Archives for the 'media' Category
Tabloidification Of America Continues!
Published on 3 Nov 2009 at 7:56 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under history, media.
Welcome to the dark side. At the Washington Post, they’re working it from the inside out. Politico: Fists fly! It’s a case of Style section rage:
Read ‘Tabloidification Of America Continues!’
Alternate Iraq War Universe … Obama Won!
Published on 25 Oct 2009 at 10:35 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under Iraq, Obama, media, moronocy.
It’s a weird Tom Friedman dream sequence:
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Hardball Host … Likes A Softball
Published on 22 Oct 2009 at 11:10 pm.
10 Comments.
Filed under Obama, media.
At least until Fox comes up. Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam interviewed Chris Matthews, reports he was picky about what questions he would take:
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“Dumb”
Published on 20 Oct 2009 at 12:12 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama, media, mockery, moronocy.
Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus gets points for noticing:
In Other Thin-Skinned Political Developments
Published on 20 Oct 2009 at 12:10 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under Obama, media, moronocy.
Weekly Standard’s John McCormack gets the bum’s rush at a political event because he asked the candidate about her positions. The problem seems to be that Dede Scozzafava is uncomfortable with people knowing that how well she lines up with the Obama admin … including the shoot-the-messenger part.
Here’s his boss Bill Kristol with more on the extent of the thin-skinnedness [...]
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Mirror Time
Published on 18 Oct 2009 at 12:22 pm.
4 Comments.
Filed under media.
Good fun with Newsweek re Obama flack re Fox: “Fox News isn’t just bad. It’s unAmerican.” From the people who devoted this week’s cover to helping Joe Biden get the clown shoes and the red nose off.
UPDATE: via Surber, half of Fox’s viewership is non-Republican. And it draws more voters than either CNN or MSNBC. More taxpayers, [...]
Afghanistan Syndrome
Published on 18 Oct 2009 at 10:55 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, media.
It’s a long way from Stockholm.* Pretty much he other side of the world. NYT scribbler David Rohde, “inside the Emirate,” on what happened to him in extended Taliban captivity:
Miller Time
Published on 17 Oct 2009 at 3:50 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama, beer, bigotry, media.
Moving description of gross injustice and a wholesome expression of American values in the Wall Street Journal. It’s Rush Limbaugh, about the slanderous attacks and discriminatory treatment he faced when he tried to exercise his right as an American to engage in a lawful business venture. It would be fun to watch him sue the NFL, Sharpton, Jackson and his [...]
McChrystal’s Afghanistan
Published on 15 Oct 2009 at 11:13 am.
5 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, media, military.
NYT’s Dexter Filkins goes deep with a profile of McChrystal in action that includes an intimate look at what he wants to do in Afghanistan, the difficulties he faces, some reasons for hope, a lot of ugly truths, and for a refreshing change in current American reporting trends, some comparison and contrast on the fact that these guys have [...]
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Obama’s War
Published on 12 Oct 2009 at 11:11 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, media.
PBS’ Frontline is taking a look Tuesday night. An early cut of Act 1 is up at the link.
As basically a grunt’s eye view, on the ground with 2/8 Marines in Helmand, with a lot of about the difficulties of fighting a counterinsurgency. The Marine commander’s opening speech, the combat footage, the Marines’ living conditions and the interactions with locals [...]
Structural Issues
Published on 11 Oct 2009 at 9:00 pm.
5 Comments.
Filed under Obama, media, moronocy.
White House Communications Director Anita Dunn whines that Fox acts as a “wing of the Republican Party.” No complaints about the rest of the White House Press Corps acting as a Democratic high-rise condo development, though. via Think Progress, your go-to place for skewed views on the news.
They’re widely viewed as, you know, a part of [...]
Matched Set
Published on 8 Oct 2009 at 10:40 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under Obama, Russia, commies, media.
For some reason these articles make a good pair. One’s about Obama’s image. The other is about Stalin’s.
A Tale of Two Bureaus
Published on 8 Oct 2009 at 9:30 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, Obama, media.
Two cities, two theaters of war. It’s the remarkable difference illustrated by two news reports tonight from one news agency. The first, from Washington, describes the increasingly imaginary war theater that seems to exist in the collective mind of the Obama administration. It’s captured here by the AP’s Jennifer Loven:
Nobel Thoughts
Published on 5 Oct 2009 at 9:45 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under media, pols.
Nobel Economics Laureate Paul Krugman at NYT is a little late to the Olympian commentary windsprints, but like most on his side of the ledger, is less interested in what the Battle of Copenhagen says about the president’s political instincts and use of his office, and more interested in sniffing disdainfully at the opposition. But he makes an [...]
Safire
Published on 27 Sep 2009 at 8:08 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under media.
Won’t be down to breakfast. Great send-off from conservative send-off artist John Podhoretz at Commentary.
Bait As We Say, Not As We Do
Published on 18 Sep 2009 at 9:56 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under media, racism.
Some gall* on the part of the race-baiting Associated Press. Analysis: “Racist” claims defuse once-powerful word.
Read ‘Bait As We Say, Not As We Do’
RSVP
Published on 13 Sep 2009 at 10:15 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Obama, media.
Disputes over how many showed up yesterday to express anger about runaway government spending and efforts to expand government at the 9/12 rally in DC … ABC insists it was misquoted by organizers, it was 60,000 to 70,000, not 1 million to 1.5 million. Examiner.com with a variety of police and news sources, including the apparently misquoted [...]
Aftermath Anger
Published on 10 Sep 2009 at 11:46 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, media, military.
UK Telegraph reports senior British Army sources voice anger that a soldier was killed rescuing a New York Times reporter who ignored security warnings and went into a Taliban-controlled area. An Afghan translator was also killed, unclear by which side. The military believed that the situation might be about to deteriorate.
Caught a few moments of what sounded [...]
Organs For Health Care
Published on 9 Sep 2009 at 12:00 pm.
5 Comments.
Filed under China, Obama, media, moronocy, pols.
It’s always astonishing to see, just when you think Friedman has completely lost his mind, he always has a little more left to lose. Here he is, saying we should be like the People’s Republic of China, model of modern advancement, thanks to the efficiency of its “one-party autocracy,” as opposed to our “one-party democracy.”
I’m not going [...]
Professional Issues
Published on 5 Sep 2009 at 9:58 am.
6 Comments.
Filed under media, military.
AP’s dead Marine photo violates its own embed agreement and the wishes of a dead Marine’s family. Gates objects. NYT.
The journal entries of AP Photog Julie Jacobson regarding the incident in which Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard was killed are compelling reading. via Miami Herald. Real deal, descriptions of heavy combat. She says the Marines tried to ice her [...]
Scary Dangerous Health-Care Protest
Published on 3 Sep 2009 at 10:20 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under media, medicine, moronocy.
Turns out the lefties and the media were right about the danger of bloodshed at increasingly heated health-care protests. This kind of shifts the irrational health-care rage thing solidly into the other camp, though. Pro-socialized medicine MoveOn protestor confronts, yells at, menaces an elderly anti-Obamacare protestor, then bites the old guy’s finger off in the ensuing fight. KTLA.
Ha. Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne chimes in sagely. [...]
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Pay As We Say
Published on 2 Sep 2009 at 7:29 am.
5 Comments.
Filed under media, pols.
Not as we do. Actually, that probably should be “booze as we say … ” A Massachusetts Democratic state rep who voted to raise alcohol taxes and slap the increased state sales tax on hootch on top of that is caught buying bottles across the border in New Hampshire. A classic tabloid gotcha, it’s a [...]
Radical Surgery
Published on 2 Sep 2009 at 7:18 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under media, pols.
Contemplated. My adversaries across the Expressway on Morrissey Boulevard set down their burden of Democratic water for a minute and candidly explain how Senate Dems, staring in the face of failure on their plan to re-engineer vast swathes of our economy, are gearing up to ram socialized medicine through with the “nuclear option,” a little used skid-greasing procedure [...]
American Royalty
Published on 31 Aug 2009 at 8:16 am.
17 Comments.
Filed under media, pols.
The lefty sockpuppet also known as Glenn Greenwald is right. This nation might as well embrace royalty and be done with it. The only part I don’t get, is how he can get snarky about the fact that Jenna Bush just got a part-time TV gig, without once mentioning the colossal royal funeral we just witnessed or [...]
Case In Point
Published on 13 Aug 2009 at 1:49 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under Afghanistan, Boston, cops, media, military.
While the Boston Globe waxes hysterical about the dangers letting veterans be cops, the New York Times weighs in with some news on what the presumed babykillers have been up to while earning their veterans’ civil service preference. It’s an informative article on the military’s adaption to Taliban tactics and finetuning of the counterinsurgency. Sounds like the Army expects a pretty high degree of sophistication [...]
Lefty Rag Opposes Minority Preferences
Published on 12 Aug 2009 at 11:22 pm.
6 Comments.
Filed under Boston, bigotry, cops, media, military.
No, not race, gender or sexual-orientation preferences. Don’t be ridiculous. It’s the Boston Globe, slamming civil service police preferences for that other much-abused minority, Military-Americans, in a bigoted, ill-informed editorial that plays on some of the worst stereotypes about veterans, and has the Boston police commissioner singing in tune:
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Novocaine News Agency
Published on 12 Aug 2009 at 8:29 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under chavez, media.
Develops a Toothaker. I’m almost willing to take back everything I ever said about the AP, on the strength of these two sentences alone:
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s congress is often criticized for ignoring the business of the country as legislators don Arab keffiyehs to taunt Israel or gaze at photos of topless women — [...]
Good Start
Published on 10 Aug 2009 at 10:57 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Iraq, media, military.
Falls apart. Walter Rodgers, formerly of CNN, embedded with 3/7 Cav in the invasion of Iraq, on the latest evolution in the Spanish persecution of Gibson, Wolford and deCamp, spanks the Euro-righteousness that has prompted several Iraq-related political prosecutions. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much where we part ways. CSM via Yahoo:
The Spanish case seems to be a [...]
Pawn Swapping
Published on 10 Aug 2009 at 9:42 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Clintons, Iran, Kim, Korea, media, moronocy.
The UK Daily Mail offers a version of the back story on Bill’s North Korean rescue mission from assorted unnamed insiders, as well as details on the captured journos’ capitalization plans and a depiction of embarrassingly amatuerish behavior that is said to have got them in this mess in the first place.
Meanwhile, in Iran, the mullahs are [...]
Civic Involvement Decried
Published on 7 Aug 2009 at 8:46 am.
8 Comments.
Filed under America, Norman Rockwell, Obama, media, pols.
Paul Krugman among others are fully handwrought over the latest expression of American democracy, decrying the fact that citizens are involved, that they give a damn what their government is doing, that they are mad as hell, etc. Krugman wants to know whatever happened to Rockwellian democracy.
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We Have A Winner!
Published on 6 Aug 2009 at 1:10 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under media, moronocy, racism.
In the “Political Criticism of Obama is Inherently Racist” competition! It took a while, which is encouraging. With the exception of the reaction to the NY Post’s drunken-bloated-dead-chimp-as-economic-stimulus cartoon … political mockery that was actually aimed at the drunken, bloated Congressional leadership that authored the porkulus … it almost seemed like we had have entered a blissfully post-racial period [...]
University Of Combat
Published on 31 Jul 2009 at 10:24 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Iraq, academia, media, military.
The University of Alaska J-school is embedding student journalists with an Alaska-based Stryker battalion in Diyala province, one of those parts of Iraq where al-Qaeda remains a problem, posing a reasonable likelihood that the three students and their professor could be exposed to fire. Chronicle of Higher Education:
Walter Cronkite
Published on 18 Jul 2009 at 10:23 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under media.
Won’t be down to breakfast. 1916-2009. He probably meant more to most of you than he did to me. I only vaguely recall the guy, having been mainly elsewhere during that part of his career when I was alive. He is my news grandad, though, having been part of a group that dubbed itself “The Writing 69th,” also self-mocked as “The [...]
Fact Check Fact Check
Published on 15 Jul 2009 at 8:37 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Obama, media, racism.
The AP spanks Sen. Patrick Leahy for his “creative rewrite of history.” AP stops short of spanking itself, but never mind, this is astonishing enough from a press agency, where coverage of matters such as the Sotomayor nomination, the 2008 presidential election, the Iraq and Afghan war, our nation’s efforts to combat terrorism, and transgendered matters has been, [...]
Free The Herald One
Published on 12 Jul 2009 at 10:57 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under Boston, hacks, media.
The Boston Herald’s Howie Carr had to be handcuffed to his hospital bed to keep him down. The scourge of hacks, hoods, deadbeats, welfare queens, etc., is also a hard-working, highly professional, old school Tabloid-American who is a pleasure to work with. He may have already turned in his column for the day, or it may [...]
National Sovereignty Day
Published on 30 Jun 2009 at 1:29 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under Iraq, media, military.
It’s a newly declared holiday in Iraq, and a new day as US troops pull out of the cities. Except to the extent they’ll need to be running around the cities training and advising Iraqi troops, and conducting hits on terrorists in the cities and out of them. Which sounds like a wide-open door you could [...]
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Earth Treason
Published on 30 Jun 2009 at 9:39 am.
9 Comments.
Filed under media, warmalism, western civilization.
They have betrayed the planet, and they must suffer the fate of traitors!
Paul Krugman at NYT, on warmalism deniers:
So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.
But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the [...]
It’s All About The O
Published on 30 May 2009 at 8:05 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Obama, media, military, sex.
Hate to say I told you so. Here’s Rolling Stone’s “Hot” love for Small Wars Journal. via SWJ:
Hot Intelligence: ‘Small Wars Journal’
The Military’s New Must Read
Want to know how Obama is going to fight the war in Afghanistan? Then check out Small Wars Journal, an online magazine that provides a crash course on asymmetric warfare. [...]
Greatest Generation Chic
Published on 29 May 2009 at 11:18 am.
3 Comments.
Filed under Germans, Obama, history, media, mockery.
Or just making the most of dead Jews and old uncles? Obama’s using Buchenwald for political purposes, says beloved Great-Uncle Charles Payne, via Der Spiegel:
Read ‘Greatest Generation Chic’
Strawman Straw Slam
Published on 24 May 2009 at 8:53 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Obama, media.
Fascinating “Washington Memo” by NYT’s Helene Cooper slams Obama’s growing use of bogus strawmen, when he goes after people who want to “do nothing,” about economic woes, health care, climate change. (I’d like to raise my straw hand on the climate change one. Do nothing, please. That global case of Von Munchausen Syndrome needs a [...]
Cripplehawk
Published on 20 May 2009 at 11:31 am.
10 Comments.
Filed under bigotry, media.
Myself and some others were admonished recently for taking a blind pol at face value, when we mocked Kareem Dale, Obama’s special assistant for arts and culture, for admitting the White House’s feelings of love for MSNBC.
But that was actually treating the handicapped like human beings who are no different from the rest of us. This [...]
See More Hersh
Published on 19 May 2009 at 8:50 am.
6 Comments.
Filed under Cheney, Intel, media, moronocy.
I would be hesitant to run with this, given that it only emerged in a couple of Pakistani papers, but it has the ring of truth. Pakistan’s The Nation:
NEW YORK (Online) - Former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on the orders of the special death squad formed by former US vice-president Dick [...]
Cheap Date
Published on 17 May 2009 at 10:35 pm.
8 Comments.
Filed under blogs, hacks, media.
Maureen Dowd rips off Josh Marshall. Pretty lame. She apparently claims inadvertence, but it looks kinda … I dunno … advertent. Advertently lame, that is. She claims didn’t know she was ripping off the Talking Points Memo blogger. She thought she was just letting a pal do the heavy lifting while she phoned it in. [...]
Getting Cheney
Published on 17 May 2009 at 8:42 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Cheney, ancient mysteries, media, pols.
The first thing you need to understand about him is his strange power to induce irrationality in his opponents, even greater possibly than the similar power wielded by Bush. It will be the stuff academic careers are built on. For now, we have to make do with the media and punditry, their descriptions of the raw [...]
Metaphor Wanted
Published on 15 May 2009 at 11:26 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under media, pols.
Smells like blood in the water, as people start to notice the House Speaker’s come unhinged. Dan Balz at the Washington Post delicately analyzes the situation:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s extraordinary accusation that the Bush administration lied to Congress about the use of harsh interrogation techniques dramatically raised the stakes in the growing debate over the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism [...]
Tut Tut
Published on 11 May 2009 at 7:42 am.
7 Comments.
Filed under Obama, media.
ABC’s Tapper with the squawking about Wanda Sykes’s Limbaugh bashing, that prompted guffaws from Obama at the Washington press dinner. Rush hopes Obama’s policies fail, Sykes hopes Rush’s kidneys fail. Rush should be waterboarded, etc. Yeah, OK, ho hum, some lefty Rush-bashing. Who cares? Never mind that you could spend all day getting indignant about what comedians and talk show hosts and [...]
Mother, May We
Published on 10 May 2009 at 8:05 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Obama, media.
OK, the mom in the house isn’t down yet. Might still sneak one in. Here’s Obama mocking everyone … his secretary of state, his chief of staff, himself and his fawning press corps. Washington Post:
When President Obama made his debut as the nation’s Stand-Up-in-Chief last night — the star attraction at the annual White House [...]
Sounds Like His Heart Was In The Right Place
Published on 9 May 2009 at 9:04 am.
8 Comments.
Filed under al qaeda, media, military, pols.
But it doesn’t sound like he knows the troops as well as he thinks he does. The Hill:
CBS Sports commentator David Feherty drew criticism Friday for suggesting any U.S. soldier would murder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) if given the chance.
Read ‘Sounds Like His Heart Was In The Right Place’
Newspaper Narcissism
Published on 7 May 2009 at 8:39 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under media.
Walter Pincus at CJR gets off to a good start in a piece with that title, criticizing editors who built Pulitzer shops and were not really focused on much in the way of news that mattered, or was even readable. He sidetracks into the usual, predictable Bush-lied-people-died, failing to notice that the Saddam-as-dire-threat theme predated Bush and that [...]
Propaganda Victory!
Published on 7 May 2009 at 11:51 am.
4 Comments.
Filed under Afghanistan, media, military.
As a career newsman, I can assure the last thing any reporter worth his salt wants to do is let sticky, unresolved questions and facts mess up the story line. That’s why a professional sometimes employs the time-honored device known as “burying” them. Much as the evidence was buried in Afghanistan. AP:
