Category: Scoop
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Journalism faces a pivotal moment. In 2026, a crucial question for everyone is whether journalism can survive its decline and sense of lost authority. For much of modern American history, journalism has been a key institution in society for providing truth. It confirmed facts, challenged those in power, and created a shared understanding of reality. Its…
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The Press Club of Southwest Florida is proud to announce that Barbara Petersen, CEO of the Florida Center for Government Accountability (FCGA), will be the featured newsmaker speaker at our January 14, 2026, luncheon. At a time when transparency, accountability, and public trust are under unprecedented strain, Barbara Petersen has emerged as one of Florida’s most respected and persistent…
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“The loneliest people are often those who see things as they are.” —Source unknown The danger to democracy doesn’t start with lies. It begins when people know something is false and accept it anyway. This difference matters both morally and psychologically. This essay expands on last week’s column about the challenge of finding and accepting the truth. When Knowing Becomes Complicity In psychology and ethics, moral…
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On May 8, Francis Rooney was at the Naples Yacht Club with friends when he received a text from his daughter: “DAD, IT’S BOB!” That meant only one thing: the priest that Rooney had known in the Midwest and at the Vatican as “Bob,” Robert Prevost, had just been elected Pope, leader of the world’s…
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People don’t want the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.—Friedrich Nietzsche By the end of 2025, journalists will no longer need convincing that truth is under attack. What we still need to understand, honestly and without arrogance, is why truth itself has become so difficult for people to accept, even when the evidence is abundant and the…
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The Press Club of Southwest Florida is proud to announce that Barbara Petersen, CEO of the Florida Center for Government Accountability (FCGA), will be the featured newsmaker speaker at our January 14, 2026, luncheon. At a time when transparency, accountability, and public trust are under unprecedented strain, Barbara Petersen has emerged as one of Florida’s most respected and persistent…
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By the time you read this commentary, you will have attended the Press Club’s Newsmaker luncheon with Francis Rooney, or you’ll read David Silverberg’s account in next week’s edition of SCOOP. My deadline for this edition of SCOOP was yesterday, as our luncheon was beginning, which is why you’ll have to wait to read what…
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“I’m just trying to go through life without looking stupid. It’s not working out too well.” –Brian Regan Can you relate? Every few years, a headline circulates through our national conversation, asking whether Americans are “getting dumber.” Recently, New York magazine revisited that concern in an essay titled “Are We Getting Stupider?” and reached a quietly radical conclusion: We…
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On Tuesday, Dec. 16, at the Hilton Naples, the Press Club of Southwest Florida is pleased and proud to present Francis Rooney, a successful businessman, public servant, former U.S. Representative, and U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, as its featured Newsmaker speaker. This promises to be a compelling lunch event for media professionals, civic-minded citizens,…