New Survey Says Fox Least Trusted

But there are more questions to be asked

By Joel Meares   Jan 20, 2011 at 03:05 PM

Public Policy Polling yesterday released its annual study of people’s trust in TV news, and the results are sure to... More

Pardon Me?

Hu’s admission lost in translation

By Joel Meares   Jan 20, 2011 at 01:15 PM

Yesterday’s White House press conference with President Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao was a somewhat stilted affair, mostly due... More

OMG! Skinny Bam Bam Has Parasites (ew)

By Joel Meares   Jan 19, 2011 at 05:20 PM

The National Enquirer, that once maligned rag whose name can now be whispered in the same sentence as “Pulitzer Prize”—though... More

No Surprises; Good Riddance

The press and Dems react to Lieberman

By Joel Meares   Jan 19, 2011 at 02:22 PM

In politics, it seems you’re only as good—or as bad—as your last term and your last poll. That’s the lesson... More

Roger Ailes in a Strange Light

Esquire’s big, perplexing profile

By Joel Meares   Jan 18, 2011 at 03:42 PM

Esquire’s Roger Ailes profile, available online today, is a strange and fascinating read—a kind of nuanced, satirical “F-you” to a... More

Is Oprah’s Boring-ness Contagious?

By Joel Meares   Jan 18, 2011 at 01:36 PM

I caught the last ten minutes of CNN’s debut of Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday. Accordingly, I will refrain from... More

D.C.’s Early Risers on the Import of Info

But Times report lacking a lot of its own

By Joel Meares   Jan 18, 2011 at 10:24 AM

A piece on page A14 of this morning’s Times details the pre-dawn “information wars” raging every morning in Washington D.C.—or,... More

Miss America’s WikiThoughts

By Joel Meares   Jan 17, 2011 at 12:17 PM

You have read our own Clint Hendler on “The WikiLeaks Equation.” The Nation’s Greg Mitchell has been blogging about it... More

“Everyone has a past.”

New Yorker’s brutal Issa profile and, yes, Howard Kurtz

By Joel Meares   Jan 17, 2011 at 12:12 PM

We all knew Ryan Lizza’s profile of Darrell Issa was coming. After all, it was a call from Lizza... More

Jerry Brown extends arms to press?

By Joel Meares   Jan 14, 2011 at 01:45 PM

Interesting tidbit out of Sacramento today. Capitol Weekly reports that the governor’s press office, which oversees a press corps that... More

Play With The 2010 News Cycle Thanks To Pew

How did Fox, NBC, NPR fill the year’s “newshole”?

By Joel Meares   Jan 14, 2011 at 12:58 PM

Forgive us for not noting this sooner—our attention has been devoted to the Giffords shooting and debates that followed. But... More

Searching for Answers and Questions

The media on what motivated Jared Lee Loughner

By Joel Meares   Jan 13, 2011 at 02:25 PM

Rhetoric didn’t pull the trigger in Tucson. That, most people have come to agree upon. So what did? That’s... More

Q&A: Randy Lovely, Editor and Vice President of The Arizona Republic

“To us, all the victims are equally important because they are residents of our state.”

By Joel Meares   Jan 12, 2011 at 10:49 AM

Saturday’s shooting in Tucson was something of a marathon challenge for The Arizona Republic’s staff of 310. For starters, the... More

Room For Debate?

No connection to Giffords, but rhetoric debate still to be had

By Joel Meares   Jan 11, 2011 at 02:17 PM

News and analysis continues to swell following the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday. Broadly: Giffords remains... More

Q&A: Professor of Political Rhetoric Martin J. Medhurst

“Metaphorical violence permeates American political language and always has.”

By Joel Meares   Jan 10, 2011 at 12:58 PM

The attempted assassination of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has sparked a debate about the nature of political rhetoric in the... More