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Articles by Gal Beckerman | Email the Author

 

1. The Kicker

   Bremer’s Nonchalance

   September 4, 2007 03:59 PM

   You really have to read it to believe it. Today, The New York Times Web site has the full text of an exchange of letters between President Bush and his Iraq envoy, J. Paul Bremer. They seem to back up... Continue reading

2. The Kicker

   The Worst Kind of Toilet Humor

   August 30, 2007 02:33 PM

   Getting worked up over anything in the New York Post can be a little dangerous. The paper does such a good job embracing its own campy tabloidiness that you risk sounding like a humorless prig for taking it seriously.... Continue reading

3. The Kicker

   What Gonzales Didn’t Say

   August 27, 2007 01:08 PM

   It came as no surprise this morning at Alberto Gonzales’s press conference announcing his resignation that the AG didn’t go into the details of why he was quitting. In fact, he seemed to honor our intelligence by not resorting to... Continue reading

4. The Kicker

   Shafer Wishes Newspapers a Long Life

   August 23, 2007 01:53 PM

   Jack Shafer does a great job in his latest Slate post pointing newspapers in the right direction. He captures a sentiment I know I’ve had for some time now, so I thought it was worth linking to. I’ll give... Continue reading

5. The Kicker

   Covering What Didn’t Happen

   August 20, 2007 03:43 PM

   I remember listening to Bush’s second inaugural address and being impressed with the high ambitions, the utopian dream of remaking the world in our image and defeating tyranny everywhere. I also remember thinking how ludicrously impossible this was as a... Continue reading

6. The Kicker

   Massacre on A6

   August 16, 2007 11:28 AM

   Maybe it’s because I saw the incredible documentary, “No End In Sight,” last night that I’m particularly sensitive, but it struck me as strange that the catastrophic synchronized bombings in northern Iraq yesterday, which were the deadliest since the... Continue reading

7. The Kicker

   The Leon Roars

   August 15, 2007 12:38 PM

   I’m so thankful Leon Wieseltier is still around. It seems the intellectual world used to be full of people like him who could offer up the perfect quip at a second’s notice. People who could spit wit instead of vitriol,... Continue reading

8. The Kicker

   Rudy’s Close Up

   August 13, 2007 03:54 PM

   It was only a matter of time before the New Yorker offered up its definitive Rudy Giuliani profile. The in-depth portrait - mixing telling, personal anecdotes with background material, and deep analysis - is a staple of the magazine. But... Continue reading

9. Behind the News

   The Greenhouse Effect (Updated)

   August 10, 2007 10:12 AM

   For Supreme Court buffs who watch C-SPAN, yesterday morning was one of disappointment. A promising panel discussion, “Covering the Court(s): Reporters on the Supreme Court Beat,” that included a bevy of court reporting superstars -- like Charles Lane from The... Continue reading

10. Politics

    Obama blames the press

    August 7, 2007 03:27 PM

    As Ben Smith at Politico points out today, Barack Obama has been blaming the media for misrepresenting his position on Pakistan, articulated in his big foreign policy speech last week. "The misreporting that was done needs to be cleared... Continue reading

11. The Kicker

    Subway Car Confessions

    August 1, 2007 12:12 PM

    In a front-page story that must fall into the category of faux exposés (“fauxposés”?), The New York Times today tries to play gotcha with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The self-proclaimed "short Jewish billionaire from New York,” has always boasted that... Continue reading

12. The Kicker

    We Like Turtles, Too

    July 30, 2007 02:39 PM

    It’s always amusing to see how serious newspapers find ways to write about the elements of pop ephemera or celebrity culture that would seem to be beneath their purview. The usual route is to go meta, clothespin firmly clamped to... Continue reading

13. Politics

    Clinton v. Obama

    July 30, 2007 02:15 PM

    Looks like we have ourselves a fight. All three major dailies today have accounts of the rhetorical rumble between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over the answers each gave to a question at the CNN/YouTube debate earlier this week.... Continue reading

14. The Kicker

    When We Were Clark Gable

    July 25, 2007 12:37 PM

    Russell Baker, the one-time New York Times columnist has a long multi-book review in The New York Review of Books, surveying all the many problems facing journalism today. It’s a familiar list and Baker thankfully adds nothing new to... Continue reading

15. Behind the News

    Beirut’s Daily Star Responds

    July 23, 2007 03:57 PM

    Last Friday, I wrote about an article in Beirut’s Daily Star critical of Lisa Goldman, an Israeli journalist, who had taken a reporting trip to the country using her Canadian passport. Well, the Star sent us a response on... Continue reading

16. Behind the News

    An Israeli Reporter in Lebanon

    July 20, 2007 03:41 PM

    My friend, Lisa Goldman, is a blogger in Tel Aviv. Lisa, who moved to Israel from Canada almost a decade ago, has always put a premium on making connections with bloggers in the Arab world—those who are not scared off... Continue reading

17. The Kicker

    Pottered Out

    July 19, 2007 11:06 AM

    It’s easy enough for me to pick on The New York Times. It’s the paper that greets me every morning on my doorstep, and if any news source is going to annoy or please me over time, than it’s the... Continue reading

18. The Kicker

    Not So Fast

    July 13, 2007 11:00 AM

    On the cover of today’s New York Times is a story that critics of the war (and the media’s coverage of it) have been dying to read. Maybe its because a large majority of the population now can be described... Continue reading

19. The Kicker

    Surgeon General’s Warning

    July 11, 2007 10:28 AM

    Both The New York Times and The Washington Post today front devastating stories about the former surgeon general, Dr. Richard Carmona, telling Congress in a hearing yesterday that the White House infused politics into everything he did. "Anything that doesn't... Continue reading

20. The Kicker

    What Is a “Post-Surge”?

    July 9, 2007 12:51 PM

    So it looks almost certain that Bush won’t be waiting for September 15th – the date set for a reassessment of the “surge” – to draw down troops from Iraq. The defection of major Republican lawmakers now also calling on... Continue reading

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