Author Archive
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Campaign Desk
Cheech and Chong Aren’t Dead Yet
September 15, 2009 01:20 PMDavid Downs presents a lot of support today for the proposition that the media is, at long last, adopting a more grown-up attitude about marijuana. But for a sign that this battle isn’t over, consider Anand Giridharadas’s New... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Bipartisanship Has Sailed
September 15, 2009 10:44 AMIn Politico yesterday, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen had a good, interesting piece about why, in their words, “bipartisanship gets talked about more than it gets practiced.” The story outlines some of the reasons that bipartisanship is effectively... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Government Claims That Should Perhaps Not Be Believed
September 15, 2009 09:50 AMFurther evidence, not that it was needed, of the weakness of Pakistan’s government institutions: the distinctly subpar quality of its official press flacks. Consider this bit from the lead story in today’s New York Times, which presents evidence... Continue reading
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The Kicker
And Just Your Best Guess—Is the Earth Round? Or Is It Flat?
September 14, 2009 06:05 PMThe latest CNN/Opinion Reseach Corporation poll (PDF) includes the following question: And just your best guess -- based on what you have read or heard about that address, do you think Obama lied while he was speaking... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Measuring a Speech’s Success
September 14, 2009 10:30 AMBarack Obama’s big health care speech last week has, in general, been deemed a success by the media and the political class. But beneath that consensus lie some interesting differences in the criteria used by observers to evaluate the president’s... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Other Angles of the Health Care Story
September 14, 2009 10:20 AMFor readers tracking the legislative negotiations on health care reform, today’s New York Times has two interesting stories on overlooked angles: David Herszenhorn’s “Prescriptions” entry on how to pay for Medicaid expansion, and Stephanie Strom’s short... Continue reading
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The Kicker
So Much for Ignoring Joe Wilson
September 11, 2009 03:33 PMPer Kevin Drum, it seems that The Washington Post, at least, has not heeded Megan's plea. Drum's comparison of the Post's story count to Politico's is instructive, as the paper's determination to be the publication "for... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Examples of “Crankery” That Really Weren’t
September 11, 2009 01:40 PMIn continuing Joe Wilson coverage, Andie Collier has a story at Politico about the increasing prominence of Republican “cranks.” The piece is pretty tough on the GOP, but includes the following “to be sure” graf: Nor are Democrats... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Playing the Margins
September 10, 2009 04:42 PMEzra Klein’s live chat with readers today included this interesting exchange: Washington, D.C.: I found it interesting that the subsidies, which is the bulk of the $900 billion, didn't receive a whole lot of attention and detail last... Continue reading
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The Kicker
So is the “You Lie!” Guy a Liar?
September 10, 2009 03:56 PMAs you might have heard, there was a little interruption during the president’s address last night. But was Rep. Joe Wilson’s unscheduled objection—in which he accused Obama of lying by claimed that undocumented immigrants would not benefit from health care... Continue reading
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The Kicker
More About Munadi
September 10, 2009 02:09 PMOver at The New Yorker’s site, George Packer has published some powerful thoughts about the death of Sultan Munadi. An excerpt: In Iraq and Afghanistan and a growing number of other places, the foreign correspondent would be a... Continue reading
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The Kicker
What Does “Urban Modern” Editing Look Like?
September 10, 2009 01:40 PMThe big news in New York Times Magazine editor Gerald Marzorati’s pre-Labor Day Q&A with readers was the jaw-dropping price tag of the publication’s mammoth (and excellent) Katrina hospital investigation. But, in response to another... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Reshuffling the Senate
September 10, 2009 12:34 PMI was somewhat critical of a David Rogers article earlier this week, but his Politico piece today on the shuffling of committee chairmanships in the Senate is terrific: written for political junkies, to be sure, but... Continue reading
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The Kicker
Sultan Munadi, RIP
September 10, 2009 10:42 AMA week before he was killed during a commando raid that freed his colleague, New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, from Taliban captors, the Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi wrote a post for the Times’s “At War” blog. His... Continue reading
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Behind the News
Barack Obama, Media Critic
September 10, 2009 10:33 AMMaybe, if this whole presidency thing doesn’t work out, Barack Obama can land a Nieman fellowship. As you’ve probably heard, Obama, in the first of his two public speeches yesterday, addressed a crowd of thousands who had gathered at Lincoln... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Schooling the President
September 9, 2009 04:56 PMWhen conservative foot-soldiers began to kick up a storm last week about President Barack Obama’s plans to deliver a manipulative, underhanded “Study hard, stay in school” message to America’s students, much of the rest of the country responded, quite reasonably:... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
What a Speech Can’t Do
September 9, 2009 01:58 PMTonight, if a recent Pew Research Center poll is to be believed, a massive television audience will tune in to watch President Barack Obama deliver his big health care speech to a joint session of Congress. Obama likely... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
Stuck with the Senate
September 8, 2009 02:15 PMAmerican health care system is in need of reform. Does President Barack Obama’s job consist of finding a way to pass the best possible bill (however that’s defined)? Or is it finding a way to pass the best possible bill,... Continue reading
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Campaign Desk
The People Have Spoken
August 31, 2009 07:00 AMA few weeks ago, in the course of arguing that the press was overemphasizing the role President Barack Obama could be expected to play in forcing health care reform through Congress, I wrote the following “to-be-sure” sentence: “The... Continue reading
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The Kicker
BBC Reports on a Row in Afghanistan
August 28, 2009 03:51 PMSo it seems the Obama administration has some concerns about the election in Afghanistan. From the BBC*: The US special envoy to Afghanistan has held an "explosive" meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai over the country's election, the... Continue reading
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Desks
The Audit Business
- Audit Notes: pyramid people, Disney and ABC, no USA Today paywall Roddy Boyd digs into a diet-shake pyramid scheme
- Hot air Rises Above on CNBC An anchor pins a minor dip in stocks on the TV appearance of a minor politician
The Observatory Science
- Dull news from Doha UN climate summit a ho-hum affair for the press
- Highway to the danger zone Following Sandy, HuffPo and NYT dig into the folly of coastal development
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- NBC News sets good example for Medicare reporting People perspective leads to clear explanation of impact of proposed changes
- In Pennsylvania, a niche site with wide reach PoliticsPA drives political conversation in Keystone State
Behind the News The Media
Blog
The Kicker last updated: Fri 3:00 PM
- Must-reads of the week
- The media news cycle is bananas
- Pass the #popcorn
- Must-reads of the week
- Tom Rosenstiel leaving Pew
The Future of Media
News Startups Guide last updated: Thu 10:24 AM
- TRVL A free iPad travel magazine
- TheDigitel A small chain of local news sites/ aggregators in South Carolina
