The Kicker

Fox News has conducted a poll, promisingly entitled, “Does Obama Get Better Treatment by the Press?” Well, we were, of course, in all our media monitor-iness, intrigued. Do people think he does he get better treatment, Fox News? Things start off well. “When asked to rate the objectivity of media coverage of the campaigns,” Fox’s […]

This from National Review Online’ s Jim Geraghty: ‘There comes a time when we heed a certain call.’ There was not a ton to object to, and indeed a lot to like, in Obama’s speech in Berlin. Although I think I preferred it the first time I heard it, when it was sung by all […]

Are the media in the tank for Herr Obama? Jon Stewart says “Ja.”

CNN = Politics, but CNN sometimes = Cosmo. Because sex sells page views in a way that muckraking doesn’t, the fourth most-viewed article on CNN.com today is titled “Ladies: 5 Ways to Get Your Sex Life Going,” which sounds a bit like a glossy’s tired drumbeat of 142 Hot New Sex Tips Sure to Send […]

Robert Novak is feeling a bit glum today. Not, mind you, because of yesterday’s hit-(a pedestrian)-and-(try to)-run accident—“He’s not dead, that’s the main thing,” Novak noted, with characteristic aplomb—but rather because his good friends at Camp McCain have, apparently, used him (grievously) and abused him (egregiously). The tale is a sad one. Remember how this […]

Jake Tapper authors the latest episode of the investigative newsmagazine-meets-serial soap opera that is The Media and Obama: Totally in the Tank?. Obama, Tapper writes, before giving his Speech of Hope in the Symbolic Setting of a Unified Berlin, confided to reporters that he wasn’t sure how many people might, in the end, come out […]

James Rainey in today’s LA Times (emphasis mine): It seems like just about everybody has spent the last week beating up on the media for showering too much love on Barack Obama, during what John McCain’s camp derides as the Obama World Tour. True, statistics show broadcast networks have devoted more than twice as much […]

I often enjoy (and often agree with) Jack Shafer’s stuff. But, what’s up with this? Shafer wonders “why hasn’t the press commented” on a recent National Enquirer story involving John Edwards supposedly visiting a supposed love child. “Is it because it broke too late yesterday afternoon, and news organizations want to investigate it for themselves […]

The Buffalo News reports that President Bush today signed a bill renaming part of Route 20A near Ralph Wilson Stadium [in Buffalo] after Tim Russert. The bill, which Congress passed overwhelmingly, renames the section of the highway between Abbott Road and California Road “Timothy J. Russert Highway.” And: The renamed highway won’t be the last […]

There’s the Bob Novak-and-his-black-Corvette-hit-a-guy-yesterday story on Politico (according to a witness, “a black Corvette convertible with top closed plows into the guy. The guy is sort of splayed into the windshield.”) And Novak’s name also appears in another (arguably more interesting) Politico piece today headlined, “GOP losing the new-media war.” Writes Jonathan Martin: Republicans have […]

Who knew? Starchy root vegetables make brilliant literary devices! Well, apparently, David Carr—Times media reporter and, currently, everyone’s favorite rehabilitated drug addict—did! The NY Press‘s David Blum has uncovered a strange pattern of spud-slinging in Carr’s writing—and specifically, a pattern of using the potato as a quirky descriptor of the face. As when, for example, […]

Among coverage of Obama’s Overseas Trip on the Jerusalem Post‘s web site was the video below, in which The Media Line (“The MidEast News Source”) asks “shoppers at a Jerusalem supermarket” to identify photos of Barack Obama and John McCain. Barely anyone can ID McCain (one woman thinks he’s “maybe Cheney”) and although many people […]

Here is Jon Friedman’s “MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY:” What do you think is the relationship between politics and journalism — and sex? “– and sex?” This isn’t exactly like your friend who, when reading aloud the fortune from his fortune cookie, insists on adding “in bed” to the end of it, just for […]

What happened? “Wall Street got drunk;” got a tattoo (which didn’t look “gargantuan, inevitably tacky, gauche and ugly” at the time). Taken together, President Bush’s recent “off-camera” remarks (now “no longer available” on YouTube) and Richard Cohen’s column in yesterday’s Washington Post on how America’s tramp stamps explain why we’re all in the red, are […]

Chris Matthews to Jay Leno Monday night, talking about his “thrill up my leg” (from Obama speech) comment (h/t TVNewser and HuffPost): Ha! You know, some journalists report only what a guy says, what they hear, what they see. I report all senses. I report all reactions…I was inspired by it and I said so […]