Behind the News RSS
Mon, 28 Apr 2008
Before Benedict
There’s nothing new about the press’s adulation of the Pontiff
By Posted at 09:05 AM
Jon Stewart had a lot of fun mocking the media over the fawning coverage they gave the pope's recent visit. Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee parodied the ecstatic inarticulateness of commentators by telling Stewart that “to witness the pope's visit is a transcendent experience” that “transcended even my most reverential witnessing.”
And it’s true. A papal visit seems to... Read More
Tue, 22 Apr 2008
Dancing with the Stars: The Trade Summit Edition
When Bush and NAFTA dance together, the president leads
By Posted at 03:08 PM
I’m here, with political reporters, in New Orleans—where, for the past two days, President Bush has been in summit meetings with Felipe Calderón, president of Mexico, and Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, discussing NAFTA. The NOLA setting is, of course, fraught with meaning, particularly for President Bush, and the summit provides a much-needed opportunity for both the president and... Read More
Mon, 21 Apr 2008
The Papal Visit: By the Numbers
Counting the coverage of Benedict XVI's U.S. trip
By Posted at 04:31 PM
60,000 rough number of people who came to see Pope Benedict XVI celebrate Mass at New York’s Yankee Stadium on Sunday
57,545 seating capacity of Yankee Stadium
128 references to the Popemobile in the past week, in print media (newspaper and wire service) coverage of Benedict’s visit
2,095 Popemobile references in television and radio coverage
175 references, in... Read More
Thu, 17 Apr 2008
Newspapers' Sad Sisters
On the (empty) floor at NEXPO
By Posted at 12:22 PM Comments (1)
NEXPO, still the largest newspaper equipment trade show of the year, kicked off Saturday at D.C.’s massive Washington Convention Center. In years past, it had been a place where companies would spend upwards of a half million dollars to cart in, assemble, and thoroughly hock entire working presses to clients from around the country. Firms would attempt to one-up each... Read More
Thu, 10 Apr 2008
The Rather Suit: What Was Dismissed
...and what remains
By Posted at 05:18 PM
As has been reported here and elsewhere, Justice Ira Gammerman—the judge hearing Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS—today issued a motion to dismiss four of the seven counts of the suit. The three remaining counts, however, encompass the $70 million in damages—$20 million in compensatory and $50 million in punitive—that Rather is seeking from CBS.
Gammerman dismissed the claims... Read More
Wed, 9 Apr 2008
Flame-aganda
By Posted at 11:29 AM
Pop quiz! Match the headline to the news outlet that produced it:
1. Security concerns high as Olympic torch arrives in San Francisco after chaos in Paris relayRead More
2. San Francisco Protests, Vigil Surround Olympic Torch Relay
3. 3 layers of cops to protect torch
4. Security Tightened As San Francisco Girds for Protests Along Olympic...
Fri, 4 Apr 2008
Dr. King's Last Moments
Memphis magazine provides a moving tick-tock
By Posted at 01:17 PM
Much of today’s coverage of the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination examines the reverend’s legacy through the telescopic lens of American culture: from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis has grown a forty-year-old dialogue about race and equality whose rhetoric is often as lofty as that of the man who inspired it. And rightly so: lyrical... Read More
Tue, 1 Apr 2008
Newsflash: HUD Scandal Broke Last Fall
National Journal series was largely ignored by rest of the press
By Posted at 04:20 PM
Yesterday, Alphonso Jackson, Bush’s HUD secretary, resigned. “His tenure,” as the AP put it, was “tarnished by allegations of political favoritism and a criminal investigation.” On February 4, The Washington Post began a series of embarrassing articles based on public court documents filed in Philadelphia. Jackson stonewalled a congressional committee, and senators called for his resignation.
Typical D.C. scandal cycle,... Read More
Fri, 28 Mar 2008
What Can be Learned from Lichtblau?
Reading the NSA tea leaves right
By Posted at 02:49 PM
Yesterday, Slate published a 1,733 word adapted-extract from Eric Lichtblau’s upcoming book, Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice. The section, while full of other interesting nuggets, is notable for its insider account of the tense moments leading up to The New York Times’s belated decision to publish Lichtblau and James Risen’s blockbuster December 16, 2005 story on... Read More
Annie Squall
Has the famous photog blown her cover?
By Posted at 02:41 PM
The Vogue controversy continues. The magazine made much of its April issue featuring basketball star LeBron James - the third man ever to grace a Vogue cover, and the first black man to do so. Many, however, found the cover "racially insensitive" and condemned its Fay Wray-esque depiction of the athlete and his co-model, Gisele Bündchen. The image "screams... Read More
