We take a deep dive into the stories that shaped our world and North Carolina in 2024, from groundbreaking political moments to cultural shifts and global headlines. Host Kenia Thompson sits down with columnist Mary C. Curtis and former Durham County Commissioner Nimasheena Burns to discuss the top trends.
Archives for December 2024
Lying in politics is a danger to democracy. Can it be fixed?
The “L-word.” It took some time for journalists to call a lie a lie when politicians uttered provable falsehoods. After all, don’t all politicians stretch the truth when it comes to policies, opponents or their own accomplishments?
Bill Adair, an award-winning journalist and educator, shares his thoughts and experiences in his book “Beyond the Big Lie: The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy.” The creator of PolitiFact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking site, and co-founder of the International Fact-Checking Network has ideas about the problem — and possible remedies. Adair is a professor of journalism and public policy at Duke University and a leader in the effort to combat misinformation. And, at the end of a year chock-full of election rhetoric to analyze, he is my guest and guide on Equal Time.
Dec232024
Local News Roundup: Political drama in Raleigh; New CLT flight paths approved; Bishop tapped for job by Trump; Belichick to UNC
Lawmakers in Raleigh override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that provides relief for those impacted by Hurricane Helene while also stripping power from top state Democrats. Critics have called the bill a power grab disguised as a relief measure.
Charlotte City Council has approved a plan to expand flight paths at Charlotte Douglas International Airport to 27, aimed at dispersing noise more effectively. There are now eight flight paths. Two members voted against the plan, citing a lack of transparency from the city and the airport.
After losing his election for North Carolina attorney general, former North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be deputy director for budget at the Office of Management and Budget. He will have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
And the North Carolina Board of Elections says it will not order a full hand recount of ballots in the race for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat after a partial recount resulted in more votes for the leading candidate, Democrat Allison Riggs. Entering the recount, Riggs led Republican Jefferson Griffin by about 700 votes out of nearly 5.5 million cast.
Those stories and more on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.
GUESTS:
Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Steve Harrison, WFAE political reporter
Ryan Pitkin, cofounder and editor of Queen City Nerve
Hunter Sáenz, WSOC-TV reporter
Dec152024
A holiday season of personal and political reflection
If my mother were alive, she would be disappointed at what her Republican Party has become. But not surprised. She had witnessed the GOP inching its way toward scapegoating some Americans to score political points with others in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, and thought the tactic, while canny and often effective, betrayed longtime African American Lincoln Republicans like herself.
Dec122024
Looking at climate futures with imagination and resolve
With a recently concluded global climate summit with challenging takeaways, an incoming president who vows to again remove the U.S. from international climate agreements, and increasing weather disasters that defy what went before, a look at what is being called an existential crisis could be grim. But that’s not the kind of book Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson has written. “What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures” is a provocative mix of essays, interviews, data, poetry and art, as Johnson guides the reader through solutions and possibilities at the nexus of science, policy, culture and justice. She is a marine biologist, policy expert, co-founder of the nonprofit think tank Urban Ocean Lab and a guest on Equal Time.
Dec102024
Democrats’ competing postmortems leave out history — and the obvious
When the primary for the 2020 presidential contest was just beginning, an acquaintance — an intelligent, wealthy, white Democrat — shared her sure-fire prediction as we shared dinner. “It’s going to be Michael Bloomberg,” she said. “He’s the logical choice” to be the party’s nominee for president. She seemed shocked when I told her, “It will never happen.”
My explanation was a simple one, and it had not crossed her mind because, I realized, it had never affected that particular New Yorker nor any member of her family. The most loyal base of the Democratic Party had for some time been Black voters, and for many of them, the former New York City mayor would always be associated with three words: “Stop and frisk.” Stopping mostly Black and brown young men as a means to reduce crime was, after all, his signature.
When the tactic was questioned, when data showed minorities frisked by police were no more likely to possess guns, Bloomberg did not budge, and said: “I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little.” He vetoed city council bills that curbed the practice and railed against a federal judge who ruled it unconstitutional.
Dec052024
