Longtime broadcast newsman Richard Tucker is a staff writer and media critic formerly with The Heritage Foundation. Tucker works with Heritage analysts and other conservative public policy advocates who appear regularly in the print and broadcast news media. Before joining the Heritage Foundation, he spent almost eight years as a broadcast news copy editor and writer, first in CNN's Atlanta headquarters and most recently in the cable news network's Washington Bureau. Tucker's career as a broadcast journalist began in 1992 as a photographer/editor with WBNG-TV, the CBS affiliate in Binghamton, New York. He is a 1991 graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. Originally from Vestal, N.Y., Tucker lives with his wife and two sons in northern Virginia. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2013 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Sun, 12 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT Sun, 12 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ Imagine your car is low on gas. On one side of the street is a station selling fuel for $3.85. Directly across the road is one selling for $3.35. Where are you going to buy gas? There are plenty of other variables,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/05/12/the-cost-of-reform-n1592451 433997bf-5c54-4145-a774-867b3f327719 Sun, 12 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT Almost everything seems to be getting more specialized these days. Television programs were once "broadcast," sent out over the air and intended for a vast audience. In today's 1,000 channel universe, producers... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/05/05/governing-by-experts-n1584401 cccd5cf1-7f8d-4313-8378-5cf7f28c8daf Sun, 05 May 2013 04:01:00 GMT Every religion needs a creed. A set of beliefs that its followers can adhere to. A flag they can rally around in good times and bad. An early example is the Nicene Creed, drafted in the fourth century to explain... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/04/22/nicene-creed-for-environmentalism-n1574873 379f258e-23eb-4cbe-867e-08e665db51b8 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:23:00 GMT In the early 1990s, toy maker Mattel got into hot water for manufacturing a talking Barbie doll that warned children: "Math class is tough." Yet 20 years later, if we could pull their string, most politicians would... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/04/14/counting-up-the-future-n1563842 831135e3-90f1-4026-bbe1-8d9d6a28cf13 Sun, 14 Apr 2013 04:01:00 GMT In the U.S. we like to think we're all about enabling people. We ban discrimination based on creed or color. We insist that facilities be accessible to the disabled. We brag about an America where anyone can climb the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/03/31/making-life-easier-and-harder-n1552168 f3039606-f465-44e7-8de6-9aa7c23d2137 Sun, 31 Mar 2013 04:01:00 GMT Politicians and basketball coaches know that you never answer the question a reporter asks you; you answer the question you want to answer. So it was with an opinion piece in the March 17 edition of The Washington... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/03/23/nows-the-time-to-return-to-capitalism-n1546440 96598636-e336-4f0e-95a3-6094b4899337 Sat, 23 Mar 2013 04:01:00 GMT Forgettable leaders deserve their anonymity. True leaders, on the other hand, can stand the test of time. Consider Hillary Clinton. The one-time presidential contender was wrapping up her tenure as Secretary of... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/03/10/remembering-and-forgetting-n1528455 b49437aa-d8b9-4b3a-b467-a80dbdf15094 Sun, 10 Mar 2013 05:01:00 GMT It would be difficult to expand the food stamp program (officially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) much further. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of able-bodied people getting food stamps... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/03/03/stretching-stamps-n1523815 8189f5a4-2342-4f9b-be31-0f2a1609852f Sun, 03 Mar 2013 05:01:00 GMT Scenes from a crisis: "Results of today indicate immediate danger of general national bank panic," a U.S. senator warned the president. "Government funds should not be drawn upon but should be increased."... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/02/23/not-just-the-face-on-the-50-bill-n1518163 88abb759-f163-4a6c-a0b4-fbdb09fd4f19 Sat, 23 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT "If you build it," an Iowa corn farmer was told in the movie Field of Dreams, "they will come." That worked out so well for all concerned that the federal government is reviving the approach, with some slight edits. "If http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/02/16/washington-turns-science-to-science-fiction-n1513445 739ba1ea-5f50-4fdb-8b0a-c99344fa1c79 Sat, 16 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT Some people say they do their best thinking while in the bathroom. But The Economist recently took that notion one step further, photo shopping Rodin's The Thinker on top of a toilet and asking, "Will we ever invent... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/02/01/rethinking-innovation-n1502102 c60b8541-2721-4742-8b35-59724a37c9e2 Fri, 01 Feb 2013 05:01:00 GMT In Washington, the best way to get good press is to announce you're leaving. Case in point: Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (call him Jay), D-W.Va., is stepping down when his term ends. And The Washington Post makes haste... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/01/23/helping-people-help-themselves-n1494689 c05d6de4-77df-45da-b577-d002a32538d6 Wed, 23 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT Over the years, The Simpsons have proposed many great ideas. Aqua-cars. Info-tainment. The Duff Bowl. But the TV show that was ahead of its time really jumped the gun with one particular idea. Enter the $1 trillion... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/01/15/to-coin-a-solution-n1489625 d9072735-6e62-44eb-b498-631c00cca4fc Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:47:00 GMT It's easy to pity Kremlinologists. These are people who spent years, even decades, studying the Soviet Union. Their job was to explain why that country did the things it did, even though those actions so often seemed... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2013/01/06/the-problem-in-washington-isnt-the-constitution-n1478531 96f8702d-e472-464f-8851-0065d7101b4a Sun, 06 Jan 2013 05:01:00 GMT Calvin Coolidge once announced that "the business of America is business." That's not as true today, when American businesses are often portrayed as the bad guys, causing problems that require big government solutions.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/12/16/powering-the-country-n1467391 630faf4a-7388-4ac5-894e-4f8d8311defd Sun, 16 Dec 2012 05:01:00 GMT Americans have been giving thanks since long before we were known as Americans. Early colonists celebrated their harvest as early as 1621, with a three-day-long festival involving both natives and newcomers.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/11/21/giving_thanks_for_food 3254984f-78ca-4579-b0bf-a7e8bc3b41c8 Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:01:00 GMT In sports, it's called "addition by subtraction" when a team loses one of its best players and yet plays better. Two years ago, for example, All-Star Carmelo Anthony was dragging down his Denver Nuggets team by making... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/11/16/stronger_together 8873b745-54df-4699-9f37-9ca834e1f64e Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:01:00 GMT Hurricane Sandy was an invader, one that splashed ashore with as much destructive power as any foreign (or perhaps interstellar) invader could hope to bring to bear against our coasts. Thus, in the opinion of economist... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/11/03/flooded_by_keynesianism 6a80c0f7-9cda-4380-8f89-b0ee8161983b Sat, 03 Nov 2012 04:01:00 GMT The decade of the 1970s gave Americans many great things. Remember the Crying Indian ad? "People start pollution, people can stop it," that PSA said. And, to a remarkable extent, we have. Rivers that were once... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/10/21/flashing_back_rolling_back 23f2486c-6dda-43e3-8cf8-f2905005e9cb Sun, 21 Oct 2012 04:01:00 GMT Modern medical science keeps people alive longer. Liberals hope they can do the same thing in political science: keep their dying ideas alive for just another election or two. No, this isn’t a comment on... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/10/12/still_changing 5cdfca96-f3f7-4ff4-82a4-637bac2dea0f Fri, 12 Oct 2012 04:01:00 GMT Quick, hang up that cell phone: You may be breaking the law. Well, not the law, exactly, but a regulatory agency’s view of what lawmakers might have meant. And that agency has power to issue its decisions as if... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/09/30/mixed_signals_breaking_the_law d77bd2e5-c4b0-4a21-b3f3-a45570b3bf2e Sun, 30 Sep 2012 04:01:00 GMT "People can come up with statistics to prove anything," Homer Simpson once said. "Forty percent of all people know that." Cue the ombudsman at The Washington Post. To review whether the paper's coverage of the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/09/23/putting_our_best_face_forward a31367ca-0d66-4d50-8a92-13dcaeef9201 Sun, 23 Sep 2012 04:01:00 GMT In the movie "A Few Good Men," Jack Nicholson's character jokes that the Iraqi army was so overwhelmed during the 1991 Gulf War that "some of them surrendered to a camera crew from CNN." Today, men may be searching for... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/09/11/ending_the_war 4fa3860f-4892-48b5-96bb-a674a5c76fab Tue, 11 Sep 2012 04:01:00 GMT In 1992 presidential candidate Bill Clinton assured ordinary Americans that he understood the problems we face. His philosophy was summed up in the soundbite: "I feel your pain." Or as The Onion joked, "New President... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/08/30/who_really_cares 593739ea-40e9-4887-9788-91da4770d0f4 Thu, 30 Aug 2012 04:01:00 GMT In a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon, a local widow who's inherited $50 million feels a bit chilly, so she tosses wads of greenbacks into a fireplace. After all, she now has "money to burn." It makes a universal point:... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/08/16/hungry_for_fuel cb4084d2-d79d-44a0-a2f9-63c69a160fdf Thu, 16 Aug 2012 04:01:00 GMT It's amazing what you can get used to. Looking back a few years, the unemployment rate in April 2004 was 5.6 percent when presidential candidate John Kerry announced that then-President George W. Bush sported "the worst... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/08/07/accepting_the_unacceptable 86a420d8-230c-4b21-92c3-2e08933f9ab5 Tue, 07 Aug 2012 04:01:00 GMT Fans of 1970s Saturday morning TV may remember the "Laff-A-Lympics," a cartoon spoof featuring goofy characters competing in strange events. With the actual Olympics starting this week, Americans will have the chance to... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/07/29/the_liberal_olympics 0c9f0258-8795-45e7-b7f1-15c9903dd2f2 Sun, 29 Jul 2012 04:01:00 GMT For about 15 minutes, ObamaCare had been ruled unconstitutional. At least, that's what those watching CNN on June 28 were being told. Then, on further review, the network changed its mind. ObamaCare lived, albeit in a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/07/22/getting_what_we_need_from_washington 92e68aa7-708c-441a-acca-889c95c6a0a8 Sun, 22 Jul 2012 04:01:00 GMT p>Over the years, many have wondered what happened to "Say Anything" star Ione Skye. Now we may have our answer. In the movie her character, Diane Court, famously urged her fellow graduates to "go back." So maybe Ione... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/07/18/back_or_forward_to_the_energy_future 90dfb1ec-9d6e-4d23-8df0-2dfbf1e35af2 Wed, 18 Jul 2012 04:01:00 GMT In spring, bicycles come out of storage, newspaper photographers snap pictures of people riding them, and those photos generate letters of complaint to The Washington Post. "You do both bikers and wannabes a great... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/07/08/please_dont_take_offense 5d3fe1df-3401-46de-8c0f-99a8ad8d14e2 Sun, 08 Jul 2012 04:01:00 GMT How would you like to tell a fifth grade girl who plays travel team soccer or a sixth grade "Girls on the Run" racer that the main reason she's able to compete and win is because of a white man who's been dead for... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/07/01/making_it_on_their_own 4c9651f4-cee5-41fb-be20-44c86fd139d2 Sun, 01 Jul 2012 04:01:00 GMT Each year, it seems, politicians declare that the upcoming election will be make-or-break for the future of the country. "I believe this election is the most important election since 1860," Newt Gingrich said last year... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/06/24/echoes_from_the_war_of_1912 257fef32-7408-457f-81df-49838c4b27ea Sun, 24 Jun 2012 04:01:00 GMT Powerful mystery novels keep you reading right to the end to find out "whodunit." But some end up disappointing; after all the twists and turns, it simply turns out "the butler did it." That's how Washington's mystery... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/06/15/watered_downgate d33365a0-24b7-4bf7-9330-7ff22e1dded4 Fri, 15 Jun 2012 04:01:00 GMT Well, it's about time somebody got to the bottom of this. The Wall Street Journal reports: "Federal regulators are using powers they gained in the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law to ramp up an inquiry into the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/06/10/driving_out_the_waste d9526e41-1da0-4a44-95d1-9f62f42da169 Sun, 10 Jun 2012 04:01:00 GMT In summer action movies, there always seem to be superheros ready to swing into action and protect the world when it's in need. Outside of movie theaters, of course, there are no superheros. But there is a super system,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/06/04/free_markets_to_the_rescue 209ee422-dbc4-4a7d-9206-9889bcc862ad Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:11:00 GMT A recent comic strip summed up life in these United States in 2012. Several rotund Americans are waiting in line at the movie theater. All are holding massive tubs of popcorn, jumbo candy bars and vats of soda. They're... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/05/17/eating_up_the_hunger_games e6926fb8-950d-4945-a12a-ff96cb5ddcf0 Thu, 17 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT In these tumultuous times, Americans seem to have trouble finding common ground. But it's safe to say that most of us can agree that gasoline, at around $4 per gallon, is uncomfortably expensive. The law of supply and... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/05/13/driving_prices f501d54f-d95a-440d-ad22-8387245a903a Sun, 13 May 2012 04:01:00 GMT Sometimes bad news can be good news. For example, maybe you've heard that our country is likely to smash through another debt ceiling this autumn. "Partially due to lower than expected tax receipts, the nation could r http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/04/17/borrowing_trouble 4cad0023-f1e4-4be2-a660-671d110c4d79 Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:01:00 GMT It almost feels like summer in Washington, D.C. At least as far as the sport scene is concerned. Each August, Washington-area reporters, columnists and fans begin buzzing about how it will be a breakthrough... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/04/02/opening_day_arrives 6f51d952-58b9-4a45-ac84-7f1ece9f851a Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:44:00 GMT In the real world, people say: "You can't beat something with nothing." But Washington exists outside the boundaries of the real world. Here, lawmakers have placed their bets on "nothing." And they have the political... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/03/11/fueling_the_present_and_the_future 163f8ce2-1e5b-4230-b6f4-7ae9b2d2967d Sun, 11 Mar 2012 05:01:00 GMT Back in 1993, The Washington Post made headlines by describing religious conservatives as "largely poor, uneducated and easily led." It was a silly thing to write, but resonated because it seemed to prove what many... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/02/13/lightbulb_moment 6205efbe-0ff3-43ca-be67-6dd6960c6418 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:59:00 GMT To date, it's been easy to ignore the various "Occupy" movements around the country. Protesters pitched their tents hither and yon (both legally and illegally) but could never explain what, exactly, they were... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/02/03/go_big_or_go_home ce51a6a2-de95-47d0-8097-565e1b80b9ed Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:01:00 GMT Americans like "freedom." The very word conjures up powerful images: The Spirit of 1776, the allied victory in World War II, or the West's victory in the Cold War that spread freedom beyond the Berlin Wall. But... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/01/26/promoting_economic_freedom 03daecc3-3693-4d61-b7d6-5810de07239e Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:46:00 GMT If we are to believe Mayan lore and a recent John Cusack movie, the world will end in 2012. But even if it doesn't there are plenty of people set to declare that if humanity manages to survive the year, the United... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/01/11/finding_the_future_in_our_past a60e4537-b89c-4ac5-9935-67f2741ecdc7 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:01:00 GMT Some statistics are so absurd it almost isn't worth refuting them. Almost. Consider this information from the Census Bureau, as reported in the Washington Post: "a record number of Americans -- nearly 1 in 2 -- have fa http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2012/01/04/big_government_big_poverty 0c057288-06ed-43a5-949a-9d38c16d9a87 Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:01:00 GMT It's an iron law of economics: You can't get something for nothing. And yet politicians love to promise to hand out benefits, but are often reluctant to pay for them. So something's got to give. As proof, look across... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2011/12/24/time_for_a_healthy_change 8019e3bf-85b9-410a-9ca3-04d2763c71e5 Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:01:00 GMT Back in 2006, a World War II flying ace briefly made headlines once again. Students at the University of Washington decided to shoot down the idea of a statue to honor Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, the Marine aviator who... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2011/12/18/building_a_more_peaceful_world 5ec8a7e5-78e5-4cf3-a031-2b0eb0ffe466 Sun, 18 Dec 2011 05:01:00 GMT Don't say James Madison didn't warn us. "A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichTucker/2011/12/06/not_getting_what_they_paid_for 00cee32b-3fe5-408a-b27c-224f1c68cc1f Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:01:00 GMT