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Category Archives: Media

The news, 21st Century style

Thursday, March 20, 2008

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 […]

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The Cassandra Effect

Saturday, March 15, 2008

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 — […]

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Free John Stewart!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

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 […]

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John McCain, an agent of an agent of intolerance

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

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 […]

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The sliming begins

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

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 […]

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Burying the story

Saturday, February 23, 2008

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 […]

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Protesting too much

Friday, February 22, 2008

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 […]

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Nicholas Kristof hearts McCain

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Looks like Krugman is taking some indirect pot shots at fellow Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. I was amazed myself when I read Kristof’s column. Hypocrisy is alright, abandoning your “principles” is alright, so long as you’re not totally comfortable about it and so long as your name is John McCain.

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Independent Thinking

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The Courant has seen fit to give one Robert Thorson a weekly column on its op-ed page. Mr. Thorson is a geology professor at UConn, so he presumably knows a lot about rocks. Unfortunately, he writes about politics, at least he did today. One must wonder why the Courant sees fit to give this person […]

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McCain and Bloomberg: centrists both, if you disregard their positions on the issues

Saturday, February 9, 2008

I am horribly confused. Michael Bloomberg’s fantasy of running for president as a “centrist” candidate has officially foundered, according to Chuck Hagel, now that John McCain has locked up the Republican nomination. Why? Well, apparently, according to the Times, Bloomberg is a moderate and a centrist, and so is McCain. These adjectives, in McCain’s case, […]

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