Walter Brasch is an award-winning journalist and professor of journalism emeritus. His current books are Before the First Snow: Stories from the Revolution , America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights, and 'Unacceptable': The Federal response to Hurricane Katrina, available at amazon.com, borders.com and most major on-line bookstores. BEFORE THE FIRST SNOW is also available at www.greeleyandstone.com (20 discount) Walter Brasch, a deeply valued Senior Editor at OpEdNews passed from this world on February 9, 2017, age 71, his obituary follows: Walter M. Brasch, Ph.D., age 71, of 2460 Second Street, Bloomsburg (Espy), died Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville surrounded by his family. He was an award-winning former newspaper reporter and editor in California, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio; professor emeritus of mass communications and journalism at Bloomsburg University; and an award-winning social issues journalist and book author. Walter was born March 2, 1945, in San Diego, the son of Milton Brasch and Helen (Haskin) Brasch and was a 34 year resident of Espy. In his early years he was a writer-producer for multimedia and film companies in California, and a copywriter and political analyst for advertising and public relations companies. For five years during the late 1990s, he was the media and social issues commentator for United Broadcasting Network. He was also the author of a syndicated newspaper column since 1992 and the creative vice-president of Scripts Destitute of Phoenix. Dr. Brasch was a member of the Local Emergency Planning Committee and was active in the Columbia County Emergency Management Agency. He was vice-president of the Central Susquehanna chapter of the ACLU, vice-president and co-founder of the Northeast Pennsylvania Homeless Alliance, a member of the board of the Keystone Beacon Community for healthcare coordination, and was active in numerous social causes. He was co-founder with his wife Rosemary Brasch of The Oasis, a biweekly newsletter for families and friends of personnel stationed in the Persian Gulf. Later, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, they published The Oasis 2, for families of persons in combat zones. They were supported by the Bloomsburg Chapter, America Red Cross and Geisinger Medical Center, Danville. He was the author of 20 books, most which fuse historical and contemporary social issues. Among his books are Black English and the Mass Media (1981); Forerunners of Revolution: Muckrakers and the American Social Conscience (1991); With Just Cause: The Unionization of the American Journalist (1991); Sex and the Single Beer Can: Probing the Media and American Culture (1997); Brer Rabbit, Uncle Remus, and the 'Cornfield Journalist': The Tale of Joel Chandler Harris (2000); The Joy of Sax: America During the Bill Clinton Era (2001); Unacceptable: The federal Response to Hurricane Katrina (2005); America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights (2006); Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush (2007); and Before the First Snow (2011). He was co-author of The Press and the State (1986), awarded Outstanding Academic Book distinction by Choice magazine, published by the American Library Association. His last book is Fracking America: Sacrificing Health and the Environment for Short-Term Economic Benefit (2015), a critically-acclaimed novel that looks at what happens when government and energy companies form a symbiotic relationship, using "cheaper, cleaner" fuel and the lure of jobs in a depressed economy but at the expense of significant health and environmental impact. During the past two decades, he won more than 150 regional and national media awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Society of Professional Journalists, National Federation of Press Women, USA Book News, Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group, Pennsylvania Press Club, Pennsylvania Women's Press Association, Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association, Penn-writers, International Association of Business Communicators, Pacific Coast Press Club, and Press Club of Southern California. He was recognized in 2012 by the Pennsylvania Press Club with the Communicator of Achievement award for lifetime achievement in journalism and public service. He was an Eagle Scout; co-recipient of the Civil Liberties Award of the American Civil Liberties Union, 1996; and was honored by San Diego State University as a Points of Excellence winner in 1997. In 2000, he received the Herb Caen Memorial Award of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. For the Pennsylvania Humanities Council he was twice named a Commonwealth speaker. He also received the meritorious achievement medal of the U.S. Coast Guard. At Bloomsburg University, he earned the Creative Arts Award, the Creative Teaching Award, and was named an Outstanding Student Advisor. He received the first annual Dean's Salute to Excellence in 2002, a second award in 2007, and the Maroon and Gold Quill Award for nonfiction. He was the 2004 recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Service Award. For 22 years, he was Editor-In-Chief of the awarding-winning Spectrum Magazine, part of the journalism program of the Department of Mass Communications, Bloomsburg University until his retirement in 2010. The community magazine was published twice a year by students for residents of Columbia and Montour counties in northeastern Pennsylvania and one of the few to be inducted into the national Associated Collegiate Press hall of fame. The magazine was also a consistent award winner in competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and the American Scholastic Press Association. He primarily taught magazine editing and production, public affairs reporting, feature writing, newspaper editing; every Fall, he taught a 250-student section on mass communications and the popular arts. Dr. Brasch was co founder of the qualitative studies division of the Association for Education in Journalism, president of the Keystone State professional chapter and for three years deputy regional director of the Society of Professional Journalists, from which he received the Director's Award and the National Freedom of Information Award. He was president of the Pennsylvania Press Club, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Women's Press Association, and founding coordinator of Pennsylvania Journalism Educators. He was a featured columnist for Liberal Opinion Week, senior correspondent for the American Reporter, senior editor for OpEdNews, and an editorial board member of Journalism History and the Journal of Media Law and Ethics. He was a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Author's Guild, National Writers Union (UAW/AFL-CIO), The Newspaper Guild (CWA/AFL-CIO), and the Society of Environmental Journalists. He was a life member of the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, and was indicted into the national scholarship honor societies Phi Kappa Phi (general scholarship), Kappa Tau Alpha (journalism), Pi Gamma Mu (social sciences), and Kappa Tau Alpha (sociology.) He is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the East, Contemporary Authors, Who's Who in the Media and Who's Who in Education. Dr. Brasch earned an A.B. in sociology from San Diego State College, an M.A. in journalism from Ball State University, and a Ph.D. in mass communication/journalism, with a cognate area in both American government/public policy and language and culture studies, from The Ohio State University. He is survived by his wife of 34 years, the former Rosemary Renn the most wonderful thing that happened in his life and whom he loved very much; two sons, Jeffery Gerber, Phoenix AZ and Matthew Gerber and his wife, Laurel (Neyhard) of Bloomsburg, a sister, Corey Brasch of Sacramento, Calif; a niece, Terri Pearson-Fuchs, Calif, numerous cousins; and his beloved dogs Cabot and Remy. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, at 2:00 p.m. at the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 325 Market St., Bloomsburg with family friend, Nathaniel Mitchell officiating. Interment in Elan Memorial Park, Lime Ridge. Friends may call at the funeral home on Tuesday from 6 - 8 p.m. or Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Walter M. Brasch Scholarship Fund, c/o First Keystone Community Bank, 2301 Columbia Blvd, Bloomsburg, PA 17815 or to Mostly Mutts, 284 Little Mountain Rd., Sunbury, PA 17801
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Saturday, August 30, 2014
Labor Day Assignment: Educating the Uninformed Teachers are lazy, greedy, and overpaid. At least that's what many on the Tea party wing believe. Here's why they're wrong (again)
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Saturday, October 4, 2014
A Fracking Good Letter It's only a letter--but it has gotten the fracking industry's ire to a new level--one that has led to a massive propaganda campaign.
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Saturday, February 26, 2011
ABC-TV: Oscar-Worthy, But Journalistically Unsound ABC-TV News may have crossed a journalistic line in its Friday evening broadcast.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Oh, THAT'S What the Boy Scouts Mean by Being "Morally Straight' Faced by significant income loss, the Boy Scouts last Summer rethought their position about excluding gays from membership. A backlash by the right-wing, which also threatened to pull funding and membership, slapped them back into their policy of discrimination. Now, it looks like a ill-conceived "compromise"
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Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Great Government Swine Flu Conspiracy The protection of Americans against the Swine Flu is primarily a project of the federal government. But, a large shrill from the conservative Right Wing wants government out of health care. They're disrupting the truth for their own nonsensical political reality.
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Friday, May 13, 2011
Promises, Promises; Or, How Many Legal Lies Can a Poltiician Tell Laws allow politicians to tell lies to voters. How can that be? Read the truth in Walter Brasch's look at campaign promises.
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Sunday, March 24, 2013
The Paul Ryan Magical Mystery Chop, Dice, and Slice Budget The Republicans' latest attempt to subvert the American democracy is proof the Republicans are nothing more than the lackeys of corporate greed at the expense of the rest of us.
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Thursday, August 27, 2015
Katrina: A 10-Year Review Thursday, Aug. 27, is the 10th year anniversary of when Katrina first hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Here's what we as a nation did not learn in the past decade.
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Saturday, October 18, 2014
Pennsylvania's Politics of Virtue--Finally! Pennsylvania is the only state that has open (and legal) pigeon shoots. But the state Senate voted to ban the shoots under a state animal cruelty statute. Now the House, after two decades of scuttling such legislation, afraid of NRA retribution, may develop a spine. We'll know, Oct. 20.
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Sunday, January 24, 2010
Err-America: Death by Journalistic Suicide Air America died not because of the power of conservative talk radio, but because of both liberal and journalistic incompetence.
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Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Toxic Lead to Cover Iowa Killing Fields The "rights" of hunters apparently trumps the environment and health issues, according to the Iowa legislature.
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Saturday, June 18, 2016
Donald Trump v. The First Amendment A Trump presidency would NOT be transparent. Here's why
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Sunday, June 5, 2011
The Last Dance: Prom Night in America The U.S. is arguing about the debt ceiling. Perhaps it's time that Americans impose a debt ceiling on high school proms.
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Friday, December 2, 2016
Trump Nominee Will Politicize Dept. of Justice Of all the cabinet members, an attorney general is supposed to be apolitical. Donald Trump's nominee isn't expected to put politics aside. Here are some reasons why he will politicize the Department of Justice.
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Monday, February 3, 2014
Pets Are Nothing More Than Kitchen Chairs State legislatures consider pets to be in the same class as kitchen chairs. It's time the paid and elected representatives of the people see cruelty for what it is.
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Tuesday, October 23, 2012
BREAKING NEWS: AP, Media Fumble News Story When the media start schmoozing with their sources, you might as well start believing everything you read on the Internet--the credibvility is about the same.
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Tuesday, May 7, 2013
"A' is for Average: Grade Inflation in America Between 1/3 and 1/2 of students at American colleges will graduate with honors. Are they REALLY that bright?
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Thursday, July 5, 2012
Pennsylvania Politics Continues to Trump Health and the Environment Once again, the Republican majority in the Pennsylvania legislature have figured out a way to protect the affluent and corporations, while disgregarding the health of those in the rural areas.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Death by Healthy Doses It's hard to be healthy today, especially when being bombarded by megabites of information that conflicts with each otehr. Satirist Walter Brasch shows what happened to one person who was subjected to an information overload. Page 9 of 23 First Last Back Next 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 View All |