The Kicker

Brian Stelter, at his New York Times TV Decoder blog, reports that Tuesday night “may have been only the second time in history that a cable network attracted more viewers than a broadcaster during a major news event” (the first was when Fox News Channel had more viewers than the non-cable networks during the 2004 […]

After a montage of year-plus-old clips of cable commentators declaring Hillary Clinton “inevitable” (and variations thereof), Jon Stewart last night proclaimed political poundits to be “like the Doppler-less weathermen of our time.” Later on the show, Barbara Walters explained how seasoned journalists handle asking Uncomfortable Questions of Intimidating People: You don’t say, “Are you crazy?” […]

Over at TPM Cafe, Todd Gitlin (who writes CJR’s “Russert Watch” column) schools reporters on the definition of “condescension” and provides, without condescension, a handy example of the word’s proper usage. Armed with Nexis search results Gitlin says that reporters, as well as Barack Obama’s opponents, have been “stamping…the condescension label onto Obama’s forehead” and […]

There are different takes and tones to the headlines greeting America this morning bearing the news that, as several papers word it, Obama “clinches” the Democratic nomination. There’s this sequence of sorts: (New York) Daily News: “HISTORY” New York Post: “DESTINY” Anniston (AL) Star: “FINALLY” Philadelphia Daily News: “OVER THE HILL” There’s the celebratory: Chicago […]

Yes, “What Does Hillary Want?” as everyone in the campaign press has been asking, as Clinton herself asked and (sort of?) answered last night, and as reads MSNBC’s chyron right now. But, if the answer to that question is “the VP slot,” then what Chris Matthews wants to know is: MATTHEWS: Will she agree to […]

Most candidates for political office criticize or attack their opponents. Barack Obama, however, is, per the New York Times‘ Michael Powell, “gingerly fitting himself with the cloth of a partisan Democrat.” Which sounds lovely, really, for politics. (Although you could see that same phrasing, in the hands of another Times writer, becoming something less lovely […]

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski seemed in sort of a hurry to cut short or move along from the following exchange this morning between Mike Barnicle (a frequent Morning Joe guest co-host) and Jonathan Capehart (a frequent Morning Joe guest and Washington Post editorial writer): BARNICLE: Jonathan, I don’t mean to put you on the spot here, […]

From the LA Times‘s James Rainey: Somewhere inside the brain of the presidential campaign reporter lies a huge lobe devoted to recognizing conflict. From this hyper-developed brain center come stories about the certain demise of some politicians (John McCain), the inevitable success of others (Hillary Rodham Clinton) and the extreme probability that hostilities, once started, […]

You thought there was nothing left for cable to say about or do with What Happened (Scott McClellan’s memoir, to which cable news has, to date, devoted countless segments). The Daily Show moved the ball forward last night by asking the B-52’s front man Fred Schneider to “put a coat of Schneider” on the book […]

Reports Clifford J. Levy in today’s New York Times, there’s very little throwing down of gauntlets these days on Throw Down the Gauntlet and other political talk shows on Russian TV (“all the major national and regional networks are now owned by the government or its allies).” Further: Senior government officials deny the existence of […]

My initial thought after reading Todd Purdum’s Vanity Fair piece on Bill Clinton in which anonymous “former Clinton aides” and one unnamed “Clinton-watcher” attempt to help Purdum answer the question that Purdum found himself asking himself “again and again: What’s the matter with [Bill] Clinton?” — including what to make of the “decidedly unpresidential company” […]

In yesterday’s New York Times Book Review, “a handful of writers” and others who have written were asked “to recommend books for the presidential candidates.” There was little overlap among suggested reading assignments, although both Lorrie Moore and John Irving think that Hillary Clinton should read Shakespeare’s MacBeth and, while Gore Vidal wants the candidates […]

Change? Hope? Perhaps: Ad spending. Per Professor Ken Goldstein, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Advertising Project: Fundamental factors matter most in elections and advertising is likely to have fairly modest effects at the margin. That said, unbalanced flows of paid information in a generally positive free media environment have the greatest potential to move […]

For the Washington Post, Ann Telnaes sketches “the media respond[ing] to Scott McClellan’s claim that they were ‘too deferential’ to President Bush.”

Clark Hoyt, the New York Times‘ public editor, did some reporting (“interviewed five Islamic scholars, at five American universities, recommended by a variety of sources as experts in the field”) and couldn’t find one who agrees with the interpretation of Islamic law presented in a May 12 Times‘ op-ed by Edward Luttwak. Hoyt writes: “Op-Ed […]