Jim Slusher
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A cautionary tale on news judgment and AINov 20, 2025 4:00 am - A funny thing happened on the way to writing this column. Well, maybe not so funny. Maybe a little scary. Hopefully, a little funny. You decide. It starts with a morning ...
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Aside from punditry, keeping our coming primaries in perspectiveNov 13, 2025 4:00 am - Columnist Jim Slusher: There were precious few off-year elections around the country last week, but those we saw produced a bounty of analysis, punditry and political hand-wringing. Perhaps more than anything, this is a sign of the tensions governing our election politics these days.
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History, politicians, truth, untruth, lies, beliefs and balanceNov 06, 2025 4:00 am - EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Slusher is taking some time off. The following column is a reprise of his “Letter to Readers” from Feb. 9, 2023. Probably since before Charles Pin...
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Daily Herald takes top honors in regional journalism awardsOct 31, 2025 4:06 pm - For both its print and online editions, the Daily Herald has won top honors in the 2025 Northern Illinois News Association contest, and individual Daily Herald staff members were recognized with 47 first-, second- and third-place finishes in the annual competition.
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Two events on one day: A disparity in scope, a familiarity of purposeOct 30, 2025 4:00 am - Columnist Jim Slusher: Stories about two very different museums on the same day expose the commonality between them in appealing to the heart and mind through visual arts.
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Tweets, reality TV and confused excitementOct 23, 2025 3:02 pm - Columnist Jim Slusher: I wonder if you can guess which part of this phrase, which I noticed while reviewing X one day, got me to click on the link that followed: “that is not how you use an exclamation mark, kim kardashian.” That’s right. It was “exclamation mark.”
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A lesson about lessons and getting outside our comfort zonesOct 16, 2025 4:00 am - Columnist Jim Slusher: I have written in the past about the many unexpected things we can learn about subjects other than what a news story is actually about. Today, I write about how unexpected lessons can form the central theme of news events themselves, and the lesson we all can take when that happens.
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The meat of newspaper week is in what happens every dayOct 09, 2025 4:00 am - Columnist Jim Slusher: It’s difficult, if not impossible, to summarize why National Newspaper Week is important. That answer comes from the work local journalists do every day.
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An opportunity to make connections was overwhelmed by divisionsOct 02, 2025 4:00 am - Columnist Jim Slusher: Sadly, a system of communication in which we once had high hopes online became overwhelmed by participants who “debate” by personal insult, bullying and name calling and believe that “free speech” means the right to state any outrage in whatever offensive language one chooses.
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A link between trust, skepticism that can combat ‘fake news’Sep 25, 2025 4:00 am - Columnist Jim Slusher: Addressing the rise of "fake news," an expert explains the importance of news literacy - teaching discernment in evaluating information from various media sources.