Previously, I pointed out that Paul Krugman got his facts wrong on two of the three examples he used in a much-cited column to allege that Reagan used “tacit race-baiting.” But what of the third example? “During the 1976 campaign Reagan often talked about how upset workers must be to see an able-bodied man using […]
Archive | Media
Revisiting Krugman on Reagan and Race (UPDATED)
Back in 2007, Krugman wrote a much-talked-about column in which he accused Ronald Reagan of exploiting white racism in his quest for the presidency. He gave three specific examples of Reagan using “tacit race-baiting.” One was Reagan’s speech at a County fair in Mississippi where, he says, Reagan “declared his support for states’ rights — […]
Speaking of the Kennedy Assassination
While fifty years later, much of the MSM still refuses to acknowledge that JFK’s assassin was a Communist loser, somehow it’s also apparently not cricket to point out that his brother RFK was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist. So let’s review. Sirhan Sirhan was a Palestinian refugee with Jordanian citizenship. He murdered Kennedy because the […]
Remarkable Take on JFK’s Assassination
This is really amazing to me. The New York Times and the Washington Post each manages to publish a piece on the Kennedy assassination, by two different authors, focusing on what they see as the right-wing extremist environment in Dallas in 1963, and while never saying so directly, implicitly blaming Kennedy’s assassination on that environment. […]
Jack Shafer on the Limits of the Media’s Ability to Increase Political Knowledge
By Ilya Somin on October 8, 2013 7:11 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Media, Political Ignorance
Jack Shafer of Reuters has an interesting column on the implications of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance, and other recent scholarship, for claims that public knowledge of politics can be subtantially increased if only we had more or better media coverage of political issues: The surplus of quality journalism in print, on the Web, […]
Political Ignorance and the Weakness of Consumer Demand for “Hard News”
Media writer Jack Shafer and economics columnist Megan McArdle have interesting pieces discussing the weakness of the market for “hard news.” Shafer notes that producing “hard news” has never been very profitable because most readers aren’t particularly interested in it and are reluctant to pay for it. McArdle points out that the hard news media’s […]
Amazon’s Bezos to Buy Washington Post
The Washington Post reports that the paper and associated media properties will be sold to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Colorado Inside-Out 1973 Time Machine
By David Kopel on July 2, 2013 4:08 pm in Constitutional Amendments, Media, Politics, Presidency, Television, Voting Rights Act
This Friday, July 6, at 8 p.m. Mountain Time, is Colorado Inside-Out’s annual Time Machine episode, on Colorado Public Television, channel 12. These episodes have won three regional Emmy Awards. This year’s episode takes us to 1973, with discussions of Equal Rights Amendment ratification, political violence, the energy crisis, and Watergate. The characters are, from […]
Emmy award nomination–1912 Time Machine
For the sixth year in a row, Colorado Inside-Out’s annual Time Machine episode has been nominated for a Heartland Regional Emmy. (We’ve won three.) The category”Interview/Discussion – Program/Special.” In this episode (originally broadcast in July 2012), the Colorado Inside-Out political discussion program travels back to 1912. Former Rocky Mountain News reporter Kevin Flynn turns in […]
I Think Jeffrey Goldberg is Trying to Defend President Obama
when he says, “Like many liberal American Jews, when he looks at Netanyahu he sees a conservative Republican and he fails to understand how a Jew can be a conservative Republican. I think he looks at Netanyahu in much the same way he contemplates Eric Cantor, the Republican (and Jewish) house majority leader. Like many […]
Starting a Column with a Lie?
Thomas Friedman in the New York Times: “Israeli friends have been asking me whether a re-elected President Obama will take revenge on Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu for the way he and Sheldon Adelson, his foolhardy financier, openly backed Mitt Romney. My answer to Israelis is this: You should be so lucky.” I’m pretty sure it’s […]
In Pursuit of Journalistic Negativity
A new report on media coverage of the presidential campaign from the Pew Research Center looks at the balance of positive and negative coverage of the major presidential candidates. Among the report’s findings: The study reveals the degree to which the two cable channels that have built themselves around ideological programming, MSNBC and Fox, stand […]
A Non-Controversy at Brandeis
The Times reports that a potentially controversial Palestinian art exhibit at Brandeis’ Rose Art Museum hasn’t caused much controversy. As an alumnus, I can guess why. Unless things have changed dramatically since I was there, Brandeis students are only dimly aware of the museum’s existence, and it plays essentially no role in campus life. In […]
Two Takes on Fact-Checking
Clive Crook offers two commentaries on the current rage of “fact checking” political arguments: One with a heavy dose of satire, and one without.
NYT v. NYT
Arthur Brisbane, the NYT‘s public editor for the past two years, wrote his final column this weekend. In that column, he commented: I had taken up the public editor duties believing “there is no conspiracy” and that The Times’s output was too vast and complex to be dictated by any Wizard of Oz-like individual or […]