Opinion

The Global Disinformation Index’s Controversial Ratings Illustrate the Challenge of Deciding Which Speech Belongs in That Category

NewsGuard, a service that rates adherence to basic principles of good journalism, gives my employer, Reason magazine, its highest possible score. Yet the Global Disinformation Index, a British organization that aims to steer advertisers away from disreputable websites, claims Reason is one of the 10 “riskiest” online news sources in the United States.

Nikki Haley is running for the Republican presidential nomination. Her pitch is time-for-a-new-generation. Also a new gender. She proposes requiring mental competency tests for any president over the age of 75. That would apply both to the Democrat incumbent, Joe Biden, and Republican candidate Donald Trump. The former South Carolina governor is 51.

Dear Annie: I need your advice. After our son’s divorce decades ago, he was granted full custody of his infant daughter. They both moved home with my husband and me. They lived with us for 18 years, and we helped raise our granddaughter. Naturally, we are extremely close to her.

WASHINGTON -- There is a phenomenon that has been creeping across America for at least the past 30 years that I have yet to comment on. Social scientists, however, have been writing on it for a long time. It is the phenomenon of people on the right moving into neighborhoods that are already heavily conservative. On the other hand, people on the left end of the political spectrum tend to stay in areas that are traditionally left-wing. This phenomenon has led to the increasing polarization of American politics.

Dear Annie: My biological family wants nothing to do with me or my new wife. Our story is long. My sons, their wives and children are all very mad at me for saying and doing a few things they didn’t like. I have said I was very sorry, but nothing will ever change. I left their mother because of her anger problems, so that’s two strikes against me. My middle son has even threatened legal action if I say anything else, so it seems like that’s it. Any words of advice? -- Forgotten Father Dear Forgotten Father: While you don’t specify what actions have incited this domino effect, there’s no doubt that turmoil among family members is potentially a tragedy. As difficult as it is to do nothing, it sounds as though you’ve already said all that you can to make amends but that your family may not be in a place yet to hear it. Considering your divorce and your son’s legal threats, the path forward seems clear: keep your head down and lay low for the foreseeable future while everyone cools off and comes to terms with your new family dynamic.

My husband went to California on a business trip a few weeks ago. While he was away, I found myself doing something completely out of character -- switching on the TV while cooking or reading the paper. A silent house felt lonely. In 1960, just 13% of households were comprised of single adults. By 2021, that figure had more than doubled to 28%.

How many people believe, really believe, in freedom of speech? Or, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, not just “free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate”?

Americans spent more money in 2022 buying imports from a country governed by a genocidal, communist regime than they spent on imports from any other nation on Earth. Specifically, U.S.

Dear Annie: I’ve noticed that you often, if not always, tell your readers to try counseling. I thought it might be helpful if your readers heard from a believer.