Washington Times: White House officials said that sort of “surpassingly curious reading” called into question Judge Vinson‘s entire ruling. “There’s something thoroughly odd and unconventional about the analysis,” said a White House official who briefed reporters late Monday afternoon, speaking on condition of anonymity. Hmm. I think it’s a bit curious that the White House […]
Archive | Media
BBC Objectivity?
In response to Ken’s post below, the idea that the BBC is somehow “objective” compared to American t.v. and radio is laughable. (I’ve blogged about the Beeb here, here, and here. My favorite example is a BBC radio report I heard a couple of years ago. The reporter was in China, reporting on the Chinese […]
Why the media should not put the Tucson killer’s picture on the front page
Because, as Jack Shafer explains on Slate, the killer was seeking publicity. And such publicity encourages copycats, as I detailed in Rocky Mountain News columns in December and April 2007. Regarding copycats, Clayton Cramer’s award-winning “Ethical Problems of Mass Murder Coverage in the Mass Media,” Journal of Mass Media Ethics 9:1 [Winter, 1993-94] 26-42 is well worth reading. […]
The Magazine on the Front Page of the New York Times?
Chief Conspirator Eugene commented on the legal aspects of the four-year old child and tortious negligence a couple of days ago, and linked to a story in the New York Times discussing the court’s holding. I was intrigued by something else linked to this story, but not about the law. Rather, when I opened the […]
“Stealing Lunch Money”
Is it just me, or is there something rather inapt in the UPI headline “Big 5 stealing liberal justices’ lunch money”? The article is simply discussing the recent, often 5-4, conservative Supreme Court rulings. It seems to me there are some substantive weaknesses in the article. It doesn’t mention the recent high-profile constitutional cases in […]
Kerstein on Greenwald
A few days back, Instapundit linked to this scathing and reasonably entertaining attack on Glenn Greenwald by Benjamin Kerstein. At the time, I thought about linking to it, with a post along the lines of: “here’s a link to an entertaining attack on Glenn Greenwald. It’s well-written, unfair, a bit hysterical, with some grains of […]
Funny Definition of “Most”
Sixty-nine law school deans have signed a letter endorsing Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. According to the Washington Post, “The letter was signed by the deans of most Washington area law schools, with the exception of those at George Washington and George Mason universities.” The letter was signed by the deans at AU, Georgetown, […]
Greenwald and Gaza
Since Glenn Greenwald is showing up on MSNBC and elsewhere, as an “expert” on Israel and Gaza, this is as good a time as any to recall his record with regard to the last major Hamas-Israel blowup, the Gaza incursion in 2008-09. Greenwald consistently accused Israel of a “disproportionate” (and therefore illegal under international law) […]
How to Turn Good News into Bad News
The percentage of blacks marrying whites has risen by 3 times since 1980. Asians are just as likely to marry whites as they were in 1980 (40%), even though there is a much larger Asian population to choose from, and Hispanics are significantly more likely to marry whites than in 1980 (38% compared to 30%), […]
Taking the Washington Post to School
[NOTE: READ UPDATES BELOW] Today’s Washington Post features a story by Michael Birnbaum on the controversial new Texas social studies standards. As characterized by the Post, the standards sound quite bad. Ann Althouse was concerned by the story, so she looked at the Texas materials (for which the Post had declined to provide a link) […]
Bronner and the N.Y. Times
There’s a bizarre controversy brewing over the fact that New York Times Middle East reporter Ethan Bronner’s son has decided to volunteer for the Israeli military. Anti-Israel activists are arguing that this means that Bronner will be tempted to bias his reporting in favor of Israel and the IDF, rendering his reporting non-objective, or at […]
“Birther” claim about Obama and the Bush National Guard hoax: Fruit of the same poisonous tree?
So suggests John Avalon, in a Daily Beast column “The Secret History of the Birthers.” He traces birtherism to a Texas woman named Linda Starr, who was a Hillary Clinton delegate to the 2008 Texas state Democratic Convention. Avalon writes that Starr “was also cited as a key source for CBS’ discredited election year investigation […]
The Amazon, Apple, Macmillan Kerfuffle
I have been trying to follow the story of the dustup among Amazon, Apple, and Macmillan on pricing on e-book readers, but have been distracted by other things. What interests me are the business models being pursued by the various parties here – and whose makes sense, whose doesn’t, and who is likely to survive […]
New York Times to Adopt Paid-Online Model
New York Magazine is reporting (good piece by Gabriel Sherman) that the NYT has decided to move to a paid-online site model – a drastic shift away from its current free website. The article explains the debate between the two sides within the Times – those urging that it has to somehow get to a […]
Welcome (Back) Jan Crawford
Jan Crawford (fka Jan Crawford Greenburg), author of Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court, has returned to the legal blogosphere with “Crossroads,” a new legal blog at CBSNews.com. Crawford left ABC News several months ago to join CBS News as their new Chief Legal Correspondent, […]