A Watchman in the Night By Cal Thomas

 

“When Cal Thomas speaks, I try to listen. I’ve been listening to him for a LONG time! As a columnist, he added point of view and perspective but never abandoned his addiction to truth above emotion. The result has been that he is the kind of influencer who is willing to even bring objective truth and morality into the discussion.” --Governor Mike Huckabee

A WATCHMAN IN THE NIGHT

What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America

By Cal Thomas 

From one of the most popular syndicated columnists in the United States a living history of our times, of who we were then and who we are now and who we might become (for better or worse) in the future, and a remarkable chronicle of modern American life.

As we fast approach the next presidential election, it’s a great time to look back over the last half century that one of the greatest journalists in American history has reported on historic happenings in America. In A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America, veteran journalist Cal Thomas takes the reader on a “road trip” through over fifty years of journalism and American life, serving as a “watchman” on culture and politics and seeking to conform it to a standard that never changes.

A watchman “keeps guard over a building at night, to protect it from fire, vandals, or thieves,” says Thomas who is a believer that certain values and principles never change. He has critiqued misbehavior and wrong-headedness by people on “his side” from the start. “If values and truth mean anything,” Thomas says, “they must be applied equally. Hypocrisy and heresy cannot be ignored no matter the source.” In A Watchman in the Night, Thomas does not stigmatize labels, such as “conservative” and “religious,” because , he says, “It allows people to define me and others by their perception of those labels. Ask me a question and I will give you a straight answer.

In A Watchman in the Night, you’ll learn about:

·    How a conservative and openly Christian man managed to succeed as a columnist within a profession most are rejected and even scorned;

·    Some of the most famous people Thomas has interviewed and known in his half century of reporting;

·    How Thomas, as a conservative, was able to befriend his liberal colleagues and work with them peaceably without compromising his own belief system;

·    How human nature never changes - greed, lust for power... failure to apply time tested principles on economics, foreign policy, border security and proven moral values;

·    How the media have become even more biased since Thomas started writing his column;

·    How the media fuel discord and anger by never focusing on solutions but rather conflict (for example, the $33 trillion growing debt). They behave as if there is no objective truth, competing for ratings rather than solutions; and

·    How Thomas got liberals and Democrats to endorse his book without compromising his principles and why that should be an example to others.

For over fifty years in journalism, Cal Thomas has offered incisive, humorous, and often corrective commentary to our social, political, and religious conversations. An early commitment to addressing publicly what he sees has marked Thomas’s entire career. He has always called both parties, both sides of the American political divide, to account, to take the high road and to honor our civic and religious ideals with compatible behavior to the very best of our ability. This increasingly “radical” approach to public life has won him many friends on both sides of the political aisle, hundreds of thousands of faithful readers of his columns, and a continuous barrage of accolades and “hate mail,” much of it charming when it is not too foul to repeat.

Cal Thomas came to the Christian faith while a young journalist at a dinner led by Dr. Richard Halverson, Pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD, and later, Chaplain of the United States Senate. This experience informed the rest of his life as he hosted his own private dinners for members of the press and members of Congress from both parties leading to deep friendships with Senator Ted Kennedy and many others - friendships which became a hallmark of Thomas’s life despite wide political differences. A Watchman in the Night includes tones about faith, but focuses on American social, cultural and political currents.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: CAL THOMAS is a journalist, pundit, author, TV & radio commentator and one of the most widely syndicated columnists in America. Thomas began his journalism career at the age of sixteen and 2023 marks over fifty years as a journalist, which includes anchoring, reporting commentary for Newsmax, KPRC-TV in Houston, NBC News in Washington, and other outlets. For ten years, he co-wrote the "Common Ground" column for USA Today with his colleague, Bob Beckel. He is the bestselling author of America's Expiration Date, What Works, The Things That Matter Most, Common Ground, Uncommon Sense, Blinded by Might, The Death of Ethics in America, Book Burning, Liberals for Lunch, The Freedom Dream and Public Persons and Private Lives. Thomas is a wide-ranging social commentator, not a "beltway insider," who supports traditional conservative values and the American "can-do spirit."