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Category Archives: Media

Keeping the players straight

According to an email I received today from Howard Dean (we go way back, he emails me almost every day) John McCain once again mixed up Shiites and Sunnis, proving once again that he is as much of an expert on the region as George Bush or Bill Kristol, who more than once told us, […]

What we’re up against

Barack Obama will have two opponents in the fall. If he were only running against John McCain, his victory would be a sure thing. But his other opponent is the media, the only group of people in this country who think John McCain is an inspiring leader. In the end, as in 2000, they will […]

In which I beat several dead horses

From this Morning’s Times: “The news business is something worse than horrible. If that’s the future, we don’t have much of a future,” Sam Zell, who bought the Tribune Company last year, said recently in The Baltimore Sun. The Tribune Company, and therefore Sam Zell, owns the Hartford Courant. Years ago I heard a story […]

The news, 21st Century style

This morning’s Day (I couldn’t find the article on-line), on page A-3 (not the Entertainment section), contains a short AP article reporting the latest developments in American Idol. The doings on the TV show are reported as straight news. We are informed that a contestant that one of the judge’s didn’t like has been voted […]

The Cassandra Effect

Paul Krugman has a blog, and today he takes note of a phenomenon that is, unfortunately, not confined to economic prognostication: Dean Baker is mad at Robert Rubin for suggesting that “few, if any” people saw the financial meltdown coming. I’d say that there are two levels to this. First, a lot of people — […]

Free John Stewart!

I have mentioned before that I watch very little TV. I tape the Daily Show and Colbert on my computer, edit out the commercials, and my wife and I watch it. That’s pretty much the extent of our TV viewing. Since I don’t watch the commercials I guess I have no standing to complain, but […]

John McCain, an agent of an agent of intolerance

Louis Farakhan endorsed Barack Obama, though Obama neither sought nor welcomed the endorsement. Nonetheless, as must all black politicians, he was forced to go through the ritual of denouncing him, most recently at the hands of the loathsome Tim Russert, during a debate with Hillary. John McCain, having traveled a long way from his remarks […]

The sliming begins

The attacks on Barack Obama have begun. The Republicans are questioning his patriotism, and CNN immediately runs a poll asking if he’s patriotic enough to be president (sign a protest letter here). No word so far on whether they’ll poll on whether McCain is too dishonest to be president. Then again, even McCain can’t hope […]

Burying the story

The McCain loving New London Day prints a Washington Post story that establishes beyond doubt that the McCain campaign lied when it said that McCain had not personally met with Lowell “Bud” Paxson before he wrote a letter to the FCC on Paxson’s behalf. Where? On the obituary page, of course. The story is not […]

Protesting too much

The Hartford Courant (A Poorly Sourced Story) joins the journalistic crowd eager to prove that the “Clinton Rules” definitely don’t apply to Republicans. According to the Courant, the Times has “some explaining to do about its story Thursday suggesting that Sen. John McCain of Arizona had a romantic relationship several years ago with a lobbyist […]