem is with the business model of journalism. That business model is premised on the idea that talk is cheap and reporting is expensive.
dream country eight
Millions of Americans would still despair in the eight long years of the Depression that lay ahead and many of their individual dreams would be dashed on the rocks of economic hardship. But collectively, the country was in a new place, with a new confidence that the federal government would actively try to solve problems rather than fiddle or cater to the rich. Hope was no longer for Pollyannas; the cynics about the American system were in retreat.
character fundraising presidential
Almost no one under 60 remembers what fundraising was like before Watergate. Until the 1970s, campaign money was collected by "bagmen," familiar characters from the world of organized crime. As fans of Boardwalk Empire know, a bagman is a political fixer who walked around with stacks of $100 and $1,000 bills. At lower levels, he used brown paper bags. In presidential campaigns, the cash was more likely to be in briefcases. Classier that way.