Massing on Media
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September 5, 2012 03:16 PM
Why Fox is essential viewing
It's a Republican barometer
The Republican convention brought more evidence of The New York Times’s soft spot for Fox News. On Friday, the paper offered a glowing profile of Carl Cameron, Fox’s chief political correspondent. “Propelled by a boundless enthusiasm for presidential politics, vast quantities of Red Bull (which he carries by the six-pack in his roller suitcase) and nicotine gum (which he admits...
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August 22, 2012 03:23 PM
Embed moderator
Only in Limbaugh land could Martha Raddatz be a lefty
By this point, I thought there was nothing Rush Limbaugh could say that would surprise me, but he did with his comments last week about the four moderators selected for the presidential debates. Jim Lehrer, he declared, is “a far left-wing liberal Democrat.” Candy Crowley is “a far, far left-wing Democrat mama,” Bob Schieffer is “a far, far left-wing liberal...
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August 15, 2012 06:51 AM
The media’s Internet infatuation
Much of the coverage makes claims "that are grand, outlandish, and ultimately unverifiable"
The New York Times finds the Internet, and the business and culture surrounding it, endlessly fascinating. When Marissa Mayer was named CEO of Yahoo last month, the paper devoted more than a dozen pieces to the event, pondering everything from the ramifications of her pregnancy to the depth of the challenges she faces. “Does Facebook Turn People Into Narcissists?” Tara...
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July 25, 2012 06:50 AM
Movie violence chic
The journalistic buy-in to Hollywood hype
In recent weeks, while watching baseball games, The Daily Show, and (I admit) some Seinfeld reruns, I saw what seemed a never-ending reel of trailers for The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Savages. And I became disgusted by the wall-to-wall violence in them—by the countless scenes of shootings and slashings, explosions and car crashes. Such interminable images of...
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July 11, 2012 02:58 PM
Thomas Friedman’s fantasy America
Not telling it like it is
Thomas Friedman was delighted by the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the healthcare law. And he was positively thrilled with John Roberts. In a June 30 column for The New York Times (“Taking One for the Country”), Friedman praised the chief justice for his “legal creativity and courage.” Not only liberals, he wrote, but even some conservatives were touched...
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June 27, 2012 05:22 PM
The two David Carrs
A Times columnist rises to fame
Since joining The New York Times in 2002, David Carr has become America’s most visible and influential writer on the media. His weekly “Media Equation” column is closely followed by people in the industry. Last year, he was featured in Interview magazine (interviewed by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, no less), and he was the star of the 2011 documentary Page One:...
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June 12, 2012 02:50 PM
Dumb and dumber
How far can CNN sink?
In April, CNN recorded its lowest monthly ratings in more than 10 years. In May, it recorded its lowest monthly primetime ratings in more than 20 years. It’s now regularly eclipsed not only by Fox News (long the leader in cable news) but also by MSNBC.
Last year, I suggested to an editor at CJR that it do a...
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June 4, 2012 02:50 PM
When watchdog meets lapdog
The Times's kill list story should be followed up on the ground
The New York Times's report last week on the Obama administration's secret "kill list" of Al Qaeda suspects and the president's personal involvement in managing it set off a torrent of commentary among national-security watchers, with some very different assessments. Charles Krauthammer observed in the Washington Post that the article could have been titled "Barack Obama: Drone Warrior." "Great detail...
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March 25, 2011 01:17 PM
Libya and the Arab Street
What do ordinary Arabs think? Let’s ask them
On Wednesday, I went to hear Ayman Mohyeldin, the Cairo correspondent for Al Jazeera English, speak at the office of the Committee to Protect Journalists. His subject was the risks and realities of covering the Mideast, and at one point he was asked to reflect on the current situation in Libya. In his answer, he said something that stunned me:...
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November 25, 2009 10:00 AM
Is This the Best You Can Do, NBC?
Network news hits a new level
Whenever I’m home at 6:30, I try to watch the evening news. Not out of any genuine desire—I rarely learn anything new—but out of duty. Even with their rapidly shrinking audiences, ABC, CBS, and NBC together reach some 20 million viewers a night, and I like to see what they’re seeing. Generally, I rotate among the three in search of...
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October 27, 2009 09:21 AM
Black Hawk Up
David Ignatius's Helicopter Journalism
What a delight it must be to be a columnist for a major American newspaper. When traveling to distant, war-torn lands, you can enlist America’s top generals to show you around. That’s what David Ignatius of The Washington Post did on Sunday. He was shown around Baghdad by no less a figure than Centcom commander David Petraeus. Or, rather, he...
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October 22, 2009 09:18 AM
Howard Kurtz, Missing in Action
Fox vs. the White House: Where's Howie?
Howard Kurtz scored a coup on his CNN show “Reliable Sources” two Sundays ago when White House communications director Anita Dunn came on to knuckle-rap Fox News, saying that the network
often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party....That’s fine, but let’s not pretend they’re a news network the way CNN...
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October 14, 2009 01:05 PM
Iraq’s Missing Iraqis
A good book's great flaw
David Finkel’s book The Good Soldiers, about the experiences of a US Army battalion during the surge in Iraq, is getting standout reviews. The Good Soldiers "captures the surreal horror of war,” Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times last week, comparing the book to Michael Herr's Dispatches. Finkel, she added, “does a vivid job of conveying what these...
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October 7, 2009 09:37 AM
The Most Misreported Country
And the winner is...
Which country is most routinely miscovered in the U.S. press? There are clearly many candidates, but for me one stands out: Mexico. My judgment has no doubt been affected by the fact that I spent a year in that country after graduating college, working as a reporter for the Mexico City News, a quirky English-language daily that was a magnet...
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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
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