RIP Hugh Van Es
Hugh Van Es, the photographer who took the iconic “helicopters on the roof” photo of the fall of Saigon, has died at 67: [Van Es’s] shot of the helicopter escape from a Saigon rooftop on April 29, 1975 became a … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Press
Will the media—and the people—get the message on Chrysler and Obama?
Sometimes I think I’ve been writing too many posts on Obama’s handling of the Chrysler crisis. But the tale seems especially important because this is one of those times when Obama’s mask of affable reasonableness has slipped most dramatically, exposing … Continue reading →
Cronkite, opinion journalism, and a changing press: Part II
[NOTE: I decided it was high time for a repeat of this series (first posted in December of 2006) on how the press came to consider its function to be changing popular opinion rather than informing the public. Here’s the … Continue reading →
Cronkite, opinion journalism, and a changing press: Part I (“to tell a conflicted people a higher truth”)
[NOTE: I decided it was high time for a repeat of this series (first posted in December of 2006) on how the press came to consider its function to be changing popular opinion rather than informing the public. Here’s the … Continue reading →
The Boston Globe vs. The New York Times—vs. the internet
The Boston Globe reports on its own stay of execution. The decision about its fate has been postponed till midnight tomorrow. One of the Globe’s many problems is that it seems to have made an error in calculating the value … Continue reading →
The loathsome cartoon
Please take a look and a read, and see what passes for acceptable political cartoons these days. This quote seems to me to be the most important: [The mentality this cartoon represents] is part of the merging of much Western … Continue reading →
The Iraqi Museum meme that will not die
I don’t know why I bother with the AP anymore. Maybe it’s because their articles permeate most of the newspapers in the country, and become the reality for so many readers. And so today we have the re-opening of the … Continue reading →
For the AP, the new year’s the same as the old
Just in case you thought the AP had turned over a new leaf, here’s its current take on the Israel/Palestine conflict. It’s titled, “Israel kills top Hamas figure, escalating campaign.” True to form, the AP takes its time in divulging … Continue reading →
Waiting for the Fairness Doctrine
One of the “promises” of the recent campaign has been the threat that the overwhelming nature of the Democrats’ victory would allow them to push their long-held dream of imposing (re-imposing, that is) the Fairness Doctrine. And now it may … Continue reading →
Gail Collins vies for honor of worst NY Times column ever
There’s a lot of competition for that honor, but this column by Gail Collins just might get top (bottom?) prize. Unwilling to wait the last two months of the end-of-Bush-Presidency countdown, or to let the Constitution take its course, Collins … Continue reading →
Airing Ayers
One of the saddest effects of this sorry campaign season is that Bill Ayers is a hot commodity again, and the MSM gives him a forum to recast himself as a nice ole pussy cat. Does anyone for a moment … Continue reading →
Obama’s funny business
One thing Barack Obama needs to learn is that, despite his much-vaunted coolness, he’s not a funny man. I noticed this and wrote about it quite some time ago, and now he’s proven it once again at his first post-election … Continue reading →