Saturday, July 25, 2026

Is Confidentiality Permanent?

Recently, the issue of what to do with the files of an aging journalist going into a full-time care facility came up — should they be donated to a university library or similar institution? 

As that question was being debated among friends of the journalist, one raised a related, far thornier question to me on the side: 

How could we collectively protect the identity of the journalist’s confidential sources once the files became publicly available? This journalist had specialized in highly controversial stories and had relied on confidential sources extensively.

After all, the promise of confidentiality in such cases is theoretically permanent, or at least as long as disclosure could cause harm to the sources or their families.

Some journalists say that once a confidential source passes away, the promise no longer applies so they can disclose the identity. But what about the case when it’s the journalist who dies first or becomes incapacitated?

Disclosing their sources’ identities might still cause harm.

Throughout my career, I frequently dealt with confidential sources, my own or those of reporters that worked with or for me. We followed strict protocols for how we used confidential information, including taking measures to protect the identities of the sources.

But rarely did we consider the long-term implications. The recent case described above caused me to re-examine the issue and I have to say I don’t yet have a definitive answer.

This is simply a use case that slipped through the cracks, I’m afraid. Which is another way of saying I’m open to suggestions.

But of one thing I’m sure. Expunging all of your records of any traces of your confidential sources is an option. It’s just that that too might have unforeseen consequences.

(This one is from 2023.)

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Friday, July 24, 2026

Opening Line

Somewhere in the archives of the Newseum in Washington D.C., or in the files of the Freedom Forum is an old calendar featuring inspirational quotations from various journalists and others celebrating freedom of speech and the press.

I think the calendar covered only one year and I’m sorry to say I don’t know which one. But I do know that I was quoted on July 23rd of that calendar and that the chosen quote came from a speech I’d given at a press event:

“Journalists used to be responsible for the final word. Now we’re responsible for the first word.”

This statement grew out of my experiences in the early days of the Web in the 1990s, when I worked at Salon and Wired Digital. The point I was trying to make was that traditionally journalists assumed they were more or less in charge of determining the “truth” about whatever topic we tackled. That equated to the last word.

But with the dawn of interactive media, featuring email, comments, blogs and social networks, it was clear that our role was shifting, to more of the conveners of conversations, not the closers.

That is very much what I try to do here at Substack, starting conversations with my daily essays, which focus mainly on my memories of 60 years in journalism, along with personal stories and current updates.

Recently I focused on the early days of Salon and HotWired to convene an effort to preserve the history of these important content companies. HotWired is no longer with us, but its legacy lives on in multiple ways -- banner ads, blogs, podcasts, online video, web designs and one ongoing service, Wired News. And a slew of talented makers who drifted away on the wind.

Salon still publishes.

But when I share my memories of these two companies, I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I felt I am in sole possession of the “truth” of these matters.

My memories are mine alone, and no doubt shaped by my personality and the unique roles I played at that time. Many of the comments from others that appeared with my essays clarify or enhance my version of what happened, and that is exactly what I hoped would happen.

Historians are accustomed to gathering multiple sources for their historiographies. That is what anyone who wishes to document what happened at the dawn of the web should do with this stuff. Mine is meant to be only one of many voices because collectively we are custodians of the history of that time. 

HEADLINES:

  • U.S. launches new strikes and Trump threatens ‘massive attack’ as Iran widens war (NBC)

  • US House votes to limit Iran war for first time since ceasefire breakdown (Al Jazeera)

  • U.S. to Impose Tariffs on Over 80 Nations, Setting New Grounds for Trade Policy (NYT)

  • U.S. allies hit with new tariffs object to Trump’s forced labor claims (NPR)

  • What Visuals Show About Recent Damage to U.S. Military Sites in the Middle East (NYT)

  • Yemen’s Houthis attack Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, threatening to widen Iran war (AP)

  • Iranian drone attacks on CIA facilities in the Gulf have reportedly prompted U.S. intelligence analysts to investigate whether Russia assisted by providing targeting information or advanced drone technology. [Reuters]

  • Red Sea Turmoil Pushes Oil Past $100 a Barrel (NYT)

  • Trump says Saudi Arabia’s nuclear deal hinges on the kingdom normalizing Israel ties (NPR)

  • Project 2025 Is Kicking Democracy’s Butt and the Heritage Foundation is Damn Proud of It (Daily Kos)

  • Man who killed Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman sentenced to life as family describes trauma, loss (CNN)

  • U.S. to Withdraw Subpoenas Issued to New York Times Journalists (NYT)

  • FCC chairman Brendan Carr said ABC’s decision not to air Trump’s address to the nation last week would likely factor into the agency’s early review of broadcast licenses for eight affiliated stations. [HuffPost]

  • Judge questions Hegseth’s testosterone policy (AP)

  • Is Mitch McConnell Alive? Three Questions That Could Finally Force Answers (Newsweek)

  • Donald Trump Betrayed Farmers Once Again (Money Trail)

  • Canada’s ‘powerful’ dairy sector is in Trump’s trade crosshairs (BBC)

  • Fire in San Diego County Prompts Evacuation Orders (NYT)

  • Drone Attacks on Russia’s Biggest Online Retailer Bring War Home to Middle Class (WSJ)

  • OpenAI’s Rogue Agent Has Congress Reaching for the Kill Switch (Gizmodo)

  • Anthropic’s top economist says AI won’t replace workers yet. Mark Cuban says it trails humans in 2 key ways. (BI)

  • How a Gang of Thieves Pulled Off a Multimillion-Dollar Data Center Heist (NYT)

  • For years tech experts imagined AI breaking free. Now they have to stop it. (WP)

  • Stocks and the Economy Are Increasingly Relying on the A.I. Boom (NYT)

  • “This price was set by an algorithm”: News subscribers are surprised by a new line in their renewal emails (Nieman)

  • New Geneva Convention Allows Use Of Child Soldiers With Signed Permission Slip (Onion)

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Thursday, July 23, 2026

One Day, A Daughter

(The following is from 2011, 15 years ago.)

Early morning in a heavy rain. Phone call; you’re suddenly alert. Nope, the new grandchild is not coming quite yet. But, after a couple of sick days, another one of your kids needs a ride to school.

Sure.

On the way to my car, I see a woman in a black coat and black tights with a girl, probably 9, in a pink coat and pink tights, hurrying through the rain, no doubt also on their way to school.

As I drive up to and around Bernal Hill, a flood of brown water is flowing south. 

Back home, later, the phone rings again. I don’t hear it; I’m deep into preparing a speech for tonight on behalf of a non-profit I care about.

When I catch up to the message, it is the third time in three days that one of my kids’ schools is calling; this is the third of the three, which means now it’s my daughter’s turn to be sick.

Back home, with her wrapped in a comforter and sipping tea, I start wondering what would happen if I actually had a real job?

A friend calls --”It’s getting better out there,” he says, “I’m seeing more jobs for people like us.”

Right.

The cellphone company sends an urgent text -- apparently my bill is overdue again, a monthly occurrence. I have a family plan, which includes me, my three youngest kids, and someone I used to know. 

It’s funny about euphemisms — they just pop up when you need them. 

The rains continue. A tree goes down nearby. I post to my weekly blog about what the tech industry is doing in San Francisco. I put on a white shirt, nice slacks, and a sports coat.

Not trusting how I look in the mirror, I ask my daughter, who’s observing me from her sick bed. “What do you think, jeans or the nice pants?”

“I like those ones (the nice ones),” she says. That’s it, a decision is made. She is not only my chief fashion consultant, at the age of twelve she is the only woman in my daily life, the one whose judgment I trust completely.

Soon enough it is time to take her back to her Mom’s house, back over Bernal Hill, where an even bigger brown river now heads south and an even bigger tree nearby has gone down, blocking Folsom Street.

As we are arriving, her brothers show up, having gotten there via buses from their high schools, with backpacks and wet sweatshirts.

She hugs me as I drop her off.

“’Good luck with the speech, Dad. You’ll be great.”

HEADLINES:

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Wednesday, July 22, 2026

The Fisherman

Squirreled away in one of my boxes of old files I found a portfolio of papers left behind by my father when he died in 1999.

There’s a small notebook that he took with him when he joined the Army Air Corps in October 1942. He reported to Fort Custer in Michigan, the shipped out to Keesler Field in Mississippi, on to the Tech School Squadron in Chicago, and ultimately to the Aviation Cadet Center in San Antonio before going overseas.

Although he didn’t see combat during the war, he served as a stenographer at the war crimes tribunal at Nuremberg.

In the inside cover of his journal, he documented his promotions from PVT to PFC to CPL to SGT, etc. On the very first page is a faded B&W photo of his Mom, then one of my big sister Nancy (10 years older than me), then the first of many shots of our mother — mainly of her taking golf swings — plus his own three sisters, a 1930s car, one of his his brothers, two of his brothers-in-law, and some Army buddies and their wives and a few of him fishing.

He must have thumbed through this many, many times while away from home.

Although he told me stories about his life, I never was fully able in imagine what it had been like for him, born in 1916, growing up on a small farm in Canada, the youngest of six kids, losing his father at the age of ten, then leaving the farm with his mother to live in town (London, Ontario) for a short while, then on to Detroit as “nickel immigrants.”

Five cents was the cost of crossing the river on the ferry in the 1920s, and therefore pretty much the cost of citizenship in the USA — for those of the right European descent.

Because he was the youngest, it turned out that my father outlived all of hIs siblings, surviving just longer than his sister Norma, who passed away a year before him. Accordingly, he ended up with many of his siblings’ official documents — birth certificates, an application for citizenship in the U.S., a social security card, wedding certificates, photos, and finally, their death certificates.

Two of his sisters died with no other surviving relatives, so he became the sole custodian of their life chronicles.

Now it’s all with me.

As far as I can tell, none of my Dad’s siblings left any writings behind to document their lives — no journals or letters, just a few faded photographs and those yellowed documents.

My Dad was another matter, however. Inside a manilla folder marked “Manuscript” he left a combination of handwritten and typed pages, apparently a short story or novel that he started to write. There are notes, an outline, and a certain amount of narrative.

Early in his manuscript, there is this: “The world is divided into two kinds of people, those who must fish and those who can’t understand.” 

HEADLINES:

  • Trump imposes 50% tariffs on Canadian goods (NPR)

  • Americans Pay Trump’s Tariffs (Money Trail)

  • Trump administration says it’s deferring $1B in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota (AP)

  • Trump approves landmark U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal (NBC)

  • A Red Sea blockade threatens a new front in U.S.-Iran war (WP)

  • Who is driving diplomacy in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, and why? (Al Jazeera)

  • Israel is building a miles-long earthen barrier inside Gaza, entrenching its division (AP)

  • Mamdani Says Netanyahu Is a ‘War Criminal’ but New York Can’t Arrest Him (NYT)

  • Senate panel advances Jay Clayton's nomination to lead US intelligence agencies (AP)

  • The Pentagon, sinking billions into Iran war, is quickly running short on cash (WP)

  • The Pentagon is desperate for funds — but key Republicans are skeptical (CNN)

  • US civil rights agency moves to end demographic data collection after 60 years (AP)

  • Zelensky Dismisses Ukraine’s Top General After Protests (NYT)

  • Russia thought its supply roads 100 miles from the front were safe. Ukrainian operators can ‘free hunt’ with new drones. (BI)

  • Nicaraguan Leader Says He Plans to Abolish Elections (NYT)

  • Trump’s suggestion that he will retrofit the new Air Force One he solicited from Qatar with missile defense systems in just one month has left aviation experts scratching their heads. “The idea of installing it in a month is comical,” one expert told HuffPost’s S.V. Date. [HuffPost]

  • Lost at Sea, the Pan Am Clipper Endeavor Is Found After Over 70 Years (NYT)

  • ‘It’s total devastation’: inside the Amazonian war against illegal gold mining (Guardian)

  • Senior Living Facility in Distress as Immigrant Caregivers Are Forced Out (NYT)

  • Trump’s removal of LGBTQ+ history signals threat to UC Berkeley students’ ability to access uncensored sources (Daily Cal)

  • Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It Once Championed (NYT)

  • China Wants More Babies—So It’s Cracking Down on Chatbot Love Affairs (WSJ)

  • Powerful AI models are being given away for free. It was inevitable. (WP)

  • Man Angry He Got Hit By Sprinkler Acting Like He’s Never Going To Be Dry Again (Onion)

 

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Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Dreaming the Future?

(This is a compilation of essays I’ve written over the years on the subject of dreams.)

A while back, a friend of mine told me she had been having vivid dreams that she was in a passionate relationship with one of her work colleagues, though they hardly knew each other at the time. When I asked if she had ever told him about her dreams, she said no. She wasn’t sure it would be appropriate to do so.

But she insisted that she had never had such vivid dreams before, so they simply could not be false visions. “I’m already with him in my dreams. It’s so real! How could that be if it’s not going to come true?” 

It must be a vision of her future, she insisted.

That conversation got me thinking. Most of my dreams seem to be set in the past, often the distant past. I’m often starting college all over again or showing up at a new job. Those dreams are usually anxious ones because I can’t find my classes or where the office is — things like that.

Carl Jung wrote that we process our subconscious in our dreams, so that’s perhaps how any underlying anxieties surface when we sleep.

One of my granddaughter’s dreams are a case in point. She says she often relives her most embarrassing moments in dreams. “If I did or said something embarrassing in front of somebody, it happens again in my dreams. I see them and suddenly I can’t help but do it again.”

That makes all kinds of sense to me. But I keep wondering about that other kind of dream, the one where we maybe, just maybe, we actually do see the future. 

So I checked into the topic and according to the Sleep Foundation, some of us (roughly 18-38 percent) can and do see the future in what are known as precognitive dreams. Also, Healthline reports that Carl Jung himself had some precognitive dreams, though they were of a negative variety — foreseeing his mother’s death and world war in Europe.

But back to my friend who dreamt of a relationship with her colleague. Some months after our conversation, the two of them did become a couple. It turned out he had been having the same kinds of dreams about her.

***

One of my grandmothers claimed she was psychic. She claimed she could see other people’s thoughts. She was very convincing in this regard, so much so that some of my cousins and I thought we might be psychic too. We tried to read each other’s minds, with mixed results. 

My grandmother was asleep the night my grandfather died in the living room. He was surrounded by his children when he peacefully passed away. At the very moment that happened my grandmother let out a scream in her bedroom. When they rushed in to see what was wrong, she was sitting up in bed.

“It was Alec,” she said. “He came to me in a dream.”

***

One of the better pieces I’ve read about the phenomenon of precognitive visions, or dreams about future events, was in Psychology Today a few years back.

The article cites research that roughly twice as many women as men report prophetic dreams, which is interesting in itself.

To Carl Jung, such dreams may be “an anticipation in the unconscious of future achievements, something like a preliminary exercise or sketch, or a plan roughed out in advance.”

This makes sense to me from conversations I’ve had with friends about their dreams and mine. Such anticipatory dreams often occur when we are just starting a new job, or preparing to give a major presentation, or on the verge of some other significant event.

Our minds seem to be working out a strategy for us to survive that future event, which is clearly causing us some anxiety, and maybe even help us thrive. In the dream, we become hyper-aware of our vulnerabilities — of the possibilities of failure in unanticipated ways.

This type of anxiety about the future is productive on several levels, I suspect, for creative work.

Many writers wake up from dreams with ideas for solving writing dilemmas. If they can shake themselves alert enough to do so, they turn on the light and write the idea down for later use.

Later in the light of day, that idea may seem stupid or foolish or naive, but at other times it indeed turns out to be a flash of useful insight. Either way, it helps inform our future work.

Finally, we may anticipate new relationships in our dreams, whether romantic or otherwise. In that regard, free will is clearly in play. As Bob Dylan liked to say, “I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours.”

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Monday, July 20, 2026

Come November

If American democracy is going to work the way it’s supposed to work, we should be able to put up a blockade to Trump’s authoritarian drive is this year’s midterm elections.

But in order to provide a check on Trump’s power, the Democratic Party needs to win control of at least one chamber of Congress.

According to in-depth interviews with six leading pollsters, the New York Times reports they all believe that the Democrats will indeed win the House and that control of the Senate remains up for grabs.

Control of both houses in Congress would set up a Constitutional confrontation that could block Trump and save our tattered democracy.

While these results give hope, many things could change between now and November. 

You can read the complete article here.

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Sunday, July 19, 2026

Sunday Reads

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