Author Archives: scpuritz

The daily White House press briefings often feel like a battle between good and evil, between the angel and demon on your shoulders. One pleads, “staying at home and indoors is the best way to prevent deaths and save lives right now,” while the other argues “well, staying at home also leads to death…deaths ofContinue reading “Bloody Sunday”

In recent weeks, the Trump White House has been pushing the drug hydroxychloroquine, an immunosuppressive and anti-parasitic drug normally used to treat malaria, as a potential treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. While well-intentioned, there’s a catch: there is no scientific evidence that it will work in treating COVID-19, and thereContinue reading “Hydroxychloroquine: When Misinformation turns Deadly”

For the past week or so, President Trump has been floating the idea of an Easter Sunday target for reopening the country and easing social distancing measures. As we’ve seen coronavirus cases skyrocket over the course of the week -140,886 in the US and 720,117 worldwide at the time of writing- experts and concerned citizensContinue reading “Coronavirus Sunday”

Government lab experiment gone wrong; brought to you by Bill Gates; TV coronavirus medicines? – these are just three of countless conspiracies, rumors, and flat-out lies that have spread nearly as fast as the coronavirus itself over recent months. After years of fake news, commentators and experts alike wondered: how will the world react whenContinue reading ““Infodemic””

Even before the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump was something of a mainstay in the Fox News bubble, frequently appearing on the network as a commentator – most notably for his propagating of the Obama “birther” campaign shortly after the turn of the decade. Now, the singularity of Fox News and the White House isContinue reading “The Fox News Niche”

Before, if not certainly after, the 2016 presidential election, allegations of Russian interference crowded the news cycle like a 21st century Red Scare, only this time, it was backed by fact. At least, that was the the case until the United States-Russia Helsinki Summit in 2018. There, President Trump all but set ablaze the USContinue reading “Putin’s Friend”

As we round the corner into one of the most important election years in history, many still wonder how we got here. Try as we might, nobody has pinpointed an exact cause. This blog would imply filter bubbles as the culprit, and others may point the finger solely at Fox News. As in much ofContinue reading “Beyond the Bubble”

From grade school into our adult lives, we’re spoon-fed the idea that the freedom of the press in America is what keeps our country strong and our government (somewhat) honest. The “fourth estate” serves the powerless, not the powerful. This notion was a force of nature -a fact so interwoven into the fabric of ourContinue reading “The Fourth (E)state”

We often place blame on those whom we disagree with. It is human nature to claim culpability lies with the “others” while abdicating any responsibility of our own. Such is true for the so-called “media bubbles” we now find ourselves entrenched in, plagued by tunnel-vision outside of which we can see no further than theContinue reading “Coffee dates vs. the Media”

When Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016, nobody, including the “main stream media” could’ve predicted it, or could they? The news we consume every day informs our opinions and sets infallible truths upon which we base our reality. This collection of sources, also referred to as our “filter bubble,” as a recent NYTContinue reading “Filter Bubbles: Blinding us to the truth?”