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 →
I know it’s tiresome to keep pointing this stuff out, but this was what met my eyes when I looked at my computer today, “US launches 2nd Iraq operation; 50 rebels dead.” Oh, that Reuters; oh, those “rebels”! Despite the … Continue reading →
I think this article by Dr. Sanity is very–sane. She has done some original work here, analyzing the complex interplay between terrorists and the press and comparing it to the suicidal gestures of Borderline patients and the reactions of their … Continue reading →
I’m reading a book I find exceedingly fascinating. It’s called American Brutus, and it’s a fairly new biography of John Wilkes Booth, by Michael W. Kauffman. John Wilkes Booth and Lincoln are two figures about which most of us think … Continue reading →