Of Dead Journalists And Iran May 6, 2026May 6, 2026 JOURNALISTS A Senate candidate was recently asked for his views on Gaza. He gave a long, nuanced answer. A better answer, one of the guests suggested — when out on the campaign trail, at least — would be, simply: “I love Israel. I hate Netanyahu.” It came to mind as I watched Nick Kristof lament the killing of Palestinian journalists (2 minutes). This post by Carole Cadwalladr is even more raw. I don’t know how much of it is “fair and balanced” — I’m way out of my depth, here. But with the President of the United States relentlessly branding journalists “the enemy of the people,” ala Stalin, it strikes me as the kind of cry that should be heard. She begins: Two weeks ago, I attended and spoke at the International Journalism Festival, an annual event held in the beautiful Italian hilltop town of Perugia. How nice for you, I suspect you’re thinking, and it was, but this is not the point of this post, although this story does begin with me drinking wine on a spring evening on a beautiful Italian square with a bunch of international friends from journalism and its allied fields. So far, so unbearably smug, you’d be quite right to think, but then the friend I was with suddenly took a sharp intake of breath . . . Fasten your seatbelt as you read on. IRAN No one has 4 hours to watch Morning Joe in full; but yesterday’s podcast was 45 oh-so-insightful minutes on Iran. IMAGINE Imagine a day where we take Ukraine’s side over Putin’s, as we once did. Where we contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions with years of painstaking diplomacy that end with a multi-national Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as we also once did. Where we somehow regain our standing as the civilized world’s indispensable nation — not its widely reviled bully. Where medical research is not abruptly cut off . . . climate leadership is not ceded to China . . . billionaires are celebrated for their achievements — but taxed . . . billionheirs are celebrated for their parents’ and grandparents’ achievements — but taxed. Where “public service” is not a grift but a calling. Where civility and competence, compassion and integrity are once again the norms to which those at the highest levels of government aspire.