by Alison Bass | Feb 9, 2022 | Uncategorized
Back in November, I was interviewed by a senior news producer for the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver show about why the decriminalization of adult sex workers makes so much sense from a public health and safety perspective. The producer came across my name, not...
by Alison Bass | Feb 2, 2022 | Uncategorized
In 2016, Congress passed a law designed to hold websites liable for any content that could be construed as advertising sexual services. The law, dubbed FOSTA-SESTA, was intended to deter sex trafficking, but in reality, it has only made it more difficult for workers...
by Alison Bass | Jan 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
Here it is 2022, and women are still talking about gender bias in the workplace. A head and neck surgeon who teaches at the University of California recently wrote this essay about the lingering (and very consequential) effects of gender bias in obtaining research and...
by Alison Bass | Jan 18, 2022 | Uncategorized
When I moved to West Virginia to teach journalism in 2012, I ran head-on into stereotypes about Appalachia, mostly from acquaintances who had never been to the region. Misconceptions about ignorant white hillbillies abounded. When I told one of my Mom’s doctors...
by Alison Bass | Jan 10, 2022 | Uncategorized
I was visiting family in California recently and made the mistake of going up to Los Angeles to visit other relatives at a time when Omicron was surging in LA. As it turned out, my relatives had been exposed to the virus by their unvaccinated daughter who stayed at...
by Alison Bass | Dec 26, 2021 | Uncategorized
There has been a steady drumbeat about the deterioration of local and regional news throughout the country, largely because the internet, media consolidation, and now COVID has eviscerated news outlets’ primary business model: advertising. So I thought it would...
by Alison Bass | Dec 14, 2021 | Uncategorized
A friendly Afghan man named Fazel was my Lyft driver on a recent trip from Washington Dulles Airport into the city, and as we talked during the long ride, I learned that Fazel was driving 11 to 12 hours a day to support not only his wife and two young children but...
by Alison Bass | Dec 6, 2021 | Uncategorized
At a recent book talk I gave, a student at West Virginia University asked me how the media could improve its credibility with the public. I noted that the “media” was not a monolithic entity, but a diverse number of information outlets, some way more...
by Alison Bass | Nov 30, 2021 | Uncategorized
When I lived in Boston in my 20s, another young woman who also lived in the Back Bay, a nurse, was brutally raped and murdered by a man, who, if my recollection is correct, got into her apartment through an open window. I remember thinking about why this guy, who was...
by Alison Bass | Nov 21, 2021 | Uncategorized
This weekend, everyone is talking about the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on murder charges in the deaths of two protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Although I am disturbed by the verdict and specifically the judge’s dismissal of the gun charge against Rittenhouse...
