After reading Martha Gellhorn’s remarkably prescient 1961 Atlantic Monthly article about the Palestinians, I wanted to read more of her work. I recently and serendipitously happened upon a copy of her Travels with Myself and Another (the “other” being short-term … Continue reading →
Rand Simberg has a wonderful fisking of unrependent CBS producer Mary Mapes’ self-serving new book. Mapes’ head is bloody, but unbowed. Simberg’s post is very very funny. Mapes herself, on the other hand, makes me very very sad, and very … Continue reading →
Captain’s Quarters reports, (via this Washington Post article) that al Qaeda is now skipping the media middle man, and debuting its own internet video news site. I guess even al Jazeera isn’t good enough for al Qaeda–everyone seems to be … Continue reading →
When I first heard the stories of widespread rape, murder, and other carnage at the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center after Katrina, I was horrified. Horrified, but skeptical. The last couple of years have taught me, as never before, … Continue reading →
It’ll be like having a look behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. –Richard Landes, originator of Second Draft, in an interview at Solomonia. By now you may have heard the buzz about Second Draft, a new media watchdog … Continue reading →
Okay, back to Jay Rosen. And for those who think the whole thing to be a tempest in a teapot, I respectfully disagree; because it really comes down to some larger issues about the role bias might play in the … Continue reading →
[Note: I’ve posted an update to this article here.] Jay Rosen and Austin Bay have recently posted an interesting exchange of ideas about Bush and the press. You can find it here on Rosen’s blog, and here on Austin Bay’s … Continue reading →
I’ve mentioned quite a few times that I’m a long-time reader of the New Yorker. That’s “long-time” as in long-time—my estimate is close to forty years or so. I still get the magazine delivered to my home, and I still … Continue reading →
Who are journalists, and what do they do? The old-fashioned idea that a journalist is a mere reporter (or recorder) of the news has been replaced in recent years by the idea of a journalist as a writer first and … Continue reading →
Austin Bay has written an article that is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. It covers a great deal of territory quickly and concisely, which is what Bay himself did on his recent whirlwind visit to Afghanistan and Iraq. The article contains … Continue reading →
I know I’ve written quite a bit about the book Radical Son, in which David Horowitz details the process by which he changed from activist leftist to neocon (see here and here for examples of my posts). But the book … Continue reading →
In my recent “change” post I mentioned in passing that I still read the New Yorker, despite my disagreement with almost everything political in it. I wrestle with the fact that I continue to support them by subscribing, but I … Continue reading →