Keeping a jaundiced eye on the corporate media.
Posted in General on May 31st, 2004
HOW MAY I HELP YOU ENJOY YOUR STAY?
Ezra has a real good piece explaining why Andy Sullivan and Mickey Kaus aren’t really bloggers - and why journalists still don’t understand the difference.
Look: Bloggers are to journalism what a concierge is to the Friday entertainment listings in your local paper. We bring taste, attention and discernment […]
Posted in General on May 31st, 2004
WILLIE AND FRIENDS
I’m watching the Willie Nelson special on USA. Boy, is Willie’s voice shot, or what? His range is so narrow now, it hurts to listen. Still, it’s always good to see him - and he always gets the best guests. So far, I’ve heard him duet with Shelby Lynne and Carole King.
If you’re […]
Posted in General on May 31st, 2004
WAY TO GO
Mort Crim on Costco vs. WalMart:
Did you catch that Walls Street Journal piece about Costco upsetting investment analysts because it’s too good to its workers? How dare the giant wholesaler provide affordable health care coverage and other generous benefits to its employees?
Doesn’t Costco’s management understand every dime that goes to a worker […]
Posted in General on May 31st, 2004
CLARK FOR V.P.
Okay, I admit it: I really hope Kerry picks Wes Clark for the V.P. slot. Imagine having a VP who writes things like this, as opposed to contracts for his cronies.
Rising Soviet defense spending aimed at competing with the United States may have hastened the economic decline in the Soviet Union, helped convince […]
Posted in General on May 31st, 2004
ANOTHER REPUBLICAN FOR KERRY
Clyde Prestowitz, one of Reagan’s trade negotiators and author of “Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions,” explains why he’s backing Kerry and believes he’s better for the economy:
MR. PRESTOWITZ: The secretary of the Treasury is walking a tightrope —
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Because of the election?
MR. PRESTOWITZ: Not […]
Posted in General on May 31st, 2004
OBJECTIVITY
Nathan Newman has a post about “Control Room,” the documentary about Al Jazeera:
The anchors and writers for the television network are clearly biased against the US invasion, and they make few bones about this fact. But then, they ask, aren’t all the US networks supportive of the US? What’s the difference? Isn’t “objectivity” a crock?
But […]
Posted in General on May 31st, 2004
MONDAY FUN
Can you tell a computer programmer from a serial killer?
Posted in General on May 31st, 2004
MORE BAD APPLES
More abuse in four prisons:
An American news agency says it has seen official papers suggesting that prisoner abuse in Iraq took place at four sites other than Abu Ghraib. Evidence of abuse has emerged from a marine camp at Nasiriya and army camps at Baghdad International Airport, Qaim and Samarra, the Associated Press […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
DOING THEIR JOB
If the press keeps this up, blogging might become redundant.
Scholars and political strategists say the ferocious Bush assault on Kerry this spring has been extraordinary, both for the volume of attacks and for the liberties the president and his campaign have taken with the facts. Though stretching the truth is hardly new in […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
WHY IT’S NOT ENOUGH
Reading A1 has a great takedown on the latest New York Times mea culpa.
Daniel Okrent’s rhetorical stance is always, “We journalists.” His job, as he seems to take it, is to offer the (perversely uncomprehending) masses a glimpse into the mysteries of the trade. Okrent writes as if the “public” part of […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
WHY IT’S NOT ENOUGH
Reading A1 has a great takedown on the latest New York Times mea culpa.
Daniel Okrent’s rhetorical stance is always, “We journalists.” His job, as he seems to take it, is to offer the (perversely uncomprehending) masses a glimpse into the mysteries of the trade. Okrent writes as if the “public” part of […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
RUNNING SCARED
E.J. Dionne:
But by reminding us of how united we once were, Bush only underscored how divided we have become. And that is why a president who once soared in the polls now finds himself struggling for reelection — less by touting his own achievements than by trashing his opponent. John Kerry has spent nearly […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
IF YOU CAN’T HELP YOUR FRIENDS…
Come on. You’re not really surprised, are you?
WASHINGTON - A single New Mexico family and a dozen big oil companies, including one once headed by Commerce Secretary Don Evans, now control one-quarter of all federal lands leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States despite a law […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
HOLIDAY
It’s a gorgeous morning, and I’m listening to the pre-Kris Kristofferson, post-Leon Russell Rita Coolidge sing “That Man Is My Weakness.” I’ve been giving so long, I’m empty, I don’t know how much more I can take…
I love this album. My LP is so old and scratchy, I was thrilled to finally track down a […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
WORK ETHIC
Obviously, one of us isn’t fucking off over the holiday weekend.
Judith Miller undoubtedly believes she is being unfairly scapegoated, but she is not. Blair and Bragg were fired for offenses that didn’t lead to any real consequences other than a lot of journalistic navel gazing. Yet Miller, more than anyone, was a willing tool […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
OOPSY DAISY
Looks like someone may have forgotten to wipe his fingerprints:
Vice President Dick Cheney was a guest on NBC’s Meet the Press last September when host Tim Russert brought up Halliburton. Citing the company’s role in rebuilding Iraq as well as Cheney’s prior service as Halliburton’s CEO, Russert asked, “Were you involved in any way […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
SMOKE AND MIRRORS
David Broder explains the “chicanery” behind the new House budget:
On the face of it, Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle of Iowa claims to have done the president one year better — halving the ugly deficit in four years.
Don’t believe it. The House budget is a document that makes ordinary Washington budgetary “smoke […]
Posted in General on May 30th, 2004
SUBSIDIZING BAD PRACTICES GETS YOU MORE OF THE SAME
I’ve been bitching about this dumb federal program forever. No, we shouldn’t be in the business of helping people rebuild in the likely path of hurricanes:
Dozens of wealthy beach towns and coastal communities turned to the federal agency after Isabel and received tens of millions of dollars […]
Posted in General on May 29th, 2004
A START
The Times’ public editor writes about Judith Miller and the Ahmed Chalabi affair:
The contract between a reporter and an unnamed source - the offer of information in return for anonymity - is properly a binding one. But I believe that a source who turns out to have lied has breached that contract, and can […]
Posted in General on May 29th, 2004
A RESPONSIBLE PRESS
I don’t know how to react when a “news” organization actually acts like a news organization… I’m shocked, I guess.
No link yet, but Judy Woodruff announced on “Inside Politics” that CNN is suing the state of Florida to obtain the 2004 voter purge list I wrote about a few days ago.
UPDATE: Here’s the […]
Posted in General on May 29th, 2004
BUFFET
Billmon’s back, better than ever:
It’s almost as if the mainstream media abruptly awoke from a coma and realized their doctors had been slipping them sedatives and going through their wallets. Even useless tools like Chris Mathews seem to have light bulbs dimly flickering over their heads. Suddenly, the outrages the left side of the blogosphere […]
Posted in General on May 29th, 2004
CAPTION CONTEST
CSPAN will rerun the WWII veteran’s memorial dedication at 8 p.m. EST. Now, the thing that’s interesting is, after the ceremony is over, Bush I is shown talking to Bill Clinton. Clinton is wagging his finger in Poppy’s face, and Poppy responds by shoving Clinton in the chest with both hands. Nothing in the […]
Posted in General on May 29th, 2004
TESTING
I’ve added a message forum - the link’s over there on the left, right under the Amazon button.
The service I’m using doesn’t allow profanity in the free version; if you feel a need to use some, use the comments section instead.
Trolls will be immediately banned. If you want to rant, go over to Free Republic […]
Posted in General on May 29th, 2004
MORE
The thread unwinds:
Interrogation experts from the American detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were sent to Iraq last fall and played a major role in training American military intelligence teams at Abu Ghraib prison there, senior military officials said Friday.
The teams from Guantánamo Bay, which had operated there under directives allowing broad latitude in […]
Posted in General on May 29th, 2004
FRIENDLY FIRE
Too bad.
WASHINGTON - Pat Tillman, the former Arizona Cardinals football player who died in April while a U.S. soldier fighting in Afghanistan, likely was killed by friendly fire, an Army investigation has concluded.
You are a Working Class Warrior, also known as a blue-collar Democrat. You believe that the little guy is getting screwed by conservative greed-mongers and corporate criminals, and you’re not going to take it anymore.
Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com
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