The Kicker

The New York Times‘ David Carr yesterday suggested that, given “public indifference to a war that refuses to end,” perhaps America is “at peace with being at war.” Writes Carr: [A]s we celebrate generations of American soldiers past, the women and men who are making that sacrifice today in Iraq and Afghanistan receive less attention […]

Brzezinski plays a new Morning Joe role

The comedian celebrates Memorial Day by doing some politician-grilling

Over wet umbrellas and under the echo of cell phones, Terry Gross, long-time host of Fresh Air on NPR, imparted some characteristically straightforward remarks at the commencement ceremony at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism yesterday. The recipient of the 2008 Columbia Journalism Award sampled sound clips from some of her best known and most colorful […]

There’s something about Glenn…

No, Contessa Brewer, this wasn’t as bad as the time back in January when you interviewed that insightful young man/book author who advised Hillary Clinton to”stop wearing the pants suits” because they “look real bad on her” and to “wear a skirt” and “cut her hair more softly, wear pastels” and that “the wrinkles aren’t […]

Forget a liberal bias among journalists, argues Conor Friedersdorf on DoubleThink Online. It’s journalistic convention that leans liberal. That is, liberals have (or the liberal view point has) all the good anecdotal ledes and stuff while the conservative outlook doesn’t lend itself to simple, compelling narrative. Writes Friedersdorf: Contra the least-thoughtful conservative critics, there isn’t […]

The sound of the lede bursting the headline’s bubble: Kentucky Enquirer headline: “CLINTONS’ VISITS PAY OFF AS HILLARY ROLLS IN KY.” Pay off, you say? The story’s buzzkill of a lede (it’s AP copy– emphasis mine): “Hillary Clinton coasted to an overwhelming victory Tuesday in the Kentucky primary, a triumph of scant political value in […]

Last night MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, to his own visible satisfaction, added to last week’s colorful characterizations of Camp Clinton on MSNBC: OLBERMANN: I have often wondered if we have not seen a Democratic primary that rather resembles one of those hose Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoons. In the sense that Senator Clinton has stayed in […]

The New York Observer profiles Lynn Sweet, the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Washington bureau chief and Obama campaign reporter. Says Sweet: “I don’t write a story saying how Obama came out of the rough-and-tumble of Chicago politics,” she said, quietly and forcefully in her Chicago accent—she’s lived there nearly 40 years. “Because in my experience, he was […]

Today, the New York Times‘ Maureen Dowd fancies herself a fly on the wall, drafting “The Last Debate” between Sen. Obama (“Twiggy,” “Skeletor,” “Bones,” “Senor Appeaser”) and Sen. Clinton (“Sweetie,” “Sister”). The dialogue between Dowd’s caricature-characters reads, shocker, like MoDo herself talking — to herself. A one-woman performance! (The role of Senator Obama will be […]

How a TV critic comes to the conclusion that it’s all but over for Hillary Clinton: While Sen. Obama’s and Sen. McCain’s statements about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s condition “were replayed over and over” on TV into yesterday evening, Alessandra Stanley notes in today’s New York Times: Mrs. Clinton’s statement, which she delivered standing before a […]

From tonight’s Nightline story on US Weekly (“Stars, Skin, Scandal: Secrets of US Weekly“): “There was a lot of depressing news out there, obviously, beginning with 9/11 and then a prolonged involvement in Iraq and a presidency that a lot of people felt very upset about,” [US Weekly‘s editor Janice] Min said. “I do feel […]

More “reckoning” on this morning’s Today Show (“The Gender Factor: Did being a woman hurt Clinton?”) in which another one of those pleasingly simple (TV-friendly!) either/or’s is presented by host Meredith Vieira (and shot down by her guests): Vieira: If [Hillary Clinton] loses, will it be because she’s a woman or the particular woman she […]