John Dickerson's Blog
Every now and again I Google “Is John Dickerson” to see what people have been searching. Usually people are searching to find out who my relatives are — my Mom or my wife. They want to know if I am associated with one show or another. Today I found “Is John Dickerson sick,” which is […]
Read the Full PostIn reporting out The Hardest Job in the World, I became fascinated with James Q. Wilson’s theory of character. One of its key aspects was empathy, which Wilson defined as a “willingness to take importantly into account the rights, needs, and feelings of others.” In the 11 weeks since George Floyd was killed by police […]
Read the Full PostHere’s a thing that just occurred to me about not having living parents (it’s been a while, but still). You don’t have to come up with a story of your life in the particular way that you do when updating your parents. For part of your life you speak in rhyme & then never do […]
Read the Full PostAn essay I wrote for CBS This Morning in 2018 about why voting is important and why I vote:
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I love Blackwing pencils. Some of my books are delicate enough that I only write in the margin in pencil. In poetry books I use pencil because I usually change my mind about what I first think. When I wrote the book, I wrote a lot of it by hand with Blackwing pencils. To commemorate […]
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The Hardest Job in the World, now a New York Times best-seller, can be purchased from these purveyors: Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers. IndieBound, Powell’s, Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books A Million,
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All politics is local, as the saying goes, and eagle-eyed staffers at the Delphos Daily Herald found that to be true Monday. Reporters at the Ohio paper noticed their front page in my book, The Hardest Job in the World. “It is a big deal to have a book from such a well- known author […]
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We often think of presidents as Supermen. In 1958 Jimmy Olson thought so too and that was the topic of an entire Superman cartoon:
Read the Full PostThe Hardest Job in the World is now on sale and can be purchased from these purveyors: Barnes & Noble Amazon Books A Million, Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers. IndieBound, Powell’s, Target, Walmart. June 10th: Slate Political Gabfest Live! 7:30 ET. Tune in here. June 11th: Adaptation of The Hardest Job posted on The Atlantic June 14: 9:00 a.m. CBS Sunday Morning […]
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The dirt bike enthusiast Refuses to let these lightened quarantine streets escape The thin, high whine of his urgent enthusiasm. — John Dickerson (@jdickerson) May 17, 2020
Read the Full PostWell this is encouraging to read: “60 Minutes correspondent Dickerson takes an evenhanded and insightful look at the evolution of the American presidency… Drawing on illuminating interviews with former White House officials and presidential historians, Dickerson packs the book with intriguing arcana and colorful quotes…This entertaining history rises above the political fray to cast […]
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I’m recording the audiobook for The Hardest Job in the World at home because all the studios are closed, due to Covd-19. I’ve had to build a tent fort in my bedroom using the curtains. It reminds me of my first bedroom. I had two beds. I stretched a sheet between them and made a […]
Read the Full PostIf you have ever lost someone you loved, you know the feeling of seeing the world through a bank teller’s glass. You observe other people laughing and enjoying their day, but you are apart from them, separated by a thick, bulletproof barrier. You wonder how they can savor that plate of pasta or play music […]
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“When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property, and justly liable to the inspection and vigilance of public opinion; and the more sensibly he is made to feel his dependence, the less danger will there be of his abuse of power — The abuse of power, that rock on […]
Read the Full PostI was not familiar with this quote: Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, […]
Read the Full PostYesterday I thought about an old friend very randomly. We are not in touch much– maybe once every two months. Ten minutes later she emailed me to check in. I wonder if friendships follow a time rhythm that is reciprocal. You share a relationship with someone that reasserts itself at regular patterns and those patterns […]
Read the Full PostHello to all of you out there at the other end of this email list. When you write, you’re supposed to have your audience in mind. You draw some diagram of how much they are like you and how much they are not. This helps you discard writing that makes you chuckle by yourself in […]
Read the Full PostIn the absence of solutions from the institutions created to serve the public good.. A) How much private sector money is available to be donated to those economically hardest hit by Covid-19? B) How difficult would it be to create a system that a) collected from A b) evaluated need to discourage fraud and c) […]
Read the Full PostA few weeks ago I asked people to suggest great speeches that were aimed at convincing skeptical audiences. Here is a brief list based on those responses (A lot of people mistook the request to mean “who is a person who made a good speech” (I’d love to know the convincing speech you’re thinking of!) […]
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