Think About It with Michael Leppert

The competition for trust and credibility in the press are far from new. This struggle dates back to at least the late 1800's when the "yellow journalism" battle between moguls Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst dominated the New York media market. Both were fighting for circulation and ultimately, you know, profit.  There was a time, during my lifetime, that the evidence of conspiratoria...

At Indiana University, I teach government to students in one school, and speech to students in another. The subjects are quite different, as are the students. But the story of East Palestine, Ohio, gives me a real life lesson to teach both classes and will for years to come. On Feb. 3, a train operated by Norfolk Southern derailed near the village in northeastern Ohio. Five cars containing vinyl c...

If you are a parent, I'm sure you have had the experience of seeing your child laying on the ground crying hysterically over what appears to be nothing. "Show me where it hurts," is often the command that most effectively breaks through the noise. Amazingly, more often than not, nothing hurts at all.  In this week's metaphor, that child is the Indiana General Assembly. I will try to explain it thr...

"You can't handle the truth!" That's the famous line spoken from the witness stand by Jack Nicholson in his portrayal of Colonel Nathan Jessup in the 1992 hit movie, "A Few Good Men."  That was thirty years ago, in a make-believe story of a governmental cover up, and long before the line became so true for a big chunk of Americans. In fact, Fox News, the most watched cable "news" network in the co...

For those among you who haven't seen the 1969 classic film, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," let me spoil the ending for you. Paul Newman and Robert Redford, in the title roles, had been chased into a shack by authorities in Bolivia after a lengthy manhunt. They were surrounded, exhausted and had nowhere else to run. Little did they know, the Bolivian Army had also gathered outside the shack...

The Hoosier state was buzzing on a Saturday afternoon in February over a basketball game. The storied rivalry of Indiana and Purdue was the sports event of the weekend—in America. The top ranked Boilers were actually one-point underdogs in Bloomington on Saturday to an IU team that played a great first half and then held on for dear life in the second for a 79-74 win. The game mattered. Like it al...

I remember a meeting with my first financial adviser several years ago who told me that the money I had in the Indiana Public Retirement System, or INPRS, needed to be moved out of there. His perspective then was that INPRS did not give me enough control over my own money and that the government's politics would interfere with my interests eventually, one way or another. In fact, they likely alrea...

There's something happening in America following the upheaval of Roe that is surprising to some, and to others is completely predictable. Count me among the latter.  Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court chose poorly in its decision,  Dobbs v. Mississippi , effectively overturning nearly half a century of precedent protecting a woman's right to choose an abortion. In events across the country on Sun...

Legislation creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a national holiday was passed forty years ago and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It was 1983.  The late Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dominated the music, video and dance world. The Washington Redskins, which thankfully doesn't exist anymore, won the Super Bowl. I got my driver's license that year, and a boom box to go with it for nig...

Early in the Broadway smash, "Hamilton," the title character meets his nemesis, Aaron Burr. The polished and savvy politician advises young Alexander to "talk less, smile more, don't let them know what you're against or what you're for." Republicans in the U.S. House seem to be trying to follow the Burr plan, with the obvious exception of the "talk less" part.  Last week, the American public witne...

Every new year brings with it new hope, new goals and new fears. Resolutions and predictions fly like birds and then fall like snow, and by the time February arrives, the new year isn't new anymore. As a result, all of that nonsense from the month prior is treated like a trip to Vegas: what happens there, stays there.  2023 will be different though, won't it? Can't you feel it?  OK, maybe not. But...

To me, holidays are merely exercises in tradition, or traditions. Sometime in my 40s, I began to question all of them, reliving the "why" phase of my childhood for some unknown, yet admittedly irritating reason. Why do we eat turkey on Christmas? Why is everything closed? And it isn't just the holidays. When did we start naming unpleasant weather events, and why is it just the unpleasant ones? Sho...

If I could go back a few decades and change what was a part of the public education offered to me, I exclusively regret what my schools did not teach me. I can't recall a single thing they taught that I wish I hadn't learned. Try it yourself. Really try to think about an actual lesson you learned that you wish had not been taught.  Dodge ball? I can't complain about that, I was a champ at it. Choi...

A few weeks back, I saw Jon Wertheim interview David Sedaris on 60 Minutes. I have plenty of friends who are big fans of the humorist, but honestly, before I saw the interview, I never gave him much thought. But after the interview aired on October 30, Sedaris just struck me as someone I would really like to talk with.  That is an unusual reaction to an interview for me. I consume an abundance of...

The battle initiated by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita against Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana reproductive healthcare provider, disgracefully marches onward. Our embattled AG is wrong about this endeavor, in every possible way, but it is important not to lose track of who he is hurting, and why.  A 10-year-old girl was raped, became pregnant as a result of the rape, and understandably sough...

In the opening scene to the classic film, "Animal House," two young freshmen walk by the statue of Emil Faber, the founder of the fictitious Faber College. The quote on the statue's plaque was simple: "Knowledge is good."  Generally, we can all agree with that profound statement, can't we? If so, it is "good" to know that Indiana ranks 48th in the nation on public health funding.  Gov. Eric Holcom...

We all know people who always see a glass as half empty. It is tough to be around them and their unrelenting pessimism. Then there is the other bunch, those bright, sunshiny, "half-full" types, who always see the best in everything. They can be equally exhausting with their irritating enthusiasm.  I spend time in both places, depending on the day. But if I had to choose one team to join forever, w...

For more than a year, I have been patiently waiting for the arrival of the inevitable dilemma that Third District U.S. Rep. Jim Banks was facing. These are important days for the future of individual political careers in Washington, though it is much harder to see how the outcomes of any of these battles in the palace will be all that intriguing for Americans. Republicans will narrowly take contro...

As I write, votes are still being counted in many places across America. That vital process, which has defined who we are since the dawn of the republic, had a big night Tuesday. So did voters. In most places, that is. Just not in Indiana. It would be easy to interpret that opening as just the ranting of a left-of-center voter who wanted different partisan outcomes. Yes, there were plenty of candi...

"It's a hell of a thing, killing a man," is my favorite quote from my all-time favorite western. "Unforgiven" is the Oscar-winning 1992 Clint Eastwood movie about William Munny, a has-been killer who learns of a $1000 bounty in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, that brings him out of retirement.  Killing is a hard thing to do, and a hard thing to live with afterward.  Our modern and public discussions about g...

Over the years, I have had the good luck of being able to visit our nation's capital in Washington, D.C., many times. I once regularly had pressing work-related reasons to go. Those reasons might be so-called big-deal visits to "The Hill" or crucial meetings with some powerful federal agency. Maybe it was some random conference where I would sit in the back and drink coffee and eat pastries all da...

I wonder every election if voters fully understand what candidates are really saying to them during campaigns. Some years, I'm sure voters get it. Lately, it seems to be getting tougher. A couple of issues this year are making things particularly difficult: inflation and abortion.  When talking about the economy, time is money, so, let me get right to the point:  The American Recovery Plan is not...

The Judicial Branch of government is certainly on a roll. It started with "The Leak" in May of what turned out to be the official landmark ruling in July of Dobbs v. Mississippi. You know the one. It is the one that turned back the clock on women's healthcare rights by nearly half a century. The justices voting in favor of Dobbs, had all tap-danced through their Senate confirmations to the court w...

Indiana GOP chairman Kyle Hupfer has a real problem on his hands. Wait a minute, that's not accurate. Hupfer's hands are full of them.   Really? How much trouble could the Republican chairman have in a state like Indiana? His party controls all of state government. Being in charge doesn't sound like any trouble at all.  Except it doesn't appear the state's top two elected Republicans are in charge...

When I first heard about Andy Borowitz's new book, "Profiles in Ignorance," I knew it was moving to the top of my must-read stack. Then I found out he was reading the Audible version himself, and so I am now that guy walking down the street who spontaneously bursts into laughter at seemingly nothing.  As anyone who is a Borowitz fan, yes, the book is hilarious. Unless you consider yourself a "Reag...