Weekly Writers Round-Up: Internet Bias, Student Loans, and the War in Afghanistan

Each week, we’ll be featuring the work of the alumni and current participants of AF’s Writing Fellows Program. A few highlights from the past week are below. For more information on the program, see here.

The New U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Brings Along the Same Stale Ideas by Jerrod A. Laber (Fall 2017) in The National Interest
As the anniversary of the September 11 attacks draws near, the Afghanistan War—the nearly seventeen-year-old conflict those terrible events spawned—is seeing a change in leadership. Army Lt. Gen. Austin Scott Miller, America’s ninth commander, is preparing to take charge of the effort but has already admitted to his lack of innovative thinking. At his confirmation hearing in June, he told the Senate that he couldn’t guarantee a timeline for bringing U.S. troops home. This is unfortunate—and expected. Despite the change of command, Miller represents the same stale thinking that has permeated U.S. foreign policy for the last two decades…

The Internet Doesn’t Need a Fairness Doctrine by Eric Peterson (Fall 2014) in National Review
Another day, another call for government intervention in free speech on the Internet. President Trump recently took to Twitter to decry supposed censorship of conservatives. He suggested that Google and “others” were censoring conservative voices and burying good news about him in search results. Furthermore, he warned that “this is a very serious situation” that will be “addressed” — perhaps with government action…

Mother Jones Uses Misleading Statistics On Student Loan Forgiveness by Preston Cooper (Fall 2015) in Forbes
A feature story in the left-leaning magazine Mother Jones on the state of a federal student loan forgiveness program used a misleading statistic to illustrate how many people are expected to receive forgiveness benefits. The program in question, known as Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), offers a full cancellation of remaining federal student loans after a borrower works in a designated “public service” occupation for ten years. As the program was created about a decade ago, the first cohort of PSLF borrowers is receiving forgiveness this year…